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General Information

Romemu Religious School: Our Youth Educational Program 
 

Our program is learner centered. Our students will be empowered, actively engaged, innovative, have ownership, and take on leadership. Our teachers will facilitators of conversations, guides in engaging learning, creators of community, and scaffolders of creativity and reflection.  Our learners explore how Judaism is relevant to their lives today and how it can help guide their futures.  We are focused on each individual as a whole person and engage students in multiple modalities. 
 

What is the Judaic Curriculum for Romemu? 

Our Judaic curriculum will provide our learners in each grade with key foundational Jewish cultural literacy in the following areas: Torah/sacred text, God, lifecycle, Israel, holidays, middot (Jewish values), mitzvot, and where age appropriate Jewish history.

Nel Nodding, an education philosophy professor emerita at Stanford, states that the purpose of education is to expand our circles of caring.  Our curriculum design will be based on this philosophy.  It will also be based on Ron Wolfson's Relational Judaism and that one of the purposes of Jewish education is to grow each individual's relationships with Judaism in one or more of these ways: connection to self, to family, to friends, to Jewish expression, to community, to Jewish peoplehood, to Israel, to the world and to God.  Therefore our curriculum is designed to engage our learners in expanding circles of caring:
k4:  My Jewish Self: An Exploration of How I Can Live Jewishly
K5: Me and My Family: how can my family celebrate Judaism? What does Judaism teach me about being in a family? What does it mean to be a part of the Jewish family?
1st: Me and My Friends: What does Judaism mean by acquire yourself a friend, how can I best interact with others? 
2nd: Me and My Synagogue: What does it mean to be part of a synagogue? 
3rd:  Me and My Jewish Community 
4th: Me and Amcha (The Jewish People): What are the Jewish People? What does it mean to be part of the Jewish People? And what does it mean to be responsible to the Jewish People? 
5th: Me and Israel: exploring my relationship with Israel from 8 different faces of Israel.
6th grade: Hineini: Part 1, Where do I fit in the chain of Judaism?
7th grade: Hineini: Part 2, I am Ready to Take My Place in the World as a b'nai mitzvah
 

What are the various components of our Hebrew program in Romemu?

T’nuah (Movement) - Each Sunday our T’nuah specialist will visit each class (K4-6th grade) for Hebrew through Movement. Hebrew through Movement is a language acquisition strategy (Total Physical Response) in which learners start to get used to the sounds of Hebrew and begin to comprehend Hebrew by hearing and responding to Hebrew directions. ​​​​

Tefillah (prayer service) – For a part of each day, learners will join the clergy and our Director of Lifelong Learning for a genuine prayer experience because tefillah is learned by doing. Our k4-2nd graders tefillah experience is through song, movement, and meditation. Our 3rd - seventh graders use the siddur. Together we will experience the morning service on Sundays and the afternoon or evening service on Wednesdays, depending on the time of the year. We will also have a question of the day focused on the prayer of the month that the learners will discuss in chevruta, with a partner, and then with the entire group. 

Jewish Life Vocabulary (JLV) is a collection of Hebrew words or phrases that increases one’s connections to Jewish people, traditions, culture and life. You probably use many of these words without thinking about them, such as mazal tov and siddur. We have formalized our JLV curriculum, intentionally choosing which words to focus on in each grade, in tefillah, etc. 

On Wednesdays, our third - sixth graders attend Romemu for Hebrew instruction. 

Our Hebrew program focuses on helping students feel confident and capable in worship. While we are intentional about the order in which students will learn prayers, we are not simply preparing students for B'nai Mitzvah. Rather, we help the students find ways in which worship can bring holiness into their lives and live an active Jewish life through Hebrew, our lashon ha-kodesh (holy language). 

Once learners get the foundation of learning the Hebrew alphabet, they will continue utilizing the Mitkadem curriculum. Mitkadem is an individualized, self-paced Hebrew prayer learning, for learners of different learning styles and abilities. The benefits include: 

• Lets each learner engage with the material at their own level and pace.
• Motivated and knowledgeable learners can proceed quickly through the material.
• Learners can pick up where they left off. No need for them to feel left behind or make self-conscious comparisons to their peers.
• Diminished behavior problems because learners are occupied at their own level.
• Learners cannot “fall through the cracks,” because of constant monitoring and regular assessments.

 
Schedule

Sundays:       9:30 - 11:30 am 
Wednesdays:   4:30 - 6:30 pm 

Post B'nai Mitzvah

8th & 9th Grade

Our 8th and 9th Grade students have the opportunity to guide their learning through selection of topics that will make-up their learning. Based in Jewish values, students will explore Jewish traditions and how Judaism intersects with their lives through active, engaging learning.

Kabbalat Torah: 10th grade:

• Kabbalat Torah means “receiving Torah.”
• Our tenth graders meet weekly with Rabbi Berkson to discuss philosophy, current events, Jewish values, and prepare to lead our annual Kabbalat Torah service on Shavuot in which they take responsibility and ownership over their own religious practice in a more mature way. 

Passport To Israel

Attention parents: Consider this amazing program that matches your savings with contributions from CEEBJ and Milwaukee Jewish Federation to enable kids to go on a peer-group Israel trip as teens or young adults.

Special needs? We’d love to help!

At Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, we believe that every person is created B'tzelem Elohim, (in the image of God) and therefore each person is unique. Therefore, we are committed to accommodating the learning needs of every person in our educational programs. Our teachers receive training and assistance in adapting lessons for all learning styles. We are excited to be partnering with the Coalition for Jewish Learning of Milwaukee and providing our learners and their families with a Kesher coordinator. The coordinator will help the learner, their family, and the teachers best meet the needs of each learner as well as provide differentiated curriculum. Please contact our Director of Lifelong Learning to discuss your child’s special needs.

Need more information?

For more information, please contact Miles Roger, Director of Lifelong Learning via email or call (414) 228-7545.