Education at Shaarie Torah
Etz Chaim Religious School
The Shaarie Torah
Religious and Hebrew Sunday School serves children from kindergarten through
fifth grade. The elementary school meets Sunday mornings from 9:30 a.m.
to 12:15 p.m., with several sessions on Shabbat instead of Sunday, offering
children a chance to participate in Shabbat services.
The curriculum includes many components, taught in flexible 30-minute
blocks. The subjects include:
• Hebrew • Bible Stories • Customs, Laws, and Ceremonies
• Jewish History • Jewish Heroes • Ethics and Mitzvot
• Israel • Prayer • Holiday Celebrations and Rituals
Students explore the beauty of Judaism through Hebrew and T'fillah (prayer).
They also enjoy exposure to Israeli and Jewish culture by experiencing
the holidays through dance, music, art, and cooking.
The goal of our Hebrew program, starting in kindergarten, is to enable
each student to fully participate in Jewish ritual life, culminating but
not ending in becoming a bar or bat mitzvah. Students will also acquire
the knowledge to participate in communal prayer and home ritual.
In each of the core curriculum areas, subjects of study move from the
simple and familiar to the more complex. The spiral of these areas from
grade to grade enables students to build upon a framework of knowledge
acquired in previous years of study. Whenever possible, there is integration
between the core areas within a single grade. Each learning experience
is designed to carry out the specific objectives of the year's curriculum
objectives. Integral to the curriculum is a family Shabbat learning service
designed to provide students and their parents the opportunity to study
and celebrate together. Family Shabbat services occur once a month. Please
refer to the Education flyer for details.
Shaarie Torah schools strive to provide a welcoming, warm, and joyful
environment in which students learn to express pride in their heritage.
Their knowledge and desire to observe and practice Jewish traditions will
enable them to transmit this rich heritage to the next generation.
To offer the children a chance to participate in Shabbat services, four
special sessions will take place on Shabbat instead of on Sunday. Please
see the Sunday School Schedule.
Success in Jewish education cannot be achieved without family support.
Parents and other family members are invited to participate in the children's
Sunday school experience on every level.
No child is too young to discuss the Jewish concept of G-d, mitzvot, the
Torah portion of the week, kashrut, the State of Israel, and Jewish heroes.
From an early age, children learn the elements of traditional Jewish services
and are able to recite the basic prayers in Hebrew. During the High Holidays,
they put this knowledge into practice, taking the first steps toward ownership
of their Jewish heritage by leading many prayers.
Dorice Horenstein, education director, selects her teachers carefully.
They have a strong Judaic background and a love of teaching children.
Some of them may have been graduates of Shaarie Torah Sunday School themselves!
Dorice utilizes madrichim (counselors) in a leadership role. The madrichim
are of high-school age and are a valuable support to the teachers. They
serve as role models—a “doogma ishit” in the classroom,
and the young students look up to them as an example of how to act in
a Jewish learning setting.
Call Dorice Horenstein with your questions about Shaarie Torah's education
programs: 503-226-6131, ext. 229.