What would you do if you found a lost item that belonged to your enemy?  We’re talking enemy, here, as in a “person you fight” and a “person you hate” (definitions from your kiddos!).  According to the mitzvah (law) we read this week, you have to bring the lost item back to them.  Woah.  Hard! Here’s a list of the…

Do you ever read a text, feel full of questions, and wish you had a friend there to help you answer them?  That’s what hevruta study is all about. It’s a method of digging into a text with a partner. Here are the steps of the process: Read the text. Ask questions. Offer answers. Agree or disagree and discuss.  Use…

The experience Bnai Yisrael (the Jewish people) had at Mt. Sinai was strange and confusing, and we had LOTS of fun imagining what that experience might have been like.   This is the text we studied this week:  Exodus 20:15-18  All the people saw the thunder and the lightening, the shofar, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they stepped back. They said to Moshe,…

Have you ever caught yourself really pining after something that belonged to someone else? What does all of that wanting do inside us? What might it lead us to do to other people? And how can we deal with it? This week we learned the 10th and final commandment, “Don’t covet your neighbor’s belongings. Don’t want their things so badly…

What would the world look like if we successfully followed all of the aseret hadibrot? And if we followed none of them? Today we focused on #8, “Do not steal.” We delved into whether it is an easy commandment to follow, what kinds of situations make following each commandment challenging, and how our mistakes affect the people around us. We…

Are you a perfect promise keeper? Jewish tradition has some great wisdom to share with us about making and keeping big, important promises. This week we learned from your amazing kids how that wisdom plays out in their lives. On Tuesday we dove into the third commandment, don’t make a promise using God’s name unless you’re going to keep it….

We love how engaged Makom Community parents are, and we know you want to talk with your students about everything they are learning and experiencing at Makom Community! In the coming weeks, we will be studying the 10 Commandments. During the week of September 18, we are delving into the first four commandments: I am God. No idols. No empty…

In our text this week, Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish People) is gathered in the desert at the bottom of Mt. Sinai, unsure of what’s coming next on their journey after slavery. God speaks to Moshe and tells him that if Bnei Yisrael will keep the brit (two-way promise) with God, then they will be for God a “treasured possession,” a…

New students and returning students are here, and we are so excited to welcome them in and get the year going! Next week, our kindergarten students will join us, too. This year, we have a large enough enrollment in afterschool enrichment that we created two learning groups functioning in parallel. We have Boker for our Pre-K, K, and 1 students,…

Sign up today! You’ll be glad you did. https://makomcommunity.org/Fall2017 1. Make new friends in different schools and grades. 2. Enjoy a camp-like, joyful Jewish education. 3. Jewish learning that applies to everyday life! 4. Unwind after a busy day at school. 5. Build relationships with loving staff who individualize the learning experience for your child. 6. Gain support on your journey as a parent. 7….

With this week’s heat, we certainly know summer is upon us! We also know that typical summer camp schedules leave working parents with huge gaps where we are struggling to have something our children are excited to do! We have FANTASTIC camp days planned for one week in June and two weeks in August. See below for all the specifics,…

What a journey we’ve had with you and your families this year! ­We created a brit (promise) to guide us through the year, made music, enjoyed Shabbat together as families, delved into how to make the world more just, and worked to understand our own freedom. We have welcomed new friends from a variety of schools and neighborhoods, new staff…

Today, our students were AMAZING. Okay, fine. They’re always amazing. Today they shared their wisdom in especially wise ways.  We are winding down our study of the narrative of Bnai Yisrael (the Jewish people) leaving Egypt. Today, we focused on when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  We asked, “What can you tell me about the personality of someone with a hard heart?”  Stubborn  Meaner  Angrier …

Bnei Yisrael had trouble hearing from Moshe that they would ever get out of Egypt. Slavery was all they had known for generations, and the Torah says, “their spirits were crushed.” Thankfully, our students had relatively little in their lives to compare crushed spirits to, so we did a demonstration with two small apples.  Before the students arrived, we had taken…

Today, we studied the text where Moshe and his wife Tzipora (from Midian) name their son Gershom. We delved into the ways their son’s name reflects both Moshe and Tzipora’s life experience and family tradition. First, we asked our students to share with us some of the holidays they celebrate with their extended families: Chanukkah Passover Shabbat Christmas St. Patrick’s…

We just began our final unit of the school year—hard to believe that summer is just around the corner! We’ll spend the coming weeks studying the narrative of getting Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people) out of Egyptian slavery. We opened our new unit by reflecting on how well our students already know the story of leaving Egypt from our services…

How does the movie Aladdin shed light on a Jewish text written by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan? Well, they’re both thinking about how people handle power. First, our students reflected on the way Jafar (the villan) sought out limitless power in the movie. We reflected on him being too greedy and forgetting that he is responsible to people other than himself….

We continued our unit on tzedek (justice) by unpacking what barriers to self-love might be. In particular, we were looking at the idea of loving ourselves from “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, (Leviticus 19:18). During snacktime learning, we watched a short film titled “Just Breathe ”https://youtu.be/RVA2N6tX2cg. In this film, children explain different strategies for feeling better when they are…

We continued our unit on tzedek (justice) by exploring the mitzvah (commandment) of tzedakah (charity) We dug deeper into the texts of the Talmud which sparked several conversations, ideas, and opinions about what a mitzvah  is and the importance of giving tzedakah. During snacktime learning, we explored Maimonides’ eight levels of tzedakah. We discussed how giving a little of what…

Last week we had three exciting half-day camps. It was a fun change in our normal schedule to be at Makom Community for more immersive time together. Our themes and activities this week included Arthur (the TV show), getting ready for Shabbat and Israeli art. During our Israeli art day we invited students from Temple Beth Zion Beth Israel (BZBI)…

How does a person hate evil? How does a person love well?  This week we continued our unit on Tzedek-Justice. We started the week by establishing justice and welcoming everyone into Makom Community by practicing good discussion, infused with intentional listening and sharing our own ideas. During snacktime learning, we studied a text from Amos and discussed the importance of…

Who is holy? What is justice? How do we go after justice? This week we began our unit on tzedek (justice)! We began with a discussion of what we thought holiness is and what it means to be holy. A lot of students had varying opinions of what they thought holiness was. Helping people in need Being nice to our…

צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ Pursue and chase after justice, that you may live. –Deuteronomy 16:20   For the next eight weeks, we embark on a journey with our students to explore Jewish concepts around justice. And it couldn’t feel more timely. Our students come in from school daily with questions about justice in their worlds—both at school and about…

Hello and Happy February! As the new month begins we started a new chapter of learning at Makom Community! We had our Hebrew Intensive week. We focused exclusively on Hebrew reading. Though our students know lots of Hebrew words and use them conversationally, this was an exciting way for them to focus on reading and writing skills. During snacktime learning…

Welcome back and Happy 2017! Our 2016 Winter Break school’s out camp came and went by so quickly! Time really does fly when you’re having fun! It was a joy to see all the children shine in all of our experiences together. Trying to new things, learning, sharing, exploring and discovering new found passions were just some of the things…

We just began a new unit on Hallel / Praise. We’re looking to a few different Jewish texts to think about how praise can help us notice, appreciate, and protect the best parts of the world around us. These are some snippets of conversation from this week when we studied some of the birkhot hashar (morning blessings). The day of these…

Winter is soon approaching and with that comes our fabulous Winter Break Camp days! We are so excited for this year’s camp days as we have some especially awesome and fun-filled days planned! Winter Break Camp will run December 27-January 3, for 4-10 year olds. Our Winter Break Camp includes 4 field trips and 2 jam-packed days right here at Makom!…

During our Shrek camp day, we created fairytale creatures and then wrote a FABULOUS story using all of their unique and special skills and talents. And each one’s sense of humor got to shine through, too.  Makom Community fairytale Aliza: Aliza monster would be really good at helping if someone gets hurt. Drew: Pizza Belly monster would eat all the…

We’re in the midst of studying the story of Bilam and Balak. As we look at their experiences of awe and wonder, we paused to notice the role advice plays in this story and in our own lives. We asked our students to give us advice on this scenario: “I want to have a sleepover with all my friends this…

November is here! As the leaves start to change and the cold bites us a bit more, we look forward to the warmth, fun and excitement of our November “School’s Out” camps here at Makom Community! We will have two action–packed camps on Tuesday November 8th and Friday November 11th Also! Stay tuned to learn about at our awesome half day camps on November 21st and 22nd! In the meantime, check out the fun stuff we have planned for Nov 8th and Nov 11th!…