Hebrew School
MTFJC Hadar Family Hebrew School
The Hadar Family Hebrew School (MFJCHFHS) offers an after-school Jewish experience for children, grades 2 through 7, who reside in and around the Randolph community. MFJCHFHS provides Judaic enrichment through Jewish texts, song and music, hands-on learning experiences and Hebrew language instruction. We want our students to learn and live their heritage so that they carry their passion and love of Jewish life to their families, to their neighborhoods and to their schools. Our vision is to prepare our students for their future as engaged Jewish adults.
The MFJCHFHS is blessed with excellent teachers, and overseen by our Rabbi. Our staff is dedicated to providing each student a sound Jewish education within a warm and nurturing environment. Classes meet once a week, on Tuesday afternoons, from 4:30 – 6:00 PM from September through May. Through their participation in MFJCHFHS, students experience what it means to live a Jewish life rooted in their faith, their people and their traditions.
By the time of their Bar and Bat Mitzvah, MFJCHFHS students are well prepared for this milestone.
Attendance is open to non-shul members with discounts provided to Shul members. There are reduced rates for multiple attendees from the same family. In principle, we will not turn away any student for financial reasons. We want our students and their families to feel like the MFJCHFHS is their spiritual home and a place of Jewish learning.
Hebrew School Curriculum
MFJC’s Hadar Family Hebrew School educational philosophy emphasizes experiential learning. We want our students to feel that this Jewish environment is welcoming, loving and sincere. Student’s earliest impressions of Jewish communal setting will shape their connections for their lifetime. Torah, Tefillah/Prayer, Mitzvah/Commandments, Values, Service, the Land of Israel, Shabbat and Holidays are the keys to a comprehensive, full Jewish life.
Our Tefillah program is at the core of our learning experience. The prayers are based on our school siddur, prayer book. We sing all our prayers with musical accompaniment. All the prayers are classic selections from the prayer book, songs and passages that our parents and grandparents grew up singing. These also are prayers that our bnei mitzvah will need when they lead services on the day of their bar/t mitzvah and beyond. This is a special moment for the students to connect to community prayer and the songs and sounds of Jewish experience
Our first class of the day is language instruction which follows the key words and prayers from the Prayer book. In the short amount of time we meet with our students every week, language acquisition is fostered by the implementation into real experience. When students can synthesize the letters, vowels and words in their Hebrew language classes with their prayer, the chances of successful language acquisition becomes more likely. The process is rewarding and students feel successful. We hope that this will create a positive feedback to encourage more learning and growing.
Our second formal class instruction is geared to the corpus of Jewish knowledge. We focus here on Jewish values that come from the Torah. Jews are called the ‘People of the Book.’ Literacy and familiarity with basic concepts around Jewish experience and holy times make up the core of what our students work on in our school setting. Our staff is open and welcoming. They encourage questions and do not push dogma or ideology. Jewish life and practice is multifaceted and rich. We aim to invite students into their own heritage and their family’s heritage with gentleness and warmth and love.
Finally, every Hebrew School day features the singing of the Hatikvah, Israel’s National Anthem. We pride ourselves as a community that supports and hopes for the success of the State of Israel. Hatikvah is a prayer that embodies that hope.
By the end of your child’s experience at the MFJC Hadar Family Hebrew School, we want students who will feel a kinship, a sense of belonging to their synagogue, their community, their rabbi, their teachers and their faith.
Our Teachers
Mimi Czeisler earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Maryland, and a Master’s Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University. She has teaching certifications in Maryland, Illinois, and New Jersey and has taught both in public and private schools. Her extensive Hebrew School experiences have covered grades K through 5 and Mommy and Me classes. She has also worked with special needs students and does private Hebrew tutoring. Mimi and her family, husband Jeff and children Paula and Barry, moved to the Shongum area in 1987, and have been members of Mt. Freedom Jewish Center for more than three decades. She has been on the staff of our Hebrew School since 1991 and takes great pleasure in the number of students who have “graduated” our program and have become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah over the past 28 years. Mimi enjoys working with children of all ages, from various backgrounds, not only teaching curriculum through creative projects, but also helping all students develop a love of Judaism. Learning to read Hebrew, the basics of prayer, Jewish holidays and their observances, life cycle events, history, Torah, and Israel are just some of the subjects covered in her classes. We at Mt. Freedom Jewish Center want all students and their families to feel welcome, and Morah Mimi works to help your children build a strong foundation in Jewish traditions that they will carry into the future, and have fun along the way!
Sharon Nessel has a strong Judaic background having gone to Jewish Day School through High School, and later receiving her BA in English from SUNY Albany with a minor in Hebrew. She has taught Hebrew School and worked with Jewish youth groups as an advisor for Kadima, USY, NFTY in Middlesex County and more recently in synagogues in Morris County. While living abroad in Brussels, Belgium, Sharon was instrumental in developing curriculum and teaching at the Liberal Synagogue geared toward, but not exclusive to, the English speaking community. Sharon has been involved in every aspect of the Mount Freedom Jewish Center for nearly fifteen years, including teaching in its Hebrew School. She has also taught Hebrew to adults through Read Hebrew America. Morah Sharon loves teaching your children at the MFJC, where she raised her three children, and to which she has devoted much of her volunteer time.
Donna Amdur East – I have had the privilege of teaching for the Mt Freedom Jewish Center Hebrew school for 4 years. My educational background is in Fine Art, Hebrew and Judaic studies in Yeshiva University and Israeli institutions. This year, I teach as a specialist, adding my varied interests and backgrounds into fun, interactive and hands-on classes. If you don’t find me in the classroom, chances are we are baking challahs in the kitchen, washing our hands from shaving cream Hebrew letters, creating an artistic Jewish ritual object or practicing our full body Hebrew letter yoga poses in the hallway. Rabbi Menashe and I are blessed with 5 children. I love teaching at the Mt Freedom Jewish Center Hebrew school because of the loving teachers and a community that encourages teaching through creativity and flexibility.