Religious School Curriculum

Congregation B’nai Torah’s Religious School strives to provide students with meaningful and positive experiences that promote a passion for lifelong Jewish learning and living.

Program Overview

Religious School at B’nai Torah is centered on Z’man Kehillah (building community), Tefillah (prayer), Yahadut (Judaics), and Ivrit (Hebrew).

Each class session begins with Z’man Kehillah (building community), an intentional time for fostering friendships and building community in the classroom. Through formal and informal activities, students have an opportunity to catch up with their friends, make new connections, and develop as a cohort.

Tefillah is a time for students to become familiar with Conservative liturgy and to develop a personal and communal prayer practice, understanding that prayer connects us with God, with other Jews, and with ourselves.
 

• Students in kindergarten through second grade pray together weekly in an interactive prayer service, learning the “what,” “how,” and “why” of prayer.
• Third through sixth grade students pray together twice weekly in their “Tefillah Tribes,” which are small groups comprised of students from each grade level. Students gain familiarity and comfort with the traditional prayer service and engage in interactive activities to enhance their understanding of prayer.
• Seventh grade students experience the value of being part of a larger community, participating in B’nai Torah’s minyan on Sunday mornings and Religious School Tefillah on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

Yahadut, Judaics, develops and strengthens our students’ core Jewish knowledge. Students learn about holidays and the Hebrew calendar, mitzvot (commandments) and values, Torah, Israel, history, and life cycles. Yahadut is enriched through shirah (music), omanut (art), bishul (cooking), and other active experiences. More information on Yahadut can be found below, including themes for each grade.

We teach Ivrit, Hebrew, through prayer. We focus on decoding skills, Hebrew vocabulary within the prayers, and the themes, concepts and meaning of each prayer, which work together to develop our students’ capacity to participate in Conservative prayer services.
 

• Students in kindergarten through second grade focus on Hebrew and actively participate in Tefillah each Sunday.
• Students in third through seventh grade focus on Hebrew and Tefillah either Tuesday or Wednesday and every Sunday. Working in small groups, students begin by mastering the fundamentals of Hebrew decoding (reading), and then work their way through key prayers in the siddur (prayer book). Students are assessed at the beginning of the year and placed into groups according to their skill level.

More on Yahadut:

Students in the Religious School look at different Jewish values through a lens specific to each grade.

• Students focus on the values of:
  • B’tzelem Elohim: honoring the image of God in ourselves
  • Gevurah: using one’s inner and outer strength
  • Achrayut: doing what you can to make the world a better place
  • HaKarat HaTov: seeking joy and being grateful
  • Koach HaDibbur: understanding the power of words
  • Shalom: helping to create a calmer, more peaceful world
• Students also learn about Jewish holidays, the history and traditions behind them, and how they fit into the cycle of the Jewish year.