Religious School
At Temple Isaiah, we seek to give all of our children and their families a living experience of the Jewish tradition and to enable all members of our community to be a part of contemporary Jewish life. We aim to connect our children and their families with the ongoing creative life of the Jewish people. We aspire to provide our students with the tools to understand the Jewish past while being inspired and empowered to create a Jewish life that is committed to tikkun olam. The philosophy and atmosphere of our Religious School calls for our teachers to instill in our students a love of the Jewish tradition and the study of Torah, along with an openness to the questioning that our tradition encourages. Overall our goal is for our children, families, and all members of our community to be challenged, exhilarated, and energized by the power of Jewish ideas and traditions.
Program Values & Goals
Temple Isaiah’s Religious School is designed to give a rich and varied experience of the Jewish tradition. While holding to the goals of the Reform movement listed below, we believe our curriculum should always address the needs of our particular community in the present. We have created a curriculum that is historically continuous with our Jewish past, respects our multi-cultural environment, and embodies the creative and pioneering spirit of the Jewish community of Northern California.
We support the following general goals of the Reform Movement, as stated by the Union of Reform Judaism. At Temple Isaiah we strive to provide a program of Jewish education which will enable children, teens, and adults to become Jews who:
- Affirm their Jewish identity and bind themselves inseparably to their people by word and deed;
- Bear witness to the brit (covenant between God and the Jewish people) by embracing the Torah through the study and observance of mitzvot (commandments) as interpreted in light of historic developments and contemporary liberal thought;
- Cherish and study Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people;
- Value and engage in tefillah (prayer);
- Further the causes of justice, freedom, and peace by pursuing tzedek (justice) and chesed (loving deeds);
- Celebrate Shabbat and the festivals, and observe the Jewish ceremonies that mark significant occasions in their lives;
- Esteem themselves and others, their own family and the families of others, their own community and the communities of others;
- Express their kinship with K’lal Yisrael (the community of Israel) by actively seeking the welfare of Jews throughout the world and by developing a relationship with Israel - its people, the land, and the state.
- Support and participate in the life of the synagogue.
We believe these goals are best accomplished through educational experiences which touch the whole person: body, heart, mind, and soul.