About Education

Being Jewish is an adventure, and being Jewish in Vermont is, in some senses, both a challenge and an extraordinary opportunity. At Congregation Beth El, we have a thriving and spirited Judaism school, with programs serving playgroup/pre-aleph through b’nei mitzvah and later teen programming. In addition to Saturday morning Judaism school and Monday afternoon Hebrew school, we have a slate of special and supplemental events ranging from “First Friday” Family Kabbalat Shabbat Services/Potlucks to community-wide holiday celebrations and social action events.

There are three goals for our children’s Judaism School experience:

• A sense of yiddishkeit, of being Jewish, and relating to that identity in a positive way.
• Knowledge of Hebrew (reading, writing, and preliminary understanding).
• Comfort with asking questions and an openness to learning.

There’s a wonderful Hasidic story in which a young student comes to see Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz because he feels alone and isolated, and is beset with questions he cannot answer. Rebbe Pinchas responds to the student by saying that he, too, was once in a position where he felt alone, isolated, and beset by questions he couldn’t answer – but he went to see his teacher, the Baal Shem Tov, and after meeting with him, Rebbe Pinchas said he was able to feel that he wasn’t alone. Rebbe Pinchas tells his young student, “You see, the questions remain questions, but we can help each other to go on.”

 In Judaism we learn in relationship. From this story, Elie Wiesel says, we learn that we should never stop asking questions, that we are never alone, and most importantly, that “a good story in Judaism is not about miracles, but about friendship and hope - the greatest miracles of them all.” At our Judaism school, we try to create an environment where we are all learning in relationship: to each other, to our teachers, to our families, to those that came before us, to those who will come after.

There is a Hebrew expression, “livnot v’lihibanot,” – to build and be built. Our goal is to have everyone who supports and benefits from our program—the students, the teachers, the Education Director, the Education Committee, the Board, the larger community–experience this sense of building and being built.

For questions and conversation about our program, contact our Education Director Maddie Sobel at maddiefarm@aol.com