This program is intended for teens from sixth grade through high school.  The program is written for 1 hour and 45 minutes but could be easily shortened by removing sections.  Similarly, any size group could do this program (by using less of the catchphrases).

0:00 - 0:15 Catchphrase Definitions
Supplies: poster board, markers

Participants will be broken into groups.  Each group will be given a Reconstructionist “catchphrase” - a one-line quote that explains some tenet of Reconstructionism.  (All quotes are based on statements made by Mordecai Kaplan.)  The group will work together to write a teen explanation of what this catchphrase means and how it relates to their lives as twenty-first century Jewish American teens.

Catchphrases
• The past has a vote, not a veto.
• Judaism in the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.
• We are living in two civilizations.
• God is the power that makes for salvation.
• Not timelessness but timeliness is the desideratum.
• The Jews who represent the most vital and promising element in Jewry today are those to whom Judaism is a problem.
• We affirm that the Torah reveals God, not that God revealed the Torah.
• What the Crown is to England, that Eretz Yisrael is to the Jewish people.

0:15 - 0:30 Talmud on Catchphrases
Supplies: butcher paper, markers

Once the groups have completed their definitions of the Reconstructionist catchphrases, their responses will be hung on the walls as part of a huge page of “Talmud.”  The program leader will quickly read each of the catchphrases out loud, followed by a sampling of the responses.  Participants will then walk around the room and add their own commentary to the original catchphrases as well as to the group commentaries.

0:30 - 0:50 TorahQuest
Supplies: paper, pencils, pens, markers, magazines, glue, miscellaneous art supplies

Using the preceding parts of the program as a springboard, participants will take part in TorahQuest revolving around the question of what it means to be Reconstructionist.  Participants will have a number of different media within which to create their own commentary on one of the texts.

Texts
• The Exodus is about a quest for freedom – the freedom to worship God. Yet in worshipping God we take on a responsibility.  Indeed, Freedom and Responsibility are intimately related.  Freedom is a necessary condition of responsibility; and the assumption of responsibility gives worth and meaning to freedom. (Israel I. Mattuck)
• God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am YHWH.  I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them by My name YHWH.” (Exodus 6:2-3)
• The entire community will fall into ruins if its people insist on the letter of the law in every matter, however small, and show no inclination to temper justice with mercy. (Talmud)
• Thus said Adonai God: When I have gathered the House of Israel from the peoples among which they have been dispersed, and have shown Myself holy through them in the sight of the nations, they shall settle on their own soil, which I gave to my servant Jacob. (Ezekiel 28:25)
• Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community.  And let all who labor with the community labor with them for the sake of Heaven. For then the merit of their ancestors upholds them and their righteousness endures forever. (Mishna)

0:50 - 1:10 Branding
Supplies: paper, pencils, poster board, markers

Using their new commentaries on Jewish beliefs, participants will return to their small groups where they will create a “brand” and a marketing plan for the Reconstructionist movement.  What are some new catchphrases, important values, connections to Jewish text, and
relationships to the original movement catchphrases that would help explain and “promote” Reconstructionism?  Each group should come up with a one-line catchphrase, a logo, and a poster.

1:10 - 1:25 Share Branding

Each group will post their branding materials, and then the groups will move around the room in a round-robin (as a group) to look at the other groups’ brands.  Each group will take notes about how they can include pieces of other groups’ brands into their own.  (The groups will have 2 minutes at each station of the round-robin.)

1:25 - 1:35 New Catchphrases (in small groups)
Supplies: paper, pencils

Groups will return to their original location and tweak their catchphrase to come up with a final one that includes as much as possible about being a Reconstructionist.

1:35 - 1:45 Share Catchphrases

A representative from each group will share the group’s catchphrase.  Compile a list to be printed in your congregational bulletin or placed on a wall or bulletin board in your synagogue.

Program written by Isaac Saposnik, January 2004.