Religious School Update – April 21, 2023

And now for the recap.  Thankfully, we were all able to meet for our regular Tefillah with Rabbi Dean leading us as usual.  Each class then held classes on the topic of Yom Hashoa.  In the middle grades, Heather’s students learned the story of Anne Frank and the meaning of Yom Hashoa.  They watched a “BrainPop” video on Anne Frank and talked about a few quotes from her diary.  Then they moved on to the different branches of Judaism, which include at least 10 different branches.  It made the students sad to learn that women are often “held back” in many of the branches.

  For the Bnai Mitzvah class, we spent the first hour practicing the Torah Service prayers and then started to learn the Haftorah prayers.  For the second hour, we looked at the topic of The Righteous Ones who assisted Jews during the Holocaust.  We read through a hypothetical scenario of having a friend who is in danger of being deported or killed during the Holocaust and whether we would have the courage to help them.  The students came up with different ideas, including sneaking food from their parents, escaping to Switzerland, etc.  We then learned about Raul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped save thousands of Jews in Hungary at the close of the war.

  And that about does it for now.  We look forward to seeing everyone at Urban Adamah. It will be a blast!

Best,

David