Welcome to Temple Beth Shalom

Talmud Torah Religious School

Temple Beth Shalom’s Religious School and Hebrew Programs provide an inclusive and comfortable environment for learning and experiencing firsthand the joys of Jewish tradition and practice. Our school is a warm, accepting, and joyous place for our children to develop a strong Jewish identity, a love of Jewish learning and a real sense of belonging to a kehillah kedosha, a holy community.

Our school has a very camp-like feel to it, with lots of schtick (skits), experiential learning opportunities, and joy. Many of our teachers are camp counselors at Jewish camps around our region during the summers.

Please enjoy the information about our school below and feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.

L’Shalom,
Rabbi Benjy Bar-Lev, Director (rabbibenjy@tbsohio.org)
Lauren Sferrella, School Administrator (lsferrella@tbsohio.org)

Interested in Talmud Torah Religious School? Read weekly newsletters, see weekly pictures, and communicate with our professional staff at our newsletter website, “The Weekly Roundup.” (www.tbsohioTT.com)

Our Judaica Curricula

URJ Chai Curriculum

Our 1st Grade—7th Grade classes use the Union for Reform Judaism’s “Chai Curriculum.” The CHAI Curriculum is designed to facilitate lifelong Jewish learning within Reform congregations. It focuses classroom learning on Torah, Avodah and G'milut Chasadim and expands beyond these topics in other educational programs. CHAI lessons are based on the "Understanding By Design" curriculum development model, which is widely used in the field of general education. CHAI lessons utilize an approach that begins with desired outcomes in mind. The lessons aim to nurture "enduring understandings," values that have lifetime meaning for all Jews. The curriculum core is designed around the fundamental lessons of Torah, avodah, and g'milut chasadim. Each level of the curriculum core consists of 27 one-hour lessons.

Kindergarten Curriculum

Our Kindergarten class, the youngest students in our school, learn about Jewish life through stories, art projects, discussions, music and plays. Our Kindergarten teachers and aides are warm, nurturing and creative. During the Kindergarten year, our students begin to develop an idea of where each of them fits in the larger Jewish story. They learn about Jewish customs, stories and holidays and have a lot of fun doing it!

8th Grade Curriculum

Our 8th Grade class, comprised of students who have completed their First Aliyah ceremony, has a curriculum of Comparative Religions. Students creatively learn about Reform Judaism, other movements in under the Jewish umbrella, and other world religions as well. The students take field trips, have in-depth discussions and do hands-on activities to learn about other religions.

High School Curriculum—New and Improved!

Our 9th and 10th Grade Classes choose electives in which they are interested. The High School program is run in two 45 minute blocks, with two or more classes from which to choose in each block. The following classes are being taught during the Fall Semester of 2008-2009:

Pray Ball (Evan Kleymeyer and Brett Chessin)

Steroids in baseball—and now allegations of doping in the PGA? Bribery of judges at the Olympic games? Gambling and point-shaving in College basketball? Accusations of blood doping at the Tour de France? In this class, we will look at ethical issues affecting current national sports. We will discuss the problems, potential solutions, and ask why we as Jews should care about these things.

Tattoo Jews (Rabbi Benjy Bar-Lev)

According to Jewish law, is it ok to have a tattoo? What does Judaism say about the death penalty? Is music censorship ok? Is there a Jewish way to use facebook? What does Jewish tradition say about abortion? How about euthanasia? Premarital sex? Is peace always better than war? What should we do about the genocide in Darfur? Why do we even care what Jewish tradition says about this stuff? Does it matter in our lives in 2008? In Tattoo Jews we will begin to answer some of these questions and ask a lot more! The answers might surprise you...

Modern Hebrew (Seth Slaton, Brett Chessin, Evan Kleymeyer)

Have you always wanted to learn how to speak Hebrew? Are you terrified of being stuck in Israel without any way to communicate? Do you want to learn “the secret Jewish handshake” and be able to talk to Jews all over the world? IN this fun and creative class we will learn modern spoken Hebrew that you can use next time you’re on the street in Tel Aviv!

Jewish Meditation (Elle Muhlbaum and Emily Feldenkris)

Shaaaaaaaaaaalooooooooom. Breathe in, breathe out. What’s Jewish about meditation? Everything! In this class students will experientially learn basic techniques of Jewish Meditation. Students will also be exposed to chant, drum and other explorations of the mystical search. We will search together!

Our Hebrew Curriculum

URJ Mitkadem Hebrew Program

All of our students in 3rd Grade—6th Grade participate in our Hebrew School program called Mitkadem. Mitkadem is the Union for Reform Judaism’s Hebrew curriculum that teaches children Hebrew at each child’s own pace. Mitkadem offers a new approach to teaching and learning Hebrew and prayer by building on the positive commitment parents have made by enrolling their children in our schools. Mitkadem's self-paced and child-centered approach allows each student to achieve according to his/her own ability, so learning challenged students and frequent absentees feel successful as well as those students who are very motivated and catch on quickly. The Mitkadem approach helps every teacher feel capable and confident of administering this program to all different kinds of student learners, identifying those students who need additional help early on. The content of the program should seem familiar to other Hebrew programs; the approach is new.

Students are in classrooms based on their Ramah (level). Each class begins and ends with “together time” hearing the prayers, playing games, and learning frontally from the teacher. The rest of the class is self-paced. Each Mitkadem classroom has at least three staff people or aides.

Our program has a two-day option and a one-day option. Those students who come to school one day per week (Sunday) have Hebrew during the first part of the morning and Judaica during the second part of the morning. Students who come to school on Wednesday afternoon as well as Sunday work closely with the teacher and develop their Hebrew skills doubly as fast as their one-day counterparts.

Daily Schedule

• 9:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
  • Religious School for Lower School
    • Kindergarten
    • 1st Grade
    • 2nd Grade
  • Hebrew School (Mitkadem) for Upper School
    • Grades 3–6
• 10:35 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
  • T’fila (Services) Community Time
    • Lower School downstairs in Rooms 7/8 (wall open)
    • Upper School in Sanctuary
    • All school together on the 1st Sunday each month
• 11:00 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
  • • Snack for Grades 3–8
• 11:00 a.m.–12:45 a.m.
  • Religious School for Grades 3–8
  • High School for Grades 9–10
  • • Snack for High School: 11:45–12:00

Our Faculty

Teachers

Our faculty is composed of individuals strong in interpersonal skills and knowledgeable about Judaism and education. Our teachers maintain the highest standards of menschlichkeit (human decency) in order to develop the productive relationships with each student. Our staff uses every creative means possible to bring the point of their lessons to life and to excite their students in the beauty of Judaism’s tradition. Many of our teachers are members of Temple Beth Shalom and some are college students at The Ohio State University.

Madrichim (High School Aides)

One of our most exciting programs is our Madrichim Program. A “madrich” is a guide, helper and counselor (in camp language). Starting in 7th grade, our older students work as teacher aides, Hebrew aides, music and art specialists, photographers, and actors in our schticks (skits). They work during the first part of the morning and attend their own classes during the second part of the morning. This program is immensely valuable as our younger students see the older students participating in synagogue life and having a lot of fun while doing so! We currently have 32 madrichim enrolled in the program.