Priority Goal: Temple B’nai Torah wishes to engage our community in making Judaism relevant to our daily lives.
Kulanu: Teen Engagement for All of Us will allow our teens to grow:
as individuals.
as part of the Temple B’nai Torah Community.
as participants in the larger Jewish world.
Electives
Electives offered on Monday evenings
Electives will be offered in various locations and environments
Experts from varied disciplines will be offering electives
Different types of learning for different types of learners
Kulanu Nights
Whole community learning
Building relationships and sense of belonging
Will include whole school projects and programs
Opportunity to hear reflections about other learning experiences
Retreats
Experience Judaism beyond the walls of Temple B’nai Torah
Immersive Jewish experiences
Celebrate Shabbat with more than 100 other Jewish teens
Participate in communal prayer, programming, and ritual
All students invited to and welcome at all NFTY and NFTY-NAR events (8th graders in Spring)
Confirmation
Our tenth graders have the opportunity to study with the Rabbi for the second half of the year to discuss contemporary topics and Jewish responses. The year culminates with a meaningful Confirmation service led by the tenth grade students.
We realize that what parents and children DO TOGETHER is what makes the greatest and most enduring impact on the affective and cognitive level. The importance of parents and children learning and practicing their Judaism together is so great that we now include Family Education as part of our curriculum for everyone.
During 7th grade at TBT, students will study the meaning and context of the prayers they recite as part of the B’nai Mitzvah service. Through this interesting Hebrew curriculum, students will not only continue their study of biblical Hebrew, but also gain a deeper understanding of how and why we pray.
Students will also spend the year studying the Holocaust. Through a variety of different lessons, the students will learn about everything from how Hitler rose to power to rescue and resistance efforts. They will end the unit by participating in the congregation’s Yom Hashoah service in a very special way.
In the final weeks of school, students will be invited to join the Kulanu program, in order to get a taste of the Hebrew High School experience.
These three grades span the important years from nine to eleven years old when student educational activity acquires more formal aspects. It is a time of rapid growth and change, where eagerness to learn and a willingness to undertake projects occur. Careful planning and effective teaching are essential to make these years a meaningful and constructive school experience.
GRADE 4
The focus in fourth grade is on Israel. Students will learn about the history of Israel as a country, and its modern significance to Jews. Students will also learn about the parts that make up the Tanakh, spending some time learning some of the stories of the prophets as well as some of the beautiful poetry found in writings. In Hebrew, students will begin the year with review, but quickly move on to learning more advanced prayers as their skills improve.
GRADE 5
Fifth graders will spend the first half of the year returning to Torah in a whole new way! Using some of the stories and characters they have learned about in previous years, students will begin to learn the process of writing a D’var Torah and about the concept of midrash as a way to further explore the stories of our past. An introduction of this process will help them to think about their B’nai Mitzvah portion as they inch closer to the beginning of the B’nai Mitzvah process.
During the second half of the year, these students will learn about important Jewish Life Cycle events from Brit Milah to B’nai Mitzvah to the Jewish mourning process.
In Hebrew, students will continue prayer practice by adding new prayers to their repertoire as they become more comfortable with reading Hebrew.
GRADE 6
In the final year before B’nai Mitzvah, students will begin by learning about middot, or Jewish values. They will be asked to explore what makes these values Jewish, and how they can be applied to everyday situations.
During the next part of the year, students will learn about mitzvot and why it is the responsibility of Jews to perform them. They will then take their knowledge of middot and mitzvot, and apply it practically to create a mitzvah project for their B’nai Mitzvah that is both meaningful and relevant to them.
In Hebrew, students will continue to add to their knowledge and understanding of prayer, with a special focus on Shabbat Morning as they begin training for B’nai Mitzvah. Finally, students will have a special month long course in how to decode and chant Torah trope.
Our curriculum for the primary years is built on the basis of concrete Jewish experience, relevant to a child’s life, instilling a love for Judaism and an aim to nourish the child’s own natural sources of curiosity. Every family in grades K – 6 will participate in family education.
KINDERGARTEN / GRADE ONE
Kindergarten and first grade students are introduced to Jewish aspects of everyday life using art, music, poetry, and any number of fun activities to help them connect to being Jewish, even at this early age. They are also introduced to Jewish holidays with a special focus on Shabbat. Finally, students are exposed to basic Hebrew vocabulary, including Shabbat and holiday blessings.
GRADE TWO
Second grade is all about Torah and the synagogue! Each class, students will learn about that week’s Torah portion to begin to learn about biblical stories and characters. Students will also spend time learning about the people, places, and objects in Temple B’nai Torah, while getting to compare and contrast these different aspects of our synagogue with those of other congregations around New York, the United States, and the world. Students will also be regularly exposed to the Hebrew aleph-bet, learning a new letter each week to get them ready to learn to read and write in third grade!
GRADE THREE
This is the year that students become proficient in reading and writing in Hebrew! With this new skill, they will be able to begin to learn prayers and new Hebrew vocabulary. Throughout the year, students will also focus on “Jewish Time,” learning about the Jewish calendar and Holidays, and how and why they occur at different times throughout the year. Third graders will also review Torah stories, focusing on the relationships between some of the most well-known of our biblical ancestors and creating a family tree as they learn about each new generation.
Susanna E. Heiman Religious School – Mission Statement
The mission of the Susanna E. Heiman Religious School is to nurture, educate, and motivate our children to become active lifelong members of the Jewish community. Our course of study encompasses Jewish ethics, culture, history, Israel, and Hebrew. Our students will participate in various aspects of our Jewish tradition including Torah, prayer, ritual, holidays, and social action.
The Susanna Heiman Religious School offers so many entrances to learning and living a Jewish life: spiritual, academic, cultural access for a new generation of Reform Jews preparing for their future.
To explore our School, click on each of the following links:
Cantor Rica Timman is delighted to join the TBT family! Prior to this post she enjoyed sixteen years of distinguished service to Temple Beth El in Closter, New Jersey and twelve years of service to Temple Emanu-El in Lynbrook, New York. In this exciting transition year leading toward the merger with Temple Emanu-El of East Meadow, Cantor Timman looks forward to working closely with her clergy partners at both synagogues to help create a harmonious marriage of the two congregations next July.
With a warm soul and gentle voice, Cantor Timman guides the congregation in prayer, music, ritual and spiritual leadership. TBT is congregation that deeply celebrates its Jewish musical heritage and Cantor Timman leads the Adult, Teen and Youth choirs and looks forward to bringing in outstanding musical guest artists throughout the year. In addition to co-leading services with Rabbi Nacht, her work includes training B’nai Mitzvah, participating in Religious School programming and teaching, leading Adult Education classes, life cycle counseling, and pastoral care.
In addition to her busy schedule at temple and in the New York area, Cantor Timman appears throughout the East Coast as a lecturer and performer of cantorial, classical and Broadway literatures. She has been a guest soloist at the Tanglewood, Bowdoin and Gamper Music Festivals and has performed with the Chicago, Boston, and London Symphony Orchestras, appearing on National Public Radio and Chicago’s Classical Radio WFMT. She often partners with many outstanding musicians of the New York Philharmonic in concert and on the bima. Her Lincoln Center debut was as the soloist in the New York debut of Charles Osborne’s oratorio “Kings and Fishermen” featuring Theodore Bikel, Matthew Lazar, the Zamir Chorale and St. Lukes Orchestra.
A member of the American Conference of Cantors, Cantor Timman has served as a Co-Chairperson of the ACC/GTM convention. She has been an active member of various URJ Synagogue Music committees and served as the Treasurer and Executive Officer of the Association of Rabbis and Cantors, which is the Alumni Association of The Academy for Jewish Religion. Cantor Timman is a past president and serves on the board of the Women Cantors’ Network, an international organization of over 250 cantors. In addition, she is a member of the American Society of Jewish Music and Kol Hazzanim of Westchester.
Ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, Cantor Timman holds a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Sarah Lawrence College.
Traditionally Tishah B’Av is the darkest of all days, a time set aside for mourning the destruction of both ancient Temples in Jerusalem. As on Yom Kippur, the fast extends until the following sundown. In the synagogue, the Book of lamentations is changed, as are kinot, dirges written during the Middle Ages. Sitting on low stools, a shivah custom, congregants also read sections of the books of Jeremiah and Job, as well as biblical and talmudic passages dealing with the Temples’ destruction.
Reform Judaism has never assigned a central religious role to the ancient Temple. To the early Reformers, mourning the destruction of the Temple in such elaborate fashion did not seem meaningful, especially since Reform has not idealized the rebuilding of the Temple, as has Jewish tradition. For most Reform Jews, then, 586 b.c.e. and 70 c.e. are important dates in Jewish history, but Tishah B’Av has faded in importance as a ritual observance. In order to understand the mournful nature of Tishah B’Av, then, we must enter the traditional mind as we look back into history.
The First Temple in Jerusalem was constructed during the reign of King Solomon (965 b.c.e.–925 b.c.e.). Solomon’s father, King David, had wished to build the Temple, but was not allowed to do so. The Bible relates that God disqualified David because of his many military campaigns. The Temple was to be a holy place, a place of peace. Therefore, only a king who had not shed blood could bring it into being. Thus, Solomon, whose Hebrew name was Shlomo (from shalom, peace), inherited this sacred task.
Solomon built the First Temple with the assistance of King Hiram of Tyre. Hiram sent his Phoenician artists and builders magnificent stone from his nation’s quarries and the beautiful cedars of Lebanon to aid in the task.
The finished Temple was an awesome structure. Situated on a mountain 2/500 feet high, it had courtyard, a sanctuary, and a small room called the Holy of Holie, entered only once a year by the high priest. It was in the Temple that the kohanim (priests) offered the ancient sacrifices on behalf of the people, assisted by the Levites.
In 586 b.c.e., the Babylonian army surrounded Jerusalem. Led by their general, Bebuchadnezzar, they broke into the city and conquered it. Then, on the Ninth of Av, they destroyed the Temple. The Jews were sent into exile, crushed and despondent. According to some scholars, the prophet Jeremiah, grieving for the Temple, composed Psalm 137, in which he wrote: “By the waters of Babylon, we lay down and wept for thee Zion.” A people who had grounded their entire religious system in a priestly Temple structure suddenly had it torn away from them.
Even as he mourned, Jeremiah still had hope. He told the people that they would one day return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. He was correct. Some sixty years later, Persia conquered Babylonia, and the Persian King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return home. They rebuilt the Temple but it was not nearly as magnificent as Solomon’s Temple had been. Still, the Jews rejoiced, for once again they had an opportunity to be led by their priests and to offer sacrifices in their holiest site. It was this rebuilt Temple that King Antiochus defiled in 168 b.c.e., and which the Maccabees reconsecrated three years later. But the Building of the Second Temple was yet to come.
The Second Temple was enhanced and expanded during the first century b.c.e by King Herod, one of the cruelest rulers in Jewish history. Deciding that the rebuilt Temple was not to his liking, Herod decided to expand it. He partially leveled the previous site, then oversaw the construction of a Temple that rivaled that of Solomon’s in grandeur.
Herod had intended to continually add new structures to the Temple grounds, but the work was never completed. In 70 c.e., Roman legions, led by the General Titus, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. It was the Ninth of Av. Once again, the Jews were sent into exile, this time to Rome.
Some historians have expressed doubt that the actual destruction of both Temples occurred on the Ninth of Av, but there is no disputing the fact that the day became a symbol of Jewish tragedy. The synagogue ultimately replaced the Temple. [New forms of worship and religious leadership were created.] But Jew continued to hope and pray that the Temple would be restored. The prayer book and songs expressed this yearning, and Tisha B’Av became a vehicle for expressing that deep sorrow.
