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Hebrew School
Sunday mornings, ages five to thirteen. Hebrew reading, the Jewish year, the stories behind it, and enough confidence to be the Jewish child in a class of thirty. Here is what a morning looks like.
Arriving
The whole school together, ten minutes, with a lot of singing. Nobody is asked to read out loud and nobody is tested on it.
The first hour
The aleph-bet for the youngest, then reading, then reading with fluency. Taught in small groups by age and by where a child actually is, which are not always the same thing.
The second hour
Whatever is coming up. In the fortnight before Purim they are making groggers; in Nisan they are asking the four questions. A child arrives home able to explain something the family is about to do.
Before home
A project, a snack, a competition. This is not filler — it is the part most children describe when somebody asks what they did.
Every year has all four in it. What changes is the depth, not the subject.
Letters, then words, then reading from a Siddur. The aim is a child who can follow a service and find their place, not a child who can conjugate a verb.
Every festival, before it happens rather than after. Why we do it, what it asks of us, and what it looks like at a table.
Torah from the beginning — the people, what they did, and what the tradition made of it. Told as stories, because they are.
What to say when somebody at school asks why you are not there on a Monday in October. Quiet confidence rather than defensiveness, which is a thing that has to be taught.
A child who is glad to be Jewish, can find their place in a Siddur, knows what is coming up in the Jewish year, and would not be embarrassed to explain any of it to a friend. Everything on this page is in service of that, and nothing else is.
What we are not trying to produce is a child who has been examined. There are no grades here, no report cards, and nobody is ranked against anybody.
Type an age to see the group.
No, and it is the normal starting point. Groups are set by where a child actually is, and children who start at nine with nothing catch up faster than anybody expects.
No. Most of the families here are not, and the school is built for exactly that — nothing taught here assumes what happens in your kitchen, and no child is ever asked what their family does or does not do.
No. That is a thing we watch for carefully. A child who comes home having learned something should be pleased about it, not carrying a correction for their parents.
Tell us before the first Sunday rather than after. Small groups make a great deal possible, and knowing in advance is the whole difference.
You are welcome and never obliged. Some parents stay and have coffee, most drop off, and both are entirely normal.