Nurture Your Mind and Spirit

Shorashim, Hebrew for “roots,” is Temple Israel’s Religious School program for students in Pre-Kindergarten through 7th grade.  Did you know that the Torah is often described as a Tree of Life?  After all, the Torah, the first five books of the Jewish Bible, tells the story of the Jewish people.  From it, we can learn about family relationships, ethical questions, meaningful rituals, and so much more.  At Temple Israel, we grow Jewish roots together!  Through study, joyful Shabbat and holiday celebrations, social action, and communal activities, we plant Jewish seeds for a lifetime of Jewish learning and living.

Rabbi Tzvia Japser, along with Rabbi Weinstein and other teaching staff, work with your children and family. Each year we select an educational theme that helps to make connections between Jewish learning and living. Within the context of our yearly theme, our learning includes Torah, Jewish values and ethics, history and culture, God and spirituality, holidays, life cycle, and Israel.  This year’s learning theme is, “How full is your Bucket?  Counting the blessings in our lives.”  Our education program is grounded in the principles, practices, and values of Reform Judaism.  We look forward to welcoming your family to our learning community.  

Shorashim meets on Sunday mornings, with Shabbat experiences, holiday celebrations, and social justice opportunities enhancing the experiential nature of our program.  All learning experiences are designed with the students in mind and are geared to be interactive, age-appropriate and content driven and project based.  Each week students actively engage in a tefillah prayer experience, meaningful and exciting learning based on our yearly educational theme, Hebrew, and communal time to introduce and conclude our mornings.  Art, music, library, and cooking all enrich our morning.  Additionally, students participate in reading buddies and chavurot – multi-age break out groups that provide more opportunities for community building and strengthening connections across grade levels.  Our preschool age children participate in the communal aspects of our program and engage in multi-sensory learning with others in their age group.  On Sunday mornings, there are usually optional parallel learning sessions offered for parents, which include sessions with guest speakers and visiting scholars.  At times, parents will be asked to join their children for all or part of the morning.  We encourage family involvement and participation.  Parents and grandparents are an essential part of student learning as guides, role models and partners.