Posted on September 13, 2026 in Education Stories
We started with a scavenger hunt through the sanctuary. Find the ner tamid. Find the Torah. Find how many Jewish stars you can spot in this room.
A sanctuary can be an intimidating place for a child, big and quiet and full of objects nobody has ever explained to them. So we sent them looking.
They ran, they pointed, they argued about who saw it first, and somewhere in the middle of it the room stopped being a place they had been put and became a place they knew their way around.
That is a Jewish education in action: Synagogue is your house. Go find out what is in it.
Then we got loud. We learned songs with hand motions, which is the fastest way I know to get a room full of people who just met to stop being shy. Within four minutes, the kid who came in glued to a parent’s leg was doing the motions bigger than anybody.
We brought the Rosh Hashanah into the room through drama and dance. We do not read Torah stories to our kids and ask them to sit nicely. We hand the story over. They take the parts, they move through it with their whole bodies, and then they argue about it, which is the most Jewish part of the whole thing. By the time they left, they were not kids who had been told about Rosh Hashanah. They were kids who had been inside it.
Lastly, we started our Mitzvah journals. Each month our students take on one mitzvah, learn it, practice it, and write down what happened when they brought it home.
The teachers and I were overflowing with excitement to see these young hearts and minds so engaged in joyful Jewish learning.
We always have room for one more!
Neshamah Hebrew School Classes meet Tuesdays Online or Sundays In Person for grades K through 5, with private tutoring available.
There are no dues here and no membership. All families interested in seriously fun and impactful Jewish education are welcome.
If you have been wondering whether your child would fit in or worried you waited too long, you did not wait too long … the time is always right for Jewish learning.
With love and blessings,
Rabbi Amy
About Rabbi Rader
Rabbi Amy Rader is the Founder and Executive Director of the Neshamah Institute in Boca Raton, a vibrant Jewish community offering meaningful Jewish education for kids, Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation, High Holiday services, and inspiring Jewish events. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Rader brings over 25 years of experience helping families connect deeply with Judaism in modern, authentic ways.