Throughout the school year we celebrate holidays, observe commemorations, study Torah as our Rabbis studied by reading, questioning, and debating, and we pray morning prayers and before meals and after. We start our week with Havdalah and we close it with our famous sing-a-long. Each student at Lerner represents his/her own thread of Judaism, together creating one colorful Jewish fabric.
Jewish life and learning
We believe students learn best by doing.
In all classes, students participate in experiential learning through a Jewish lens. Whether that’s picking vegetables from our own gardens and donating them to families in need [tzedaka] or turning Lerner into Ellis Island and “processing” new immigrants into the country at the conclusion of 3rd grade’s family history project. Lerner’s approach to Judaism is “child-led” through song, stories and celebration.
Prayer services we experience each week:
- Havdalah
- Shacharit
- Kabbalat Shabbat
- Torah Service
In this same spirit we approach Jewish Life and Learning with teachings of compassion, ethical living, developing community, how we treat one another and healthy discourse. The Lerner Way integrates with our Judaism teachings by modeling first. Learning how to appreciate others perspectives, how to make connections linking Jewish studies with general curriculum studies and finding their own Jewish self — ultimately becoming lifelong Jewish learners.
Jewish learning we experience each year:
- Torah study
- Holiday celebrations and observances
- Synagogue leadership
- Tikkun Olam, repairing our world
Israel
We believe that an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual connection with Israel is at the core of Jewish identity. We aim to strengthen each student’s personal Jewish identity and commitment to Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel) and Am Yisrael (the people of Israel); all aspects of the Israel curriculum are geared towards fostering a feeling of Ahavat Yisrael (love of Israel), and establishing a lifelong relationship with the State of Israel.
Within this framework, our students engage in learning opportunities and activities encouraging them to envision themselves as part of an ongoing peace effort in Israel and within the global Jewish Community. The curriculum has a dual focus: for students to gain an appreciation, respect, enjoyment, and understanding of Israel’s history, geography, culture, and spiritual significance, and for our older students to explore Israel’s ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity and engage in an age-appropriate manner with some of the social challenges Israel currently faces as a diverse nation, in order to provide the next generation with the tools to shape and understand Israel’s future.
Lerner’s Israel Standards of Learning
- Students will be familiar with the history, geography, and cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity of the modern State of Israel.
- Students will understand the religious and spiritual significance of Israel for the Jewish people, and will have opportunities to develop a personal connection to the historic and modern Land of Israel.
Our goal is to have our students graduate with a love for Israel, Ahavat Yisrael. Being that our students span the ages of 2 through 11 years old, we instill this love through the culture of Israel. Our students learn of the geography, the language, the people, the food, the music.
Throughout the school year, our students:
- Pray for peace in Israel during their tefillot/prayer services
- Sing Hatikvah, Israel’s anthem
- Write cards to IDF soldiers
- Interface with the Interactive Israel Map Museum
- Observe Yom Hashoah (Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day) and Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), and celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Birthday