Jewish Studies

As you pass through the gates of TVT, we welcome you into a bubble of Jewish learning and Jewish living. TVT is a school where Jewish Holiday celebrations elevate our year and pre-Shabbat gatherings serve as the spiritual crescendo of each week.  At TVT, daily doses of prayer and self-reflection are balanced by yearly exhibitions of Jewish mastery. Judaism inspires the values we live by each day and catalyzes the programming that brings us together as a class, as a division, and as a school.  

 

TVT’s Jewish Studies program engages students in ethical conversations of consequence.  While our study begins with the primary texts of the Jewish tradition, we always end with the self.  In this way, our engagement with Torah, Talmud, Jewish law, and Jewish history grounds our discussions and helps us find our place in the great chain of tradition. In addition, Jewish study at TVT challenges students to respond actively and emotionally to their learning by becoming empathetic upstanders and by participating in acts of tikkun olam, repairing our broken world.

Within the Jewish bubble of TVT, you’ll witness an environment of teaching that encourages students to opt-in, engage, and respond creatively to the practices and beliefs that define the Jewish tradition. TVT is a place that exposes students to the multifaceted spectrum of the Jewish experience and encourages them to articulate their identity with pride.

Lastly, you’ll quickly realize that TVT’s Jewish Studies program thinks deeply about connections. Our goal is to teach essential Jewish skills that will allow our graduates to participate in any Jewish community.  Our dual emphasis on knowledge and know-how ensures that a TVT graduate will leave here with the tools and the confidence to help enrich, and even lead our future Jewish world.

So don’t be shy! Read the core values displayed on our gates and then take a few steps forward to watch how a pluralistic Jewish school strives to live out those ideals – each and every day.  You won't be disappointed!

 

L’hitraot,

Rabbi Stuart Light