Religious School

We invite you to join our community and our school!

Click to View/Download the School Registration Form for 2010/2011

At Tzedek v’Shalom we seek to integrate our Religious School into synagogue life to the greatest extent possible. We focus the learning in ways that are experiential in nature: rather than learning about the Jewish holidays, for example, we seek to engage children and their families in celebrating the holiday as fully as possible.

Small classes (around four or five students per class) provide every child with every opportunity to bring their unique self to Judaism – to be creative, to grow, and to be intellectually challenged.

We have four classes in the school. The Aleph class is generally kindergarten and first grade, second and third graders comprise our Bet class, fourth and fifth grades comprise the Gimmel class, and sixth and seventh graders make up the Dalet/Hey class. In addition, we have a lively teen group that meets outside the school for a variety of activities, socializing, and learning together, and that also stays connected with the school by aiding teachers in the classroom or tutoring Bnai Mitzvah students.

Our Hebrew curriculum is an ambitious program of Hebrew through prayer that works on language acquisition skills, decoding and teaching prayer on a spiritual level. Our Jewish studies program is a spiral curriculum style, with holidays taught with wide breadth in the early classes, and with increasing depth as children grow older. Each class has various learning foci, so that by the seventh grade students have comprehensive and structured exposure to the vast array of Jewish values, history, ethics, Bible, prayer, and Hebrew.

We are proud of the ways in which we are unique. Our teachers are willing and able to explore Jewish spirituality, and different concepts and experience of the Divine with children of all ages. We begin each Sunday morning with an assembly of parents and children that includes song, prayer, and family education. In addition, Religious School community – teachers, students, and parents – choose an issue relating to social justice and study it in-depth throughout the year, giving tzedekah to a related charity at the close of the year.

We invite you to visit our school to get a better sense of who we are. We meet in the Goodnoe Elementary School, which is located behind Roberts Ridge Park in Newtown, on Frost Lane. You are welcome any time, though advance calls are welcome so that we can be prepared to welcome you.

Do not hesitate to be in touch with any questions you may have about our community, the Religious School, and the congregation as a whole.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Education

At TvS, we see the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony as an integration and culmination of Jewish learning thus far, and not as an isolated event. This is a lifecycle event which the entire community shares in, as this is a moment to acknowledge their part in helping raise this child to Jewish adulthood.

As students approach their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the family will meet with Rabbi Anna to discuss plans to meet the requirements. She can also help you to find a tutor to prepare for this special event. Students at different levels will have different needs for tutoring, but this should be seen only as a supplement to the learning that takes place in the classroom.

Teen Program – POST BAR/BAR MITZVAH CLASS

The JRF (Jewish Reconstructionist Federation) has developed an exciting curriculum for post Bar/Bat Mitzvah students called TEL (Teens Experience and Learning), and we are now adopting this program. The class meets on a monthly basis, and once a season in the fall and spring there is retreat for all participants in the region at Camp JRF. TEL is in its second year, and each year there is a theme.

The TEL theme for 2010/2011 is “hiddur mitzvah,” which we are using to mean creativity in the broadest sense. This is NOT arts and crafts! Each month, a different type of Jewish creativity will be explored, all in terms of the theme of Jewish identity. For instance, Jewish comedy & humor, film & theater, literature, visual arts, music as expressions of Jewish identity. The curriculum is highly flexible, so that the group leader and the participants can really pick and choose what to do and explore.

There is a project component which will be integrated into the session time. We are interested in maximizing the ways teens are engaged in the community and congregation, so there are no limits on what they dream up doing.

Welcome to Tzedek v’Shalom: A Reconstructionist Jewish Congregation