Jewish Cultural Sunday School Update, Fall 2026/5787

By Mollie Phipps, JCSS Director

I’m looking forward to welcoming our Jewish Cultural Sunday School students, teachers and aides in September as we enter our third year at the Twin Cities German Immersion School. It’s looking like we may not have a Littles class this year and only had two students last year. If you know any Jewish families with small children, please let them know about JCSS!

Teacher Ian Zukor is returning and will be leading the Middles class with Isaac Rinerson as his aide. Ian is a middle school teacher and Isaac is a senior in high school and an active leader in Scouts. Julian Young and Aayush Dongre are returning to co-lead the Juniors class. Julian is a senior in high school and camp counselor and Aayush is a junior in high school. Sarah Berman-Young is supporting all classrooms with Jewish songs and Hebrew lessons as well as supporting the Juniors class with curriculum and lesson planning assistance. Rabbi Eva Cohen is leading the B Mitzvah prep class.

We have applied for a grant from the Covenant Foundation to support our school. The grant would help us create a detailed curriculum for our pre B Mitzvah classes. In recent years we’ve found it difficult to find qualified and available teachers with a good mix of Jewish knowledge, teaching skills and inclination, a solid Humanistic perspective, and the time to teach in JCSS. To alleviate some of these requirements, we’ve proposed creating a multi-year curriculum with detailed lesson plans for teachers to use. We’ll be paying special attention to building in support for neurodivergent learners. We’ve also requested funds to purchase Judaica for the school. We won’t know if we’ve received the grant until December.

Substitute teachers needed

JCSS is looking for some adults to serve as occasional substitute teachers in JCSS. You’d be provided with a lesson plan and all supplies needed and would have an assistant in the classroom with you. Subs are compensated $100 per session. Email me at if you’re interested in being on the sub list. We usually need subs a few times per year.

Do you have something cool and Jewish you’d like to share with our JCSS students? If so, let me know at and we can work together to figure out how best to work it into the JCSS schedule.