Nisayon Begins: Transforming Religious School, One Experience at a Time

For over two years, Temple Beth Shalom’s Reimagine Religious School Task Force has been on a journey—one that has taken us inward to reflect on our values, outward to explore innovative educational models, and forward toward building an inspiring future for Jewish learning. Now, we are thrilled to share the culmination of this work: our new Nisayon program, a Passport Model for religious school!

A Community-Wide Initiative

At Temple Beth Shalom, we believe that Jewish learning is a lifelong pursuit that strengthens and enriches our entire community. Whether or not you have school-age children, we want you to know about the exciting ways we are evolving Jewish education to meet the diverse needs of our congregation. This new initiative is not just about children—it’s about reimagining how we engage with Torah, tradition, and one another in meaningful ways.

Why a Change?

Jewish education has traditionally followed a structured, classroom-based approach. However, as our Task Force explored new possibilities, it became clear that the needs of today’s families call for greater flexibility, engagement, and personalization. With Nisayon, we are deconstructing the conventional school structure and replacing it with an adaptable framework designed to fit into different lifestyles while still providing a rich, meaningful Jewish education.

What is Nisayon?

Nisayon, which means "experience" in Hebrew, is a passport model of Jewish learning. Instead of a fixed schedule, students will fulfill their religious school requirements by selecting from a variety of learning opportunities that meet at different times and locations. The frequency and length of these programs may vary, allowing families to create a schedule that works for them. Each student’s Jewish learning journey will be guided by three core categories:

• Torah – General Jewish learning opportunities, including attending monthly Torah study sessions designed specifically for students, or joining our book club where students will read Jewish books and engage in group discussions.

• Avodah – Attending Shabbat services, b’nai mitzvah, and holiday celebrations, such as our "Shakes in the Shack" Sukkot program and Tashlich.

• Gemilut Chasadim – Acts of kindness, including youth group events, retreats, and mitzvah opportunities such as Mitzvahpalooza and monthly volunteering opportunities and our Jewish Dungeons and Dragons group where different campaigns focus on holidays, Torah stories, and Jewish historical events.

Students and families will be able to build their own learning path by choosing from experiences designed for children, families, and even congregation-wide events. This model ensures that Jewish education is not only more convenient but also more dynamic, engaging, and personally meaningful.

An Alternative Model – Traditional Religious School Still Available

Nisayon is an alternative option for families looking for a more flexible approach to Jewish learning. We will continue to offer our traditional religious school programming for those who prefer a structured classroom experience. Families can choose the model that best fits their needs.

Pilot Year Details

In our pilot year, this alternative Nisayon programming will be open to 50 students in grades Kindergarten through 7th grade. This limited enrollment will allow us to assess and refine the program to ensure its success.

We recognize that this is a significant shift, and we want to ensure that every family feels supported and excited about the opportunities ahead. Our goal is to create an inclusive, meaningful, and enriching Jewish learning experience for all members of our community.As we take this next step, we are deeply grateful to the members of our congregation who have contributed their voices, insights, and ideas to shaping this vision. We look forward to embarking on this journey together and creating a religious school experience that truly meets the needs of our 21st-century Jewish community.​​​​​​​We hope to see you at one of our upcoming sessions!

The Courage to Change: Transforming Jewish Education

Like many Jewish kids in the 1990s (or now), I didn’t love going to Sunday school, nor did I get much out of it. I remember being handed my Yiddish textbook, and the expectation was for me to go through the lessons on my own, or with friends. Except for the big moments (decorating the sukkah, making gauze masks for Purim, the end of year field trips to 7-11 and of course my Bat Mitzvah), most of my Sunday school experience was unforgettable at best.

When I began to teach Sunday and Hebrew school when I was in college, it was my mission to make sure that my students had fun. It was through my time teaching in East Lansing, MI and seeing the challenges of providing meaningful and experiential experiences for my students in the Sunday school classroom that e had me thinking that there had to be another (better) way.

Starting in the early 20th century, when our grandparents and great-grandparents came to the United States, their main goal was to become American, and the most patriotic thing they could do as new Americans was to send their children to public schools. To ensure that their children not only received an American education, but also a Jewish education, they “modernized” Jewish learning by creating supplementary Jewish schools, and they modeled them after the public schools. Their greatest hope was for their children and grandchildren would assimilate into American life.

Now that that hope has been realized, we must also now accept that the way we have been doing Jewish education, has met its purpose. Jewish Americans have changed, the needs of children and their families have changed, and yet the model of supplementary Jewish education has primarily stayed the same as it was when our grandparents and great-grandparents came here 100 years ago.

Here at Temple Beth Shalom, we are very proud of our Sunday and Hebrew educational programming, however, we also accept that new ideas, new energy, and new models are needed to move us into the 21st century of Jewish education.

It is with this mindset that the we have convened the Re-Imagine Religious School Task Force, bringing together parents, teachers and temple staff, to explore the vision and future of our educational programming at Temple Beth Shalom. These individuals were chosen to serve on Task Forces because they bring the diverse perspectives, ideas, and energy that are needed to represent our 21st century families and lead our congregation on this new journey.

Since we have convened, our Task Force has embarked on a journey where we began by looking inward--looking to our own pasts and what Jewish educational experiences have been meaningful to us and what “Jewish artifacts” represent our Jewish journeys. We have established a base of knowledge about our current school by looking at where we started, where we are now and the changes that have happened over the years. We have learned, discussed and explored the reasons why this work is important, and what Judaism teaches us about change and innovation.

And now, we are beginning to look outward—learning about the innovative education models that congregations around the country have created. We are beginning to explore the possibilities that are out there that will create meaningful educational experiences for our families. And as we continue this exploration, we will reach out to these congregations, to learn about the successes, the challenges and the failures of these innovative models to help us to think about our future.

As we continue to meet, we will begin to look to the future—to turn our hopes for our families’ Jewish experiences at temple into a vision of Jewish education for our congregation; a vision that meets the needs of our Austin community, that is compelling and that will help our entire congregation move into the 21st century.

It is only then that we will that we will look to our current model, to the models we have learned about and adapt a model or even design a new one for our congregation; one that fits the vision we have crafted. But even with a newly minted plan in mind, we will many any changes, slowly and thoughtfully. It is our hope to present a model to pilot in the coming year. This will be a chance for families and students to be our partners in this educational journey.

As we move into these next stages on our process, your input and experiences are important. Over the next weeks and months, members of our Task Force, will be reaching out to various members of our community to learn about their experiences with our youth educational programs, their hopes for the next generation of Jewish leaders in our community, and their thoughts about our best thinking.

This process is not about just enhancing the education for our children, it’s about our entire community coming together—lay leaders and professional staff—to build on the strong foundation of our founding families and to meet the promise that the future holds.

 Re-Imagine Task Force Members:

Chair: Joshua Levy

Members: Jesse Adland, Kate Benay, Sarah Levithan Daniels, Ariel Chasen Feingersch, Julie Franklin, Emily Kuperszotch, Jenny Lewin, Robyn Siegel

From Exploration to Action: The Next Stage of Our Educational Journey

In March I shared about the exciting journey that our Reimagine Religious School Task Force has embarked on.

So far, our journey has had us looking inward, learning about the history and current state of the religious school, as well as looking at our own personal Jewish experiences that have been meaningful, memorable, and identity forming for us. During our time looking inward, we spoke with our teachers, learning from them what they need to be successful, the challenges they have in meeting our goals and where their passions lie as educators.

We have also looked outward, learning about what to factor into our thinking about children’s Jewish learning, some alternative models in place in other congregations and what the successes and pitfalls of each of these models have been. Additionally, our task force members have been speaking with parents and grandparents to learn their hopes for their children’s Jewish upbringing, the role Temple Beth Shalom plays in that upbringing, and what educationally is important to them. In other words, these first legs of our journey focused on learning, exploring, understanding, and reflecting.

However, on all journeys, you eventually come to a fork in the road—that point when you have to make a choice. You have traveled a long way and are eager to get to your destination, but there seem to be several paths to choose from and you cannot be entirely sure where each will take you.

Our Reimagine Task Force is now at that place in our journey—we have arrived at that fork in the road and our next several meetings will allow us to look forward as we finally make the decisions that will determine our future path.

To help us do that, we will:

1. Learn how a vision is defined in the context of the work we have been doing and craft a draft vision, based on the ideas, insights, and dreams that have been collected over the past several months from the task force members, as well as feedback provided by parents, teachers, clergy and full-time staff.

   
   

2. Work to identify and articulate several concrete goals that are rooted in our vision that will help define the shape of the future of our youth educational offerings.

   
   

3. Imagine what education in our congregation will be like in the future and synthesize these ideas into a recommendation for a new, alternative educational model for us to pilot.

   
   

4. Finally, brainstorm some feasible, first bold steps that would move us toward the realization of this future.

American educator Stephen Covey wrote, "To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." This is a long and important journey, and what it will take to reach the destination is the entire Temple Beth Shalom community. We look forward to the next update where we will be able to share a vision for education and perhaps even our bold steps for moving forward.