Gates Quest Vision
Our vision for Jewish education extends beyond mere knowledge acquisition to include understanding, evaluating, and connecting with Jewish issues for both individual and community benefit. Essential Judaic elements allow various interpretations and necessitate imbuing children with the skills and values vital for comprehending contemporary Jewish life. We aim to equip Jewish youth, and ultimately all Jews, with a thorough understanding and appreciation of Judaism’s core principles and practices, ensuring they can identify with their Jewish civilization and community, while acknowledging that these connections will continually develop and mature throughout their lives. This foundational preparedness propels them towards committed participation in adult Jewish life.
18 Jewish Things a Young Jew Should Know, Care About, and Be Able to Do by Age 18:
- Connect with the Jewish People in its diversity.
- Cultivate Jewish Friendships.
- Engage with Jewish role models.
- Recall Jewish history, memory, and tradition.
- Participate in the Jewish community.
- Discover Judaism's relevance to life's questions.
- Explore God, spirituality, and prayer.
- Celebrate rituals and holidays.
- Pursue justice and tzedkakah.
- Practice Mitzvot and customs.
- Immerse in the holiness of nature and the environment.
- See oneself as an expression of God's creation.
- Interpret Jewish texts, Torah, and the core narratives.
- Care of Israel and its people.
- Access Hebrew and Jewish terminology.
- Partake in Jewish culinary traditions.
- Experience Jewish arts and culture.
- Respond to issues facing contemporary Jewry.
