JRC Religious School

Our Director of Youth Education & Family Engagement, Michelle Crosbie and our incredible JRC religious school faculty have been working hard to prepare for next fall. We look forward to another year together, learning, growing, and exploring our Jewish lives.

Check back for our 2024/25 School Calendar!

Tuition

Registration starts July 1, 2024. CLICK HERE TO ENROLL

SCHOLARSHIP INFO & APPLICATION

We want every student in our congregation to feel welcomed and valued. We believe every student should have access to a Jewish education in our school.  Please don’t let finances be a barrier to your participation.  We have religious school scholarship funds available through a generous gift from the Melvin & Zora Rashkis Charitable Trust. Priority for scholarships will be given to families who apply by August 15. To apply for tuition scholarships, APPLY HERE. 

 I have always loved and appreciated the academic cycle. An academic year begins and ends. When it ends, there is a beautiful time and space for reflection. What do we want to continue or discontinue, change, introduce … ?  Every excellent teacher I have ever known has already begun dreaming and planning for the next year as the bell sounds to end the present one.

And so I find myself now thinking and reflecting about the year that has just ended while eagerly planning and imagining the year to come.

Our 2023/2024 - 5784- academic year was a joyful one at JRC. As a second year director, I was on much firmer ground than the year before. Our school expanded to 221 students. We celebrated many of the events that have become part of our program: Pizza in the Hut, Simchat Torah, Consecration, the Pancake breakfast with an Inclusion panel discussion, the Purim carnival, and all of our grade-level dinners. We also added some new special programs: A High Holiday experiential fair, Bi-Monthly walks for parents to get to know one another, The Genizah, a seventh grade lock-in, special Holocaust programming for our 5th and 6th graders, and a frank conversation about Israel with our Shlicha, Liron, for our Darchei Mitzvah class. As we did the year before, we ended with an exuberant all-school assembly during which we celebrated in community and witnessed some of the creative learning and inquiry in which each class engaged (before eating Locopops, of course!)

We offered five learning opportunities on Saturdays and Sundays for our post- BMitzvah teens, and we reintroduced a combined Kabbalat Torah/Interfaith learning class that allowed our tenth graders to visit and converse with other faith communities. We worked with a local group to register and educate our eligible teens to vote. We took a group of students to Washington D.C. for the L’taken program, and we watched them advocate for issues close to their hearts in front of our North Carolina representatives. In short, we began to create a culture wherein involvement for our young congregants does not end with the B Mitzvah.

The religious school committee and I read through feedback from our parent survey and have discussed ways in which to make our program more impactful, more experiential, and more engaging for our kids. Two wonderful additions to our program next year include the occasional use of the amphitheater for our T’filah services and our new assistant rabbi, Rabbi Hannah Bender, who will be very involved in our program.

Be assured that JRC’s devoted teachers and I are engaged in the work of dreaming and planning for next year. We look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Michelle

T’FILAH (Worship)

We believe that praying together is an important part of what we do on Sunday mornings. In our school worship services, students pray together, practice the liturgy they'll lead in their B'Mitzvah ceremonies, and connect as a spiritual community. Parents are encouraged to join us. Stay tuned for this year's schedule.

GRADE-LEVEL SHABBAT DINNERS, GRADES 1 to 7

First graders to Seventh graders will have one school sponsored grade level Shabbat or holiday dinner during the school year.  This is an opportunity to see Friday night Shabbat rituals in action and to celebrate with your child’s classmates and their families. During the Shabbat service, students will be called to the bimah to sing a song or lead a prayer that they have learned in Religious School. Our youngest students and their families will have a similar community-building celebration during the religious school day.

Check the Religious School Calendar for the date of your grade-level dinner.

TZEDAKAH

The giving of tzedakah (literally meaning justice or righteousness, commonly translated as charity) is an important value and practice in our school and community.  Tzedakah will be collected in every class on Saturday and Sunday mornings. We will contribute Tzedakah to a local charity in the first semester and a global Jewish charity in the second semester.  Giving tzedakah in any amount is a mitzvah.  Most students bring $1.00 - $5.00 to class each session. 

SHABBAT SERVICE ATTENDANCE

Attending services is a great way to deepen Jewish literacy. It also offers students an opportunity to practice Hebrew and prayer skills outside of the classroom. Students who attend services regularly feel more at home in the synagogue, which helps ease the B'Mitzvah journey. And most especially, they share in our community's Shabbat joy.