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Monday February 5, 2007

Sunday school isn’t just for kids; parents join in at Rodef Sholom

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

When it’s time for Sunday school at Congregation Rodef Sholom, the chatter of children isn’t all that fills the temple with noise. Their parents do, too.

Thanks to a $30,000 grant, the San Rafael synagogue launched an alternative Sunday school program in September. Participants in Kol HaMischpacha, or “the whole family,” meet weekly at the synagogue for lessons on Jewish rituals and prayer.

“So often, children’s learning goes on in isolation for us as parents — you drop them off and they tell you about it later,” said Jeff Kamler, who attends Kol HaMischpacha with his wife and their 7-year-old daughter, Lani. “It’s very different being with them as their little minds are processing the information and coming up with responses. The real joy is to see how she learns.”

The synagogue still conducts conventional kid-only Sunday school, but 14 families — 26 parents and 21 children ages 4-7 — have chosen Kol HaMischpacha instead. It’s still small; 60 children in the same age range attend traditional Sunday school.

The goal of Kol HaMischpacha is for children and their parents to learn Jewish concepts together so the learning won’t be left behind at the synagogue. Participants meet twice a month on Sundays for three hours, plus one Friday night a month.

Irene Resnikoff, director of education at Rodef Sholom, said the traditional Sunday school model is less effective if the family doesn’t continue the Jewish learning in the child’s home.

“If you have a kid who’s really enthusiastic at Sunday school, but nothing else happens at home, then the child has no place to put what they’ve learned,” she said. The more engaged a family is, she added, the easier it is for children to fit Jewish learning into their everyday lives.

“We want this to be more than a program — it’s a change in attitude in how we learn,” she added.

The alternative Sunday school is funded by the New York-based Legacy Heritage Innovation Project, which doled out grants to 27 synagogues for the first time in 2006. The Innovation Project supports synagogues pioneering family-based education that potentially could generate systemic congregational change.

In most cases, both parents attend Kol HaMischpacha. The enrollment also includes a single dad and dual mothers.

The lessons are tailored to young minds, but parents say they get a lot from the experience also. That’s because the program “focuses on big Jewish ideas,” said teacher Amy Kassiola, like learning not only the Hamotzi, but also why it’s important to thank God for food.

Parents and children learn together and apart. One Sunday, families read a story together. Later the children got crafty and made “magic goggles” so they could look for God’s gifts in the world. Meanwhile, parents discussed the importance of gratitude.

After the lesson, “we always have a potluck dinner together,” Kassiola said. “Dinner is an integral part of our program. It creates a sense of community.”

Kamler said daughter Lani enjoys coming to Sunday school more this year because mom and dad are involved, too.

He remembered his own Sunday school experience as a conventional one at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. He said his family always returns home from Kol HaMischpacha feeling more connected to each other and Judaism.

“This gets at the core of what being a Jewish family is all about,” he said. “Its primary mission is ... to give us an understanding of what it means to look at the world through Jewish lenses.”

The Legacy Heritage Innovation Project funded 27 programs in synagogues around the country, including Netivot Shalom in Berkeley and Beth Am in Los Altos Hills.

The organization recently accepted another round of applicants. The Innovation Project, entering its second year, plans to zero in on congregations that integrate adult, child and family learning in the context of Shabbat and holiday celebrations.

Kassiola hopes the family-based Sunday school concept eventually is more widely embraced by the whole congregation.

“Will this replace religious school? Eventually, it may,” she said. “I think there will always be families who expect and like the conventional approach … But it’s an exciting concept to think this could be the norm, and not the alternative.”

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