A foundation for Jewish learning
Our curriculum is built around five pillars: Hebrew, Judaica, Tefillah, Holidays, and Connection to Israel. We strive to make Torah School fun and engaging for students of all levels while providing the best learning experiences and opportunities for our students.
Hebrew
At each grade level, students are exposed to a variety of components including decoding, prayer study and conversational Hebrew. While we utilize the Aleph Champ Curriculum, we are excited to explore new engaging methods of teaching. New technology and apps will be introduced to each classroom to enhance the curriculum while also offering a way to demonstrate abilities and progress. Our teachers will continue to incorporate their passions, expertise and creativity to bring each lesson to life through a combination of games, art, and music, multi-sensory and multi-disciplinary techniques.
Judaica
Exploring and connecting to our Jewish identity is one of the main goals of religious education. We want children to not only be Jewish on Sundays and Wednesdays, we want to make Judaism portable and something they access and utilize regularly. Education will be hands-on and revolve around four basic pillars, each of which will be investigated in a developmentally appropriate, meaningful and enriching manner.
- Bein Adam l’Chavero: Jewish Values
- Bein Adam l’Makom: Jewish Rituals
- Talmud Torah: Jewish Texts
- Ahavat Yisrael: The Love of Israel
Tefillah
All students will come together each week for Kehillah Tefillah with Rabbi Marko in the Sanctuary. Parents and families are also invited to join. Students will also engage in songs with song leader, Bar Dahan.
Students in Kitah Vav (6th grade) and Kitah Zayin (7th grade) will be provided additional opportunities to attend minyan monthly and will take a class that focuses on the Torah Service and Musaf.
Holidays
At Abraham Ratner Torah School, the holidays are some of the times where the students make the most memories. Whether they are making decorations for our congregational sukkah as pictured above, lighting candles during Chanukah, planting a tree with the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club for Tu B’Shevat or receiving their complimentary shofar donated by the Tifereth Israel Sisterhood to every new student- holidays are an important part of our experiential learning.
Connection to Israel
Throughout their experience in religious school, children are exposed to the history of Israel from creation to the receiving of the Torah to modern day events through discussion, art, cooking, plays and more. We will celebrate Israeli culture, history and identity through exciting experiences all year long, not just at Yom HaAtzmaut.