Curriculum Guides 1994-2023
Located at Tartak Learning Center HUC-JIR 3077 University Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90007
Click the column headers to sort by those fields.
| Date | Subject | Title | Overview of Curriculum Guide | Grade Level | Setting | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Art | How to Hiddur Your Mitzvah: Pursuing Holiness through Beauty | Written for either an art specialist or a classroom teacher willing to commit an hour a month to art, this curriculum guide leads students through five year-long explorations of observing the mitzvot with beauty, or hiddur mitzvah. Each grade pursues holiness through single mitzvah themes with increasing levels of abstract application: Brachot, Pesach, Tzedek, Avodah, and Kedushah. By the end of the curriculum, students have created an impressive portfolio of artwork and ritual objects that they can use to observe the mitzvot with beauty for years to come. | Grades 3-7 | Religious School or Day School | Antonoff, Rae |
| 2023 | Bar/Bat Mitzvah | B Mitzvah for All | This E-Portfolio showcases the educational philosophy that every person who wants to have a B Mitzvah, feel valued, supported, and able to perform a B Mitzvah. The values of empathy and equal opportunity are what drives this work as a leader and educator. As a leader, one must remain open-minded, be willing to adapt, and be open to sharing resources with others. Accompanying the educational philosophy, this E-Portfolio contains resources that help Jewish educators put this philosophy into practice. | B-Mitzvah Students | Synagogue | Roth, Lauren |
| 1994 | Bible | The Book of Exodus and Its Influence on Jews Today | To demonstrate how Jewish identity formed around the story of the exodus. Students will complete text study and apply their knowledge of the Bible to modern Judaism. | Grade 8 | Religious School | Brot, Ilene Amend |
| 1994 | Bible | Five Scrolls: A Guide to Living | To study the five megillot/scrolls with a focus on values, relationships, and interaction with God. | Adult | Adult | Cosden, Susan Ellen Halpern |
| 1994 | Bible | The Book of Genesis | To study the stories of our ancestors and formulate a personal theology and system of morals based on the text. | Grades 6-8 | Religious School | Maayan, Cheryl Stiffman |
| 1994 | Bible | Leaders in the Bible: A Curriculum for Madrichim | To identify leadership qualities of biblical figures and establish personal leadership goals. | Madrichim in Training | Madrichim in Training | Segal, Maxine Handelman |
| 1996 | Bible | Teaching Genesis Through Story: A Curriculum for Second and Third Grades | To empower students by studying the stories and families in Genesis and comparing them to their own families. To explore the concepts of God and morals in Genesis. | Grades 2-3 | Religious School | Flash, Allison B. |
| 1996 | Bible | What do These People in the Bible Have to do with Me? | To explore the Biblical characters sense of humanity and morality in order to develop personal ethics. | Grades 7-10 | High School | Lippe, Susan Elizabeth |
| 1996 | Bible | King David: Some Kind of Hero | To engage in text study of Samuel I & II in order to learn about the complexity of King David. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Zweiback, Josh |
| 1998 | Bible | Remember the Going Forth From Egypt: A Curriculum Guide on the Exodus Narrative as our Master Story | To explore the "master story" of the Exodus to shed light on subjects like: Mitzvot, Prayer, Shabbat, Pesach, Shavout and Sukkot. | Family Ed. | Family Ed. | Lefkowitz, Ellen |
| 2000 | Bible | Family Relationships of the First Jews: A Literary Approach to the Bible | To explore Genesis using the literary techniques of Robert Alter. | Adult | Adult | Freidman, Shayna Fisher |
| 2000 | Bible | Shir HaShirim- Ancient Love Poetry or the Holy of Holies | To unlock the enigma that surrounds Shir HaShirim by concentrating on Shir HaShirim as a universal love poem, as a religious text about Israel's love relationship with God, and as a universal text about relationships. | Grades 9-12 | Camp | Hankin, Philip |
| 2000 | Bible | Turn it Again: Biblical Narrative through the Lens of Twelve-Step Recovery | To examine biblical narratives about struggle through the lens of recovery from substance abuse or other addictions. | Adult | Adult | Rosenberg, Lisa |
| 2001 | Bible | Psalms: Pathways to the Eternal | To study Psalms in order to expose students to biblical poetry and to provide them with tools for religious expression. | Adult | Adult | Rigler, Stacy Eskovitz |
| 2004 | Bible | Dynamic Relationships in the Torah | To examine relationships among biblical characters in order to educate Jewish teens about having successful relationships. | Grades 9-12 | High School | DePorte, Stephanie |
| 2005 | Bible | Finding Emotion in Biblical Poetry | To analyze and understand Biblical poetry through the lens of emotion. To help students engage in text as a means of connecting to the divine. | Adult | Adult | Hudson, Jocee |
| 2007 | Bible | From Our Roots to Ourselves: Learning From Biblical Women | This text-based curriculum is designed for adolescent girls. It begins by studying women in the Bible, many of whom faced issues similar to those faced by teenagers today. The Bible then serves as a basis to discuss contemporary issues confronting students, such as body image, self-esteem, beauty, sex, power, spirituality, relationships, and Jewish identity. | Adolescent Girls | Religious School | Gordon, Arianna |
| 2008 | Bible | Let's Go: Bemidbar! A Travel Guide Through the Book of Numbers | The Israelites' experiences “in the wilderness” closely mirror the individual and collective journeys that adolescents embark on in the “in-between” phase between childhood and young adulthood. This curriculum highlights Israel's triumphs, challenges, “roadblocks” and lessons learned on the winding road from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael, encouraging the students to identify their own Jewish values and beliefs that will help them navigate difficult transitional moments throughout their lives. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Katz, Noam |
| 2008 | Bible | Genesis: Rated “T” For Teen | This curriculum guide re-introduces the book of Genesis to adolescents as a narrative that is reflective of their own lives and relationships, and subsequently, directly relevant to their own experience. This guide is intended to expand, nuance, and enrich the students' childhood conceptions of the Genesis narratives, to provide students with the tools with which they can study Jewish text in the future, and to present the book of Genesis as a mirror of and a window into the human experience. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School | Zimmerman, Micol |
| 2010 | Bible | Betrayals of Trust: Approaching Nasty Narratives in the Bible and Beyond | This guide engages the Biblical text and commentaries of diverse forms (traditional to modern, visual art, poetry, etc.) on the subject of betrayals of trust: between followers and leaders, between parents and children, and between husbands and wives. These stories are instructive, because as we engage with the brokenness of the people in our most sacred narrative, we may learn to turn our hearts toward the brokenness of the people in our world. The guide encourages the learner to analyze these nasty biblical narratives toward creating a personal stance on how to respond to betrayals of trust. | Adult | Adult Education | Reice, Rebecca |
| 2011 | Bible | There is Nothing New Under the Sun: A Biblical Guide to the Modern Family | This curriculum guide will give learners the opportunity to study Torah in depth, cultivate relationships within the class, and fortify the learner’s personal identity as a member of a family and as a Jew. The guide will achieve these goals by giving the learners the chance to study a subject with which they are intimately familiar- what it means to be a part of a family. Through the study of Torah, the learner can feel a spiritual connection to the texts because for centuries, Jews all over the world have turned to Torah to help them understand being part of a family. | Adult | Adult Education | Irshay, Aimee |
| 2014 | Bible | Rebranding the Bible: A Hero's Journey Through Biblical Narrative | This curriculum introduces students to the wider world of Jewish Biblical text and reintroduces them to stories erringly thought of as only children's stories, all through the framework of the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell. As they learn new and different Jewish narratives, the Hero's Journey structure and archetypes, and the functions of mythology, the students follow their own Hero's Journey to a stronger Jewish identity and greater connection with Judaism. | Grades 9-12; Adult | Religious School; Adult Education | Alter, Daniel |
| 2015 | Bible | TXTing the Text | TXTing the Text is a Bible curriculum guide on methods of translating Torah for post b’nai mitzvah students. Students will participate in creating part of a new translation of the Torah into colloquial teen English written by Jewish teens for Jewish teens. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School or Day School | Gimbel, Jeremy |
| 2016 | Bible | Between the Lines, Beyond the Page – Jewish Texts Intersecting with Creative Arts |
This curriculum guide takes learners on a journey through creating an artistic interpretation of a biblical text. By exploring biblical texts together, focusing specifically on Shirat HaYam as the quintessential art infused text, and informed by the Four Lenses of Meaning-Making, participants become aware that Jewish texts offer more than halakhic or moral authority and art is about more than pure aesthetics. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School but easily adaptable | Kowalski, Lillian |
| 2018 | Bible | The Five Megillot: Blank Canvases for Artistic Expression of the Human Experience | This curriculum utilizes artistic experiences in which students view as well as produce art in order to foster an appreciation and personal connection to the lessons revealed through a close reading of the five megillot. |
Grades 10-12 | Religious School or Day School | Alban, Liora |
| 2008 | Bible | From Prophecy to Leading Jewishly: A Confirmation Curriculum | This curriculum guide explores the messages of the prophets and the way they communicate their ideals to the people. The goal of this curriculum is to help students learn what drives them as a leader and how to communicate to people. Students will study the prophets, the prophetic messages and leadership. They will also reflect on who they are and the type of leader they want to be and can be in the Jewish community. | Grade 10 Confirmation | Religious School, Camp | Rifkin, Rena Polonsky |
| 1994 | Comparative Judaism | The Origins of Hasidut | To expose students to the Hasidic history, culture, and belief system. To understand the process of change within a culture. | Grades 11-12 | High School | Gropper, Tamara Lustgarten |
| 1995 | Comparative Judaism | Hasidic History, Hasidic Story and Creating the Spiritual Community | To understand and identify with the history, leaders, spirit, and values of the Hasidic community. | Adult | Adult | Joseph, Linda |
| 2000 | Comparative Judaism | A Comparative Survey of Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, & Reconstructionist Judaism | To compare and contrast the four major denominations in America. To see how denominations fit into a larger historical canvas. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Appelman, Amy Nicole Allee |
| 2000 | Comparative Judaism | Understanding Diversity Among Jewish Religious Practices and Customs as a Reflection of Cultural Differences | To better understand the multicultural dimension of Jewish religious law, practice, and custom among Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewry. | Grade 10 | High School | Schechter, Sarah |
| 2003 | Comparative Judaism | Denominational Judaism in America: A Pluralistic Approach | To understand the basic history, ideology and practice of the major denominations. To foster a belief in klal Yisrael. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Kahn, Dena |
| 2006 | Comparative Judaism | How Do We Compare? | To obtain an in-depth understanding of the various streams of Judaism, so that students can better understand their own identity as Jews by understanding how their ideas about Judaism are similar to and different from the ideas of other Jews. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Garrett, Estee Pollak |
| 2009 | Ethics /Values | Tizkoret Tzedekah- Exploring the Difficult Questions of Modern Tzedekah | As 10-13 year olds prepare to become Jewish adults, it is important to provide them with resources to help guide their adult decision making processes. Our choices can and should be informed by Jewish text and tradition as we explore how and why to do Tzedakah. Our choices can and should also inspire us to take action within our communities and empower others to join with us in our righteous work. | Grade 5 | Religious School | Perpinyal, Laura Siegel |
| 2004 | Ethics/ | Tikkun Olam: Heritage in Action | To study the development of tikkun olam from the bible to the present. To construct a personal belief about tikkun olam. To engage in a tikkun olam project. | Grade 10 | Day School | Rosauer, Karen |
| 1996 | Ethics/ Values |
And Makes Us Holy... An exploration of Mitzvot | To see Jewish life as the pursuit of holiness and mitzvot as steps in that pursuit. To internalize the Reform process of informed choice and choose meaningful mitzvot. | Grade 7 | Religious School | Abraham, Michelle Shapiro |
| 1996 | Ethics/ Values |
Fostering Klal Yisrael Through Mitzvot Beyn Adam Lchavero | To connect mitzvot to our actions. To study and socialize with Jews from other synagogues. | Grade 12 | High School | Lynn, Michelle Joy |
| 1998 | Ethics/ Values |
An Adult Study Course in Jewish Civil Law | To study Jewish civil law (from Torah-Today) and apply the values to modern life. Topics include: business, property, family, public, and criminal law. | Adult | Adult | Moskovitz, Daniel |
| 2001 | Ethics/ Values |
Jewish Bioethics | To explore the ethical decisions posed by modern medicine. It addresses different Jewish positions on concerns about the way in which one cares for one's body and the decisions that one is forced to make about the treatment of a loved one. | Grade 9 | High School | Mandell, Avram |
| 2003 | Ethics/ Values |
Our Connection and Guide to Jewish Living | This curriculum examines the concept of developing a partnership with God through the life-long performance of mitzvot which is sparked by the particpation in and preparation for becoming b’nai mitzvah. | Grade 7 | Religious School | Eshel, David |
| 2004 | Ethics/ Values |
Mitzvot in Our Lives | To learn about, internalize, and practice mitzvot in order to strengthen Jewish identity and community. | Grade 7 | Religious School | Ettlinger, Kim |
| 2004 | Ethics/ Values |
The Virtues of Being a Jewish Teenager | To study relevant Jewish virtues and encourage students to emulate them. To see the concept of b’tzelem elohim as the basis for Jewish virtues. | Grade 8 | Religious School | Rosenzweig, Emily |
| 2004 | Ethics/ Values |
Turning Secular Choices into Jewish Choices | To help college-bound students have a Jewish system for making tough choices. To expose students to Jewish texts. | Grades 11-12 | High School | Werbow, Michael |
| 2005 | Ethics/ Values |
Reform Jewish Practice-Seeking the Sacred | To foster the development of a community of learners who will support one another in the search for meaning & Kedusha in Jewish practice. To encourage exploration & performance of mitzvot at home at synagogue. | Adult | Adult | Flanzbaum, Lynn D. |
| 2006 | Ethics/ Values |
Bringing Holiness to Life: “Living Jewishly” at Work, At Home, and in our Relationships | To examine Jewish values, traditions, and sacred texts relevant to three important arenas of life: home, work, and relationships. | Adult | Adult | Braunfeld, Mara Michaels |
| 2007 | Ethics/ Values |
Bein Adam L'Adamah: Exploring the Relationship Between Humans and the Earth | A large portion of this guide relies on memorable moments and reflection impossible to create in a traditional classroom setting. This guide focuses on three intersections of Judaism and the environment; holy land, prayer in nature and the values of dominion and stewardship. | Grades 9-10 | Camp or retreat; 22 sessions | Brown, Josh |
| 2008 | Ethics/ Values |
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Counselors: A Teen's Guide to Jewish Leadership | This curriculum guide outlines habits of effective leaders, as seen in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. These habits can be found in Biblical leaders, including Joseph, Esther, Moses and God. It is meant to allow for personal growth as well as leadership development, focusing on both the personal aspect of leadership (how one views oneself, chooses one's words and actions, and the behavior one exhibits) and the relationship aspect of leadership (how we interact with others). | High School (Counselors in Training) | Camp/Retreat; Religious School | Mason, Erin Ellis |
| 2009 | Ethics/ Values |
Tzedakah Tzedakah Tirdof: A Curriculum Guide on Making Jewish Philanthropic Decisions | This curriculum guide includes three units in which participants will learn about making Jewish philanthropic decisions. In the final unit, students will put together everything they have learned and make choices about where they would give tzedakah. | Grades 8-10 | Religious School, youth group, or teen philanthropy program | Bell, Missy |
| 2012 | Ethics/ Values |
Kupat tzedakah: A Family Collective | This family education curriculum guide introduces learners to core tzedakah principles; Jewish organizations that do tzedakah; and equips learners with the wherewithal to do tzedakah intentionally as a lifelong practice. | Various | Family Education | Geffen, LuAnne Tyzzer |
| 2014 | Ethics/ Values |
Mindful of Middot - A Lay Leader's Guide To Applying Jewish Values | This curriculum guide enhances lay leaders’ Jewish literacies regarding the middot, and explains their relevance in their role and work as Jewish lay-leaders. Specifically, the five core values that this guide will focus on include: Tzedek - Justice Chesed - Compassion Kehillah, Community; Lashon Hara - Ethical Speech Btzelem Elohim - Made in God's Image. This guide aims to teach ways in which these values snhould be used in the decision-making, organizational operation, and daily running of a non-profit. |
Adult | Community setting such as at a Federation, Jewish Community Center, or other communal organization. | Ross, Becka |
| 2014 | Ethics/ Values |
A Tale of Two Truths: Power, Privilege, and Oppression in Jewish Social Justice Work: Social Justice Learning for Synagogue Lay Leaders | Why do Jews do social justice? Adult synagogue lay leaders will explore their own answers to this question by studying history and Jewish text. Learners will develop action plans for their synagogue's social justice work based on the learning that they do together. | Adult; could be adapted for teens |
Adult Education | Wajnberg, Miriam Farber |
| 2000 | Ethics/Values | Living Jewish Virtues: An Exploration of Midot | To explore Jewish virtues (between people/between people and God) with the understanding that observing virtues leads to a life of holiness. | Grades 5-6 | Camp | Lewis, David J. |
| 2002 | Ethics/Values | Camp Values Curriculum: Talmud Torah | To teach the Jewish value of Talmud Torah through text study | Grades 4-6 | Camp | Jacques, Amy Idit |
| 2007 | Ethics/Values | Economic Justice in Judaism: Understanding Hunger, Homelessness, Health Care and Worker’s Rights Through the Lens of Jewish Texts | Texts focused on economic justice are just one component of a genre of texts which speak to our responsibility to help those in the community who cannot support themselves. As a result, all Jews are bound together by a common practice of rituals, liturgy and social responsibility. This curriculum serves to provide students with a list of uniquely Jewish reasons and support for engaging in economic justice. | Grades 10-12 | Religious School | Vogel, Carrie Frank |
| 2008 | Ethics/Values | Why Mitzvot? A Reform Reexamination of Mitzvot | This curriculum guides adult learners through a process of experiencing and studying mitzvot, including their sources, practice, and implications. Each mitzvah is interpreted through a framework called the “Mitzvah Matrix” which includes perspectives, reasons, and/or benefits of observing that mitzvah. The matrix is framed by two aspects of relationships: connection and obligation; and how mitzvot can characterize a relationship with others, God, and oneself. | Adult | Adult Education | Medwin, Daniel Bloom |
| 2008 | Ethics/Values | Ingredients for Revolution: How the Exodus Inspires Social Change | This curriculum guide seeks to explain how the Exodus narrative has been influential and transformative in our lives, our Jewish community and our world in the past and present. The guide explores how the Exodus shapes our own Jewish identity by illuminating the importance of social justice, as well as how it has inspired and motivated enslaved groups throughout time to work for their own freedom. Lastly, the guide will offer students a project that exhibits their learning about revolution: creating a better future based on central Jewish values. | High School | Religious School, Youth Group | Medwin, Lydia Bloom |
| 2010 | Ethics/Values | Getting Down with the Earth: A family guide to learning middot through building a congregation garden | This curriculum guide takes participants on an adventure studying middot through building an organic community garden. The guide features such middot as: malacha (work), nedivut (generosity), and yirah (awe). Families are connected to the greater community by volunteering their time and donating all the food grown to a local food bank.. | Grades 4-7 + family | Family Education | Cohen, Bradley |
| 2010 | Ethics/Values | Created Uniquely Oneself: A Confirmation Class Exploring Identity, Community and Tradition through Jewish Ideas of “Being Human” | This course uses Jewish texts, from the Bible into the modern period, to explore what it means to be a human being, through the lens of Judaism. Students explore their own identity and examine their actions through the frame of values they articulate using text study and reflection. This is an ethics course to help students formulate values of community, identity and respect. | Grade 10 Confirmation | Religious School | Philips, Miriam |
| 2012 | Ethics/Values | It's All About Relationships: The Virtues That Guide Us | This curriculum guide helps middle school students and their parents uncover what it means to fashion sacred relationships in their lives. It focuses on four middot: anavah (humility), chesed (loving-kindness), achrayut (responsibility), and yoshrah (integrity) as tools for creating and sustaining sacred relationships bein adam l’chaveiro. Using biblical, rabbinic and Jewish thought sources, the curriculum provides models of various types of relationships as a means for guiding learners toward applying these virtues in their own relationships.????? | Middle School & Parents | Family Education | Berney, Lisa |
| 2013 | Ethics/Values | Intentional Living – Refining Your Beliefs and Realigning Your Actions | This CG helps individuals uncover their personal beliefs through different means including journaling, learning different Jewish theologies, and the study of Hasidut and Kabbalistic texts. Students pair learning with self-examination in order to assess how they make decisions and act in the world in relation to other people, the environment, and in making financial decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to realign actions with beliefs in order to better the world. | Adult | Adult Education program; Could be a year-long program or a series of retreats throughout the year. | Plotnik, Molly |
| 2013 | Ethics/Values | My So Called Life: Applying Jewish values to our lives outside of Religious School | This guide was created to address the lack of both developmentally appropriate teaching content, and incorporation of theory into the students’ personal actions. The values explored in this 6th grade curriculum guide are: lashon harah (gossip); t’mimut (integrity); shalom bayit (peace in the home); boshet (embarrassment). | Grade 6 | Religious School | Sherry, Mindy |
| 2013 | Ethics/Values | AP Kindness: Mussar for Teens | This course provides an opportunity for young people to strengthen their spiritual core through the specifically Jewish path of Mussar, a method that challenges students to align their internal truths with their external behavior. Mussar study serves to cultivate their moral & ethical mind, a developmental area not often intentionally addressed within their academic world. Without focusing on how we live Jewish values, our students go out into the world with little to no idea of how to use their faith to both define & refine themselves while simultaneously turning outward to help others. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School | Wohlner, Bess |
| 2014 | Ethics/Values | How I Met Your Middot: Jewish Virtues in American Pop Culture | This curriculum presents eight teen-relevant middot through the lens of American popular culture. On a first level, this enables pop-culture-saturated learners to access the middot. But more than that, using pop culture shows learners the implicit Jewish content present in their overwhelmingly secular-looking world. A TV show character doesn’t have to be Jewish to display an act of courage, but through this curriculum learners will acquire the ability to recognize that character’s action on a deeper level, as an act of ometz lev. | Grades 10-12 | Religious School or Camp | Klass, Dusty |
| 2015 | Ethics/Values | Working Right(eously): Jewish Values in Professional Life | This curriculum examines the role of Jewish values in a professional setting. By considering the role sh'mirat hanefesh, kavod, anavah, and tzimtzum can play, students will be able to explore the importance of sensitivity towards how one's behavior affects those with whom one interacts. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School; Youth Group | Berne, Nicole |
| 2015 | Ethics/Values | Lo Alecha Hamlacha Ligmor: Alleviating Suffering Through Mitzvot | This curriculum guide is called Lo Alecha Hamlacha Ligmor, after Rabbi Tarfon’s famous saying that it is not upon you to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. In this guide, high school learners in a synagogue setting confront the brokenness of the world around them, and they engage with the Jewish tool of mitzvah to help alleviate it. Along the way, they will act out these mitzvot to confront suffering in the real world, and to create personal meaning for themselves | Grades 9-12 | Religious School or Youth program | Herzog, Lenette |
| 2016 | Ethics/Values | THE BROKENHEARTED TEEN’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL CHANGE: Developing Jewish Character Virtues to Change Your Community | What do you see in the world that breaks your heart? For this curriculum, students are asked to take on the responsibility of this serious question and make positive change in their community. With each unit, they make it happen by raising awareness, starting conversations, and bringing community members on board to share their dream for a better future. | Grades 10-12 | Religious School or Youth Group | Levine, Lori |
| 2016 | Ethics/Values | Praying With our Feet: A Teenager's Guide to the Jewish Social Justice Cycle of Noticing, Understanding and Doing. | Learners will explore how prayer and text can be a tool to notice issues in the world and understand the Jewish obligation to respond to them. In the curriculum, learners will choose a cause to which they feel they can no longer stand idly by; and as they move through the proposed social justice cycle of noticing, understanding and doing explore how prayer and social justice can intersect to alleviate their chosen issue. | Grades 10-12 | Religious School or Youth Group | Marx, Ashley |
| 2018 | Ethics/Values | What I Learned At Jewish Summer Camp-Encouraging Our Staff Members To Embody Kavod On Their Jewish Journeys | This curriculum guide aims to teach camp staff members about the intricies of the Jewish value of kavod and how kavod can be applied to and found in their relationships, their sense of self, their camp setting and the world around them. | Adult: Camp staff | Camp | Dubowe, Rachel |
| 2018 | Ethics/Values | Journey with No End: A Middot Curriculum for 5th Grade Families | This Curriculum Guide brings 5th grade families on a journey to discover the middot, the Jewish virtues, that we as Jews encounter throughout our everyday lives. This curriculum opens learners’ minds to a vast array of lenses through which to approach middot and recognizes each learner’s unique struggle to make sense of middot. It brings families together to explore life's most important questions during a time when pre-adolescents and their parents begin to differentiate from each other. When parents and children learn separately and together, Jewish content will become family content. | Grade 5 and their parents | Religious School | Rosenbaum-Jones, Sarah |
| 2019 | Ethics/ Values |
You Want a Piece of Me? Productive Conflict in a Jewish Context | This curriculum guide uses Jewish texts as a lens through which teenagers can learn to engage in respectful, constructive, and nonviolent conflict in their modern world, understanding the textual bases of these issues in Jewish tradition and using those as the building blocks for their own personal engagement in these issues today. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Atkind, Mikah |
| 2019 | Ethics/ Values |
Darchei Shalom: Paths of Peace- Our Responsibility as Jews to Civic Engagement | This curriculum guide is a navigation of our Jewish responsibility toward civic engagement. It looks at our experiences as individuals with intersectional identities who live within multiple communities, and our responsibility as Jews to each one. It pairs specific Jewish values with the communities of Ourselves and Others, The Land in Which We Live, Israel, the Diaspora, the Global Community, and Our Personal Jewish Community in order to explore teens' different experiences in those communities, and the ways that they are capable of and have the power to engage civically. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Jaszczak, Emma |
| 2020 | Ethics/ Values |
"Tzedakah: A Holistic Jewish Practice A Supplementary Education program for 5th grade learners together with their Grown Ups " | Through the exploration of ancient traditions, Jewish texts and contemporary understandings of Tzedakah, learners are guided towards creating personalised connections to Tzedakah practices. Families are guided through the process of developing, implementing and reflecting upon a Family Tzedakah Project, a framework to inspire life-long Family Tzedakah practices. | Family Education | Family Education | Cohen, Tamara |
| 2020 | Ethics/ Values |
A Valued Life: An Exploration on Inclusive Practices through Jewish Values | A Valued Life takes learners on an explorative journey of Jewish values to help them learn how to live authentically Jewish and inclusive lives. Throughout this curriculum, learners will be naturally exposed to the vast diversity of the Jewish people while learning about 3 Jewish values alongside inclusion practices. Additionally, learners will each create their own Resource Guides to help them remember these values and inclusive practices and serve as sources of inspiration when necessary. | Grades 6-8 | Religious School | Levine, Erin |
| 2021 | Ethics/ Values |
To Judge According to Merit: Assessing Great Jewish Leadership | This curriculum guide invites students to assess great Jewish leadership by utilizing a set of criteria established by the group in the first unit. Students examine stories of leadership from the Jewish textual tradition, evaluate the leadership of four Israeli Prime Ministers, explore modern Jewish leadership, and ultimately craft their own leadership stance in the final unit. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Meyers Burke, Anna |
| 2022 | Ethics/ Values |
“I Will Not Let You Go Unless You Bless Me”: A Curriculum Guide in Wrestling with Morally and Theologically Troubling Texts in Torah | This curriculum guide intends to provide 10th-12th grade learners in a supplementary religious school to wrestle with Torah texts that could potentially be morally or theologically troubling. An important theme that runs throughout this guide is that blessing can come from wrestling with something difficult. Through wrestling with text, learners should come to a new and deeper understanding of the text and themselves. Through that learning they will be challenged to create blessings that describe the learning they have done. | Grades 10-12; College | Camp/Retreat; Supplemental Religious School | Berg, Julia |
| 2018 | Halacha | Defining Oneself Through The Halakhic Process: A Curriculum Guide for Reform Jewish Teenagers | Teenagers are rapidly trying to define themselves. To prepare them to engage in the halakhic process, they will examine different ways halakhah can be defined, practice creative textual interpretation and finally delve into areas of ethical halakhah, with opportunities to find new meanings in each of them. | Grades 11-12 or Adult | Religious School or Adult Education | Freedman, Daniel |
| 2003 | Hebrew | More Than Israel Has Kept Hebrew, Hebrew Has Kept Israel | To view Hebrew as a means of deepening religious expression, strengthening a bond to Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael, and identifying as an American Jew. To instill a passion for Hebrew. | Grades 9-12 | Camp | Citrin, Micah |
| 1994 | History | First Century Judaism | To expose students to the diverse Jewish sects during the first century CE and explain how that diversity connects to today. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Abrams, Richard Scott |
| 1994 | History | This Land is Your Land, This Land Is My Land | To grapple with the Jewish struggle to maintain identity and find acceptance in the United States of America. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Jacobs, Jill Suzanne |
| 1994 | History | The Rabbinic Period | To introduce students to the history, sages, values, and texts of the rabbinic period. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Palmer, Andrea |
| 1996 | History | How Did We Get Here: A Look At American Jewish History During the 1880s-1920s | To expose students to a variety of the major American Jewish experiences of the 1880s-1920s in order to instill a sense of pride and identity. | Grades 8-12 | High School | Kaufman, Jodi |
| 1997 | History | A Human Perspective on Judaism | To provide a closure to formal Jewish education by studying Jewish history and personalities. | Grade 10 | High School | Conyer, Bryan |
| 1997 | History | The Golden Moments of Jewish History | To study five golden periods in Jewish history and empower students to create their own golden period. | Grade 10 | High School | Hausman-Weiss, Scott |
| 1999 | History | Divided We Fall: Life in Judea During the First/Second Centuries CE | To introduce students to the second Temple period, Rabbinic Judaism, and early Christianity by studying historical figures, sects, and institutions. To see Rabbinic Judaism as the foundation for today’s diversity. Copies of this Curriculum Guide are no longer available. |
Grades 9-12 | High School | Churgel, Michael S. |
| 2000 | History | First Century Judaism | To expose students to Jewish history of the first century CE. Students will connect the Jewish diversity of that era with diversity today. | Grade 12 | High School | Buyer, Melissa Fogel |
| 2000 | History | Jewish and American: A Glimpse at the Past, A Glimpse at Ourselves | To examine the lives of various American Jews in order to better understand and identify with American Jewish history. | Adult | Adult | Lewald-Fass, Regina |
| 2000 | History | American Jews in the Far West | To explore the choices American Jews in the far West made from the gold rush through the early twentieth century. | Grade 5 | Religious School | Phillips, Julia C. |
| 2000 | History | Out of Many, We Became One or Not? A Curriculum Guide on the Waves of Immigration to America | To study different Jewish immigrant experiences and contributions in the United States to better understand the community around them. | Grades 5-6 | Religious School | Weiss, Leonie |
| 2006 | History | The Choices That Shape Us: An American Jewish History Curriculum | To examine the choices Jews have made in America from the time of the first Jewish settlers through the central European migration, the processes by which those decisions were made, and their engagement with their identity amidst a pluralistic society. | Grade 5 | Day School | Bahir, Sabrina Sjolseth |
| 2007 | History | Snapshots: A Curriculum for the Integrated Teaching of American Jewish History | This is not a full American Jewish history curriculum. Instead, these curricular materials offer “moments,” or mini episodes (all based on primary sources) that may be inserted into a regular 11th grade United States history course. | Grade 11 | Day School | Mason-Barkin, Joshua |
| 2009 | History | Adventure, Opportunity, and Discovery: Finding Oneself In The Los Angeles Jewish Experience | This curriculum guide is a case study of Jewish American history that challenges the reader to explore dimensions that made the Los Angeles Jewish experience unique. Study will include familiar Jewish institutions, neighborhoods, and relationships with other local cultures. Students will also explore the history of their families and who they are as individuals. | Grades 10-12 | Religious School or Youth Group | Moss, Luisa |
| 2011 | History | From Stumptown to the Emerald City: A History of the Jews of the Pacific Northwest | This curriculum guide is designed to teach history in a way that focuses on contextual understandings of history. Rather than learning dates and place names, the curriculum embraces a multi-media approach to the uncoverage of knowledge. This curriculum teaches American Jewish history through a particular regional lens, dealing solely with the Jewish communities of Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. The material is thus more personal to learners from the Pacific Northwest Region. | Grade 9 | Religious School | Schulman, Callie Souther |
| 2018 | History | Looking Back, Moving Forward: History and Memory as Critical Tools for Jewish Communal Professionals | This curriculum is for Jewish communal professionals to explore the Jewish past, focusing on three different time periods—ancient/biblical, modern, and contemporary—and pairing each period with a theme—foundations of community, change and innovation, and growth and expansion, respectively. In this way learners will explore 1) how Jewish community formed and existed in different places and times and 2) how this progression is a framework for understanding the development of a community and/or organization. | Adult: Jewish Communal Professioanals | Professional Development Sessions | Goldstein, Missy |
| 2012 | History | Models of Jewish Expression and Identity in the New Testament Narrative | The New Testament narrative presents the ideas, belief systems, trends and rituals of the Judaisms during the late Second Temple period. The narrative also provides details about the development of Rabbinic Judaism, the democratization of Jewish sects, Jewish life under Roman authority, and meaningful Jewish rituals that we continue to observe today. By studying New Testament, learners will gain greater insight into the origins of first century Judaisms. Therefore, the New Testament can expose and help contemporary Jews understand Judaism as practiced today more deeply. | Adult | Adult Education | Wright, Adam |
| 1996 | Holiday | Living Holidays for Jewish Adolescents | To explore, question, and understand the importance of Jewish holidays for both traditional and cultural Jews. | Grades 5-7 | Religious School | Ross, Felicia Goodman |
| 2004 | Holiday | Jewish Home Festivals that Create Jewish Time | To discover the religious/symbolic meanings of the holidays through text study. To develop rituals/ observances that incorporate/reflect Jewish values. | Adult | Adult | Parker, Teresa |
| 2000 | Holiday | Recipe for Shabbat Shalom | To guide families through study about key Shabbat concepts so families can develop their own Shabbat rituals and observance. | Family Ed. for Parents with Young Children | Family Ed. | Zelkowicz, Tali Hyman |
| 2007 | Holiday | Shabbat – A Spiritual Quest | This guide is intended for learners who might already have some familiarity with Shabbat liturgy and ritual. They might be looking for a deeper understanding and more nuanced approaches to their current observance or looking to increase their observance. This guide will challenge both instructor and learner to examine current understandings of Shabbat and create new ways of thinking about Shabbat. | Adult | Adult Education | Whinston, Josh |
| 2020 | Holiday | Kehillot haOlam: Experiencing the World Through the Jewish Holidays | This curriculum guide brings to life the extensive array of global Jewish narratives and traditions. It seeks to broaden the students’ own sense of Judaism through experimentation with practices outside of their family or community experience, through the ways in which Jewish holidays are celebrated around the world. building blocks for their own personal engagement in these issues today. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School | Blumenthal, Michelle |
| 1999 | Holocaust | Searching Out the Answers of Life: Teaching the Shoah from a Theological Perspective | To study the Holocaust through the lens of challenging theological questions. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Hessel, Joui |
| 2000 | Holocaust | Ethical Dilemmas: An Analysis As Seen Through the Eyes of the Holocaust | To struggle with some of the ethical dilemmas faced during the Holocaust and apply these to personal experiences. | Adult | Adult | Delcau, Stacey Frishman |
| 2000 | Holocaust | The Role of Altruism in the Holocaust | To illustrate the value of altruism during the Holocaust and to explore ways to exemplify this value today. | Grades 9-10 | High School | Reiser, Karen |
| 2000 | Holocaust | History of the Holocaust | To revisit the facts and functions of the Holocaust through actual documents and personal accounts in order to acquire a more comprehensive and complex understanding of this historical event. | Grade 12 | High School | Vinnecour, Sheri |
| 2009 | Holocaust | Heroism and Resistance in the Holocaust | It is common for Jewish students to see Jews as simply helpless victims during the Holocaust. In this curriculum guide, students analyze the motivations behind people's heroic acts, examine the Jewish values inherent within those acts, and delve into the various modes of resistance that Jews and non-Jews engaged in. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School or Day School | Kahn, Matt |
| 2010 | Holocaust | I and Thou: Connecting to Holocaust Survivors and Ourselves | This curriculum guide examines the Jewish values of yesh tikvah (maintaining hope), tochecha (rebuke), yediat haEl (knowing God), and zechut avot (merits of our ancestors) through the lens of Holocaust survivor artifacts. Due to their experiences, Holocaust survivors embody the struggles with these Jewish values. As students and parents engage deeply with their stories, soul-searching conversations will inspire more questions about life. At this guide’s conclusion, parents and teens will consider and choose values that they hope to pass on to future generations. Note: This curriculum guide is intended for students and parents who have already taken a course on the Holocaust | Grades 11-12; Intended also for the parents of the 11th and 12th grade students. | Religious School, Family Education | Weisman, Tami |
| 2015 | Holocaust | Witnessing Poland: A Preparation and Reflection Guide for Teen Trips to Poland | This curriculum is designed to intellectually and emotionally prepare high school students for a trip to Poland. Students will study primary sources relating to prewar Jewish life in Poland, destruction of Jewish life in Poland, and stories of righteousness throughout the Holocaust. On their trip, students will be given the opportunity to be the tour guide for their peers. Upon returning home, a closing reflective unit will enable students to think deeply about their experiences in Poland in order to make personal Jewish meaning out of their travels. | Grades 11-12 | Day School or Informal Education as preparation for a group trip | Feinstein, Ariel |
| 2015 | Holocaust | Zachor V'Sappeir: Jewish Memory and the Holocaust | This curriculum covers the Exodus, Hanukah, and Esther narratives, holiday liturgy and ritual, and certain aspects of Holocaust history. Students explore two questions: How does the Jewish historical narrative, as I encounter it, make me feel about being Jewish? Given my understanding that the way we represent our past shapes our future, how will I choose to remember the Holocaust? | Grades 11-12; Adult | Religious School or Day School | Horwitz, Natalie |
| 1997 | Identity | The Young Jewish Adult | To challenge and entice learners to further explore what Jewish learning and living have to offer. | Young Adult | Shabbat Dinner | Conyer , Allison Henteloff |
| 1997 | Identity | Exploring Masculinity and Jewish Meaning: A Curriculum and Resource Guide for Male Identity Development | To help young men develop a male Jewish identity based on Torah, God and Israel. | Adult Male | Adult | Marantz, Craig |
| 2002 | Identity | Fully Jewish, Fully American | To expose students to American Jewish personalities in order to help them deal with the tension of being both Jewish and American. To develop a positive identity as American Jews. | Grades 5-6 | Religious School | Young, Beth Ellen |
| 2005 | Identity | Slavery, Freedom, Commitment & Identity: Jewish Emerging Adult’s Journey | To study selected sacred texts and holidays as a tool to navigate the identity transformation from adolescence to adulthood. | High School | High School | Allenberg, Adam M. |
| 2007 | Identity | Finding the Kedusha In Kashrut: An Ethical Guide For Jewish Teens | This curriculum looks to challenge learners to explore the kedusha (holiness) inherent in biblical kashrut. Having done this, the curriculum then offers opportunities for learners to ask how these “kosher” values might be applied to our shopping practices, our relationships with others, and then finally our treatment and perception of ourselves. | Grades 9-10 | Camp/Informal Education | Lazarow, Gersh |
| 2007 | Identity | Laughing To Fit In: Jewish American Identity through Jewish Humor | This curriculum traces the evolving communal Jewish identity in America throughout the 20th Century. Learners will have the opportunity to examine jokes, written texts, and clips from movies and television for deeper meaning about Jewish stereotypes and the interaction between Jewish and American culture. They will also be given the opportunity to reflect on what these ideas mean for their own identities, both individually and as a group. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School | Levine, Julia Witkow |
| 2007 | Identity | Love, Looks, and Life | Teenage girls today need guidance regarding how to ethically use and think about their bodies. We, as educators, have the exciting opportunity to open the pathways of communication about these difficult issues. This curriculum guide will give students the opportunity to use Jewish texts and Jewish values as tools for decision-making about how they use their bodies, and how they approach relationships with others. | High School Girls | Religious School Elective | Margolis, Rachel Isaacson |
| 2008 | Identity | In Our Image: A Look at How Jewish Identity has Changed in America | Identity and the way we see ourselves is often influenced by the images we see in the media, and Jewish identity isn’t any different. Students will not only look at these forms of popular media as a mirror, reflecting (or even distorting) our image, but also in the way that it plays a role in how and why our identity is shaped. | Grade 12 | Religious School | Magidson, Jordan |
| 2008 | Identity | Be a Man, Be a Jewish Man: An Exploration into the Multifaceted Relationship Roles of Men through Jewish and Contemporary Texts | This curriculum creates a safe, creative, shared space for young men to explore, develop, and experience their own ideas of how they want to live their values in relationship with others and how they define the Jewish men that they hope to be - space that is lacking in most male teenagers' lives. | Grades 10-12 Boys | Religious School / Youth Group | Margolis, Ari |
| 2009 | Identity | Hearing Our Voices: Mothers and Daughters Exploring Jewish Womanhood | Judaism can guide contemporary American women as they navigate a culture that too-often teaches women damaging negative self-talk. Further, Jewish feminism can guide contemporary Jewish women as they navigate the traditionally androcentric worlds of Jewish text, language, and ritual. This curriculum guide aims to support Jewish American adolescent women and their mothers as they together navigate the unique challenges of Jewish American womanhood during this particularly difficult time in both of their lives. | Post-Bat Mitzvah Adolescent Women and their Mothers | Family Education program or Day School | Stern, Rebekah |
| 2009 | Identity | And Justice For All: Jewish Involvement in the American Public Sphere | This curriculum is meant to supplement American History courses taught in secular school. It focuses on Jewish and American identity, and the tensions and similarities between the two. It does so by focusing on social justice issues, and how students might intersect their identities to be involved in the public sphere. Units include historical information, a look at modern issues, and a service-learning opportunity. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School or Day School | Walsh, Emily |
| 2010 | Identity | What's Informed About Informed Choice?: One Approach to Growing an Intentional Jewish Praxis | We need a paradigm shift from "What I don't have to do because I am a Reform Jew” to "What I ought to do because I am a Reform Jew”. Adult learning-cohorts will work to explore what Judaism means to them personally; and how that might obligate them in the larger Jewish community. Individual Jews and Reform Jewish communities can explore how they might grow commitments to Jewish life, practice, and identity through learning and doing. | Adult | Synagogue Adult Education | Gross, Jessy |
| 2010 | Identity | Multiple Identities -- one me: Navigating the slippery boundaries among multiple and competing cultures. | This curriculum guide uses four phenomena -- music, law, Aleinu, and Brit Milah -- to explore the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures. Each of the four phenomena presents varied and complex perspectives on the intersection of cultures. Lessons raise issues of Jewish authenticity and engage students to map their own place within the Jewish and secular community. | Grades 7-8 | Religious School | Mills, Ilana |
| 2011 | Identity | Making a Mensch: A Jewish Parent’s Guide to Parenting Teens | The art of parenting a teenager is an amazing adventure, but often leaves one desperately searching for answers. Judaism can deeply influence and enrich this parenting act. This guide is a blend of Jewish textual tradition and secular parenting knowledge designed to guide adult learners who are actively engaged in the parenting of an adolescent. It seeks to create a framework of Jewish sources that will serve as a scaffold upon which learners can refine their Jewish parenting values. | Adult parents or caregivers of pre-adolescents and/or adolescents | Adult Education | Abrasley, Laura |
| 2011 | Identity | Beyond Judaica: Investigating how Modern and Contemporary Jewish Artists can enable our own Expression of Jewish Identity. | All Jewish Artists eventually struggle with what their Judaism means to the creation of their Art. Through this curriculum, the student will experience Jewish Art and Artists through Art History, Studio Art, and an exploration of the self. Emerging Artists of high school age are at a critical stage in their personal development and can use art as a vehicle for self-understanding as well as self-expression. The curriculum provides experiences that will hopefully move them towards a better understanding of their heart as well as a better ability to relate through their head and hands. | Grades 11-12 This is not an introductory Art class. It is expected that students will already have some skills |
Day School | Dreffin, Matthew |
| 2013 | Identity | How Am I Am Yisrael? | This curriculum explores three dimensions of contemporary Jewish Peoplehood: Jewish Expressions, Jewish Practices, and Snapshots of Jewish Histories and Presents. This curriculum aims to show learners that there are multiple authentic ways to be a part of the Jewish People. | Grades 8-9 Post-B'nei Mitzvah, Pre-confirmation |
Religious School | Marks, Rachel Kaplan |
| 2013 | Identity | The Rest is Commentary, Now Go And Learn: Literacy Through Text Study | This Curriculum Guide helps build a framework for text study and a relationship with Jewish texts. With units structured around God, Torah, and Israel, students are exposed to multiple texts covering issues such as belief, practice, and interactions with others. They learn how to interpret texts in order to gain Jewish confidence. With a strong sense of Jewish literacy (familiarity with Jewish concepts through text study) students healthfully develop their Jewish identity. | Grade 9 – Adult. Could be adapted for any age after B'nei Mitzvah | Religious School; Adult Education | Tulik, Rochelle |
| 2016 | Identity | Reimagining the Jewish Man for the 21st Century | This curriculum argues that a conversation about men’s needs and roles must happen urgently and openly. The specific content of this curriculum is organized around the Jewish holiday cycle in one calendar year. The cohort-based learning will be framed by the Jewish calendar cycle to give the students a chance learn about them and celebrate them together through different lenses. | Adult men age 25 or older | Adult Education | Stombaugh, Jeff |
| 2017 | Identity | Not Your Bubbe's Feminism: Making Jewish Feminism Relevant to Today's Teens | This curriculum utilizes Jewish text, popular culture, liturgy, and the students' personal experiences as lenses to discuss, debate, and personalize Jewish feminism. Students will reflect on their Jewish and female journeys and determine what it means for them to be Jewish women now and in the future. | Grades 11-12 female identified | Religious School or Youth Group; adaptable for camp | Bressler, Julie |
| 2020 | Identity | Realizing My Unique Potential: A Curriculum Guide for Confirmation Students | Confirmation students, on the cusp of the rest of their lives, will take a journey of self-discovery using the stories of Genesis to ask big questions like "who am I?" and "what am I capable of?" This curriculum asks students to confront the complexities of the world head on while discovering what makes them uniquely themselves. | Grade 10 Confirmation | Religious School | Weisman, Brett |
| 2021 | Identity | Nonbinary Genders in Judaism | How do we create communities in which nonbinary Jews are not just included but feel like they belong? Grounded in modern gender theory, Torah and rabbinic text, Jewish ritual, and an examination of privilege as a tool for creating change, this curriculum guide supports adult Jewish learners in developing their own answers to this essential question. | Adult | Adult Education | Tovlev, Ze’evi Berman |
| 2022 | Identity | A Rainbow Symphony: A Curriculum Guide Exploring LGBTQ+ Terms and Topics Through Jewsicals (Jewish Musicals) | This curriculum guide aims to teach LGBTQ+ education (which are referred to in this guide as “terms and topics”) through original musical theatre based on Jewish texts (these musical theatre pieces are called Jewsicals). In this curriculum, LGBTQ+ education are the facts surrounding the LGBTQ+ community. We will explore each letter of the acronym (as well as others) so that learners have a well-rounded knowledge of terms. Through Jewsicals, we will also explore the social-emotional aspect of LGBTQ+ education, such as with coming out, homophobia/transphobia, and celebrating the community. | Grades 9-12 | Day School; Supplemental Religious School | Rubin, Eliana |
| 2023 | Identity | Relationships as the Heart of Jewish Identity: How B-Mitzvah Parents See their Judaism | Parents of B-Mitzvah students see their Judaism through relationships. This work surveys literature on Jewish Identity, and presents results from interviews of 14 parents in terms of how they see their Jewish Identities. | Parents of B-Mitzvah Students | Synagogue | Gaylord, Tim |
| 2012 | Interfaith, Identity | "Shalom, Salaam, and May God Be with You: Jewish Identity Formation through Interfaith Learning." | This curriculum guide is a yearlong 10th grade confirmation class on interfaith learning; a class which promotes engagement and involvement in a greater faith-based global village. Units focus on how God, prayer, sacred text, and ritual celebrations exist in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Units also include facilitated interfaith dialogue and guidance for a unique confirmation ceremony. | Grade 10 Confirmation | Religious School | Fromer, Jaclyn |
| 1994 | Israel | Zionism: The Collision of Modernity and Judaism | To show how modernity changed the reality of Jewish life and led to the birth of modern Zionism. To examine the changing identity of Jews at the time and then reflect on personal identity. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Schwartz, Katherine |
| 1995 | Israel | Biblical Historiography/ Geography of Israel | To study the geography of Israel in order to show the deep historic connection between the land of Israel and Judaism | Grades 5-6 | Religious School | Simon, Laura Weiss |
| 1997 | Israel | Zionist Thought, Jewish Values, & Jewish Identity | To engage students in the various ideas/writings of Zionist thinkers. To develop a personal relationship with Israel and think about the relationship between the USA and Israel. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Kupetz, Jonathan F. |
| 1998 | Israel | Israel: The Heart of a People | To develop a personal relationship with Israel by exploring Jewish historical and religious connections to the land. | Grade 10 | High School | Marantz, Betsy Barth |
| 1998 | Israel | Exploring Contemporary Issues Facing Teens in Israel | To foster an interest and connection to Israel by studying the issues teens in Israel face. | Grade 10 | Pre-Trip | Massey, Debra Sagan |
| 2003 | Israel | Portraits of Jerusalem | To explore a variety of Jewish depictions of Jerusalem over time (biblical-modern) in anticipation of a trip to Israel. | Grades 9-12 | Day School Pre-Trip | Schuldenfrei, Deborah Bock |
| 2004 | Israel | The Essence of Israel | To maximize an Israel trip by highlighting the uniqueness of Israel and its importance to Jewish self-understanding. To portray the diversity within Israel. | Grade 9 | Day School Pre-Trip | Keller, Rony |
| 2006 | Israel | My Israel: A Non-Traditional Approach to Israel Advocacy | This curriculum is designed to enable students to explore Israeli history, culture, politics, and people while equipping them with the resources and information needed in order to speak intelligently about Israel. | Grade 12 | Religious School | Wasserman, Shaina |
| 2012 | Israel | Sacred Symbol and Complex Reality: Helping American Jewish Teachers Teach Multiple "Israels" | This guide aims to achieve a balance between the way in which American representations of Israel are constructed and the way in which Israelis experience these American representations of Israel. This guide identifies four commonplaces: Key Sites, Military, Hebrew, and Textbooks to look at the way in which these two narratives are constructed. Learners will identify their own personal relationship with Israel, create a mission statement for what Israel education should look like in their synagogue, and have the opportunity to write and implent a lesson plan that integrates the two narratives. | Adult Religious School Teachers | Religious School | Greene, Amanda |
| 2012 | Israel | Homeland or Territory - Four Ways of Understanding Israel's West Side | This curriculum guide intends to help students define or develop their relationship with Israel using perspective and empathy to analyze one of the critical issues in Israel that appear to consistently trouble liberal American Jews. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School or Day School | Knobel, Joshua |
| 2012 | Israel | Integrating Zionism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Israel Narratives | This curriculum guide explores four core narratives of Zionism: Political, Labor, Cultural, and Religious, with a strand of American Zionism woven through each. Using the method of integration (bringing different content areas into relationship with with one another), each narrative is taught through a primary lens of a different academic discipline: history, physical education, music, and religious literature. Students are asked to synthesize the different narratives into their own personal Zionist ideology through a final project-based unit on art. | Grade 11 | Religious School or Day School | Lauing, Sarah |
| 2012 | Israel | A Narrative Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | This curriculum will provide students with a brief overview of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through a narrative approach to allow them to see the multiplicity of views regarding the conflict. This curriculum is not intended to persuade students to a particular point of view or to turn them into Israel advocates. The narrative approach will nuance the situation and make the content accessible for students with varying degrees of prior knowledge and perspectives on the conflict. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School or Day School | Lebovits, Jessica |
| 2012 | Israel | Jewish Immigrant Populations in Israel: A View into the History, Culture, and Jewish Practices of Ethiopian, Former Soviet Union, and North American Communities | This curriculum guide explores three Jewish immigrant communities in Israel: Ethiopian, Former Soviet Union, and North American. Campers will examine these populations through 3 lenses: historic narratives, culture, and Jewish practice. They will consider the advantages and disadvantages that accompany immigration while discovering the strength of the message that “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la’zeh: All people of Israel are responsible for one another." Students will gain insights into their own Jewish identities, history, practices, and modes of Jewish self-expression. | Entering Grade 10 | Summer Camp | Levin, Rachel |
| 2014 | Israel | Ladies And Gentlemen, Fasten Your Seatbelts And Prepare For Takeoff… This Is YOUR Israel! An Insrael Orientation | This curriculum guide is intended as a component to an Israel experience that takes place before, during and after the trip. The pre-trip group orientation will expose the participants to three access portals (social norms, such as food, mobility, language and diversity of population; social networks and kinship; and Judaism as the dominant religion) that will help them prepare for the trip and therefore, limit feelings of alienation or isolation they may feel. In addition, this orientation will create the space to explore their feelings about Israel and the idea of homeland. | High School, College, or Adult | Any group traveling to Israel-- high school and adult trips (Teen trips, College campus trips, synagogue trips, etc.) | Berns, Ashley |
| 2015 | Israel | The Others: Exploring the Diverse Minorities that Call Israel Home. | This curriculum guide explores 5 minority groups that call Israel their home. Through history, personal narratives and cooking experiences the learners will have an opportunity to create a modern definition of Am Yisrael. | Grades 9-10; This is not meant to be a student’s first Israel educational experience. | Religious School | Bram, Jessica |
| 2017 | Israel | My Home, Your Home: Israel as Our Home | This curriculum guide explores the complex nature of Israel as it relates to individuals’ ideas and concepts of home and homeland. The curriculum focus on the first entry point to synagogue life, the pre-school. It addresses three different populations: pre-school teachers, pre-school parents and pre-school students. | Children ages 3-5 AND their parents and teachers. | Early Childhood program AND Adult Education | Kopp, Sasha |
| 2020 | Israel | Israel Soundtrack: How Israeli Culture Has Evolved Over Time, Through Music | This curriculum aims to be a survey of how Israeli culture has evolved over time and continues to evolve over time. The curriculum is structured to introduce students to the people of Israel through the impact of Israel's immigrant groups, show who is Israeli and how they have responded to current events over time, and to display why this is significant for Jewish students. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Dominguez, Sasha |
| 2020 | Israel | "How do You Connect? A High School Curriculum to Learn about Israel and Yourself." | This curriculum guide aims to celebrate the multiculturalism and multivocality that exists in Israel. This curriculum guide offers learners access to different Jewish Israeli perspectives, with the hope that learners will find poignancy to Israeli stories, understanding that there is no one story of Israel. This curriculum will take learners on a journey of life experiences that Israelis face based on their differences from one another. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School or Youth Group | Rabishaw, Elana |
| 2022 | Israel | When “home” is more than just a place: Using poetry as a tool to understand contemporary Israeli society and ourselves | This curriculum guide uses poetry to explore learner's relationship to Israel. Poetry itself engages the reader in a relational process, and learners will see the poets’ inner worlds and in turn open their own inner worlds. Students areencouraged to develop an openness to being in relationship with Israel, in whatever ways resonate with them. These skills are developed through a weekly in-depth reading practice of poems fitting the week's theme. Learners are encouraged to think critically about the poems and themes and examine how the poems relate to their own lives. | Adult | Adult Education Program; College | Ackerman Hirsch, Elana |
| 2012 | Israel, Reform Judaism | Finding Israel: A Personal Journey through the Lens of Reform Judaism | This curriculum guide explores the four platforms of the Reform Movement. Learners will chart the progression of the relationship between the Reform Movement and the land of Israel, both the actual modern State and the ancient historical longing. They will also analyze different historical events and explore how they affected the content of each platform. The more these learners understand the foundation that their movement has with the State of Israel, the greater confidence they will have in their own relationship with Israel, and the better their ability to teach about it to their campers. | Grades 11-12 First Year Counselors |
Camp | Rubin-Schlansky, Hannah |
| 2019 | Jewish Living | Intimacy Ed | High school curriculum for creating healthy and respectful romantic relationships | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Elkin, Hannah |
| 2011 | Jewish Practice | V'Dibarta Bam B'Veitecha - Speak of Them in Your Home: An Exploration of Jewish Ritual and Practice for the Young Family | This guide offers opportunities to engage in the textual basis of Jewish rituals and practices. The learners will create a personal and family practice and contribute to the ongoing conversation that is halakhah. It is aimed at parents of children beginning their religious school experience, encouraging them to model for their children engagement in Jewish learning as a lifelong endeavor. The guide is divided into four curricular units—Lifetime, Yearly, Weekly, and Daily Practices—which demonstrate the cyclical nature of engagement in our Jewish tradition. | Parents of younger children, or childen who are newer to Jewish learning | Adult education program for parents that runs concurrently with the synagogue or community's supplemental religious school. | Weisman, Gregory |
| 2014 | Jewish Practice | Etzah Tovah L'hadracha - Wisdom for Good Counsel: A Path Towards Jewish Growth and Counselor Development | This curriculum is comprised of a year-long advising and Jewish education program for Jewish summer camp counselors. Beginning at the time of hiring second-year bunk counselors, this guide takes learners through the analysis of their camp's Jewish environment and rituals in order to identify the elements of excellent Jewish experiential education within. Following this exploration, counselors embark on an in-depth study of one area of Jewish life of their choosing, share their knowledge with peers/campers and create a plan for their personal Jewish growth during the year. | Adult: Second year camp counselors | Jewish Summer Camp | Utley, Dan |
| 2015 | Jewish Practice | A Sense of Belonging: A Five Senses Exploration of Jewish Ritual for Early Learners | This is a five senses curriculum that explores the subtle but concrete differences among uniquely Jewish smells, tastes, sights, sensations, and sounds, and those which are general and belong to the larger world. Students will have a rich variety of opportunities to encounter these stimuli and identify what is Jewish about each of them. As such, the curriculum aims to engage with the significant issue of early identity formation of young Jews. | Ages 2-4; Pre-School | Jewish Pre-School or Early Childhood Center | Mylan, Rachel |
| 2022 | Leadership | CITs: Counselors in Training and the Challenges in Transition | This case looks at two Reform Jewish summer camps that offer counselor in training programs (CIT). It looks into the stories of recent alumni, and examines how their expectations and experiences of their respective programs are both in and out of alignment with the expected outcomes of camp leadership. | Adult | Camp | McElheney, Malcolm |
| 1994 | Life Cycle | Jewish Life Cycle in a Reform Context | To examine life cycle rituals focused on values, rituals, and a relationship with God and decide on personal observance. | Grades 5-7 | Religious School | Davids-Levin, Aviva |
| 1996 | Life Cycle | Jewish Lifecycle Rituals: Paths To Holiness | To study Jewish lifecycle rituals emphasizing connections to God, text, values. Students will compose lifecycle rituals. | Adult | Adult | Gropper, Daniel |
| 1996 | Life Cycle | Exploring the Covenant in Jewish Tradition: A Guide for Parents of B'nai Mitzvah Students | To explore the concept of covenant in Jewish tradition and create personal connections to it. To develop a community among bnai mitzvah parents. | Adult Parents of Bnai Mitzvah | Adult | Sol, Felicia |
| 1996 | Life Cycle | The Jewish Lifecycle: How it Reflects Values of Community and Kedushah | To form connections to Judaism by understanding and experiencing traditional and modern lifecycle ritual. Emphasis placed on the concepts of kedushah, mitzvot, and connection to God. | Grade 4 | Religious School | Somers, Stefanie Lichtman |
| 1997 | Life Cycle | The Jewish Life Cycle Events | To study, experience, and feel connected to life cycle events. | Grades 8-10 | High School | Komerofsky, Rachel Stern |
| 1998 | Life Cycle | A Practical Guide to Living and Understanding Jewish Life Cycle | To examine seven life cycle events addressing personal, psychological, and modern needs. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Brockman, Lori |
| 2000 | Life Cycle | We're Having a Jewish Baby: An Adult Education Curriculum for Those Expecting a Child or Currently in the Adoption Process | To provide couples or single women who are either pregnant or in the process of adopting a child with information (ritual, prayer, texts) on Jewish views and traditions on conception, pregnancy, adoption and birth. To establish a safe Jewish community for celebrating births and mourning any losses that might occur. | Adult New Parents | Adult | Brown, Sharon Amster |
| 2000 | Life Cycle | Death and Dying in the Jewish Tradition: A Curriculum Guide for Parent Education | To familiarize learners with traditional Jewish mourning practices and prepare them to carry out the mitzvot related to death and dying. To explore theology as it relates to death and dying and give parents the ability and confidence to speak about death with their children. | Adult Parents | Adult | Burg, Miriam Lisa Cotzin |
| 2001 | Life Cycle | Reaffirming our Covenants: A Course on Jewish Life Cycle for Mothers and Daughters | To reinforce our covenantal relationship with God as well as the relationship between mother and daughter. To learn how life cycle ritual lends structure to times of transition and confusion. To provide mothers and daughters the chance to ask questions and get to know each other as women. | Family Ed. (Mothers and Daughters) | Family Ed. | Flores, Jordanna G. Cooper |
| 2003 | Life Cycle | Jewish Values in Death and Mourning | To provide a Jewish lens with which to view death and mourning. To be knowledgeable of Jewish rituals and practices associated with death and mourning. | Adult | Adult | Schaffer, Adam |
| 2008 | Life Cycle | From Adam and Eve to You and Me: Journeying Towards Jewish Marriage | This curriculum guide is intended to be taught by a rabbi, preferably in conjunction with pre-marital counseling for couples. It addresses topics related to building a Jewish life together, and subjects which are often sources of conflict for couples, such as managing money and fighting fair. Each lesson uses Jewish texts to bring traditional perspective and insight to the issues with which modern couples struggle. | Adult | Adult Education | Mason-Barkin, Sara |
| 2006 | Life Cycle | The Jewish Wedding and Marriage: Reflecting our Values through Jewish Traditions | Learners will explore topics such as commitment, renegotiating family relationships, intimacy, community, and more through the lens of Jewish thought, law, customs, and history. | Adult | Adult | Akiva, April Quinn |
| 2011 | Lifecycle | Making baby time into Jewish time: Infusing Spirituality into the first year of your child’s life | This curriculum guide was written as a spirituality guide for new parents. Becoming a parent is an exciting, scary, overwhelming, daunting, inspiring, and miraculous time. This curriculum guide is an opportunity for new parents to share their experiences with one another, to create community and to learn from Jewish tradition. Throughout this curriculum, students are encouraged to draw from their experiences as parents to enhance their connection to Judaism, to heighten their spiritual awareness and practices, and to create their own prayers, blessings, and rituals based on Jewish tradition. | Parents of young children | Adult Education | Chernow-Reader, Jordana |
| 2015 | Lifecycle | Evolving Rituals: An Exploration of Jewish Life Cycle Celebrations for Emerging Adults | Through examining various rituals and artifacts from Jewish birth celebrations, weddings, and mourning processes, Jewish emerging adults will explore how our rituals change while also maintaining tradition. They will then begin thinking about how they may wish to integrate these rituals in to their own life cycle events. | Adults: Ages 20-30 | Adult Education | Barzilai, Matti |
| 2016 | Lifecycle | B’nei mitzvah as chevrei kehilah: Engaging with mitzvot through community service | This curriculum guide frames b'nei mitzvah as a passage into full Jewish agency, including the ability to take on Jewish communal obligations. The curriculum focuses on hachnasat orchim (welcoming the stranger), bikur cholim (visiting the sick), and l’vayat hamet (comforting the mourner)—examining their origins in classical Jewish sources, investigating how they are being enacted in students' communities, and engaging students in individualized service projects. | Grades 7-8, ideally pre-bnei mitzvah | Religious School | Phelps, Abigail |
| 2017 | Lifecycle | Lend Me Your Hand and I will Raise You: Healing and the Journey toward Refuah Sh'leimah A Guide to Jewish Healing for Lay Pastoral Caregivers |
Although the journey toward healing finds langauge across many religious and cultural traditions, this curriculum guide aims to provide adult learners with a particularly Jewish language to define learners' work as healers. Learners will immerse themselves practical details of a Jew’s obligation to visit the sick and console the mourners in their community. They will experience methods for continuing their own healing and growing journey; and they will have the opportunity to define - however provisionally - their answers to big questions behind healing. | Adults | Adult Education | Rosenstein, Eric |
| 2009 | Lifecycle | Celebrating With Those We Love: Jewish Holidays and Healing for Families with Members who Struggle with Addiction | This curriculum guide explores Jewish holidays and how families with a loved one who struggles with addictive behaviors can find connection to other families in similar situations, to clergy members and educators, to a variety of Jewish holiday rituals, and to the synagogue. The guide focuses on exploring the healing themes embedded in the Jewish holidays as well as how these themes and celebration rituals can be relevant to the lives of families with a loved one who struggles with addiction. | Multiple ages | Family or Adult Education | Weisz, Julia |
| 2013 | Lifecycle, | Connecting Jewish Identity to B'nai Mitzvah | This curriculum guide is focused on the history of B'nai Mitzvah, the basic elements of Jewish identity, and how B'nai Mitzvah fits in as a rite of passage. Students will explore how B'nai Mitzvah evolved from Biblical times; they will learn the key commonplaces of Jewish identity based on the writing of Michael Rosenak; and they will compare and contrast B'nai Mitzvah with rites of passage from around the world | Grade 6 (Second semester) | Religious School | Avner, Brian |
| 1998 | Literature | Self-Stories: An Adult Study Guide on American Jewish Fiction | To read/discuss selections of American Jewish fiction and to struggle with personal identity development through the texts. | Adult | Adult | Hyman, Laura Bramson |
| 2001 | Literature | American Jewish Literature: A Window to the Inner Lives of American Jews | To expose students to a variety of American Jewish literature in order to understand issues faced over time. | Adult | Adult | Baron, Beth |
| 2011 | Literature | My World to Come: Doikayt and Imagination in Yiddish Literature. A Language Arts Curriculum for Jewish Day School Juniors and Seniors | This curriculum explores the parallels and intersections of two themes in Yiddish literature: imagination of the fantasy genre (as portrayed by dreaming, dybbuks, demons, and radical visions of afterlife) and doikayt (an idea that literally translates as "hereness," meaning the socio-political stance of improving the conditions of the world in which one lives). These two concepts are constantly in play in Yiddish literature, producing a series of short stories, poems, plays, and novels that confront the realities of the present while dreaming of a better future. By engaging with these texts, students create their personal vision of the world to come. | Grades 11-12 Integrated Arts Elective | Day School | Abramovitz, Joel |
| 2012 | Literature | Poetic Justice: Uncovering Modern Hebrew Poetry | This guide is a curriculum to teach about poetry and Israel through the themes of creation, memory, war, and the Zionist dream. By studying modern Hebrew poetry adults will have the opportunity to increase the Jewish content in their lives as they learn the timeless themes these poets address. Learners will also be asked to consider and produce work based upon their own understandings of some of the unit themes. | Adult | Adult Education | Steinman, Eleanor |
| 2008 | Liturgy | Seder Kriat HaTorah | This curriculum explores three themes within the context of Seder Kriat HaTorah. First is the idea of Seder Kriat HaTorah as a reenactment of the revelation at Sinai. Additionally, each unit explores the relationship between God, Torah and Israel within the text and the balance between keva and kavanah during public prayer. By considering each of these the student will be better prepared to participate meaningfully in the social drama that is Seder Kriat HaTorah. It is intended to be taught one on one by a layperson and provides opportunities for the teacher to learn along with their student. | Grades 4-6 | Home or Healthcare setting | Hall, Eliana |
| 2008 | Liturgy | From Kevah to Kavannah: Explorations of the Siddur | This Curriculum Guide seeks to explore some of the prayers found in the siddur - their textual or historical origins as well as their theological and spiritual implications. Students will unpack a number of different prayers and use them as a tool for reflecting on their own beliefs. | High School, Adults | Day School, Adult Education | Metz, Lev |
| 2009 | Liturgy | Adonai S'fatai Tiftach: Prayer and Spirituality at Camp and Beyond | This curriculum explores key Jewish prayers and the deeper meanings behind them. While the fixed liturgy is a key part of this curriculum, it also stresses the need for campers to decide their own prayer style and regimen while still being part of a community. It also examines ways in which the campers can bring the prayer experiences they have at camp back home. | Grades 7-8 | Camp | Singer-Beilin, Jake |
| 2012 | Liturgy | Mafteach Tefilah: Opening the Door to Meaningful Jewish Prayer | This curriculum guide is designed to help learners deepen their understanding of why tefillah remains an essential part of the Jewish experience, and how it can help them to enrich their own personal and communal to Judaism and to the Jewish people. | Adult | Adult Education | Geffen, Daniel |
| 2013 | Liturgy | A Path to Meaningful Prayer | This curriculum guide will help students to answer the following questions: How does one pray? What does it mean to pray? How can I connect to something if I don’t know what I am saying? What if I don’t actually believe the words that are written in the prayer book? In the end, students will be able to answer the question, “Why pray?” in a way that is meaningful for them, and will allow them to contextualize the prayers we say every day and find a way to make these ancient words relevant to their lives today. | Adult; could be adapted for young adults and teens. | Adult Education | Regev, Lara Pullan |
| 2021 | Liturgy | T’fillah Mixtape: Teaching Liturgy through Contemporary Jewish Music | This curriculum guide teaches liturgy through the lens of contemporary Jewish music. In this guide, learners will explore the meaning of weekday Shacharit and Ma’ariv prayers by looking at contemporary Jewish music inspired by those prayers. | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Brumer, Megan |
| 2015 | Philosophy/ Theology/ Spirituality | The (Curriculum) Guide for the Spiritually Perplexed Parent | This curriculum guide aims to encourage adults to develop their spiritual identity, while simultaneously giving them the knowledge, language, and confidence to engage with their children's yearning for spiritual engagement. This is accomplished by engaging learners in personal and group reflection, text study, ritual creation, and rich experiences meant to challenge their assumptions about spirituality. | Adult; Parents of children in 1st or 2nd grade | Adult Education Program | Dreier, Ted |
| 2013 | Philosophy/ Theology/ Spirituality |
G?d: Unlocking our understanding of G-d and being able to explain G-d to our children | G-d is a difficult topic for many adults to discuss with their children because many have not had the opportunity to explore what their own beliefs and feelings are about G-d. Mainly, G-d will be explored through the study of various Jewish prayers, blessings, biblical stories, life cycle events and Jewish philosophers. Additionally, each lesson will have an "At Home" component where students will have a chance to share the learning they have done in class at home with their children. | Adult | Adult Education | Rabizadeh, Tarlan |
| 2013 | Philosophy/ Theology/ Spirituality |
I Applied My Heart To Know Wisdom: A Jewish Perspective On Personal Ideologies | This curriculum guide is about the nature, purpose, and formation of personal ideologies, and their place in Jewish life. It asks students to draw upon their own experiences and personal values in order to answer big existential questions such as "Who am I?' and "What is the right way to live?" Jewish texts such as Kohelet and Pirkei Avot are presented alongside corresponding works of art, poetry, film, TV, etc. in order to highlight their various ideological messages; those texts are then applied to lifecycle events and other aspects of Jewish life (i.e. tikkun olam). | Grades 11-12 | Day School | Silverman, Todd |
| 2014 | Philosophy/ Theology/ Spirituality |
V'shinantam L'vanecha: The Wonder of Marking Sacred Time Through Blessing | This curriculum guide, designed for parents of 1st time preschool children, addresses the need for a stronger connection between home and school and works to strengthen this bridge. The goal of the guide is to foster in families a greater awe and wonder of sacred time using existing blessings as well as orinial blessings created by the family. | Adult: Parents and guardians of first-time pre-schoolers | Family Education or Early Childhood Center | Zysman, Zach |
| 2020 | Philosophy/ Theology/ Spirituality |
Let's Get Spiritual! A Curriculum Guide Exploring Jewish Prayer, Jewish Spirituality, and Well-Being | This curriculum guide aims to explore Jewish prayer using the lenses of Jewish spirituality and Well-Being. The focus of this guide is on what Jewish prayer tells us about well-being and spirituality, how we can connect to this, and how this can help us reach towards flourishing. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School or Youth Group | McNellis, Andrea |
| 1994 | Prayer | The Shabbat Morning Service as Preparation for Bar/Bat Mitzvah | To explore the content and themes of prayers in the Shabbat morning service. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Blonder, Renee Levine |
| 1994 | Prayer | The Shabbat Morning Service: Making it Relevant for 7th Graders | To explore concepts of prayer, including their meaning, theology, and relevance to students’ lives. | Grade 7 | Religious School | Carr, Kenneth Ira |
| 1997 | Prayer | The Weekday Morning Service: A Prayer Curriculum for Camps | To examine the meanings of prayers in the weekday morning reform liturgy. | Grades 5-7 | Camp | Chizner, Lauren |
| 1997 | Prayer | Finding Prayer: A Curriculum for Meaning in the Prayer Experience | To examine and engage in prayer, while establishing a community of adult learners whose kids are bnai mitzvah. | Adult Parents of Bnai Mitzvah | Adult | Sacher, Birgit Mechanick |
| 1998 | Prayer | Tefillah Time: A Prayer Curriculum for Kindergarten and First Grade | To introduce students to a prayer service focusing on the concepts of God, community, history, and spirituality. | Grades K-1 | Religious School | Cohn, Lauren Silverstein |
| 1998 | Prayer | Teaching Tefillah Through the Arts | To engage students in prayer and liturgy through the medium of drama, music, dance, and art. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Harris, Vered |
| 1998 | Prayer | A Jewish Prayer Curriculum for Seventh Graders | To examine and experience prayer utilizing different tools. | Grade 7 | Religious School | Rubin, Renee |
| 2000 | Prayer | Do You See What I See? A Curriculum Guide on Prayer for Parents of B'nai Mitzvah | To provide the language and structure for discussion about prayer with the intent of preparing parents for their child’s special day. | Adult Parents of Bnai Mitzvah | Adult | Strok, Karen |
| 2002 | Prayer | Brachot: The Jewish Way of Finding God in Our Lives and the World Around Us | To understand and become comfortable with Brachot as a tool for connecting with God and our world. | Adult | Adult | Werbow, Melissa Fand |
| 2004 | Prayer | T’fillah: A Sixth Grade Journey | To help students find personal meaning in liturgy. To understand why prayer is important to Jews. To reflect on relationship with God. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Kellner, Debra Cotzin |
| 2005 | Prayer | Developing an Understanding of Prayer | To understand Judaic concepts of some of the prayers in the Shabbat liturgy | Grade 6 | Religious School | Marshall, Stephanie |
| 2005 | Prayer | Experiencing T’fillah: Studying Prayer with our Hearts and Minds | To study Jewish liturgy with opportunity to reflect on one’s prayer experience, relationship to God, and identity. | Adult | Adult | Miller, Alissa Forrest |
| 2006 | Prayer | T’filah Talk: A Year Long Course for Teens and Their Parents to Study Tough Issues Through T’filah | For high school students and their parents to explore the themes of separation, connection, freedom and limitations as they are found in t’filah and related to their lives. | Teens and Adults | Family Education; Religious School | Goldstein, Beth |
| 2010 | Prayer | iPray | This is a t’fillah curriculum, but it will not teach students the words to prayers for B'nai Mitzvah. Instead, it will aid students in finding meaningful and lasting connections to t’fillah so they can ultimately answer the question, “Why do I pray?” This guide teaches both the keva and kavanah of t’fillah through text study, prayer analysis, interactive group activities, and unit-long assessments. | Grade 6 | Religious School, adaptable for camp or Day School | Luskey, Lauren |
| 1994 | Rabbinic Text | Exploring The Midrash: A Response to the Human Dilemma | To examine midrashic collections seeing how biblical texts have been interpreted over time. Students will have the opportunity to create personal Midrash. | Adult | Adult | Chapman, Lesley |
| 1994 | Rabbinic Text | Introduction to the Talmud and Rabbinic Texts | To introduce/study Talmud and rabbinic texts providing text skills and personal applications. | Adult | Adult | Langer, Lisa Beth |
| 1994 | Rabbinic Text | A Study Guide for Adult Learners on Leviticus Rabbah | To study portions of Leviticus Rabbah in order to develop personal ethics, relationship with God, and a life of holiness. | Adult | Adult | Missaghieh, Michelle |
| 2001 | Rabbinic Text | Turning New Pages: Talmud for Adult Learners | To begin the study of Talmudic passages providing opportunities for personal exploration of Jewish identity and practice. | Adult | Adult | Clayman, Jennifer |
| 2007 | Rabbinic Text | Two Rabbis: Three Opinions -- An Introduction to Rabbinic Texts for the Day School | This curriculum guide invites eighth grade Jewish day school learners to examine rabbinic texts including Midrash, Mishnah, and Talmud in order to develop a deeper understanding of rabbinic thought on ethics and values and the world of the Rabbis. Through interaction with rabbinic texts, learners will increase their own Jewish knowledge base and acquire some of the tools and information to make informed decisions about their own Jewish lives. | Grade 8 | Day School | Whiting, Ann Sanguinet |
| 2011 | Rabbinic Text | Ki gerim hayyitem b'eretz Mitzrayim: An introduction to Jewish textual learning | This curriculum guides learners through the process of Jewish textual learning, teaching them how to "do" text study through study of the phrase "For you were strangers in the land of Egypt," as it appears in biblical and early rabbinic texts. Multiple modalities and venues for learning are included, including study in chevruta and as a group, interpretation through art, and allowing learners to teach others. | Grades 11-12, College, Adult | Synagogue or community Adult Education; or in an immersion program, such as a liberal yeshiva setting | Battis, Jordana Schuster |
| 2013 | Rabbinic Text | Weaving a Coat of Many Colors: An Integration of Art in Text Study | This curriculum proposes a unique way to integrate the use of art with Jewish textual study. It offers various forms of exegesis that Jews have engaged in to better understand the elusiveness of Torah and to derive meaning from it. Visual Midrash is entrance point to engage students in Torah study by creating opportunities for the student to process the text and their revelations from it in a personal and creative format. This guide is not available for distribution. |
Grades 6-8 | Day School | Levi, Kyna E.M. |
| 2014 | Rabbinic Text | From Pirkei Avot to Pirkei Atzmi | Pirkei Avot lends itself as a helpful guide to Jewish living, leading its readers through an exploration of our individual and communal purpose in the world, articulating difficult questions, and even offering some solutions. This curriculum guide introduces sixth grade learners to a core selection of these timeless texts, presenting them in a manner that is both challenging and engaging. As students interact with and interpret the verses for personal meaning, they transform the text from Pirkei Avot, the Chapters of the Fathers, to Pirkei Atzmi, My Chapters. | Grade 6; Can be adapted for grades 7-8. |
Religious School or Day School | Graetz, Sharon |
| 2014 | Rabbinic Text | Creativity for Community: Midrash as a Catalyst for Jewish Generativity | This curriculum guide investigates a major drama of Jewish intellectual heritage, that of revelation - the encounter between God and Jews as described in the book of Exodus (the giving of the 10 Commandments). As learners study the biblical text and midrashic interpretations from Mekilta, they grapple with tensions between love and fear, creativity and canonicity, supreme authority and communal acceptance. Ultimately, learners participate in the ongoing process of Jewish interpretation through a creative interpretative project, meant to enrich the community. | Adult | Adult Education | LeVine, Jay |
| 2017 | Rabbinic Text | Uncovering My Soul: Using Midrash to Discover our Hidden Truths and Big Life Questions | Midrash is the medium that the rabbis used to explore the big questions of human existence: which they experienced in their daily lives using the familiar language of Torah. This course will explore how the rabbis used midrash to explore these big questions in a Jewish lens and how we can do the same today. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School or Youth Group | Lutz, Adam |
| 1994 | Reform Judaism | Jewish Identity Through Reflection: A Look at the Platforms of Reform Judaism | To analyze the history (3 platforms) and present of Reform Judaism, providing opportunities to establish goals for living a Reform Jewish life. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Litwak, Deborah A. Berkowits |
| 2003 | Reform Judaism | Reform Judaism in America: Modern, American, and Jewish | To gain foundational knowledge about Reform Jewish ideology and its effect on belief and practice. To gain a sense of pride in being a Reform Jew. | Grades 7-8 | Religious School | Fleekop, Andrea |
| 2008 | Reform Judaism | Exploring Reform Judaism Through the Lens of Jewish Ritual and Sacred Practices | This Curriculum Guide seeks to teach the process of Reform Judaism through the lens of ritual and Jewish sacred practices. The students will have an opportunity to explore some of the tenets of Reform Judaism and then apply those concepts to different ways of sanctifying time, space and themselves. | High School | Religious School | Bluman, Olga |
| 2015 | Reform Judaism | Retrofitting Jewish Practice: Informed Choice in the 21st Century | This curriculum guide will provide students the opportunity to make practice making informed Jewish choices. This is done through three stages of deep study, practice, and reflection. Students will experience this model through three areas of study: B'rachot, Shabbat, and Pesach, as well as three practices: saying b'rachot before one eats, not using electricity on Shabbat, and avoiding kitniyot on Pesach. At the end of the year, students will prepare and present personal statements about an informed choice they have made to a carefully selected audience. | Grades 6-7 | Religious School, Youth Group | Petersohn, Stacy |
| 2015 | Reform Judaism | Harry Potter and the Paradigm of Choice | One of the defining characteristics of modern Reform Judaism is the way in which it deals with the question, what is the role of Jewish law in my life? Liberal Jews often reject the notion that Jewish Law (Halakah) is a divinely binding system. Modern Reform Jews also reject the opposite idea, that halakah is a completely antiquated system that has no role in or meaning to add to our lives. This tension creates This curriculum attempts to render the dense and difficult task of making informed choices approachable and understandable, through the metaphors offered by the Harry Potter series. | Grades 9-10 | Religious School | Zinn, Todd |
| 2023 | The 3 C’s of Curricular Change: Curriculum, Culture, and Continuous | This intrapreneurial change project focuses on the cultural change led by Aaron Blasband, Education Resident at the Reform Jewish day school Brawerman Elementary School West of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. It explores the process of leading a cultural change in the school that was brought on by the creation of a new Judaic curriculum as well as a shift in the roles and responsibilities of the faculty. | Adult | Synagogue | Blasband, Aaron | |
| 2022 | Social Justice | Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof: Pursuing Justice Through Jewish Holidays | This curriculum guide leads families through 5 major Jewish holidays-- High Holy Days, Hanukkah, Tu Bishvat, Purim, and Passover--, connecting each to specific mindsets, values, and questions aligned with pursuing justice. In each of these units, families first look inward (lesson one), then connect their learning to a community holiday ritual (lesson two), and finally look outward toward the broader world (lesson three). The guide also includes an introductory unit that sets the tone and a closing Shabbat unit. The authentic assessment is a Jewish Social Justice Community Calendar. | Grades K-3 | Family Education Program | Kraus, Shirah |
| 2001 | Spirituality | Kedusha: A Discovery of the Holy | To explore textual and modern meanings of kadosh (holy). | Adult | Adult | Citrin, Karen Schram |
| 2012 | Spirituality | Connections to Judaism: Spirituality and Confirmation | This curriculum guide is intended to help students connect spiritually to Judaism in a way that is meaningful to each individual. Through four units of study - peoplehood, ritual, prayer and God - students have the opportunity to explore three major principles in Judaism: God, Torah and Israel. Students are given opportunities to explore their own connections through a variety of Jewish texts, rituals and field trips. | Grade 10 Confirmation | Religious School | Fischman, Allie |
| 2016 | Spirituality | Prepping the S.A.T.s-- Spiritually Attuned Teens: Hassidic Spirituality for the Emerging Jewish Young Adult | This curriculum guide seeks to give teenagers/young adults the skills they need to live their lives with spiritual awareness. It uses Hassidic folk tales as entry points for the students to embark on a spiritual journey to help them envision the person they want to be when they graduate college and enter into the world. | Grades 11-12 | Religious School | Fried, Benjamin |
| 2021 | Spirituality | Wild Judaism: An Exploration of Judaism's Connection to the Outdoors | This curriculum guide highlights multiple avenues towards connection with the outdoors. Initially learners will explore the role of awe in their lives and move towards understanding the connection between awe and spirituality, that which is beyond the natural world. | Family Education | Family Education; Religious School | Chajet, Elias |
| 2021 | Spirituality | B'Kolah: A Guide to Jewish Women's Empowered Spirituality Across History | This curriculum turns to 3000 years of Jewish women's spirituality to help adults empower their own Jewish spiritual lives through prayer, ritual, study, and visionary action. | Adult | Adult Education | Weller, Mira |
| 2005 | Synagogue, Ritual Objects, | Uncovering Meanings: An Exploration of Jewish Objects & Symbols | To explore meaning behind ritual objects as a means for examining and enriching their own Jewish beliefs and values. | Adult | Adult | Nichols, Beth |
| 2022 | Talmud, Tanakh | The Torah Studio, Text Study As A Practice | The Torah Studio is an accessible and inclusive learning center that gives learners the tools they need to form a text study practice that nourishes them spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. This project offers a view into the establishment of this organization to understand its educational philosophy and practice and its organizational development. This project offers readers insight into this particular venture, as well as a view into how an educational organization can develop rooted in values, unique pedagogical processes, and by deeply investing in learner experience. The project also includes a series of artifacts that allow the reader to begin to understand the experience of learning with The Torah Studio. | Adult | Adult Education | Wertman, Liana |
| 1997 | Teacher Resource | Re-Jew-vinate!! Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Judaism | To provide an opportunity for teachers to study history, text, life cycle, calendar, and rituals. | Teachers | Staff Dev. | Ben-Naim, Elissa |
| 2009 | Teacher Resource | You Shall Not Place Stumbling Blocks: Making Your Camp More Accessible | Through the examination of traditional and contemporary texts, simulations, personal reflection, guest speakers, and camper observations, CITs will examine the struggles that those who are GLBT, from lower economic backgrounds, from non-traditional family units, and those with disabilities face in a camp setting. They will work toward developing ways that their camp can become increasingly accessible. | Grades 11-12 Counselors in Training | Camp | Ackerman, Rachel |
| 2015 | Teacher Resource | Lesson Planning Through Exodus: A Professional Development Curriculum | This curriculum guide is a teacher development curriculum using the controversy of the Exodus as a vehicle for teaching lesson plan design. | Adult; Religious School teachers | Adult Education Program | Goodstein, Abram |
| 1997 | Theology | God, Creator, Redeemer, Revealer, & Partner: A Curriculum for 3-4 Week Summer Camp | To study the concepts of God as creator, revealer, and redeemer and to begin to struggle with personal theology. | Grades 4-6 | Camp | Lambert, Julie Beth Lebenson |
| 2004 | Theology | Reel Theology: Learning About & Developing Your Own Jewish Theology Using Contemporary Film | To introduce a variety of theological questions and perspectives in Judaism. To develop a personal theology. Copies of this Curriculum Guide are no longer available. |
Adult | Adult | Schneider, Jeremy |
| 2004 | Theology | Why is There Evil if God is Supposed to be Good? Theodicy in Jewish Tradition | To understand a variety of Jewish positions on theodicy in their historical context. To deepen a personal understanding of theology and the meaning of evil and suffering. | Adult | Adult | Tornberg, Shoshanah |
| 2005 | Theology | Jewish Views on God: Building My Personal Relationship | To explore different views on God, engage in conversation, and develop a personal relationship with God. | Grade 9 | High School | Kellner, Rick |
| 2007 | Theology | Seeking God | During this semester-long curriculum, students will examine various understandings of God in the TaNaCH, liturgy and other Jewish texts, reflect on times they have felt God’s presence, and explore ways they might connect with God in their own lives. As students explore various paths to finding God with the help of sources from Jewish tradition and Jewish thinkers, they will work toward articulating their own beliefs about God. | Grades 4-5 | Day School or Camp | Berger, Rebecca Saliman, |
| 2017 | Theology | God: A Profile An emergent curriculum exploring the intersection between God, self and the world |
This curriculum teaches about God in an emergent, person-based approach. Learners explore their own narrative and then God’s narrative. Once situated in God language, learners explore relationships between God and self/world by delving into how to emulate God through mitzvot. Next, learners discover their relationship with God through prayer and ritual. Learners progress to asking some of the difficult questions that inform God’s relationship with the world. Finally, learners re-approach their personal theology, discovering the evolution of their self in relationship with God. | Grades 6-7 students with high-functioning autism | Intended for a community religious school or program that brings multiple communities together. Also feasible in a traditional supplementary school??? | Nemitoff, Elana |
| 2021 | Theology | Crafting a Personal Theology:A Post-Confirmation Exploration of Jewish Thought | Young adulhood is a time to ask important questions like "is there a God?" and "What is God like?" Or even "How does science fit into religion?" and "Can Judaism be feminist or LGBTQ+-affirming?" This curriculum explores alternative Jewish theologies that interpret Jewish text and tradition in non-traditional ways. Students study beyond supernaturalism, post-Holocaust, feminist, and queer/trans theologies to explore various answers to these questions. The course ends with students crafting and presenting their own personal theology. | Grades 11-12; College | Religious School / Youth Group | Zitny, Ariel |
| 1996 | Women | Emerging Jewish Women's Rituals | To study the development and content of Jewish women’s rituals (traditional and modern) demonstrating their significance. | Adult Female | Adult | Asch, Jennifer Rebecca Marx |
| 1994 | Women/ History |
A Journey Through History: The American Jewish Woman 1820 – present | To examine the Jewish female struggle to maintain identity and find acceptance in the United States of America. | Grades 9-12 Female | High School | Pessah, Amy Grossblatt |
| 1994 | World Jewish Communities | Israel: Yemenite & Moroccan Jews | To introduce students to the Jews of Yemen and Morocco, in their native lands and in Israel. | Grades 5-7 | Religious School | Bergenfeld, Elisa |
| 2000 | World Jewish Communities | Creating a Jewish Community in Canada | To examine the forces behind the Canadian Jewish community, enabling students in Canada to better appreciate and understand the past. The curriculum examines how Jews responded to their environment and to the obstacles placed in their path, and how despite these, they built a community. | Grades 5-6 | Day School in Canada | Hronsky, Yuri |
| 2005 | World Jewish Communities | Sephardic Culture: Jews from the Ottoman Empire | To introduce students to the culture of Sephardic Jewry and raise self-awareness of personal Judaism. | Grade 6 | Religious School | Robbins, Rachael |
| 2012 | World Jewish Communities | Latin American Jewry | This curriculum guide focuses on the six largest Jewish populations in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Each country will be looked at through the lens of change. How did the Jewish communities in each country affect the greater society, and how did the greater society affect the Jewish community? The curriculum guide will conclude with a country fair, showcasing what the students have learned about Jewish communities in the above mentioned Latin American countries. | Grades 6-7 | Day School | Rotter, Carmela Blau |
| 2012 | World Jewish Communities | Wherever You Go, There's Always Someone Jewish: Exploring Jewish Identity Through Culture | This curriculum seeks to engage high school students in the question of how an external, regional culture may or may not influence Judaism, Jewishness, and Jewry. Students will explore the elements of Jewish culture in four worldwide communities: India, Russia, Argentina, and the United States of America. Each unit delves into the community’s culture through some combination of the five themes of history, food, art, literature, and special customs. Ultimately, students will be equipped to consider how life in America has, or has not, shaped his/her vision of Jewish life.?? | Grades 9-12 | Religious School | Sussman, Deana |
| 2000 | World Religion | Christianity: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox | To provides high school students with a working vocabulary for use in discussion regarding other religions as well as helping them identify similarities and differences between Judaism and Christianity. | Grades 9-12 | High School | Zimmerman, Rebecca |