DrEAMRS Task Force at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Develops Religious School for the Entire Family

Temple Emanuel's new religious school option emphasizes active experiences with the family as a whole rather than the more traditional classroom learning with children only. Called KEF, meaning "fun" in Hebrew, the new program was developed through the ECE DrEAMRS process involving a 22-member task force-including clergy, staff and volunteers representing all segments of the 950-member congregation-and an ECE advisor. (For background on DrEAMRS click here.)

Working over a 10-month period to design an innovative and flexible educational experience that could be offered as an alternative to the traditional program, the DrEAMRS examined:

• The culture, history and demographics of the congregation;
• The values and goals for supplementary education in the community;
• Five alternative models of religious school intended for adaptation and implementation in various congregational settings (from a national study conducted by the ECE); and
• Possible features and policies of the new Temple Emanuel program.

Rabbi Laura Geller feels the ECE DrEAMRS process at Temple Emanuel enabled the task force to fashion a program that would work for many families within this diverse community. "The professional staff alone could not have designed this exciting program," said Rabbi Geller; "it took a methodical exploration by a devoted and diverse group of staff and lay-leaders to create a program that we know will succeed."

The educational goals of KEF are to:

• Build relationships with God, family and other congregants;
• Build connections to Torah, Shabbat, holidays and Israel;
• Build knowledge of Hebrew, history, music and ethics;
• Build community throughout our Temple and Los Angeles.

Students and at least one adult family member enrolled in the KEF program are required to attend a minimum number of Shabbat services and holiday celebrations, read books from a selected reading list, devote time doing work related to tikkun olam (repairing the world) and to do a Torah project on an annual theme. To build a knowledge of Hebrew, each student will have the option to attend the Hebrew school one day a week or receive private tutoring at the Temple or at home.

To communicate and market the concept and specific features of KEF to prospective families, a brochure was designed by a member of the task force who is a professional graphic artist. Click here to see the KEF brochure.

After the task force made their recommendation to the Board of Directors, a pilot test of KEF was enthusiastically approved. Temple President Jeffrey Pop said, "We have a very successful religious school with nearly 400 students. But to attract more families to our congregation, we knew we needed to offer different options. KEF puts us in the leadership position because there is nothing like it in all of Los Angeles."

Who are the DrEAMRS?

They are four progressive congregations that have embarked on a journey to envision and design alternatives for supplementary education in their communities. DrEAMRS stands for Disseminating and Exploring Alternative Models of the Religious School. The four congregations are Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, CA; Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, CA; Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY; and Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York City.

Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Westchester Reform Temple said his congregation decided to participate as a result of dissatisfaction with the traditional religious school model. "We initially took this step not because our educational programs were failing," he said, "but because we were convinced that the dominant model of supplementary Jewish education was in dire need of change."
Each of the four congregations has assembled a task force of 10 to 30 volunteers and professional staff to develop an approach that they believe will succeed in their communities. For the past six months, they have met to:

• Explore their unique culture, membership and resources;
• Challenge the assumptions that may have discouraged experimentation; and
• Envision an exciting world of Jewish learning for children.

To aid the process in these communities, Rob Weinberg, Director of the ECE recently conducted workshops with three of these teams. In each workshop participants studied five alternative religious school models along with profiles of programs on which the models are based. ECE researchers identified these five models based on their investigation of innovative programs across North America. Each congregation’s task force then discussed how the models relate to their own needs, issues, and congregational realities. Members of each task force came away with renewed energy and a sharpened focus.

Commenting on the creative nature of the work, Sue Brucker, Chair of the task force at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, said, "It’s exciting to know that we can choose parts from a number of different approaches to design what is right for our community. Our group is energized by knowing that we are developing something that will be for the benefit of our synagogue for many years to come."

As in all work of the ECE, there are no predetermined outcomes, simply the strong conviction that creating regular, dynamic, and engaging Jewish learning helps transform congregations into communities of meaning.