Information for Prospective Religious School Families

Latest School News as of Thursday, July 17, 2008

Current 2008-2009 Religious School Calendar At-A-Glance (pending)

Direct link to the BJC Religious School Google Calendar online.

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Announcements for Summer, 2008

Information for Prospective Parents and Students

Ongoing Announcements

BJC Religious School Gleanings Project

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corners of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest….; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger….” Leviticus 19.9-10

Why? To benefit the hungry in the immediate neighborhood of BJC.

How?  Every time your child comes to school bring a “gleaning” from your pantry in the form of a box or can from the following list:

Beans Breakfast cereals Canned meat and fish -- All types, but especially canned corned beef, ham, chicken, SPAM, meat hashes, chili with meat, stews, salmon, and tuna Canned fruits Fruit juice concentrate -- Concentrated juice in soda-sized cans only (available at Giant) Jelly, jam, or honey Peanut butter Pasta Pasta sauce Powdered milk -- Boxes containing individual 1-quart envelopes (available at Giant) Rice Soups Vegetables -- All types, but especially tomatoes in 1 pound cans

The food will be placed in a cart and taken weekly, or as needed, to the Bethesda Help food closet where it will be used to provide emergency food support to local people in need. Last year they provided food to over 500 individuals and families.

Questions?  Eliot Sternfeld (301)320-3631 or esternfeld@juno.com

New 2008-2009 Religious School Schedule

1. What We Changed Last Year

Last year, the time of Saturday morning services was changed to 10:30am to enable us to make some changes to our usual scheduling of special school programs. In the prior years, we had generally scheduled major school program and assemblies for the end of the day, often extending the time past our usual ending time of 12:15pm. We recognized that, even with advance notice, it can be difficult to adjust family schedules so that parents and students can stay later on Saturdays. In addition, this often made for a very long day for younger students. Starting last year, almost all major school programs (for example, the Hanukah Happening, or the Tzedakah Fair) started at 9:00am (or sometimes 9:30am.) Portions of programs in which parents are asked to participate (or in which they like to participate) were started early, and structured to enable parents to attend services at 10:30am. On some days (like the Purim Carnival no classes are held following the special programs.

This new scheduling made the Hazzan more available to be part of school programs from 9:00-10:20am (except when there is a bar or bat mitzvah service that morning,) and allowed him to teach music to all grades throughout the year on an alternating schedule.

2. What We Are Changing for 2008-2009

We will continue to follow the new special event schedule established last year. In addition, we want to address the need to create an atmosphere of Shabbat in the school, and also give the Hazzan more opportunities to interact with students. Beginning in September 2008, we are slightly changing the schedule for the start of school as follows:

9:00 am     Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 report as usual.
9:45 am     All other grades report. (15 minutes earlier than previous years)

Each Saturday we will now hold an all-grades Shabbat Experience (a prayer, a thought, a song, and maybe time for an "ask the Hazzan" question) starting promptly at 9:45 am and ending around 10:05 am, at which times students will be dismissed to their Judaics classes. The assembly will be held in Covenant Hall unless there is a bar/bat mitzvah or other special event that requires us to use the BHPC Sanctuary or other suitable holy space.

To make this work:

Youth-Led Family Services Second Friday of the Month October Through May

SCHEDULE OF YOUTH-LED FAMILY SERVICE for the 2008-9 year

This family-oriented hour-long service is led by students in our religious school, and is accompanied by Mr. D. and our student band. An oneg Shabbat follows.

Regular Friday Evening adult services will be held at 8:00 PM in Covenant Hall.