The Reform Temple of Framingham Massachusetts
300 Pleasant Street
Framingham, MA 01701
508-872-8300
 
 
 
 
 
   

The Religious School
The School at Temple Beth Am strives to meet the challenge of creating literate youths with positive identities as Reform Jews. Our program is seeing continuous improvement and our students are involved in the learning process in such a way that one can feel their "ruach" (spirit) and joy in the hallways.
   
HIGH SCHOOL

Grades 9-10
As important as the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is to our children and their families, we are very aware that Jewish education should definitely not end at age 13, any more than secular education should cease after the 7th grade.

Our High School program offers students in grades 9 and 10 the opportunity to meet once a week on Monday evenings to study and discuss subjects of great relevance to their lives, and to socialize with other Jewish teenagers. It is at this point in their Jewish education that our young people become aware that Judaism is not just Hebrew prayers and holiday celebrations, but a system of beliefs about God, the nature of humanity, ethical imperatives and moral mandates.

In studying Modern (conversational) Hebrew, Jewish lifecycles, and Jewish sexuality among other topics, students in our high school program begin to understand that their own value systems have been shaped by thousands of years of Jewish teachings.
   
There are two very special trips that have become the cornerstone of our high school program.  9th grade is highlighted with a fabulous 3-day trip to New York City with high schoolers from other temples around the greater Boston area. Students visit Ellis Island, the Lower East Side, and it's historical sites, the Museum of Jewish History, the historic Temple Emanuel on 5th Avenue, as well as eat at some real Jewish delis, see a couple of Broadway shows and visit NBC Studios.

In the 10th grade, our students travel to Washington, DC to visit the RAC (Religious Action Center).  There, they take part in a program called L’Taken.  The Bernard and Audre Rapoport L'Taken Social Justice Seminar for High School Students is an intensive four-day study kallah in Washington, DC, focusing on Jewish values and social justice. Every year more than 100 congregations from across the U.S. participate in this exciting event. This unique Washington opportunity enables students to:

  • Learn from experts inside and outside the Jewish community
  • Covers several issue areas in a variety of interactive formats
  • Tour the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Participate in a Havdalah service at the Jefferson Memorial
  • Sample the vibrancy of Georgetown and other exciting areas

 

The culmination of Temple Beth Am High School is Confirmation at the end of the 10th grade. This service, which is put together and led by members of the Confirmation class and held on the festival of Shavuot, is one of the most beautiful services of the entire year.

After Confirmation, many 11th and 12th graders continue on in our Post-Confirmation program. Once a month, these high school juniors and seniors meet for an hour with Cantor Schechtman and an hour with Rabbi Pollack to discuss subjects facing young people in the 21st century, particularly as they establish their own Jewish identity when they leave home for the first time and go off to college.

At the end of 12th grade, we have a special graduation service for those students who have shown the remarkable commitment and dedication to complete all the years of Jewish education at Temple Beth Am.
   
   
 
 
 
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