Our school began as a “labor of love” by parents who wanted their children to understand and celebrate what it means to be Jewish. Its objectives include:
- teaching our children about being Jewish
- learning Hebrew in preparation for bar/bat mitzvah and to be able to comfortably attend services anywhere.
- studying Torah
- learning ethics, from Pirke Avot to Rabbinic commentary
- learning, understanding and celebrating Jewish holidays and life cycle events
- studying the history of the Jewish people
Our parents are an important element of the school. They are enthusiastic and thirsty for learning. On most Sunday mornings activities are planned to engage them. These activities include parent discussion groups, a Jewish book study group, and Torah study. There are learning sessions with the Rabbi on such topics as holidays, God, spirituality, end of life issues, and mitzvot. Parents also plan and lead art projects with the students as well as help with school celebrations of Tu B’Shvat, Purim, Passover, Sukkot, and Hanukkah.
In addition to the regular curriculum, each year the school works from a theme identified by the teachers and parents. A recent example: mitzvot, as exemplified by Famous Jewish Americans. Each Sunday morning during assembly a parent or adult from the community emerged from our “time machine” in character as a famous Jewish American, such as Hank Greenberg, Julius Rosenwald, Nathan and Lina Strauss, Uriah Levy, Judah Touro, Ernestine Rose, etc.
In their classrooms, children study the character and the mitzvah that each famous Jewish American represents. The Rabbi offers a teaching on that character’s mitzvah. Children are also given a trading card for each personality which they collect during the year. These are used for study and to prepare for one of our end of year activities and celebration: a “parents vs. kids” game show based on the past year’s characters.