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Welcome to the Religious School

 At Shaare Emeth we work to inspire our students to love Judaism and to enjoy being a part of a wonderful and caring community. During the past three years our Religious School Board has been working on an important process of evaluating and “raising the bar” on how we teach our students. Embarking on a process of school renewal, we began by interviewing teachers and families, meeting with students, and involving the entire school in an online survey process. We asked the questions, “How do you want your student to be taught about Judaism?” and “What do you want them to learn?”, and then we listened to your answers.

In the fall of 2006 after many months of thoughtful work, we began  the first phase of our new learning program for our students! This new program provides each and every student at Shaare Emeth the opportunity to embrace being Jewish. Our students experience the wonder and joy of Judaism each day!

For our 7^th-10^th grade students, the Shaare Emeth Religious School has recently created an innovative approach to Jewish learning specific for our teen population. In December 2005 when Shaare Emeth Religious School began a process of school renewal, we were interested in creating a Jewish educational program for all of our students at Shaare Emeth. We challenged ourselves to create a community of learners that reached beyond our Pre K- 6^th grade students. We have now proudly launched the Kehillah Program; a new and innovative approach to Jewish learning for the teens of Shaare Emeth. Kehillah means community and the program is designed to both foster community among our students while giving them an opportunity to explore Judaism in ways that are most appropriate for their development. The program incorporates specific core classes for each grade level, as well as additional learning experience called chai credits that students participate in during the year. These chai credit experiences resemble offerings in a college course guide. The students are able to choose which credit opportunities, both at Shaare Emeth and in the greater community, they would like to engage in during the year.

Shaare Emeth continues to be at the forefront of Jewish education. We are proud to be the only Congregation in St. Louis providing this approach to Jewish education and we look forward to continuing to provide the BEST program to our students and their families.