Bader Elkin Talmud Torah
Welcome to our Talmud Torah!
The Bader-Elkin Talmud Torah is designed to meet the religious and spiritual needs of our youngest congregants at Beth Israel in Kingston. Through rigorous lesson planning and training, our teachers strive to embody every child with the tools to reach their full potential and live authentically Jewish lives. Through our study, we hope to enable every student to make strong and unique contributions to global society, embodying the spirit of Tikkun Olam.
Our Mission Statement
- To engender in our students a love, reverence, and appreciation of the Torah and Jewish traditions.
- To familiarize our students with the Hebrew language, prayer, Bible, holidays, customs, and ceremonies.
- To encourage the students to attend services to make them familiar and comfortable with the synagogue and its rituals.
- To teach traditional Judaism.
- To foster a personal religious philosophy that is meaningful, relevant, and based on intellectual honesty and faith.
- To involve the entire family through family education programs and family celebration experiences, thereby encouraging families to incorporate Jewish learning and Jewish living in their everyday activities.
- To encourage our students to add their own voice to Jewish life through participation in Synagogue and instilling in them a sense of community and the importance and meaning of belonging to the larger community of Jew.
Our Curriculum
The world stands on three things: on Torah, service, and on loving deeds. (Pirkei Avot 1:2)
At BETT, we strive to build a sacred community, Kehilah Kadoshah. It is the goal of building a sacred community that is at the core of our approach to Jewish learning. Our school emphasizes the study of Hebrew, prayer and liturgy, as well as Jewish ethics, history, Bible study, Jewish customs and ceremonies. Each year we have a primary focus for our Jewish learning based on the three pillars of Judaism (Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Hasadim)
Our Jewish development program is from Kindergarten to Grade 7. When programming allows, we also run Torah Tots, our preschool program in the Kinder basement room for 1 hour ever Sunday.
Starting in JK, our students learn Hebrew, tefillah (prayer), Torah, Avodah (rituals) and Gemilut Chasadim (ethics). It is our belief that all of these topics cannot be addressed sufficiently each year, so we have structured our school of a 3-year cycle. Year 1 sees a focus on Torah narratives--our children meet Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel & Leah, as well as Moses and Miriam. Three years later, they will revisit these "family members" and learn about them on a deeper level.
During year 2, we focus on Avodah (ritual). What do we do? And why do we do it? We will experience all of the rituals associated with the Jewish lifecycle in re-enacting baby namings, bat/bar mitzvah, wedding, and learning about how we honour our loved ones when they die. We will discuss what it means to be commanded and how we talk about God and try to follow God's commandments.
In year 3 of our cycle, we move to Gemilut Chasadim (ethics). We consider questions such as: how do we make this world a better place?
Our Teaching Faculty
Our principal, Erica Silver, MA, OCT, comes with over a decade long education career and strong administrative background. She is responsible for running the program, and should be your first point of contact for any questions, comments of concerns regarding anything having to do with the Talmud Torah.
Our school is staffed by devoted and creative Queen's University students, all of whom come with a wealth of religious and Judaic knowledge. All are excited to help your child/children take charge of their Jewish learning, and look forward to being strong Jewish influences in all facets of their young lives.
Schedule and Classroom Groupings
Our classes breakdown as follows:
- Kindergarten and Grade 1 - ALEPH
- Grade 2 and Grade 3 - BET
- Grade 4 and Grade 5 - GIMMEL
- Grade 6 and Grade 7 - PRE-MITZVAH
Classes run from 2:45-5pm every Sunday as noted on the school calendar. Students in BET, GIMMEL and PRE-MITZVAH also have mandatory Hebrew instructional classes one day a week. These slots will be chosen at the start of the year based on student and parental availability.
- Wednesdays - 4-5pm OR 5-6pm (in person learning)
- Tuesdays/Thursday Online (times TBA)
To download our school welcome brochure, click HERE
To download a copy of our timetable, click HERE
To download our 2024-2025 Talmud Torah Calendar, click HERE
BETT Intro Video by Erica Silver
