Creating a Safe Space for Teens Online and Through a Jewish Lens With Lesson Plans

Teens and Coronavirus: Living Life During a Pandemic

Intro

The recent outbreak and spread of Covid-19 has sparked a lot of challenging emotions for teens and adults: anxiety, worry, fear, empathy, and a deep sense of responsibility for the community. Many of us are asking: how can I keep myself healthy? What are my responsibilities for keeping the people around me healthy? What personal boundaries do I need to set in order to protect myself? How do I deal with all the fear and uncertainty?

In our teen programs we aim to equip teens with strategies for how to take care of themselves—mentally and physically. We also emphasize the importance of being part of a community: the small community within their Rosh Hodesh, Shevet or Tzelem group, the larger Jewish community, and the world’s community. Taking care of one’s self is essential to taking care of the community and taking care of the community is essential to taking care of one’s self.

So how do Jewish values—specifically the values that we at Moving Traditions embrace—apply in the context of the coronavirus? And how can group leaders address the coronavirus with their teens—both in terms of making decisions about whether to lead a group in person, and how to talk about the virus with their teens?