Shalom!
Message from Rabbi Benjy Bar-Lev, Director of Education
Dear Talmud Torah Religious School Families,
Shalom! Wow! We couldn’t be more excited that our Opening Day of Religious School is THIS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th!!! We at Temple have spent the summer preparing for this new school year. Our amazing teachers and madrichim (teacher aides) have been trained, the classrooms have been cleaned and organized, and everything is in place to begin a spectacular year.
You may notice a few new features within our programs and building as our school year begins. Here are some of the more important ones:
Communication with Parents
Weekly Email, “The Weekly Roundup.” Each week, sometime between Sunday night and Monday night you will receive a colorful and informative email, that will be our main mode of communication. We are lucky to have Nora Rubinoff, our “Virtual Assistant” from Cincinnati, putting this email together every week. The email will contain and summary of that Sunday’s activities, upcoming events that you should put on your calendar, and other important news from the school. Starting in a few weeks, each week will feature a different class, so parents can have an in-depth view of what’s happening in each of our classrooms at Temple Beth Shalom.
- Email Archive Website. We are proud to announce another important tool in our weekly communication. Our Email Archive site will have a few important functions. First of all, each weekly email will be archived there for easy reference. Second, there is an “upcoming events” section of the website that will have updated information (congruent with the email) about important TBS and Talmud Torah activities, events and services. Third, there will be a user-friendly communication form to get in touch with Rabbi Apothaker, Lauren Zatcoff, Ali Goldberg and me.
- Weekly Photos! As a result of our colorful email, we will have three madrichim (aides) whose job it will be to take lots of pictures of our school each Sunday. Those pictures will be uploaded at the end of the school day on Sunday and will be accessible through the website. We are hoping to have at least 50 pictures uploaded each week so you can see your kids enjoying their religious school experience! For security purposes, we will not post any names with these pictures.
Check out the site! www.tbsohiokt.com
Changes in the Building
Free WiFi and Coffee -- Hang around on Sundays! We are now featuring “Seattle’s Best” Coffee, free public WiFi throughout the building, Sunday newspapers, and great people to shmooze with on Sunday mornings. We encourage you to relax in the Mezzanine and meet other TBS parents. Occasionally we will feature an informal Adult Education discussion on an interesting topic of the day!
- Teacher Resource Room. Come and check out the new Teacher Resource Room. On the ground floor where the Computer Room used to be (across from the elevator) you’ll find a fully-stocked and organized Teacher Resource Room. The computers have been moved to classrooms throughout the building and will still be used. Also in the Teacher Resource room you’ll find Lauren Zatcoff’s desk. Stop in and say hi!
- “New” Rooms. In an effort to better utilize the precious space we have, you’ll see that we now have decorative screens in the Social Hall, establishing “Sacred Space” for our Lower School service. We will also soon have divider walls that will turn the back of the Sanctuary into a music room in which Gail Rose will teach.
Wednesday Hebrew Starts September 10th!
- We encourage all of our students to attend the Wednesday Mitkadem workshop from 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. We will have great teachers on board to help our students move more quickly and soundly through the Mitkadem Hebrew program. Attending on Wednesdays is a great way to strengthen any Hebrew level. For a calendar of Wednesday Hebrew Workshop days, click the link below!
Opening Day Information!
- Opening Day is Sunday, September 7th at 9:00 a.m. Each family should have received a packet of information about Opening Day including a schedule for Sunday morning. If you have misplaced it, click on the link below to download a PDF of all the documents pertaining to Opening Day.
Talmud Torah Calendar!
- Click below to download a PDF of our Talmud Torah Calendar. Special events, programs and B’nei Mitzvah will be added to the calendar soon. The current calendar will tell you which dates we are in session.
Sunday Morning Schedule:
We hope you are as excited about this school year as we are! Please let us know if you have any questions. See you Sunday!
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Benjy
