Freedom School / הוראה לילדים
Freedom School / הוראה לילדים
Freedom School
Enrollment Open for 2024 – 2025
Regular Enrollment
Open until August 24th
$2,500 per student, K – 3 grades
$2,800 per student, 4 – 7 grade*
*Tuition reflects the extra day of learning for weekly Hebrew classes.
Please contact Spencer Weiss to have a conversation about financial assistance or if you want to further support us by contributing to our Scholarship Fund.
What is Freedom School?
Freedom School is The Kitchen’s answer to religious school. It’s our way of doing Jewish for families with kids (kindergarten and up) on Shabbat + holidays.
Freedom School is a one stop shop for all your jewish needs. Jewish life happens on Saturdays (not Sundays) so why not learn jewish, by doing jewish.
Why Freedom School?
We believe learning Torah will move students to justice. How do we do it? We teach Jewish by doing Jewish, in context, in community and out in the world - so you can do more Jewish, more meaningfully, more often, as a family. In other words, Freedom School happens when Jewish life happens, where Jewish life happens. And guess what? Not only is learning through experience more effective, it’s a lot more fun.
Freedom School
Goals & Objectives
Feel.
Feel connected to other kids, parents, and families who do Jewish
Create.
Create a Jewish home and community that contextualizes and reinforces Jewish practice as an organic way to approach the world.
Understand.
Understand how the Torah influences personal lives and American justice movements, and inspire students to be socially responsible;
Be.
Be empowered to articulate their Jewish values in the context of justice work;
Know.
Know central Torah texts, home prayers and brachot (blessings), interpretive methods of understanding Torah; the Jewish calendar and life cycle events; the importances of Shabbat.
Engage.
Be able to engage in Jewish study, rituals, traditions, and justice work, as well as as confident pray-ers who are “strong in the kahal/ community.”
Overview
Shabbat Mornings
Saturday Shabbat Mornings are the core of our program, here’s a little of what to expect to help your family do more Jewish, more meaningfully, more of the time:
Freedom School families assemble in-person on Shabbat (Saturday) mornings and holidays
Shabbat mornings will be filled with a mix of learning configurations: grade-cohort learning, all family learning, praying with the community, and celebrating B’nei Mitzvah of Freedom School students
Student experiences are rooted in grade-cohort bands (K/1, 2/3, 4/5, 6, and 7), around Torah, Mitzvot/Jewish Actions & T’fillah/Prayer, and Jewish Justice - all in a student-centered pedagogy. Your child’s voice, choices, and questions directs their learning
7th Grade students + parents learn Torah Love with Rabbi Noa Kushner, Hazzan Asher Levy & community educators
Parent Learning Circles: adult only space to schmooze, drink coffee, and pray
We’ll continue to experiment with space, method, modality, and format - in ways that keep us all safe
Typical Saturday AM Schedule:
9:00am Whole-Family / Grade-Cohort Learning
10:00am Kids: grade-cohort learning. Adults: praying
11:00am Torah service + grade-cohort time
11:30am Grade-cohort class time
12:30pm-ish Kiddush lunch (bagels, anyone?)
Holidays, Justice Days & Hebrew
Community Holiday Celebrations & Justice/Proximity Days
Throughout the year, we’ll also hold holiday celebrations and justice/proximity days in our community. For Justice/service days, Freedom School collaborates closely with One City, Glide, and Rabbi Michael Lezak for on-the-ground projects that help us get proximate, learn, and collectively bring more freedom into the world.
Weekly Hebrew on Zoom for 4th – 6th Grade only (7th opt-in)
A weekly half hour class Tuesday afternoons, with 4-6 students, focusing on decoding of letters, vowels, and reading key vocabulary of prayer and Torah.
Cohorts will be sorted into the following groups:
Ulpan – students new to learning Hebrew
Novice – students who know some letters and vowels
Intermediate – students who are comfortable reading basic Hebrew
Check out our full calendar here
Questions about Freedom School structure or enrollment? Email our Executive Director, Spencer Weiss, at spencer@thekitchensf.org.
Freedom School
Grade by Grade
Each Grade-Cohort is built around an interconnected, spiraled curriculum, based in three areas of content: Torah, Mitzvot/Jewish Actions & T’fillah/Prayer, and Jewish Justice. Through immersive, experiential, and student-centered learning, our cohorts will emerge from Freedom School as skilled, thoughtful readers and interpreters of Torah stories and texts, comfortable and confident pray-ers who are “strong in the kahal". Once graduated from Freedom School, your young adults with be ethically minded with a sense of Jewish values that underlie their understandings of the world.
Each grade cohort has a two-year sequence called Aleph & Bet (except 6th & 7th grade) that has an overarching essential question and theme.
Click through to see what each grade cohort will achieve in their two-year sequence.
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ALEPH
Essential Question
Who am I?Torah
Stories of Beresheet/creation, Adam & EveMitzvot & T’fillah
Shabbat ritual, Havdalah ritual, holiday symbols, prayers of the morning service (Psalm 136, Psalm 150)Justice
Values of kedusha/holiness, sakranut/curiosity, & emunah/faith; developing personal & communal creativityBET
Essential Question
Who are we?Torah
Stories of Noah & the flood, the Tower of Babel, & the Exodus from EgyptMitzvot & T’fillah
Shabbat & Passover rituals, connections between holidays & social relationships, prayers of the morning serviceJustice
Values of t’shuva/saying “sorry,” g’vurah/inner strength, & savlanut/resilience -
ALEPH
Essential Question
How do I interact with and appreciate the world?Torah
Stories of prayer, praise/gratitude, and petitioning/requesting in the TorahMitzvot & T’fillah
Prayers of Praise/Thanks and Petition/Asking as part of Shabbat Shacharit (focus on Shema + V’ahavta, l’El Baruch, Healing Prayers). Prayer stewardship: Greeting/Pass our siddurim/prayerbooksJustice
Values of bikkur cholim/visiting the sick, Shalom Bayit/Peace in the HomeBET
Essential Question
How do I honor previous generations?Torah
Stories of Abraham & Sarah, Rebekah & Isaac, Jacob, Rachel & LeahMitzvot & T’fillah
Petition, Praise, and Thanks as part of shabbat Shacharit, focus on Barechu, AvotJustice
Values of Kibud Av’V’Em/Honor Your Parents, Pesach as a holiday of honoring all, laws and customs of Tzedakah -
ALEPH
Essential Question
Why is it important to tell the story(ies) of the Jewish people?Torah
Stories of Creation, Leaving Egypt, Receiving TorahMitzvot & T’fillah
Marking Jewish time (rituals and practices); holidays of Zikaron/memory. Arc of a shacharit/morning service, with themes of Creation, Leaving Egypt, and Receiving Torah. Focus on prayers: Yotzer Or (Creation), Ahavah Rabbah (Receiving Torah), Mi Chamocha (Leaving Egypt). Prayer stewardship: KiddushJustice
Values of B’tzelem Elohim/In the Image of God, Brit/Framework for a Righteous Life, Zikaron/Memory, Cheirut/FreedomBET
Essential Question
What are Different Models of Jewish Leadership and Humility?Torah
Stories of Joseph, Moses & EstherMitzvot& T’fillah
Shabbat as a time for Menucha/Rest, Oneg/Delight + Shabbat Ritual (Kiddush and Challah). Leading prayers: Yotzer Or (Creation), Ahavah Rabbah (Receiving Torah), Mi Chamocha (Leaving Egypt). Prayer stewardship: KiddushJustice
Values of anavah/humility, g’vurah + gibor/inner strength and inner heroism -
Essential Questions
How do I develop as a leader and a teen/young adult in my community? What is a meaningful journey of growth into Jewish adulthood?Torah
Stories from Bamidbar and the formation of Israelite community; review of Torah and TanakhMitzvot & T’fillah
History of t’fillah through Jewish time; Torah Service liturgy, texts, ritual, and choreography. Prayer Stewardship: Torah Scroll careJustice
Middot & Mussar, Jewish ethical citizenship -
Essential Question
What does it mean to become a Jewish “young adult?”Torah
Close reading, drash, and midrash skillsMitzvot & T’fillah
Torah Service liturgy, texts, ritual, and choreography. Mitzvot of Jewish adulthood.Justice
Value of what our obligations to our city as a new Jewish adult?
Weekly Recaps
The 411 of everything we learned at Freedom School this past shabbat. Check here the Wednesday after Freedom School to read the recaps grade by grade.
