Thought of the Week: 1 September 2016 – Sam Brunner

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 1 September 2016

Dr Ron Wolfson, in his book ‘Relational Judaism’ writes “What really matters is that we care about the people we seek to engage. When we genuinely care about people, we will not only welcome them; we will listen to their stories, we will share ours, and we will join together to build a Jewish community that enriches our lives.”

This is the backbone of the Youth and Education Hub because every day, when we come into work, it is our goal to cement both existing relationships and create new ones.

Another Summer at Alyth has passed. Another Summer Days has been and gone. Another Summer Madness has happened. This year 120 Alyth youth members, aged 4 – 21 were involved in our summer provisions. This, I think, is a testament to the community feel and all the hard work put in over the year to building relationships with our members. It is a celebration of the work of Alyth.

Summer in the Youth and Education Hub is a very interesting and wonderful time. Combined with everyone taking their holidays to get away from the rain to the sun, it is also full of some of our biggest events. Some madrichim (youth leaders) and chanichim (participants) have told me that they plan their whole summer around Summer Madness. That adds a lot of pressure to deliver the best Summer Madness yet, and with 24 Summer Madness’s before it, there is a lot to live up to and big boots to fill! But the passion of the team and the love of the event from the madrichim, makes summer at Alyth a joy to be a part of!

Someone asked me ‘wouldn’t you rather have a quiet, summer camp free summer and lie on a beach somewhere?’ and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Summer without summer camp isn’t a summer!

A madrich this week said ‘I have never seen (Summer) Madness so organised.’ That is the best type of oxymoron! This isn’t Madness, this is Alyth!