Freedom School / הוראה לילדים

 Freedom School / הוראה לילדים

Freedom School
Enrollment Open for 2024 – 2025

Regular Enrollment
Open until August 24th

$2,500 per student, K – 3 grades
$2,800 per student, 4 – 7 grade*

*Tuition reflects the extra day of learning for weekly Hebrew classes.

Please contact Spencer Weiss to have a conversation about financial assistance or if you want to further support us by contributing to our Scholarship Fund.

What is Freedom School?

Freedom School is The Kitchen’s answer to religious school. It’s our way of doing Jewish for families with kids (kindergarten and up) on Shabbat + holidays.

Freedom School is a one stop shop for all your jewish needs. Jewish life happens on Saturdays (not Sundays) so why not learn jewish, by doing jewish.

Why Freedom School?

We believe learning Torah will move students to justice. How do we do it? We teach Jewish by doing Jewish, in context, in community and out in the world - so you can do more Jewish, more meaningfully, more often, as a family. In other words, Freedom School happens when Jewish life happens, where Jewish life happens. And guess what? Not only is learning through experience more effective, it’s a lot more fun.

Freedom School
Goals & Objectives

Feel.

Feel connected to other kids, parents, and families who do Jewish

Create.

Create a Jewish home and community that contextualizes and reinforces Jewish practice as an organic way to approach the world.


Understand.

Understand how the Torah influences personal lives and American justice movements, and inspire students to be socially responsible;

Be.

Be empowered to articulate their Jewish values in the context of justice work;

Know.

Know central Torah texts, home prayers and brachot (blessings), interpretive methods of understanding Torah; the Jewish calendar and life cycle events; the importances of Shabbat.

Engage.

Be able to engage in Jewish study, rituals, traditions, and justice work, as well as as confident pray-ers who are “strong in the kahal/ community.”

Overview

Shabbat Mornings

Saturday Shabbat Mornings are the core of our program, here’s a little of what to expect to help your family do more Jewish, more meaningfully, more of the time: 

  • Freedom School families assemble in-person on Shabbat (Saturday) mornings and holidays

  • Shabbat mornings will be filled with a mix of learning configurations: grade-cohort learning, all family learning, praying with the community, and celebrating B’nei Mitzvah of Freedom School students

  • Student experiences are rooted in grade-cohort bands (K/1, 2/3, 4/5, 6, and 7), around Torah, Mitzvot/Jewish Actions & T’fillah/Prayer, and Jewish Justice - all in a student-centered pedagogy. Your child’s voice, choices, and questions directs their learning

  • 7th Grade students + parents learn Torah Love with Rabbi Noa Kushner, Hazzan Asher Levy & community educators

  • Parent Learning Circles: adult only space to schmooze, drink coffee, and pray

  • We’ll continue to experiment with space, method, modality, and format - in ways that keep us all safe

Typical Saturday AM Schedule:
9:00am Whole-Family / Grade-Cohort Learning
10:00am Kids: grade-cohort learning. Adults: praying
11:00am  Torah service + grade-cohort time
11:30am  Grade-cohort class time
12:30pm-ish  Kiddush lunch (bagels, anyone?)

Holidays, Justice Days & Hebrew

Community Holiday Celebrations & Justice/Proximity Days
Throughout the year, we’ll also hold holiday celebrations and justice/proximity days in our community. For Justice/service days, Freedom School collaborates closely with One City, Glide, and Rabbi Michael Lezak for on-the-ground projects that help us get proximate, learn, and collectively bring more freedom into the world. 

Weekly Hebrew on Zoom for 4th – 6th Grade only (7th opt-in)
A weekly half hour class Tuesday afternoons, with 4-6 students, focusing on decoding of letters, vowels, and reading key vocabulary of prayer and Torah.

Cohorts will be sorted into the following groups:

  • Ulpan – students new to learning Hebrew

  • Novice – students who know some letters and vowels

  • Intermediate – students who are comfortable reading basic Hebrew

Check out our full calendar here

Questions about Freedom School structure or enrollment? Email our Executive Director, Spencer Weiss, at spencer@thekitchensf.org.

Freedom School
Grade by Grade

Each Grade-Cohort is built around an interconnected, spiraled curriculum, based in three areas of content: Torah, Mitzvot/Jewish Actions & T’fillah/Prayer, and Jewish Justice. Through immersive, experiential, and student-centered learning, our cohorts will emerge from Freedom School as skilled, thoughtful readers and interpreters of Torah stories and texts, comfortable and confident pray-ers who are “strong in the kahal". Once graduated from Freedom School, your young adults with be ethically minded with a sense of Jewish values that underlie their understandings of the world.

Each grade cohort has a two-year sequence called Aleph & Bet (except 6th & 7th grade) that has an overarching essential question and theme.

Click through to see what each grade cohort will achieve in their two-year sequence.

  • ALEPH

    Essential Question
    Who am I?

    Torah
    Stories of Beresheet/creation, Adam & Eve

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Shabbat ritual, Havdalah ritual, holiday symbols, prayers of the morning service (Psalm 136, Psalm 150)

    Justice
    Values of kedusha/holiness, sakranut/curiosity, & emunah/faith; developing personal & communal creativity

    BET

    Essential Question
    Who are we?

    Torah
    Stories of Noah & the flood, the Tower of Babel, & the Exodus from Egypt

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Shabbat & Passover rituals, connections between holidays & social relationships, prayers of the morning service

    Justice
    Values of t’shuva/saying “sorry,” g’vurah/inner strength, & savlanut/resilience

  • ALEPH

    Essential Question
    How do I interact with and appreciate the world?

    Torah
    Stories of prayer, praise/gratitude, and petitioning/requesting in the Torah

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Prayers of Praise/Thanks and Petition/Asking as part of Shabbat Shacharit (focus on Shema + V’ahavta, l’El Baruch, Healing Prayers). Prayer stewardship: Greeting/Pass our siddurim/prayerbooks

    Justice
    Values of bikkur cholim/visiting the sick, Shalom Bayit/Peace in the Home

    BET

    Essential Question
    How do I honor previous generations?

    Torah
    Stories of Abraham & Sarah, Rebekah & Isaac, Jacob, Rachel & Leah

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Petition, Praise, and Thanks as part of shabbat Shacharit, focus on Barechu, Avot

    Justice
    Values of Kibud Av’V’Em/Honor Your Parents, Pesach as a holiday of honoring all, laws and customs of Tzedakah

  • ALEPH

    Essential Question
    Why is it important to tell the story(ies) of the Jewish people?

    Torah
    Stories of Creation, Leaving Egypt, Receiving Torah

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Marking Jewish time (rituals and practices); holidays of Zikaron/memory. Arc of a shacharit/morning service, with themes of Creation, Leaving Egypt, and Receiving Torah. Focus on prayers: Yotzer Or (Creation), Ahavah Rabbah (Receiving Torah), Mi Chamocha (Leaving Egypt). Prayer stewardship: Kiddush

    Justice
    Values of B’tzelem Elohim/In the Image of God, Brit/Framework for a Righteous Life, Zikaron/Memory, Cheirut/Freedom

    BET

    Essential Question
    What are Different Models of Jewish Leadership and Humility?

    Torah
    Stories of Joseph, Moses & Esther

    Mitzvot& T’fillah
    Shabbat as a time for Menucha/Rest, Oneg/Delight + Shabbat Ritual (Kiddush and Challah). Leading prayers: Yotzer Or (Creation), Ahavah Rabbah (Receiving Torah), Mi Chamocha (Leaving Egypt). Prayer stewardship: Kiddush

    Justice
    Values of anavah/humility, g’vurah + gibor/inner strength and inner heroism

  • Essential Questions
    How do I develop as a leader and a teen/young adult in my community? What is a meaningful journey of growth into Jewish adulthood?

    Torah
    Stories from Bamidbar and the formation of Israelite community; review of Torah and Tanakh

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    History of t’fillah through Jewish time; Torah Service liturgy, texts, ritual, and choreography. Prayer Stewardship: Torah Scroll care

    Justice
    Middot & Mussar, Jewish ethical citizenship

  • Essential Question
    What does it mean to become a Jewish “young adult?”

    Torah
    Close reading, drash, and midrash skills

    Mitzvot & T’fillah
    Torah Service liturgy, texts, ritual, and choreography. Mitzvot of Jewish adulthood.

    Justice
    Value of what our obligations to our city as a new Jewish adult?

Weekly Recaps

The 411 of everything we learned at Freedom School this past shabbat. Check here the Wednesday after Freedom School to read the recaps grade by grade.