Religious School: Our Approach

Several years ago Shomrei Emunah overhauled its approach to educating our children. Building on a watershed report by the Avi Chai Foundation, we set out to multiply the connections, overlaps and resonances among the many ways our young people develop their knowledge, understanding, and experience of Jewish life, law, liturgy and lore.

To jump-start that process, Shomrei created the post of director of congregational learning, putting a single person in charge of unifying and linking together all of our educational programs. The results of that overhaul are evident today throughout the continuum of Jewish education available at Shomrei.

Early Childhood

We believe in reaching out to the parents of infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, drawing them in, helping them build connections to the synagogue and its people, and making them feel like the newest members of our extended family of friends.

Members of the synagogue and preschool parents team up to offer a weekday morning Mommy & Me group for mothers of infants to 16-month-olds.

Our Toddler Time sessions invite children between 18 months and 2 years old into the synagogue for weekday-morning singing, storytelling, crafts and playtime. Toddler Time introduces our youngest students and their caregivers to the preschool experience.

And our bustling Shomrei Emunah Preschool helps youngsters learn through play, forming early friendships and a strong Jewish identification – and planting the seeds for a love of learning, a strong sense of community, and a desire to achieve.

Information: Elynn Finston, shomreipreschooldirector@gmail.com

Elementary and Middle School

Our team of educators helps and encourages parents of Jewish preschoolers to choose their next step. For some that may lead to the Solomon Schechter Day School in nearby West Orange. For many others, it means enrolling at our own Jewish Learning Center.

The J.L.C.’s engaging curriculum emphasizes modern Hebrew language, prayer and ritual, and Jewish values, history and culture – through classes, field trips, family workshops, Shabbat services, cooperative work and individual research, and music, arts and crafts. All in all, it provides a bedrock of Judaism and Yiddishkeit that our children will be able to build upon throughout their lives.

Classes are offered for children from pre-kindergarten through seventh grade.

Recognizing the importance of informal education, we also offer a full range of youth group programs, beginning with Chaverim for second, third and fourth graders, which meets monthly after Sunday school. For fifth through eighth graders, Kadima expands their social horizons with activities linking children from across northern New Jersey through the Hagalil region – while deepening friendships here at home through much-anticipated events like the annual “shul-in” sleepover.

Information: Judy Jaffe, jaforanges@gmail.com

High School

Upon completing our J.L.C. program, some students may choose to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Prozdor High School or a satellite of the Hebrew high school of MetroWest New Jersey. But easily the most popular way for our teenagers to continue their development as Jews is through the under-the-radar education that they receive by joining Shomrei Teens of Montclair.

STOM, as it has become known, offers ninth through 12th graders the full range of USY programming and resources, and much more: socializing and fun, community service, discussions on anything and everything, music, field trips, guest speakers, and dinner together one night every week.