This week I have been looking at how we see friendship at the Jewish Enrichment Center and how even 4 months into the program there are new ones being formed. On Tuesday, during musika (music) I walked in to find a Nitzanim boy and two Shorashim girls sitting together. The surprise was that it wasn’t the boy’s sister in his lap, it was his sister’s close friend (another Shorashim girl) in his lap. It was a great example of how the Enrichment Center fosters friendships among children of all ages.
Another friendship we saw blossom was that of two Shorashim girls who are not the same age and who don’t go to the same school or synagogue. One girl recently started coming on Tuesdays and at the end of the day, one girl asked the other if she wanted to do a puppet show. Together, they imagined a rich scene of putting their puppets to bed and saying Shema. These actions showed not only a sense of new friendship but also the kind of community we strive to obtain at the Jewish Enrichment Center.
