A Reconstructionist Community in Summit, New Jersey
A Reconstructionist Community in Summit, New Jersey
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Religious School (RS) Saturday vs Sunday Open Forum SPECIAL NOTE: October 20, 2007 Session Highlights Introduction Since Congregation Beth Hatikvah was founded over a decade ago, and until we moved into our new synagogue, we have always rented space in a church. Because the church used their building on Sundays, we were forced to limit our activities to Saturday, including worship, education, and the business of keeping the congregation up and running. This was an unusual setup and there may have been an assumption that we would move our Religious School to Sunday to match the rest of the world, once we had a building of our own, even though this was never a formal decision. At the same time, we realized that a nice thing happened by having RS on Saturday: we have created a wonderful Shabbat experience where we all come together to learn, pray, schmooze, etc. But now that we are in our new synagogue, we have the opportunity to revisit what we want to happen on Shabbat, whether we want something different to happen on Shabbat, whether we want to move our RS to Sunday, and what the ramifications are for each decision.RS Visioning Task Force Several years ago, RS realized that we would have the opportunity to move RS to Sunday if we wanted to and we set up a RS Visioning Task force to look at the options. We explored many avenues and tried to think "outside the box," coming up with many different ways to manage the challenges presented by our new opportunities. At the same time, we realized that many of the issues involved not just the RS, but our whole congregation such as whether a full Torah service would be offered on Saturdays if there were no RS, or if there would be a change in when Adult Learning would meet, etc. All of the ideas including those that were rejected can be found in the "RS Visioning Document" on our website.Three ideas rose to the top: The menu/credit option had great appeal for many people. It was seen as a way to bring in alternative forms of education into our curriculum that would allow our children to gain "credit" toward RS equivalency. Camp attendance, museum attendance, and independent projects were all seen as potential alternatives to traditional classroom attendance. This option had great appeal to many of us. However, the administration of this plan had never been fully worked out and that turned out to be a much bigger job than we thought. Were we to wait for that plan to be fleshed out, we would essentially be making a decision by not making one. The menu/credit plan is not dead, but it cannot be an alternative to either a traditional Saturday or Sunday RS at this time. However, one of the most appealing elements -- creative and informal ways of learning about Jewish life, culture, and values -- will be incorporated into a new program that we are piloting later in the year on Tuesdays, as part of the midweek RS session for grades 4-7. We will be establishing Chugim, or clubs, that will meet on Tuesdays. The chugim might include cooking, drama, art etc. Thus, the only two options we will be discussing are the first two: the status quo vs. RS on Sunday. We developed a set of pros and cons for Sat and for Sun which we have distributed and is available today. The RS Visioning Document is a more detailed version. Questions and Answers Q: Have you considered a modified RS schedule that would allow for school to take place on Saturday and Sunday with some grades going on one day and the other grades going on another? A: Yes, the visioning committee did consider that option and identified a number of challenges. First, we would need to get teachers and have administrative oversight for both days. We would also lose opportunities to rent our space because of the use of the building on both days. And another drawback was that families with children in different grades may find themselves bringing children on both days depending on their ages. It also splits the RS and the ability to build a sense of community among the entire congregation. Although we are growing, we do not think that we will run out of classroom space in the imminent future. However, this decision may need to be revisited as our RS enrollment grows. Q: Can you clarify what will happen if RS occurs on Sunday? Will we then have a full Shabbat service on Saturday? If so, what is a full Shabbat service? And what happens to Adult Learning sessions? A: At this point, we are not sure what we will have on Saturday if RS is on Sunday. A lot depends on what our congregation would like. But we could have a full service, which ordinarily would be similar to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah service but shorter (about 2 hours). Some other ideas include offering Learning Services (so that congregants can ask questions). There is also the possibility that there would be a shorter service (45 minutes) like we have now in RS. We will need to figure that out. Some of these options may be piloted this year. Adult learning will need to be figured out as well. For many people who come to Adult Learning on Saturday, it is their way to experience Shabbat, so they may want to continue meeting on Saturday regardless of the day of RS. There are other congregants who come to Saturday Adult Ed because it is conveniently held at the same time their child is in RS. Therefore, if RS is on Sunday, there may be people who prefer to have Adult Ed on Sunday. It is conceivable that there could be Adult Ed on either or both days. Q: Can you explain what a Sunday Service entails, how long it would be and how it is different than a Saturday Service? A: If RS is on Sunday, the service would be 45 minutes, the same amount of time it is currently on Saturday. The difference between a Saturday and Sunday service is that on Sunday, there is no Torah service, which means that we do not take out the Torah and there is no Torah reading. However, there can be a Dvar Torah and discussion about the Torah portion for the week. Each week the new portion starts on Saturday evening for the upcoming week. As far as the prayers are concerned, many prayers are similar or the same for Saturday and Sunday. However, there is a different siddur for weekday services as compared to Shabbat. New siddurim would need to be purchased (about $25 each). Q: What are the logistics for RS attendance with the Sunday option? A: RS students will attend school on Sunday. A Shabbat service attendance requirement stills needs to be finalized but would likely entail the following: 3rd graders, 4 times a year; 4th graders, 6 times a year; 5th graders, 8 times a year; 6th and 7th graders, 9 times a year. A Shabbat morning service attendance requirement gives students experience with the service that they learn about in class and are preparing for as part of their bar/bat mitzvah. Regardless of whether RS is on Sat or Sun, students in 4th-7th grades come twice a week, by attending a midweek session either in a pod (family home) or on Tuesday afternoon at CBH. And, there is also an expectation that RS students will attend Friday services, particularly as they get closer to bar/bat mitzvah (5th-7th grades) since they also lead a Friday evening service. Q: If we keep RS on Saturday, the pro/con report indicates that there will be continued absenteeism due to sports or other organized group activities such as scouts or performing arts rehearsals. Parent feel guilty and conflicted when their child has to miss class or leave early. How can we avoid this? A: Last year, the RS committee developed a policy which allows for makeup work when children are absent for a number of consecutive weeks for a sport or other reason. The policy specifies that a maximum of 8 consecutive weeks can be missed and accommodated through the development of an individual learning contract. The contract may require assignments, service attendance, tutoring, or other required make-up work, and would be developed with the family by the Educational Director. (See Religious School Handbook 2007-2008.) Q: Everyone seems to be talking about community, but the K-2 children this year have a separate service. Therefore we donÕt participate in the larger RS service and donÕt have a sense of the entire community. A: That is why we provide babysitting from 10:30-11:30 so that parents can attend the 10:45-11:30 RS service with their older children or attend on their own or even bring their younger children if they wish. Also, the 2nd grade gets out in time to join the oneg at 11:30 and the second session of the first grade gets out 15 minutes later while much of the oneg is still going on. Q: What are the additional costs to the congregation if RS changes to Sunday? A: The cost for each weekday siddur is about $25. The opportunity cost of losing rental fees cannot be estimated at this time. There will also need to be an "oneg" on Sunday. Q: What happens on the Shabbats for the 20 + weeks when there is no Religious School? A: A number of things happen. Adult Education continues to meet throughout the year on Saturday morning for lay led and Rabbi-led sessions. This coming year we will have approximately 4 Bar/Bat Mitzvahs on Saturdays (in May and June) when RS is not in session. There also has been discussion of scheduling Learning Shabbat Services on Saturdays when RS is not scheduled. Q: What will happen if RS is on Sunday and there are not enough CBH Shabbat services for RS students to meet the requirements for Shabbat service attendance as part of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparation? Will attendance at other Bar/Bat Mitzvahs at other synagogues be acceptable as fulfilling that requirement? A: This is something else that will have to be figured out. We will need to have flexibility here. There is certainly the possibility that attendance at some Bar/Bat Mitzvah services outside of CBH could be considered as an option. Our main concern, however, is that we want our children to become familiar with CBH Shabbat services as part of their preparation for Bar/Bat Mitzvah. We will have to set some requirement and then ensure that we have enough services to fulfill those requirements. And there will have to some choice of dates, so we would need to have more than one Shabbat service per month. Q: I think we need to focus on the practical and logistical issues for these options. My main concern is getting my children to Tuesday midweek classes when the time comes. A: This forum today is an opportunity for everyone to share their individual concerns and feelings about the options. We also appreciate that there are logistical issues as well, which we have spelled out in the document we distributed. Tuesdays are a challenge for working parents and that is why we have established evening Pod classes for many of the upper grades. Parents also help each other with carpooling. Q: Right now, our synagogue is different than most by offering Saturday RS. I think that whatever decision is made, we need to plan a time to revisit the decision at a future point. A: The idea of revisiting the decision at a future point is certainly something to consider. And as with any decision, we as a community will continue to encourage feedback about how things are working. Q: How will our plans for growth in members be impacted by making a change or keeping things as they are? A: There is really no way to know how a change in the day of RS will affect our goals for increasing membership in our synagogue. What is the Rabbi's opinion about all this? The Rabbi's greatest concern and the thing that is most important to her is that we face this decision together as a community. She recognizes the benefits and challenges of both plans and is interested in our making a decision that is in the best interest of the community. Rabbi Amy added that if she were to have anything to add to the discussion, it would be two concerns that emerged for her during the course of the visioning discussions. Both related to the future in a Shabbat school. She appreciates that we have created a warm, meaningful Shabbat experience. However, she feels that this experience could be much more than it is, were Saturday more fully set aside as a holy day. She feels that we are having a "taste" of Shabbat, but that she would like to share with the congregation the experience of the 'whole meal." She also feels that she enjoys the opportunity to spend time in the RS with the children and the parents, being able to interact with families in formal and informal ways. In the future, with the increase in Bar/Bat Mitzvahs she will not have the same opportunities for these interactions, possibly impacting the depth of these relationships. While these concerns do refer to our having a Shabbat school, these concerns are not shared to sway the decision one way or another, but rather, to be addressed in the context of whichever decision the congregation makes. Additional Comments from Attendees at the Open Forum:
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December 3, 2007 Session Highlights Paraphrased Post Discussion Recommendation/Suggestions Religious School Parents and Non-Religious School Population A question came up regarding who might be most affected by this decision and therefore, should one group have more "voting weight." Of course all should be surveyed. But the issue is not necessarily should they vote about which day RS meets but rather they should vote on what they want Shabbat to look like. Do they want to spend the day at CBH in study, taking walks and having discussions, coming for havdallah services, etc. Then we need to figure out what day works best for RS parents, how to accommodate those for whom the selected day doesn't work, and then ask them as adults the same things we asked the other adults. We will then have to figure out how to make the space, Rabbi's time, etc work so that as many needs as possible can be met. Present versus Future Needs (I.e., Synagogue Growth & Space) One thing that we need to capture in the survey is how much do we take into consideration our future needs. For example, if we pick one day now (Saturday or Sunday), might we need to revisit the issue again because of space considerations. Or, if the survey were to show that people don't care too much about a Saturday Shabbat experience now, and we were to choose Saturday for RS, and then in a few years the number of Bnai Mitzvah are so high that we end up having a semi-regular Saturday service, then people's views might change. So if the survey can make people think about the future (2 years, 4 years, 6 years, etc.) as well as the present, that would be useful input. For example, one decision is to keep it status quo right now until the circumstances (space, Rabbi's availability, growth) force us to change the schedule. Inconvenience versus Participation Perhaps a question like: If we keep religious school on Saturday, it will mean If we move religious school to Sunday, it will mean I'm trying to get at a couple different things including level of inconvenience and whether or not participation would be negatively affected. Some people might not like something but would still come, but others would not be able to attend at all, and so we need some idea of the numbers in each category. Inclusivity of Values A beautiful email was sent suggesting it would be unfortunate to create a false choice between values (I.e., Jewish versus Sports), when there might be a way to accommodate a solution that enables the support of both Š actually showing how these values are mutually supportive. |
This page was last updated on December 16, 2007
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