Religous Education

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Under the leadership of Zachary Goldstein, the Ruth and Lewis Davis Religious School provides a unique Jewish educational experience in a professional, caring, fun, and community-focused atmosphere. Our small learning environment enables us to offer differentiated instruction and the flexibility to meet your children where they are in their Jewish journey. Our goal is to prepare our students to lead Jewish lives as mensches. 

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תלמוד גדול, שהתלמוד מביא לידי מעשה

Study is greater because it leads to action 

(Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 40b)

Learning at Shaarei Kodesh is personalized, inspiring and empowering. We use the latest educational tools, technologies (including smartphone apps, Google Classroom, and hardware) and scholarship to make our opportunities for learning rich in meaning and deeply relevant to each of our learners.

PERSONALIZED

At Shaarei Kodesh, learning is crafted with an appreciation for each child's unique approach, pace, and style of learning and developmentally appropriate goals are set that both support and challenge the learner. Each child has a Personalized Learning Plan that tailors our school’s curriculum to the child’s needs and strengths.

INSPIRING

Joy, spiritual development, skill mastery, and content exploration are all a part of the inspiring learning environment created at Shaarei Kodesh. Learning at Shaarei Kodesh is fully integrated and emphasizes big ideas, essential questions and the application of our learning to our lives. At Shaarei Kodesh, learners are inspired to ask questions, seek answers and solve problems as they are immersed in Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies) and Ivrit (Hebrew.)

EMPOWERING

Learners at Shaarei Kodesh are empowered to own their learning. They are supported and guided in their learning by Madrichim (Learning Guides). More than teachers, Madrichim help students find the resources they need to reach their goals and master their learning. 

Kehillot - Learning Communities

Our program is structured around learning communities that allow students to learn from one another, see where their learning is going, serve as mentors and role models, and allow teachers to collaborate with one another. 

A multi-age classroom is not the same as a multi-grade classroom where students are still taught as separate grade levels even though they are in the same room.  Multi-age classrooms use flexible grouping and differentiate instruction according to each child’s needs without distinguishing students by grade level.

Learning is not just a communal activity, but part of our families. We strive to make our Jewish tradition relevant not just for our students but also for our families through family activities.  Every week, we will have opportunities for our families to engage in learning with our students.  

Enduring Understandings

Each student at Shaarei Kodesh has a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) built upon a set of Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings.

Big Ideas are categories of Jewish learning that help us learn in an integrated way. Enduring understandings are statements summarizing important ideas and core processes that are central to Jewish learning and have lasting value beyond the classroom. They synthesize what students should understand—not just know or do—as a result of studying a particular content area.

Our Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings:

PaRDeS: An Orchard of Learning

In traditional Jewish learning sacred texts can be examined on many different levels, each deepening our understanding and appreciate of the text. These levels are known by the acronym PaRDeS, which means "orchard."

Our learning is structured like the PaRDeS: We begin with simple understandings, learn to see hints of deeper meanings, immerse ourselves in Jewish wisdom and interpretation and then come to discover the sacred secrets that our learning holds for us.

Because we know that every child learns differently and at different paces, our program allows students to move through the PaRDeS as they are able, some faster and others more methodically.

In our radically connected world, content is readily accessible and so our focus is on helping students build a skill set that will allow them to access and interpret information, feel confident with Jewish ritual and tradition, and find their own voice in the eternal conversation between God and the Jewish people through Torah and sacred text.

Tracking Progress - Reaching Goals

Learning at Shaarei Kodesh is goal oriented and mastery-based. We work with our students and families to set challenging learning targets and then assess students on an ongoing basis through both formative (informal and ongoing) and summative assessments to help students reach their learning goals and show mastery.  Throughout the year, teachers will continue to assess students, in order to measure growth. At the conclusion of the year, parents will have visual representations of what each student has learned, as well as tangible data that show student progress.

Celebrating Success

At Shaarei Kodesh, a student’s success is determined by how they progress in reaching their learning goals. We will reinforce our students love of Jewish life by monthly celebrations and a siyyum, a final celebration of learning, at the end of the school year.  

For more information, e-mail office@shaareikodesh.org or call 561-852-6555.