home

WELCOME TO THE HEBREW PRAYER PROJECT Jewish Education Center of Cleveland Siegal College of Jewish Studies Discussions at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, spurred on by a variety of articles and postings on http://TheHebrewProject.wikispaces.com, led Cleveland’s Jewish educators to begin the process of rethinking the teaching of Hebrew and prayer. It was becoming more and more apparent that:
 * Hebrew prayer study is hard. If one were to pick an engaging text to introduce to an already disengaged 4th or 5th grader, chances are that //Yotzer Ohr// or //Kiddush// would not be at the top of the list. Also, the language of Hebrew prayers is on an adult level, both grammatically and conceptually.
 * Even with the best of teachers, there were too many students on the verge of Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparations who did not decode with 98% accuracy. It was felt that this was partially caused by the drop in days students attend "Hebrew School" (from 3 days down to 2). And, it was felt that this situation could be ameliorated with more efficient teaching.

With the expertise of Dr. Lifsa Schachter (Siegal College), and the support of Nachama Skolnik Moskowitz (JECC Curriculum Department) and Ronna Fox (JECC Teacher Center), Cleveland's supplementary school directors came around the table to rethink the teaching of Hebrew prayer. Lifsa taught the group core principles of Hebrew and Hebrew learning. As a result of a very stimulating two hour session, the school directors wanted to see how their new understandings of Hebrew and prayer education might be applied to specific prayer. So they chose to create a model/pilot curriculum, with support materials, focused on אָבוֹת אִמָהוֹת. Teacher and director feedback led to the creation of two more documents – one on שְׁמַע and one its first paragraph, וְאָהַבְתָּ (this one).

With the help of Ronna Fox, JECC Teacher Center Director, the curriculum and its supports are provided in two formats:
 * A multi-page curricular document [[file:0 V'ahavta Curriculum JECC FINAL.pdf]]
 * A wikispace that holds all the background and the documents, enabling teachers to access the information 24/7 in formats that are helpful to their planning. http://jecchebrewprayer-vahavta.wikispaces.com/

Please feel free to look at our other t'fillah wikispaces: http://jecchebrewprayer-avotimahot.wikispaces.com http://jecchebrewprayer-shma.wikispaces.com

This one focuses on ideas for enhancing actual worship experiences: http://withallourhearts.wikispaces.com

We welcome your questions or comments: Nachama Skolnik Moskowitz, nmoskowitz@jecc.org

Lifsa Schachter, lschachter@siegalcollege.edu

Ronna Fox, rfox@jecc.org