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Five Central Jersey congregations are coming together to ensure that education at Reform synagogues goes beyond 10th-grade confirmation and prepares students for college environments.

Oct. 25 will mark the first of six programs in a new series called PaRDES, a Reform Jewish experience for 11th and 12th graders from Congregation Beth Chaim of Princeton Junction, Har Sinai Temple of Pennington, Or Chadash of Flemington, Temple Beth-El of Hillsborough, and Temple B'nai Shalom of East Brunswick.

An overriding theme for the monthly learning and social experiences, set within the context of Torah and tikkun olam, will be the ways in which individuals can have a positive impact on the world, according to the PaRDES mission statement. Anne Berman-Waldorf, Beth Chaim's director of lifelong education, came up with the concept for the series to address the need for synagogue education to be more continuous, she said.

"Tenth grade is that year when [students] really start to get it, but it's the year most formal education programs end [in Reform synagogues]," Berman-Waldorf said.

The Oct. 25 program at Har Sinai, called "Identity in the New Millennium," will feature an evening with "The Hebrew Mamita," New York-based performance artist Vanessa Hidary, to discuss what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. On Nov. 15, PaRDES students will go on a guided tour of the Lower East Side of Manhattan to learn about the life of Jewish immigrants, followed by a discussion on how the immigrants eventually made their way to suburban New Jersey at Harold's Deli in Edison.

Students will organize and host a Dec. 20 holiday party at Temple Beth-El for the residents of the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN), an agency that provides shelter, meals, and emotional support for homeless families. At Beth Chaim, a Jan. 31 program called "Rabbis All Around" consists of text studies with rabbis from the five congregations linking Judaism to contemporary issues or problems facing society today.

While spending a Shabbat at Princeton University Feb. 26, PaRDES participants will discuss Reform Jewish life on campus with current Princeton students. To wrap things up on April 11 at B'nai Shalom, the group will spend an evening investigating their connection to Israel through its politics, religion, society, and culture.

All programs, besides for the New York tour (Noon to 6:30 p.m.) and Shabbat at Princeton (Friday night, time TBA), are on Sundays from 4-7 p.m. As the programs are rooted in Reform values, the hope is for students to enter college with the ability to answer questions about their beliefs from members of other religions and Jewish denominations, Berman-Waldorf said.

On campuses, it's important for Reform students to defend their perspective in front of other Jewish students who see their values as more traditional, said Miriam Eichler, education director at B'nai Shalom.

"We want the kids who are going off to college in a year or two to have a very strong sense for their Jewish identity," Eichler said.

The text-based sessions of PaRDES will provide an alternative setting for students who aren't always comfortable in youth groups such as the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY).

"The whole idea of interacting socially is awkward for some kids," Eichler said. "[PaRDES] is designed to give them a setting which will be comfortable for everyone."

Translated as "orchard" in Hebrew, the program is using the word "pardes" to represent a garden of knowledge.

"We want this to be a place and an organization where young adult minds flourish and love to learn," Eichler said.

Rabbi Stuart Pollack of Har Sinai said he hopes the programs will give students a better understanding of Jewish history and tradition, as well as the geography of American Jewish communities, synagogues, and campuses, in an experiential format as opposed to the usual classroom setting. Those goals would be difficult to accomplish through the work of just one congregation, he said.

"We felt that one synagogue doing it alone would not have that strong sense of socialization and culturalization that we strive for," Pollack said.

Additionally, PaRDES programs are a much less imposing time commitment than youth groups for students like Pollack's son Eli, who is often occupied with music and athletics in school.

"This might be the ticket for them to touch base with Jewish life," Pollack said of busy students.

Students from the five synagogues have been learning with their own rabbis and teachers for years, and now get the chance to branch out educationally in addition to connecting with teenagers from other congregations who they might even run into in college, said Lisa Friedman, special needs coordinator for education at Beth El.

"It's a great opportunity for our kids to really broaden their Jewish horizons," she said.