News & Announcements

What an incredible year it has been for LBSRS! Since the beginning of my tenure at PJTC in 2017, each school year has gotten better and better (with the noted exception that we were fully online due to the pandemic). I credit the success of LBSRS to our engaging and knowledgeable faculty and staff, our robust curriculum, and our new initiatives that focus on community building.

            While staffing LBSRS each year has been a bit challenging, I’m very pleased with our current faculty roster. We have some veteran educators, some LBSRS alumnae, and some faculty who bring their other professional roles into teaching and it makes for excellent class time! Every year, the number of teens who want to work as madrichim (teacher’s assistants) increases and this year we had our largest number of teens ever- 35! – and each teen brings something special into their classroom.

For the past few years, we’ve used a Jewish values-based curriculum, ShalomLearning. I love this program as it invites students not just to learn about Jewish values in an academic way, but makes them relevant and gives students many opportunities to practice (or talk about practicing) living out these values. Our faculty always adds their own flair to their lessons whether it is discussions about art, filming movies, or creating decorations for holidays. After the success of our Hebrew Boot Camp a number of summers ago, it was apparent that we needed to add another layer to our Hebrew curriculum to ensure no students fell through the cracks. Our Hebrew Helpers spend time with each class (grades 3-7) to drill them lovingly on prayer fluency. With the combination of Jewish values (which also includes learning about Jewish history, holidays, and Israel) and a rigorous Hebrew program, we are well on our way to ensuring that all LBSRS students have a strong Jewish identity and confidence around Jewish knowledge.

Lastly, a number of initiatives started with the sole purpose of community building. First, it was important to me that our school had an opportunity to get together once per week so that younger students could see and learn from older students and so that older students were given a chance to role model for our younger students. Additionally, I wanted to create a space where parents and other community members felt comfortable joining in on LBSRS programming. Kehillah Kedoshah has proven to be an answer to those desires. Each Sunday, our entire community gathers- students, faculty, staff, parents, Sunday Center participants- to have a short morning worship service together. And in addition to bringing back our class dinners and student-led services, there are now class picnics scheduled so that each class can have some informal time to hang out with one another offsite. I had a great time as a parent when I attended the Kitah Aleph (1^st grade) picnic- I got to chat with a good number of parents and watch my son play with his best friends!

While there is always a lot of refining to do each year, I am thrilled at how the 22-23 school year shaped up. The school’s success also largely depends on feedback from community members. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any feedback to share with me and/or the religious school committee. Here’s to many more wonderful school years!