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Home > Youth & Family > Teen Program

Teen Collective

Or Shalom Teen Collective

Welcome to San Francisco’s only deeply egalitarian, fully inclusive Jewish teen collective — a space for 8th–12th graders to connect, explore, and co-create a community that feels real and relevant.

This isn’t another top-down youth group. The Or Shalom Teen Collective is shaped by teens, for teens — their voices, their ideas, their leadership. Together, we’re imagining and building a community that meets teens where they are and supports who they’re becoming.

What Happens in the Collective?

At our monthly Saturday gatherings, teens come together to:

  • Claim their space through identity mapping, art, and creative projects.

  • Explore big questions about Jewishness, self, and community in today’s world.

  • Connect with peers through conversation, games, Havdalah, and hang-time.

  • Share food & fun — always with pizza at the center. 🍕
     

Why the Or Shalom Teen Collective?

  • Truly inclusive: Every identity and background is celebrated and welcomed!

  • Egalitarian & collaborative: Teens have real agency in shaping the space, unlike so many spaces they're part of. This develops their leadership, autonomy, and creativity! 

  • Rooted in Jewish values: A place to explore what Jewishness means right now, how we want to shape it for the future, and how their Jewishness impacts the work and impact they want to make in the world

  • Fun & meaningful: Pizza, art, conversation, ritual, and friendship.

We hope you’ll join us for as many sessions as you can! There’s no set fee for the Collective — we simply ask for a donation of your choosing toward the pizza pool!

2025-2026 Dates, all meetings from 4-6 pm at Or Shalom:

Meet Our Staff

Mira Stern
Head of Youth & Family Education
mira@orshalomsf.org

Hi! I’m Mira Stern—a queer, white Jewish mama, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, and a lifelong educator. After 15 years working in K–12 schools as a classroom teacher (10th grade World History!) and a program manager, I launched my own consulting practice focused on liberation education and advising. I work with tech companies, organizations, and school systems to develop equity strategies that have long-term impact, all rooted in racial justice and community building.

I’m a Jewish ritualist and love drawing from ancestral practices and weaving them together with body-based, pleasure-centered approaches to create spaces of belonging, healing, and collective liberation. I lead retreats, workshops, and online courses—all with the goal of cultivating real human connection, vulnerability, and room for each of us to step into our highest selves.

When I’m not chasing after my fiery, bold toddler on some epic Bay Area adventure, you can find me on my mat in hot yoga or pilates, tending to my 24 fruit trees in East Oakland, hosting delicious Shabbat dinners (Martha Jewart is my alter ego!), or planning my next getaway on this wild and beautiful planet.

I’m so excited to step into this role and bring my whole self—educator, parent, ritualist, and community curator—to the work ahead. I’m especially eager to build out robust programming that centers deep embodiment of Jewish magic and ritual for young people and families, helping instill the incredible medicine we’ve inherited—and the tools to reshape it for the chaos and beauty of right now. I’m also deeply honored to help build a teen program that roots our next generation in social justice, community interconnectedness, and fierce self-love.

Sun, October 5 2025 13 Tishrei 5786