Learning Goals, Curriculum, & Policies

Learning Goals

At our Hebrew School, we focus on five particular learning goals:

Learning and engaging with our story
Supporting Hebrew School students to understand key moments and ideas from the evolution of the Jewish people as well as offer opportunities to learn and engage with Jewish time (holidays).

Appreciating our Jewish diversity
Helping students to encounter and engage with the diversity of Jews, and Jewish life and culture. This includes engaging with geographic diversity, as well as the diverse experiences of Jews of Color, queer and trans Jews, interfaith families, Jews by choice, and others. 

Integrating key Jewish values
Working with students to engage with core Jewish values that help to frame/guide our decisions as Jews and human beings.

Developing liturgical proficiency
Deepening liturgical and Hebrew proficiency to enable students to deepen their connection with our Jewish spiritual texts.

Modeling an innovative and welcoming community
Demonstrating positive Reconstructionist approaches to community building that students can integrate and use in other contexts in their lives. This includes makhloket le-shem shamayim, the ability to think critically, hold multiple truths, and respect differences.

Hebrew School Non-Discrimination Policy

The Hebrew School admits students of any race to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded to or made available to students in the Hebrew School. The Hebrew School does not discriminate on the basis of race in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship or loan programs, if any, and athletic and other school-administered programs. 

Health and Safety

Beth Israel seeks to create a safe and healthy environment for our Hebrew School students and their families. 

We strongly urge all our Hebrew School families to stay current on all vaccinations (flu, COVID, etc.) and to not bring their child to in-person Hebrew School if they are experiencing fever-like symptoms. The synagogue closely follows national CDC guidelines regarding recommended health practices and seeks to align our practices at BI accordingly. 

Additionally, we seek to create a safe environment as well. All Hebrew School staff are trained on safety procedures, and Beth Israel has upgraded its building with a variety of safety features.