The Zone February Activities Report

February 2009 Activities Report- written by Raina Sheaf


General Club

February was a real mixed bag of events! As we were all busy working towards one of the most talked about re-unions this community had ever seen, (Judean Re-united of course), club continued with our usual activities, birthday parties and Bat Mitzvah discos. We attended the LJI taste of Jewish Leeds evening, the Israeli elections were a topic for discussion and we hosted visitors from out of town and more. We had a successful drop in week for half term and a Heritage trip to Poland, which was preceded by some Holocaust educational workshops.
Much to tell you about this month!


Sports and Keep Fit

Football, gymnastics and karate lead the popular sports and we continue to offer other general keep fit activities such as Wii Keep fit. Talk about 21st century sports! It’s incredible, especially for our members who don’t want to enter team sports but still want to keep fit. Next month we will be offering yet another keep fit option when we start our first hip-hop and break dance classes. Will let you know how that goes.

Intercity Sport – our leaders have been busy getting the teams ready for the next inter-city sports challenge to win back the David Clayman Trophy; watch out for more details.


Culture/Chagim

The Poland trip was an incredibly moving experience for our young participants. Many of you will have read about the trip in last week’s JT and we hope you will all join us to hear our members reflect on their trip on Yom Hashoa in April at The Mazcc. We are now preparing for Purim and will report on that next month. (Don’t eat too many Hamantashen)!

Judean Reunited

For those of you who have not heard, (where have you been!!) on Feb 15th we celebrated 80 years of Jewish social life in Leeds. The event was an overwhelming success and we are very happy to report that letters, emails and phone calls have come flooding in following the party with the most wonderful stories.

We were thrilled to hear that cousins who had not seen each other for 50 years re-united, as well as old friends who came specifically to find each other managed to do so. We heard from people who travelled far and wide and had a wonderful time and we heard many stories of groups of people who continued to get together during the week after the event as they did not want their re-union to end.

Our dream now is that our members today will be supported by our community to ensure, they too, will have an enriched Jewish social life for years to come.

Leadership

Leadership was dominated by Poland last month and as I said, you will have a chance to hear about the trip at the Mazcc on Yom Hashoa.

Fashion & Culture

The relevance of fashion in today’s society, what role does it play in
Jewish teenager’s lives and how important fashion really is in times of economic struggle are just some of the discussions to be held with our workshop participants. This workshop does open our teenager’s eyes and makes them think about their own priorities.

Café Chai

We have been eating far too much at Café Chai lately because our members have been baking! Buns have been a particular delight but some of our older members have also been cooking pasta dishes and other delights. Next week we will try our hand at Hamantashen for Purim.

Outreach and Development

We are working on a new project together with LJWB, Donisthorpe and Brodetsky; Leeds Jewish Community “Young Lay Leaders”. It is in the early stages of development at the moment but I can tell you the project has many aims such as; to gain knowledge and understanding of the community’s infrastructure, to work with people from a variety of backgrounds within our community, to learn skills such as outreach and working with vulnerable children and adults in the community, to achieve a community service certificate and an understanding of the importance of volunteering and to promote togetherness in our community. Our participants who will be aged 17 and 18 will also get a chance to meet with many community organisations and charities.

UJIA Leadership

I was extremely fortunate to have participated and completed the UJIA leadership course 2 years ago and Adam is now a participant on that course. We hope to use the skills, ideas and knowledge learnt during the course to enhance the project above and hope to pass on what we have learnt about our community to those participating on the “Young Lay Leaders Community Project” above.

Street Sound

Thursday Night is Jam night! Our budding young musicians and singers are gathering on Thursdays to play and create music in our Street Sound project led by Simon. We have had tremendous feedback from parents who have told me that new friendships have been created due to the classes. The children we are working with at the moment are 13 to 16 yrs old and we hope to be extending the course in the coming term to others who are interested in music or singing. We are also looking for budding radio DJ’s to make programmes and conduct interviews so please let your teens know.

Finally

If you know a child who says we don’t offer what they want at The Zone, just let us know. We believe “Flexibility Triumphs” so we aim to be as flexible as we can with our activities and events. However, we don’t always know what your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or neighbours want so tell us! It may be anything from a chess club to hair and nails activities, to journalism or photography – just let us know and we will try to schedule it in.