by Beit Sefer director Clare Kinberg
I sent out a survey for parents last week seeking feedback on the past year of religious school, and in the process, I took a mental stroll through the year. It was a good one, with several innovations.
For several years now, we have built a sukkah at Carole Caplan’s Farm on Jennings as a way to start off the year. This year we added an optional sleep over! For the sukkah building, a few new families joined us. Cooking out, putting up tents, having Beit Sefer outside, all of it was a lot of fun.
For Simchat Torah this year we unfurled our Torah scroll at the JCC, with Rabbi Ora leading some Torah investigation. Parents and students got a close in look at our very old and unusual Torah.
For Hanukkah we had some in class parties and latke making. Sufganiyot making at Clare’s house.
If fact, food figured into several lessons! We have a few challah bakers, donut makers, and latke fryers among our parents and teachers.
This year we joined the Jewish Cultural Society’s Purim Carnival in the gym for fun, games and shaloach manot/Purim gifts making.
Finally, we had our first picnic/tree planting at County Farm Park. Back during the winter, when we celebrated Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, the most we could do was think about planting trees. That’s when I hatched the idea to plan a tree planting expedition. With some great networking by Stacy, we got in touch with the County Farm Park Naturalist Shawn Severance. Shawn set us up to plant more than a dozen persimmon, paw paw, and plum trees.
Innovations in the classroom included, Aaron Jackson and madricha Rose Basch leading the G’dolim in making pin ball machines that tell the stories of the Golem of Prague and the Passover journey. Shlomit Cohen added a six week unit on Israel, and Rabbi Ora taught a unit on the Bedtime Shema.
All in all, the greatest successes of the year included community building, camaraderie among the students, parents and teachers, and growing commitments to Jewish learning. Special shout out to our madrachim, Rose Basch, Avi Lessure and Zander McClain. After several years of being helpers in the classroom, Rose and Avi are moving on. We will miss them!
