Open House at TBB, my synagogue in Somerville

[pekmez]

I'm a member of Temple B'nai Brith in Somerville, and I'm on the board
of directors and a co-chair of the Membership Committee. I've been a
member of TBB since sometime after I moved to Somerville, and really
like the place! For those who might be looking for a place to make
Jewish connections in Somerville, here is an announcement
about our upcoming open house on September 20th and 21st.

I'll be at the open house, and otherwise can occasionally be found at
Shabbat services, other holiday services, or various programs that
catch my interest. Feel free to ask me more about Temple B'nai Brith!
The announcement with details on the open house is below.

TBB OPEN HOUSE SEPTEMBER 20th and 21ST

Looking for a vibrant, egalitarian, and welcoming Jewish community?
Temple B'nai Brith is an independent Jewish congregation serving
Somerville and surrounding communities for over 100 years. We offer
regular Shabbat and alternative worship services, High Holiday
services, and other Jewish holiday services; non-members are welcome!

We will hold an open house weekend on Saturday, September 20th
(10:00am-1:00pm) and Sunday, 21st (11:00am-1:00pm).

On September 20th, you can meet members, visit our Shabbat services,
and attend a kiddush afterwards. On September 21st, you can
meet congregants, enjoy a light brunch, join the Children's School for
its short concluding service at 11:45, and meet our school staff. TBB
is located at 201 Central St, in Somerville, just off Broadway in
Winter Hill.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And among the school staff you can meet if you come on Sunday is me!

Um. I hope that's a POSITIVE selling point ...

[angerona.livejournal.com]

Cool!

can you tell me a bit more about the school? What sort of things do kids learn there, how old are the kids, how long are the school hours, etc.?

Or perhaps you'd rather I came to the open house :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's a Sunday school -- meets on Sundays from 9:30 AM to noon. There is, additionally, a Tuesday night class offered for older children, taught by Phil, who's our religious leader -- in his day job, he's a philosophy professor at Wheelock college, and the Tuesday night class covers Jewish philosophy, history, and stuff like that.

The school has students from pre-K to Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and, after Bar/Bat Mitzvah, many students come back for an additional year or two to act as madrichim, "guides", who are our aides and assistant teachers.

Our class day has four parts: our first session, on Hebrew, then snack and singing, then our second session, Judaics, and then we finish with t'filah, praying together. Hebrew starts with letter recognition and gets to the ability to lead services by the end of the curriculum. We'd LIKE to be able to get into actual fluency, but that's very difficult on one hour a week. Still, we do manage to work in a little conversational Hebrew along the way -- but our focus is more on the liturgical stuff. When we can do both, we do.

The Judaics part differs from year to year. At one grade, it focuses on holidays, another grade, mitzvot, or history, or the Prophets, and so forth.

And I'd love it if you came to the open house.

[angerona.livejournal.com]

thank you. I'll try to stop by.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

On Sunday there will be school-clueful people about (and school in session to drop in on);

there's some info about the school at:
http://www.cbbcs.org/
and a bit at
http://www.templebnaibrith.org/

I like Eliana a lot - she is our new school director, and xiphias is cool too (hence he's on my friends list! :) ), and really I like all of the teachers I've met; but that's about all I know about the school.
School meets just on Sundays from something like 9:30-noon, and I think ages run from 4-13 plus some extra/different options for older kids including past their bar/bat mitzvah.

[angerona.livejournal.com]

oh, cool, I may stop by at the open house. We are sort of looking for a sinagogue.