INSIDE:
Synagogue List
52
Torah Portion
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On Track
For
LEARNING
Adat Shalom revamps
its religious school.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
StaffWriter/Copy Editor
S
chool choice has come to one of metropolitan Detroit's
largest Conservative congregations — and the parents
couldn't be happier.
Beginning in September, Adat Shalom Synagogue,
home to more than 3,300 Detroit-area families, will offer two
separate tracks for its supplementary school students in grades
three through seven. The two tracks, Beit Midrash (house of
study) and Kehillah (community),.will give families a choice
between a more intensive academic program and a more family-
oriented, hands-on program.
Despite the programs' differences, each has been crafted to
provide "educational experiences consistent with the high stan-
dards we have always set for our students at Adat Shalom," said
Elissa Berg, director of education and youth at the Farmington
Hills synagogue.
The supplementary school, which has been known as Beth
Achim Religious School since Adat Shalom's 1998 merger with
Congregation Beth Achim, has 301 students in grades K-7 this
year. Enrollment in the 8-12th grade classes stands at 212.
"Over the years, a number of parents have come to us saying
that Jewish education is very important to them but that their
children were very stressed with three days a week of religious
school in addition to their demanding secular school schedules,"
said Berg, who took over educational leadership at Adat Shalom
in July 1998.
"It's not that Jewish education isn't important; it's not that we
don't want to give it three days,' they told us. 'But our lives are
over-scheduled — please help us maintain a quality program in
two days.'"
Berg had put the issue on the back burner until attending a
recent presentation on quality in religious school education,
sponsored by United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, the
association of Conservative congregations in North America.
The USCJ's Framework for Excellence in Jewish Education
includes six alternatives, known as "models," for curriculum and
scheduling. With input from Adat Shalom's religious school com-
mittee, Berg was able to adapt a two-day model and further
enhance the three-day model already in place.
Fourth-graders Marissa Wais
of West Bloomfield and Jessica
Silber ofWalled Lake study at
Adat Shalom's Beth Achim
Religious School.
A Biblical Precedent
In explaining the two-track program, Berg quoted Proverbs 22:6:
"Educate a child according to his way."
"A choice of approaches offers advantages for particular stu-
dents," she said. "Yet each avenue must aspire to the highest stan-
dards of Jewish values and learning."
The Kehillah program will meet for five hours per week, Berg
said, with classes Wednesdays and Sundays. Although hours in
the classroom are decreased, this program increases the social
action, youth group and family component already required of
supplementary school students, while adding a requirement that
Elissa Berg, educational direc-
tor of Beth Achim Religious
School
ON TRACK FOR LEARNING on page 50
4/18
2003
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