The Pre-Schoolers spent most of this Sunday’s class learning about Sukkot. We began the day by greeting one another with last month’s new word- Shalom. We then learned the new Hebrew word of the month- Toda- meaning Thank You. We tried to use this word often throughout the day and I encouraged the students to say “toda” to their families when they got home! (more…)
The Or Emet juniors’ class spent last session learning about Crypto-Jews (better known to some as Marranos), Jewish people who publicly converted to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition to avoid death or expulsion from Spain but continued to maintain Jewish faith/observe Jewish customs in secret. (more…)
We kicked off the first Or Emet class of the year with some time for students to get [re]acquainted, and then I introduced the theme that will guide our classes for the year–the idea of ‘being Jewish today.’ I presented the idea that, particularly as Humanistic Jews, it is important for us to explore and consider all the different ways a person can be Jewish in the world today, that this gives us a way to think about Jewishness that moves beyond a focus on God or history alone. After hearing the focus for the day–‘being a Jewish-American today’–students played a trivia game in teams where they guessed the answers to questions about Jewish-Americans, their beliefs, most popular holidays observed, the intermarriage rate, et cetera. (more…)
During the September 13th Sunday School session, the class and I focused on learning about Sunday School, the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holiday, and Tikkun Olam. The day also started with singing-time along with the entire Sunday School.
First, the kids had a great time learning a new word, Shalom, and greeting one another. We welcomed each other into class and said “Shalom” to one another. We also learned the three different meanings of the word Shalom- hello, goodbye, and peace. We have a Aleph-Bet balll that we threw to one another as we practiced the word. (more…)
Session
Sept 13, 2009
We spent the early part getting to know each other. We introduced ourselves and each shared the favorite thing we did this summer.
Next the topic of discussion was about what it is to be Jewish. Quite a bit of time was spent talking about the major holidays throughout the year:
We also discussed some key Jewish values (Tzedakah, Tikkun Olam, taking responsibility for our own actions) and talked about how we would be working with the pre-school class on a Tikkun Olam project throughout the year. (more…)
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