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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.
The Confirmation
year, 10th grade, is highlighted with a fabulous 3-day trip to New
York City with other confirmation classes from
around the greater Boston area. Students visit Ellis
Island, the Lower
East Side, and it's historical
sites, the Jewish
Braille Institute, various kinds of synagogues and Jewish
institutions of higher learning, as well as eat at some
real Jewish
delis and see a Broadway show.
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 Rabbi Miller and an hour with Cantor Schechtman
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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