Art is for Everyone - Especially on Shabbat!

In summer 2025 at URJ 6 Points Creative Arts Academy (CAA), we received an unexpected request regarding our Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat service. The Westtown School, which hosts CAA every summer, also hosts smaller sports camps during the summer. While our campers rarely overlap, as the athletes are on the fields and we are in our recently renovated arts center, our staff occasionally interact in the hallways of our bayit (main building). On this particular day, one of our staff members was approached by a staff member from a field hockey camp. She was Jewish and curious if we had Shabbat services on Friday night. We were excited to invite her to join us, but we warned her that our service is very artsy and untraditional.

The Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat experience is one of our most beloved traditions at CAA. We are so excited about it, our campers begin preparing on Thursdays! Every week, campers and staff members get to choose a modality (musical theater, creative writing, dance, photography, vocal/instrumental ensembles, or visual art) to pair with one of the Shabbat prayers. On Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons, our faculty of rabbis, cantors, and educators collaborate with our arts mentors to help campers craft a creative interpretation of their prayer using their chosen art form. On Friday night, our whole community gathers in our theater to present and witness a parade of creative offerings from each group, forming our service. It's incredibly unique and inspiring every time, and features an original musical based on the week's Torah portion called a Jewsical, pioneered by former CAA Arts Director Eliana Rubin. Starting in 2025, Eliana connected with campers online during the year to co-write Jewsicals for our summer sessions. You can view highlights of past Shabbat services on our Facebook page!

Lizzie, the field hockey player who had asked about Kabbalat Shabbat services, accepted our invitation and attended our service. I sat nearby, just in case anything required explanation. She appeared to be very engaged and shared how impressed she was by our campers' creative prayer offerings. After the service, Lizzie expressed how meaningful the experience was. We invited her (with no obligation) to stay for our post-service Shabbat Shira high-energy song session.

For Shabbat Shira, our whole community gathers on the stage in a big circle, and our visual t'fillah includes chords and lyrics so that our campers, staff, and faculty musicians can jam along with our song leaders in the middle of the circle. Sometimes we have a full faculty band. During session one, Shabbat Shira gives our songleading major campers a chance to show off their skills! During "Miriam's Song" by Debbie Friedman, a staff member borrows my tambourine and leads the whole group in a dance line throughout the theater around the room. The climactic release of energy whips even our quieter campers into a dancing and singing frenzy, ending every week on a glorious high note. We forewarned our guest about our rituals, and again, she participated enthusiastically alongside our staff members.

Our Kabbalat Shabbat service is a beloved time for the CAA community. Though we often have Shabbat guests with us, this was a meaningful opportunity to view the experience through the eyes of someone outside our Reform community and see the joy it inspired in her and us.

The number one question everyone asked when we shared this story over the following days and weeks - so did you tell her that we have a sports camp? Yes, of course we did!

Want to experience the joy of Shabbat at URJ 6 Points Creative Arts Academy? Learn more and enroll at 6 Points CAA today! See you there!