West Orange religious school makes the move to Saturday

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Rena Casser has a formidable challenge before her. As the religious school principal of B’nai Shalom, she will have to create a curriculum that involves no writing, no drawing, and no cutting. It’s not an educational restriction but a religious one: This fall, the West Orange Conservative synagogue will shift its Sunday morning session of religious school to Saturday mornings, when the rules of Shabbat apply.

Saturday Hebrew school is not a new idea, even in Essex County. But it’s a big step for B’nai Shalom, and incorporates something that the old model rarely did: parents.

“We hope a significant number of parents will come and stay for Shabbat morning davening,” said Rabbi Stanley Assekoff, spiritual leader of B’nai Shalom. “We are going to create a series of programs for parents on Shabbat that will take place while the kids do their activities.”

Long a staple in the Reform movement, Saturday classes have been a part of the religious school of Temple Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Livingston, for nearly 20 years. And two years ago, it became one of six accepted models for supplementary schools in the Conservative movement, as adopted in the “Framework for Excellence,” a statement of the movement’s goals and benchmarks.

Although the idea has been on the table at B’nai Shalom for “four or five years,” according to Steve Burkat of West Orange, who serves as cochair of the B’nai Shalom religious school, it was something the school did not undertake swiftly. There were focus groups with parents, and many meetings and discussions before a vote was finally taken in March.

“People argued that much of the curriculum of Conservative synagogues revolved around prayer service, and synagogue schools should therefore provide this experience,” said Steve Kraus, director of day school, congregational, and communal education initiatives at the Jewish Educational Service of North America, explaining the movement’s decision to adopt the model. “They wanted to have the opportunity of having a program while children and families were in synagogue. But it was too difficult for a lot of families to make the commitment to come to synagogue on Saturdays and Sundays.”

One of the problems the B’nai Shalom school faced was getting religious school children to fulfill the requirement of coming to services 10 times per year on Shabbat morning, as required by the movement. “We discovered it was more of a chore than anything else,” said Casser.

In addition, about 50 percent of the kids whose families belong to the synagogue attend day school, primarily at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union. The day school and Sunday school contingents did little socializing. This shift is expected to stimulate some interaction between the groups. The challenge will be making the service appropriate for both groups of kids, according to Casser. “We’re hoping the Schechter kids will act as mentors. We know children learn faster from other children than from adults,” she said.

Assekoff sees the shift as a response to a confluence of factors. “Part of what tipped the balance is the sociological reality of where our families are. Both parents are working. They are pulled in a million directions. They have no respite because weekends are used for household tasks like shopping, going to the doctor or dentist, getting haircuts that all used to be done during the week. People need a day. Part of what we think will happen is that this will become attractive, and families won’t have any more obligations here on Sunday.”

A new twist

The family education model is a relatively new twist on the old formula, according to Isa Aron, professor at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. “Really innovative schools are doing this on Saturdays and asking parents to come every week with their kids. They have services in real time and parents come in and they worship together.”

The model varies from school to school, according to Aron, but there are generally three components: worship, which happens all together; a session for study, in which parents and children are separated; and a component where parents and kids study together.

“It’s a very powerful model because parents and kids are learning something, they are interacting, and then they often continue the discussion together at home,” said Aron.

Synagogues experimenting with this model include Congregation Beth Am Israel in Philadelphia and the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York.

Many parents say they are happy to see the Sunday morning ritual, experienced by generations of American-Jewish children, become a relic.

“I’m thrilled,” said Amy Schwartz of West Orange as she dropped her daughter off at Hebrew school one recent Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a great idea. It will really lend some community to synagogue services.” She said the children will be better prepared for their b’nei mitzva if they attend services every week.

Although most parents interviewed for this story had similarly positive things to say, not everyone is excited about the change. Rhonda Rubins is one of a minority of synagogue members from Verona. “It’s harder for me [than for other members] because I have children involved in music and sports on Saturday,” she said. “I live in a goyish town and there are no sports offered on Sunday.” While she acknowledged there might be some choices to make, she added, “We’re not going to change shuls. It’s just a matter of adapting. It will be tough on the one hand, but there are good things about it on the other. We’ll play it by ear.”

The new curriculum at B’nai Shalom is still under discussion. In addition to the one-hour service, there will be one hour of study, which will make use of a newspaper geared for Jewish youth called Babaganews. It will also include Shabbat games and discussions of current events. There will be an optional enrichment program offered on Sundays including cooking, music, and art for those children who are interested. Out of a population of 52 students, Casser expects about six to participate on Sunday. Other art and music projects will be added during the Tuesday/Thursday portion of the curriculum.

The primary department will still meet on Sunday. “It has to. It’s an art-based program,” said Casser.

Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.