We are a community of learners, where children and adults together develop the tools and enthusiasm for life-long learning. Our education programs are varied, exciting, innovative and intellectually compelling. They reflect our values and goals as Reform Jews.

By committing to our children’s Jewish education and to meaningful learning for all members of our community, we claim our Jewish heritage, Jewish values, and Jewish community as both our own rightful inheritance and as a gift we pass to the next links in the chain of our tradition. We endeavor to instill a positive Jewish identity in each student and to create a foundation of knowledge and understanding, grounded in Jewish belief and practice, which will move beyond the synagogue to inform and encourage active participation in the Jewish community and beyond.

Our Vision Relies Upon

Empowerment: We imagine a Jewish future for our children in which Jewish living, Jewish values, and Jewish tradition imbue their lives with meaning. The religious education they receive now is intended to provide them with tools necessary to participate in Jewish community and to authentically integrate Judaism into their lives in meaningful ways.

Engagement: All in our Temple family have gifts of knowledge and experience to share. Parents are full partners in their child(ren)’s education, and all congregants are role models, educators and mentors, as well as learners. In our community, religious education is not a service received from external providers, but rather an undertaking for which we all are responsible and in which we all participate.

Relationship: We understand the communal nature of Jewish life to be fundamental to our synagogue’s purpose and a core element of our educational work. Our students learn in relationship to each other and to our larger community. Our programing is rooted by the principle that Jewish learning and living can only be fully realized in conversation, engagement, and connection.

Diversity: We offer accessible and enticing ways to acquire knowledge. Our community is enriched by learners representing a multitude of ages, backgrounds, abilities, and interests. To fulfill our obligation to serve each learner, we provide multiple pathways for participation in Jewish education.

Ritual: We gather in community to celebrate the joy and renewal of Shabbat and build a foundation of memories around holiday and life cycle celebrations. Our lives are enriched and deepened by participation in Jewish ritual. As such, our task is to ensure that every learner has the opportunity to find a path to God and a meaningful connection to Jewish spiritual life.

Activism: We translate our learning to action in daily life and share responsibility for each other in our own synagogue and in our larger communities. We embrace our traditional obligation to pursue justice, and our responsibility to be partners with God in the work of creation by acting to fix our inherently broken world. Our educational endeavors stress hands-on, personal, and up-close experience in this sacred work.

Joy: In order to sustain a Jewish community that is a source of strength and love even in times of pain, the learning in our schools and programs is marked by laughter, singing, enjoyment, and fulfillment. Our students understand their Judaism as a positive and enriching part of their identities.

Experience: We are inspired by our place in the chain of Jewish tradition, a heritage that is deeply tied to study and knowledge. We are stirred by our tradition’s insistence that learning must be fundamentally tied to action. As Jews, and as learners and teachers who believe in the value of experiential education, we strive to create educational programs that enable learning by doing.