Religious school

We have joined a synagogue in Falls Church and enrolled Rachel in Sunday school. I have mixed feelings about the synagogue -- it is so big; there are 900 children in religious school, making it one of the five largest religious schools in the country -- and although people seem nice, I miss our former rabbi in Portland, Michael Cahana, dreadfully; he and Rachel really seemed to have a connection (he called her his Shabbat Shalom girl, because he said it didn't feel like Shabbat unless he had a hug from her.) But the synagogue is a 10-minute drive away, and the chief rabbi is a woman (which Drew really likes), and there are lots of activities and chances to get involved, and they run a great summer camp (so I'm told.) And we really needed to make a decision about a spiritual home.

Last Sunday was the first day of school. Rachel ASKED to be enrolled in Hebrew school; she has been bugging us about it for several months now. "Who doesn't want to learn?" she asked. At this age, it's a very low-key introduction to Judaism and emphasizes a Jewish person's place in the world rather than hard-core Hebrew lessons (those start in 4th grade.) And I like that she'll be learning about the holidays, the Jewish cycle of life, etc., because maybe she can teach Mommy a thing or two.

She was quite nervous on the first day because she thought everyone would be talking in Hebrew, but she came out smiling, saying, "It went so fast!" At dinner, she said, "They were very gentle with us." Apparently that meant that they didn't scold the kids if they got anything wrong. They introduced at least one Hebrew word: "Po," which means "here," and "NoPo," which means "not here."

School runs from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sundays, and the total number of hours for the entire year turns out to be the equivalent of two weeks of public school. I'm just happy that she'll meet Jewish kids (maybe even some who attend McKinley Elementary) and hopefully we will meet some nice Jewish families.

Oh, and she has signed up for the synagogue choir which means we'll bring her in at 10:30 on the mornings of religious school so she can rehearse for a half-hour before class. She is following in Grandma's footsteps! Yay!