6th Graders Fund-raise for Books4Israel         7th Graders Build a Historic Synagogue

       
4th Grade Family Education                             Kindergartners'  beautiful seder plates

     
1st Graders visit Alterra House                        4th & 5th Grade Seder                     

Our Religious School program is for children in Kindergarten through 7th grade meets on Sunday mornings September through May from 9:30 am to 12:00 noon. Nearly 200 children attend Religious School. In Religious School, we provide an integrated program of classroom learning, hands-on activities, cultural and liturgical music and dance, holiday celebrations, family education opportunities and synagogue worship services.

Our Family Education program for every grade extends the class curricula and provides parents with the tools to incorporate these aspects of Jewish living in their lives at home. We particularly try to include learning for parents who want the basic 101 level, and those who need a more advanced discussion of Jewish thought and practice.

We eliminate the walls of our classrooms by taking students and their families on trips such as a tour of the Lower East Side of NYC, a performance of “Anne Frank” at the Cohoes Music Hall, a program about the “Spirit of the St. Louis” at the Egg, and the Israeli Dance Festival in Albany. Our First Graders learned about L'Dor V'Dor - from generation to generation by visiting with, and creating portraits of senior citizens at Alterra - a local assisted living facility.

Our students participate in Tzedakah activities such as weekly Food collection for the SICM food pantry and Thanksgiving Food Drive, monthly volunteering at the Regional Food Bank, a Pesach food collection, and a collection of Hygiene products for Bethesda House. We have participated in collecting funds to pay for cleft-palate operations for babies in China. We have an on-going partnership with Books4Israel, sending hundreds of books to Hof HaSharon Junior/Senior High School in Kibbutz Shefayim. We collect tzekakah money each week and distribute it at the end of the year to charitable organizations in Israel that are researched and chosen by the 7^th grade class.

We integrate computer resources into our classrooms with classroom presentations and research projects using internet websites in our computer lab.

Our students celebrate all our holidays in many ways: in community celebrations with other synagogues, in school wide programs with many activities, in programs within a classroom that completed a unit of study. We pay particular attention to celebrating differently at the different ages in the school, building on their skills and experience.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 6TH/7TH GRADE NEWSPAPER WHATS UP .

STUDENTS, CLASS LED BY LISA GLINDMYER AND LEAH WOLFF-PELLINGRA Video Clip .

This movie clip may be played on Windows or Macintosh computers with the Apple Quick Time Player.  

 To download a free copy of Quick Time Player, visit www.apple.com then click on the Quick Time Tab.

General Information about Hebrew School at CGOH

Our Hebrew School is in session two days each week, September through May - on Mondays and Wednesdays. However, our students only attend one day, selecting either Monday or Wednesday, for two hours 4:00 - 6:00 pm. This mid-week program is for students in grades 4 - 7. Our Sunday Religious School Program includes Hebrew Instruction for children beginning in grade 3. Nearly 100 children attend our mid-week Hebrew program.

The Hebrew Program uses materials – some hot off the press from Behrman House- which present both modern Hebrew and Prayer literacy with clarity, excellent educational design, visual appeal, and the use of child-friendly computer interactive CDs. Our beginning students use their CDs in our school library and at home for practice and to catch up when absent. Even beginning students are able to identify Hebrew words in the Siddur within a few lessons, second year students use using vocabulary and thinking in Hebrew. Students carry over grammatical constructions learned in modern Hebrew to understand the prayer Hebrew. Students learning about the holidays while learning Hebrew, and they acquiring a great understanding of the meaning of the prayers and their role in the service. We also provide intensify Torah Trope instruction in the 7^th grade. This enriched program not only prepares our students for their B’nai Mitzvah, but provide them with lifelong synagogue skills.

Our Nursery Program for 3 and 4 year-olds introduces the Jewish holidays, customs, symbols, Shabbat, and the Synagogue.

Congregation Gates of Heaven believes in nurturing Jewish identity through an Israel experience. The Passport to Israel Endowment Fund is used to encourage high school youth to include a trip to Israel as part of their Jewish education. The Endowment Fund supplements family contributions to student accounts in the Israel Experience Program of the United Jewish Federation, and offers need-based scholarships.

We have a vibrant program for post Bar and Bat Mitzvah:  Each week during the school year, over 100 students in Grades 8-12 meet on Wednesday evenings to study traditional and contemporary subjects related to Judaism and Israel, enabling students to socialize with their peers from the other community congregations. We have an outstanding record of students who have taken the New York State Hebrew Regents examination after studying in our Midrasha Program. www.schenectadymidrasha.org

Our B'Nai Mitzvah Students learn synagogue skills to last a lifetime. Four years of Hebrew or its equivalent are required for Bar/Bat Mitzvah. During the year preceding your child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah they receive individualized instruction in Torah, Haftorah, and T’fillot to prepare them to lead services during Friday evening and Saturday morning of the Shabbat on which they become Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Confirmation is completed at the end of 10th Grade. Confirmation comes at an age when a child becomes capable of gaining a more mature understanding of his/her faith. It is therefore the policy of the congregation to require a commitment from parents and child at the time of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah to continue religious education through Confirmation. Special events and trips add to the excitement of the Confirmation learning process and the Jewish experiences of our students.

Meet Our Educator - LEE BRICE lbrice@cgoh.org.

Lee has extensive administrative and teaching experience, as well as dedicated involvement in Reform Judaism. She was Administrator of the Religious School at B’nai Sholom Reform Congregation for five years. She taught emotionally disturbed children in grades 3-5 in the Greater Amsterdam School District for eight years. She came to Congregation Gates of Heaven in August 2002.

Lee was Administrator of Project Concern, an adolescent rehabilitation program in Boston and taught in the Bookline, MA public schools, Sage College Correctional Facilities Program and Parsons Child and Family Center. She holds a Masters Degree in education from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from Brandeis University.

Lee is an active member of B’nai Sholom in Albany, including chairing the creation of a Healing Service, founding the Steering Committee of the temple’s “Caring Community,” leading services in the Rabbi’s absence and participating in weekly Torah Study. She teaches English in Jerusalem during the summer through Teachers on Volunteer Service. Lee lives in Albany and has two children, Sojourner and George.