Long Island's Oldest Reform Congregation
140 Central Avenue - Lawrence, NY 11559
(516) 239-1140

If you blinked, you missed what has been an incredible school year. Although the single most exciting “event” of the year has been the planning and creation of the Sherri W. Philipson Computer Centre, the year was packed with highlights — from our High Holiday youth services, to Simchat Torah and Consecration, to our world-famous (okay, I exaggerate) latke bake, to our unbelievable Purim Carnival, sh’lach manot baskets, Passover seders…. the list seems endless.

Along the way, we’ve instituted our Religious Scholars program, in which our students answer three questions I pose each month and then are blessed at Family Services on the bimah.

It has been a great year. Our curriculum is jam-packed with learning. I can assure you, having taught at Temple Israel for eleven years before becoming the Director of Education, that we are teaching so much more than we ever did in the past. Junior Congregation has helped make our students more familiar and comfortable with the prayer service and with those prayers they will be leading on the morning of their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Next year, 4th and 5th graders will be meeting together with me each week to learn and review the weekly Torah portion.

I believe that each of our students should conclude his/her religious education at Temple Israel with a clear sense of the Torah narrative, an ability to participate in the prayer service comfortably and an understanding of the Jewish liturgical year. Upon that foundation, we then build familiarity with the people, places and events that have shaped us over the centuries. I promise you, as much as any other afternoon religious school program (and much more than most) we are accomplishing these important goals.

I look forward to achieving even more with you and your families in the coming year.

Now, for our final Religious Scholar questions of the year:

Jerusalem was reunited on June 7 of what year?

On June 1 of what year did the Israelis and Arabs agree to the cease-fire ending the War of Independence?

On June 14 of what year did the Directors of the West India Company order Peter Stuyvesant to allow Jews to trade at New Amsterdam’s different outposts?

Have a wonderful, healthy and happy summer!

See you in the Fall — it’s right around the corner!

David Woolfe