BJCC Religious School

The BJCC provides religious education in both Judaics and Hebrew on Sunday mornings throughout the school year for children in pre-K through 7th grade. The school provides instruction for the pre-Bat and Bar Mitzvah year. Most families additionally use an individual tutor to provide further Bat-Bar Mitzvah instruction for the year preceding this Mitzvah.

In the 2009-2010 school year, the Judaics portion of the Religious School will be in session Sundays from 9:30 to 10:45 AM, followed by the Hebrew portion from 11:00 AM to noon. During the 15-minute break, the students will participate in a sing-along session and a snack. Classes will begin on September 13, 2009.

New this year to our Sunday School program is a comprehensive curriculum designed by the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL). It is a spiraled curriculum, in which students revisit key content areas with increased sophistication as they progress year by year through the program.

The ten key content areas are: Community, Culture and Symbols, God, Hebrew and Prayer, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Holidays, Jewish Lifecycle Events, Mitzvot and Jewish Values, and Tanach (Torah, Prophets, and Writings).   Each lesson provides activities to engage children via Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Visual learning styles.

To strengthen our sense of community there will be special school-wide programming to celebrate some of our holidays together.   This year we will celebrate Rosh Hoshanah, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Chanukah, Tu B'sh’vat, and Purim together.   We will end the year with Lag B’Omer and our annual end-of-the-year picnic.

Most of the teachers are BJCC members, along with some very wonderful Virginia Tech students.   We are also very excited to have our Education Fellow, Lena Wise, from the ISJL program working alongside us this year to provide further programming and guidance to our Sunday School program.   We are looking forward to an excellent year!

Those who are not BJCC members may enroll their children in the Sunday School for up to two years, at a different fee schedule than for children of BJCC members.   The Hebrew School is normally available only to children of BJCC members.

Fee schedule per child for the 2009-2010 Religious School:

• Judaics - $150 for members, $300 for non-members
• Hebrew - $150 for members, $300 for non-members if permitted to enroll

Please call either of the Religious School Co-Chairs with inquiries or to register your children for Sunday School and/or Hebrew School for the 2009-2010 school year.   The current co-chairs are identified along with other BJCC officers in our monthly newsletter, the Shofar.

Payments may be made in installments.  If your financial situation prevents full payment of dues or fees, or to arrange installment payments, please discuss your situation in confidence with our Treasurer, Irene Jacobs, at (540) 552-7699.

Checks should be made out to "BJCC" and sent to:
    BJCC Treasurer
    P.O. Box 782
    Blacksburg, VA 24063
and please write "Sunday School" or "Hebrew School" on your check's memo line.

Adult Education

We try to organize several adult-education sessions each year.   Some years we enjoy visits from one of the rabbis at (Reform) Temple Emanuel or (Conservative) Beth Israel Synagogue in Roanoke, 40 miles away.   Details of any such sessions appear in our monthly newsletter, the Shofar.

From time to time, when there is enough demand, a member has volunteered to teach prayerbook literacy starting with reading Hebrew, or how to chant Torah or Haftarah.   Do you have some special Jewish knowledge that you'd like to share?   If so, please get in touch with the BJCC President to get it scheduled and publicized, and help us learn.