Madrichimot

The Madrichimot Program (formerly The Madrichim Program) is our teen internship program. A madrich(male)/madricha(female)/madrichol(all encompassing term) is a person who assists in the education and supervision of children.

Madrichimot at Temple Israel have roles suited to their skills. A madrich/madricha/madrichol is at religious school when our students (PreK - 6th grade) are present, to help in a variety of ways. That role may be in a classroom educating children, a technology assistant, an office assistant, song-leader, or a different job that the temple team thinks would be beneficial. All madrichim receive financial payment or volunteer hours for their contributions to our religious school. 

Beyond being an assistant, our madrichim also receive invaluable leadership training. This training occurs several times throughout the year, and is meant to give even more value to the position. Skills learned include conflict resolution, problem solving, and learning about the impact actions have (especially on young minds). 

Why did we change from The Madrichim Program to Madrichimot program? The program is the same, but the wording is different. As our times change, we need to adapt our language to better suit our students. Since Hebrew is a "gendered language", it makes it hard to refer to people who may not identify as strictly male or female. However, people have started adapting to new forms. While madrich is male and madricha is female, it is agreed that madrichol is essentially an all encompassing term, much like "they" in English. Since madrichim is used to refer to a group of men and madrichot is used to refer to a group of women, it has been discussed that using madrichim to refer to everyone is unfair because it genders the group. The best way to avoid gendering a group is to use a gender inclusive plural suffix, which is why we use Madrichimot. 

If you or someone you know would be a great madrich/madricha/madrichol please reach out to our Education Administrative Assistant, Ilana Linthicum.