Religious School Update – Feb. 9, 2024

Hello Everyone,

     First of all, we wanted to thank all our parents for braving the rain and wind to come to Religious School last week to fill up our classes.  Our next session will be this upcoming Sunday, February 11, and two weeks from now we will have a break on February 18.  As a reminder, the New Member Shabbat will take place on February 16 and we encourage all of our families to attend ( along with the Family Shabbat which will take place earlier that evening).  We will also be having our second field trip in April to the Oakland Zoo.  I will send out more details when I have the exact date.  And the big day is approaching when Scarlet will have her Bat Mitzvah on February 24 (all are welcome to come to the service).  Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks one week for the kids along with one Oneg for a shabbat this year.  The sign-up sheets are in the Religious School hallway.

     And now for the recap.  We started off with our regular Tefillah service, led as always by our own Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney.  While the younger kids went to Jenny’s class, the middle and upper grades all gathered together with me for a special project.  Since we will be going to the Zoo in April, I wanted the kids to start learning the Hebrew names for all the animals.  We therefore spent our day playing a game of Guess the Animal.  The kids had a lot of fun with it and now have full lists of about two dozen animals with their Hebrew names.  They also utilized gematriyah to determine the values of each animal’s name according to Hebrew tradition.  Incredibly, the majestic swan had one of the highest gematriyah values!  We will be practicing saying the Hebrew animal names so we can identify them all when we get to the field trip.

    And that about wraps it up for now.  We look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming Sunday, February 11, after which we can all enjoy the Super Bowl.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David