NEW for 2012-2013: Bet Am Shalom is participating in a Transformative Jewish Texts project.  Click here for more information.

Education is a central element of the Bet Am Shalom community. Adults and children are encouraged to incorporate learning and teaching into everyday life.  Since our members come from varied backgrounds in terms of their religious observance and Jewish knowledge, we believe that the education of each member of the community is the responsibility of the entire congregation. We invite you to read more about our vision, our continuously improving Hebrew School format and our intergenerational programming. Then come learn along with us.

Our Vision Statement for Jewish Learning:

IMAGINE a Jewish community in which all of its members are engaged in learning and in teaching. 

IMAGINE this community as Bet Am Shalom Synagogue, a congregation that is participatory, inclusive and egalitarian, a Reconstructionist community living Jewish life in all its forms.

IMAGINE that we accept fully our individual and communal responsibility to receive the tradition, values and practices of the Jewish People and live them to our best ability as we understand them today, so that we may pass them to our children and to future generations as an inheritance.

IMAGINE a community that educates for the totality of Jewish life in exciting, intergenerational and age-appropriate modes, addressing the skills and concepts necessary to participate in Jewish life and the dispositions that support the desire to participate in it.

In order to attain this vision, we take advantage of every opportunity and every context available to us to make education an integral part of communal life. Some educational activities take place in classrooms, others in informal settings, within and outside the synagogue facility. Some activities are led by trained educators and others are led by congregants of all ages. In addition to traditional classroom learning, we incorporate the following modes into our educational programs:

• Family learning
• Mentoring
• Experiential learning
• Home learning
• Service learning

The key topics addressed in our programs include:

• Tefilah (prayer)
• Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) – ancient and contemporary
• Shabbat and Chagim (holidays)
• Tikkun Olam (literally "Repairing the World" - the Jewish responsibility to make the world a better place)
• Sense of Peoplehood – historical and contemporary