I'll be riding right there!

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There is no big surprise that our education about equality translates into our advocacy of social justice inside of our lives at machaneh (camp) and into the real world back at home. Some of our practices are pretty covert, like making

sure that all of our conversations are in a circle so that nobody feels talked down to.Other practices are much more out there, like the way that we incorporate Civil Rights songs into our regular shira (song/singing time) rotation each session. One of the examples of this is the song that

goes, "If you miss me at the back of the bus and you can't find me nowhere. Come on over to the front of the bus, I'll be riding right there"

We teach equality as a a Jewish value--to love thy neighbor as thyself. Then we connect it to doing Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). From this point there are a thousand

offshoots that eventually make up some great

summer programming. For example, for peulat shicvah (age group progams) today, the Sayarim (post 6th graders), traveled back in time to Selma and prepared for a Civil Rights march. In "Selma", regularly known here as Hyde Park, the Sayarim were met by Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Jewish scholar, activist, and Rabbi Abraham Joshuah Heschl, and singer/song writer, Bob

Dylan. The Sayarim and their madrichim (counselors) read the quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that said "When I marched on Selma, my feet were praying"

From then, the Sayarim marched with signs of equality in hand, they marched around Galil

singing "Oh Freedom Over Me" to "We Shall Overcome" to "If you miss me at the back of the bus." They marched all the way to the Eitz ha Shira (The Song Tree) where they proceeded to have a conversation about the involvement that the American Jewish

Community played in the Civil Rights Movement, education

as a form of activism, and why

we

practice Tikkun Olam at machaneh. It was a very simple method to convey a very important message about an issue very relevant to all of our lives. So

circle-up and peace out.

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M.C. SHMOLLY