Our students enjoy working on a variety of social action projects that often raise awareness and money for meaningful causes.

The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County offers a full Sunday School program from kindergarten through B’Nai Mitzvah. Unlike in a traditional Hebrew School, our students are engaged in coursework that provides them with a foundation to understand Jewish history and culture from a Humanistic perspective and sets them on a journey toward becoming  responsible young adults through ethical decision-making and by giving back to their community.

Our students are engaged divided into four age-appropriate classes that are taught by well-qualified teachers with a multi-year rotating curriculum.  Our K-2 class, which is taught by the owner of a pre-school who is a member our congregation, has fun learning about Jewish culture, Humanistic customs and holiday celebrations.

Students in our 3-4 class begin to learn to distinguish between Jewish history and mythical history. The coursework in our 5-6 class includes Jews in America, Oppression and Resistance and the History of Humanistic Judaism.  At both of these levels, ethics is another important part of the curriculum.

Our Hanukkah and Purim parties always are a big hit with our students as well as our adults.

Our pre-Mitzvah class, which is led by long-standing members of our congregation, prepares our students for their B’Nai Mitzvah after they have demonstrated that they have achieved certain competencies consistent with our Humanistic Jewish values and that reflect the high standards we use to define “responsible young adult” in our community. The requirements include guided exercises in ethical problem-solving, a significant social action project, a research project related to Humanistic Judaism and a gratitude essay. The B’nai Mitzvah students articulate their values and present to the younger children in the Sunday School. They also write and lead a class Shabbat or Havdalah service.

It is exciting to see all the components of Jewish culture, customs, history and Humanism come together in a thorough and interesting program!