CAFE – Community & Family Education
SAMS has been running CAFE events for around eight years, with one or two events per year, around a range of themes.
They are planned and implemented by volunteers of all ages (with input from the rabbi, when we have one), and they are usually attended by our members, although we have run a couple of CAFE events in conjunction with another local synagogue organizations.
Themes
- Festivals: Rosh Hashanah, Succot, Chanukah, Purim, Lag b’Omer, T’’u b’Shvat, Yom Yerushalayim – we’ve covered every festival at least once!
- Life-cycle Events: Bar/Bat Mitzvah
- Other: Roots (special participation from our senior members)
Who attends?
The whole organization: There are sessions for all ages, from babies and toddlers to primary-age children to teens to adults to seniors. The number of participants varies and can be anywhere from 30 to 100 people.
How long is a CAFE event?
CAFE events are run on a Sunday morning instead of Cheder. They start at 10 a.m. and finish between 12:30 and 2 p.m., depending on whether or not lunch is included.
Where are the CAFE events run?
We use the local primary school where our children attend Cheder. We make a special effort to encourage children (and their parents) who do not attend Cheder to join us for the morning.
What kinds of activities are there?
- Singing (for different age groups)
- Drama
- Arts & crafts
- Games
- Treasure hunt
- Learning/Study with the rabbi
- Lectures on topics of interest and relevance to the theme
- Food – both to make and to eat
- Blessings
- Presentation for all participants: presentations are sometimes at the beginning of the programme, but usually at the end, which leave everyone with a great ruach (spirit). Particularly popular are drama or singing presentations by the children and/or youth.
How is a CAFE event organized?
- Planning meetings (several months in advance), with volunteers from our Operations Committee and the wider community, plus the rabbi – to set up and finalize the programme, to find and recruit speakers/leaders for the sessions, to hire the hall, to prepare the booking form, to create signs for each session
- Budget – goal is to breakeven
- Noam youth participation
- Pre-publicity communication – weekly email, SAMSnews (our quarterly newsletter)
- Booking form
- Bookings are taken by email and post, with a list of participants prepared by a member of the planning team or, more recently, by our synagogue administrator
What happens on the day of the event?
Volunteers carry out the following tasks:
- Check participants in and collect money at the door – be sure to have a money box and a ‘float’ (extra change if the entry fee requires coins)
- Help speakers and session leaders to set up; put signs on the doors of the rooms where the activities are happening
- Direct participants to the different sessions
- Set up the food/drink and serve everyone at break time
- Take photographs
- Clear up at the end
What else do volunteers do?
In addition to what’s listed above, volunteers run most of the sessions. For example:
- A SAMS parent will prepare and supervise an arts & crafts project with the children
- Our Noam youth will put on a play or help with children’s activities
- One of our more musical members will teach singing
What happens after the event?
- A story about the CAFE event will appear in our newsletter
- Our Operations Committee does a ‘post mortem’ – discusses what worked well and what can be improved for the next CAFE event
