Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair, received $30,000 from the Legacy Heritage Foundation to expand its family education program to encompass the entire synagogue community.

Bnai Keshet was one of 27 congregations chosen for a grant, which will enable it to incorporate common themes in the synagogue’s religious school, family education classes, and adult education classes, as well as other activities.

“There are all these sparks around the congregation,” said family educator David Weinstein. “This gives us an opportunity to take what we do and expand it to members beyond the religious school.”

The common theme will be based on one of six Jewish values identified by the Reconstructionist movement and emphasized in one religious school class each week. This year’s value is klal Yisrael, or Jewish unity.

“We’re trying to create a linkage between what goes on at the religious school and what goes on in the synagogue. I hope these are not just religious school values but values of synagogue life,” said Weinstein. “Everyone in the community is thinking about how to integrate klal Yisrael into what they do.”

Every synagogue committee is expected to integrate the value into its programming and meetings, and the synagogue has scheduled special programs, including a congregation-wide study session during the High Holy Days. Jacob Staub, professor of Jewish philosophy and spirituality at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, spoke Dec. 1-2 on klal Yisrael as a scholar-in-residence. A new Israel affairs committee has been spun out of the effort already.

The grant was awarded by the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project, a nondenominational initiative that provides funding and training for family-based educational innovation. This is the first year of the award, and 107 congregations applied for the grant.

The Bnai Keshet program was a “perfect fit” for the grant, according to project director Rabbi Marc J. Margolius.

“Over the years, Bnai Keshet has developed a sophisticated approach to engage families through family education,” he said. “But it was limited to that constituency. The goal is to see the congregation as a whole, as a family system, and apply the same kind of approach.”

For Bnai Keshet, the grant addresses a growing divide between religious school families and others in the congregation, Weinstein said. That divide is partially the result of dramatic growth in the congregation over the years. Today there are 250 member families. Just five years ago, the congregation had about half that number.

A secondary benefit of the grant, he added, is that it will create resources for the religious school. “The challenge as a Reconstructionist synagogue for us is finding resources that reflect our congregation and our thinking. Most are geared to Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues.” He’s hoping that after a year of thinking about a value, “we’ll be able to use the learning to write new curricula.”

The grant money is being used to pay for the scholar-in-residence and other educators, to offset the cost of a synagogue-wide retreat at the end of this year, to defray the costs of setting up an on-line forum, to cover extra hours required for Weinstein and other staff members to implement the grant and, as required by the grant, for the process of assessing the grant’s success.

In this first year of the grant, the lead professional was awarded $5,000 as a reward for “vision,” a feature Margolius said would be discontinued.

Grants were awarded on the basis of an application. Recipient synagogues are required to send leadership teams to New York for training and to file regular reports detailing programs at the synagogues. Congregations may reapply for up to three years of additional funding. Margolius acknowledged that one year — the term of the grants — is not much for the “kind of systemic change we’re interested in, but it’s a kick start or a boost.”