Union Temple's Religious School offers children in grades 1-7 a comprehensive program of Hebrew and Judaica in a nurturing and creative environment. We follow the tenets of Reform Judaism and are sensitive to the diverse lifestyles of our surrounding community.

We offer:

• A free monthly kindergarten group  KINDERGARTEN KEF click here for more information

• A student choir led by our Cantor

• Bar/Bat Mitzvah training of the highest caliber
• with our Rabbi and Cantor .

• Confirmation program of day & overnight trips
• to places of Jewish interest.

• Family Education days.

The expanded offerings include:

• A free monthly kindergarten group, including music, activities, and parental participation.

• A student choir, conducted by our Cantor, to teach the songs and prayers of our tradition while creating a fun environment for its members. The choir sings at occasional services of the congregation.

• Bar/Bat Mitzvah training of the highest caliber with our Rabbi and Cantor.

• Confirmation program for students in grades 8 & 9, featuring day and overnight trips to places of Jewish interest.

Family Education days, giving our parents the opportunity to learn along with their children.

Call us to register now for 2008-09. 

1-718-638-7600 or write us at uniontemple@uniontemple.org

We at Union Temple can boast with complete honesty that our Bar/Bat Mitzvah students are among the best prepared in the country, and the proof is in the services that they help to conduct on the mornings of their becoming B=nai/B=not Mitzvah. Our rabbi and cantor train each child individually to chant from the Torah and Haftarah portions for the day, recite a number of the Hebrew blessings within the services, and write and deliver a Devar Torah, based upon the portion of the week. In addition, each child is required to fulfill 13 mitzvot as part of our comprehensive commitment as a congregation to tikkun olam, repairing the world. Training sessions take place midweek, in addition to the regular Sunday School classes, and lessons begin approximately 10-12 months prior to the date of the scheduled service. There is one Bar/Bat Mitzvah on any given Shabbat morning.

The First Sunday of every month 11 am—1 pm * Part of the Religious Sunday Session on our 4th Floor * A free monthly activity group for kindergarten-age children at Union Temple Religious School. Children will explore their Jewish heritage, including holidays, traditions, and the Hebrew language CRAFTS SNACKS GAMES STORIES and more ! FREE ! NEXT one is May 4.

For more information call our office at 718-638-7600 or write us at uniontemple@uniontemple.org

 Union Temple School of Religion

It’s hard to believe that spring has arrived and we are approaching Chag He’Aviv (The spring holiday, anothername for Passover). As this issue of our

newsletter goes to press, we are preparing for several ReligiousSchool events. Scheduled for March 23rd is our annual Religious School Purim celebration. This is always afestive and zany yet also educational commemoration of this important event in Jewish history. I am sure thatthis will be an enjoyable learning experience for all of our students. Replete with songs, games, Purim Spiels,and hamentaschen, this program is always the highlight of the school year. Arriving right behind Purim thisyear is Passover, which falls on April 19th. On Sunday, April 6th, we will welcome in the holiday with a special Passover Interactive Experience that will include songs, food, and some of the central prayers and rituals associatedwith Passover. We are currently preparing for our next class Shabbat, for which Cantor Thomas has been preparing our fifth through seventh grade students. Join them on Saturday, April 5th at 10:30AM. During the spring semester the Religious School will be presenting a special screening of “Promises”, a documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as told from Israeli and Palestinian children’s perspectives. Our students will also be participating in Union Temple’s Mitzvah Day. On May 10th there will be a special “Storahtelling” event as part of our SYNAPLEX Shabbat service. Finally, I want to remind all of our students about our Religious School library which is temporarily housed in the Religious School Office. I invite all of our Religious School families to take advantage of this enriching resource. There is a wide selection of books appropriate for all ages that are available for loan.

-Les Krevsky, Principal

At Union Temple we are committed to creating an environment that is open, welcoming, and supportive to all families and to all students.

We are dedicated to producing students who retain a life-long involvement with Reform Judaism. We hope to accomplish this by helping students learn liturgical as well as modern Hebrew because Hebrew is the thread that has and will continue to connect our people through time and place. We strive to strengthen our students' connection to their heritage by actively involving them in an exploration of Jewish customs, rituals, and history thereby motivating them to learn. We hope to create a love for Reform Jewish values by modeling these values in the relationships among members of the Religious School Community, the congregation and the wider community.

We honor our students' diversity and are dedicated to meeting their individual learning, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. We are also dedicated to recognizing the our children's strengths by allowing them many opportunities to express themselves through song, dramatics, music, art, crafts, cooking, speaking, and writing.

We will work to strengthen student-to-student and family-to-family ties through family-student education and events. It is our mission, as well, to create a school that is grounded in the Jewish values of service and community by actively involving students in social action projects and activities.

Our confirmation program is a two-year program, beginning with the year following Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Rabbi Goodman presides over this program, most of which takes place outside the temple. The program consists of day trips to various places of Jewish interest within the Metropolitan Area, in addition to one two or three-day trip out of town. First-year students spend several days in Washington, DC, and second-year students visit Newport, RI, site of the oldest synagogue building in America, the Touro Synagogue. This two-year period culminates in a wonderful Service of Confirmation, held on the Festival of Shavuot, historically celebrated as zeman matan torateinu, the Time of the Giving of the Torah. It has been a most worthwhile program for the students, and for our rabbi, they continue to deepen the bonds between them.