In the Milwaukee area, there have been abundant Jewish educational opportunities for children in all the major Jewish religious movements — except Reconstructionism.
But that will change this school year, as the area’s only Reconstructionist synagogue, Congregation Shir Hadash, will expand its Hebrew/Judaica program to include children in grades 3 to 6.
Up to now, the synagogue has offered a family education program for people with children in kindergarten to second-grade.
And this program, taught by Beth Draper, early childhood educator at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, has been a great success, according to Risa Berg Iskandersjach, who co-chairs the synagogue’s youth education committee with Bonnie McLean.
She said in a telephone interview that she has attended that program with her daughter, who is “almost five,” and “it has been wonderful” both to learn with her daughter and as a way to “connect with other young families.”
And Shir Hadash has a growing membership of young families, as the congregation grows, Berg Iskandersjach said. Moreover, the synagogue is open to having families that are not members participate in the program, she said.
“The synagogue is very participatory,” with music and dance involved in its activities and services, she said. The synagogue hopes to transmit that spirit to the students so they will “love being Jewish and love Jewish learning.”
Aggie Goldenholz will be the director and lead teacher of the new program, and other teachers may participate, depending on the number of students enrolled, Berg Iskandersjach said.
The program’s approach will be “children-centered, seeing each child as unique and open and ready to learn,” Goldenholz said in a telephone interview.
“We will be welcoming children of all grade levels and abilities” and will teach them “according to their own learning style and needs, their base of knowledge and what they are interested in,” she said.
“Our goal will be to create a holy space in the classroom and a safe environment in which children can take risks, challenge themselves and each other, and infuse them with a love for Jewish learning,” she said.
Goldenholz added that she brings abundant experience as a Jewish educator to the task. She has taught at both day and congregational schools in the area — in fact, she will continue to teach third-grade at Congregation Sinai.
She also works full-time as an interfaith chaplain for Aurora Sinai Medical Center; is involved with “alternative healing modalities”; and is pursuing rabbinical study through the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, with the aim of earning ordination by this January.
The first session will be on Sunday, Oct. 22. After that, the school will meet each Wednesday at a space at Shorewood Elementary School, and also will have “lunch and learn” sessions on three Sundays per month.
In addition, on one Saturday a month, Goldenholz will facilitate a youth-driven Shabbat service at the congregation’s regular meeting space in the basement of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue in Mequon.
There will be tuition charges for both members and non-members. According to a news release from the congregation, “no one will be turned away due to inability to pay.”
For more information about the school and the synagogue, visit the Shir Hadash Web site, www.cshmilw.org, or call Ellen Blankenship, 414-297-9159.
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