A new model for Beth-El’s religious school

In an effort to take an already successful religious school to the next level, a team at Temple Beth-El is dreaming big. 

In 2015, a campaign was started to honor retiring Rabbi Leslie Yale Gutterman by endowing the religious school. Now they’ve raised $3.2 million for the Rabbi Leslie Yale Gutterman Religious School – and changes are coming to the education of Temple Beth-El’s children.

For the 2016-2017 school year, the religious school leadership of Rabbi Sarah Mack, Joie Magnone, youth and family engagement coordinator, and Rachel Mersky Woda, educational consultant, have come up with phase one of a plan that responds to the challenges of the modern family.

Their aim is a school that is a communal, accessible, joyful community.

In surveys of school parents, they found that the chief problem parents had with the school was logistical. Like many religious schools, Beth-El’s school has been organized on a traditional model: Sunday school, with different grades attending at different times, and a midweek Hebrew school. Working parents were often shuttling back and forth for much of the day Sunday and fighting traffic midweek – and students were sometimes too tired to learn.

“Educating 21st-century children required a change to logistics,” said Mersky Woda.

In the new plan, PreK to grade 10 will attend a 2½-hour Sunday program. One-hour Hebrew classes will be organized in small groups, with a choice of times, including midweek and Sunday.

Sunday will start with the whole school meeting for 30 minutes of tefilah, which parents are invited to attend.  “We are building community through worship, song and more,” said Mersky Woda. 

Mack added, “Parents value family time.  We have to create the best use of time.”

After tefilah, the students will split into grade-specific classes. 

The whole school will be encouraged to attend monthly Shabbat dinners, and family programs and holiday celebrations will now be a part of the school day.

“This is Jewish learning in real time,” says Mack. “When kids see their parents doing Jewishly, they will want to do Jewishly.”

Hebrew will be taught once a week in small groups of three to seven on a flexible schedule. The groups will allow for individual attention and instruction according to skill level.

Mack, Mersky Woda and Magnone all commented on how the children at Beth-El frequently continue at the religious school even beyond B’nai Mitzvah age, a time when many leave formal Jewish education. They all want to capitalize on that.

This plan is the result of a task force of temple members with varied backgrounds. 

“A fantastic group,”   Mack said. 

Anita Steiman, a beloved educator at the school for more than 25 years, who is retiring at the end of the year, is part of the task force.

The group will begin meeting again in late summer with the goal of creating a five-year strategic plan.

Ultimately, Magnone said, “We want kids to walk out of here with a love of Judaism.”

FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.