Temple Beth Jacob brings together a thriving community of families with a commitment to the religious education of their children. The heart and soul of TBJ is alive on Sunday mornings, from 9am until noon, when our religious school students and madrichimot (classroom aides) bring their energy, high spirits and questions, to their Judaica and Hebrew lessons. Additionally, students in grades 5-7 attend a 30-minute midweek Hebrew session online.
Temple Beth Jacob’s religious school, known as Kadimah, is under direction of the principal, with guidance from the rabbi and Religious Education Committee (REC). A team of volunteer teachers guide students from kindergarten through seventh grade, exploring their Jewish heritage through music, text, and prayer. The giggling children making latkes in the temple kitchen or learning a traditional prayer put to a modern melody, are the same children earnestly discussing the Holocaust the next week.
Hebrew studies begin in kindergarten and gradually intensify each year until students are ready to prepare for their B Mitzvah in seventh grade. TBJ students are so comfortable on the Bima by the time they are called to the Torah, that most of them conduct both the Friday evening and the Saturday morning Shabbat services.
Gesher classes for 8th-12th grades are offered once per month on Sunday afternoons to keep the TBJ youth connected to their Judaism and each other. High School students at TBJ also participate in an 8th-9th grade trip (recent cities have included New York and Montreal). 10th-12th graders are also invited to attend, with the rabbi, the Reform movement’s L’Taken Social Justice seminar in Washington, DC each year.
Kadimah provides the environment for children to learn and grow, while developing a positive sense of self and commitment to their Jewish values. Their spirit of love and hope is embraced by the congregation, and keeps TBJ an exciting and vibrant place to be.
For more information, please contact Kadimah Principal Stacey Moore at principal@tbjconcord.org .
