AKLA teens in Los Angeles participate in a Krav Maga workshop. (Photo courtesy of AKLA)
You’re at bat in Wrigley Field. It’s been quite a day already: exploring rare sports memorabilia from the collection of the Jewish Baseball Museum, and going on a tour of Wrigley Field while hearing Jewish stories set within those ivy-covered walls. But now you’re in a batting cage, and you’re not alone. You’re training with athletes from Israel Baseball. As you improve your swing, you feel a deep sense of connection and pride—this too is part of your Jewish heritage.
Is this a dream? No, it’s a session entitled “Beyond the Game: Jewish Athletes, Culture, and Community,” one of the five upcoming sessions of AKLA Chicago, an experiential fellowship for Chicago Jewish tweens and teens ages 12–14.
AKLA Chicago is the newest venture from Los Angeles-based organization AKLA, named for the slang term in Hebrew meaning “awesome.” AKLA’s model is a five-week series of subsequent Sundays, during which Jewish teens engage in hands-on learning on a range of topics—from sports to technology to medicine—to “explore Jewish innovation and identity in action.”
In Los Angeles, teens have had immersive educational experiences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; in Chicago, the experiential learning will move to the Simulation Center at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. There, teens will also have the chance to speak with Jewish healthcare leaders as well as Israeli innovators in medicine.
Jeff Polak, President and Co-Founder of AKLA, described wanting to fill what he saw as a void in inspiration that would get teens “excited about the amazing contributions in the community that they’re a part of.” In addition to taking pride in their Jewish heritage, AKLA encourages participants to look forward too, mapping out “their own course for achievements and mitzvahs.” The vision is simultaneously nondenominational and nonpartisan. Polak explained that there are no politics involved when AKLA talks about Israel, and also that “there’s no way to practice religion that’s wrong or right.”
Instead, the focus is on Jewish positivity and pride, even when a session may be potentially somber, like teaching about the long history of Jewish persecution. “Through it all, there’s been awesome stories of survival and resilience,” Polak said. “We want to be mindful of what has taken place [and] use that as part of our strength.”
After five successful years in Los Angeles, AKLA is scaling its impact. This spring, AKLA Chicago will convene its first-ever teen cohort, from April 12 to May 10, thanks in part to a generous Springboard Teen Engagement Innovation Grant from JUF. As one of the funders of AKLA Chicago, JUF is also providing consultative services, and helping the organization navigate the Chicago landscape.
“AKLA has created programming in L.A that presents Jewish content and Jewish themes in really creative ways that resonate for teens,” said Sarina Fogel Gerson, JUF’s Associate Vice-President, Community Outreach and Engagement. “They take students to places that are relevant to teens and make Jewish connections. That is the type of compelling and innovative approach we’re excited to support.”
“We’re trying to bring in kids to understand that their local environment has a Jewish connection,” agreed Tonia Barber, Executive Director and Co-Founder of AKLA. In addition to immersive Jewish learning at Wrigley Field and Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, AKLA Chicago participants will also visit sites like the Adler Planetarium and The Illinois Holocaust Museum pop-up location.
The AKLA Chicago five-week fellowship comes at no cost to the teens participating. On March 1 from 1–4pm, there will be a sneak peek open house downtown at Venue SIX10, and Barber encourages families, educators, and clergy to attend.
Polak described the AKLA program as being a “spark,” and shared a story he heard from a parent of a participant in Los Angeles. The parent’s teenaged son had said, “‘I thought before that being Jewish was reading prayer books or learning all this stuff in the temple. I had no idea about … all these great things in our community,’” Polak shared. “That kind of energy is really what AKLA is about.”
For more information, visit aklausa.org, or contact [email protected].
