Announing Our 1st Tzedakah Total!

One of my favorite Jewish stories is about an old man who was planting a carob tree one day.  A stranger walked by and asked the man, “Why do you bother to plan this carob tree?  It will take 70 years to grow and bear fruit, do you think you’ll live long enough to see that?”  The old man replies, “Perhaps not. However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees.” 

This old man realized he played an important role in the world, beyond the immediate he could see in front of him, even beyond what he would see in his lifetime.  At MKLC, we want to empower our students with this same feeling.

One step we’ve taken towards this goal is our new tzedakah program.  We split the year into 4 units. During each unit, the whole school learns about one organization and donates to that organization any tzedakah collected during those weeks.  We just wrapped up our first unit about Mazon: The Jewish Response to Hunger.  We are proud to announce that we raised $296 during this unit. 

Our next unit began this past Sunday and it is for Gateway 180 Homeless Services in St. Louis.  One goal of the tzedakah program is to help students realize the breadth of organizations that exist in our community and help them figure out their personal priorities among the various types. To this end, we chose organizations from 4 broad categories:

1. a national Jewish organization that serves both Jews and non-Jews

2.  a local non-Jewish organization that provides an important service the whole St. Louis area

3. an organization that provides support in Israel

4. a special project to help strengthen B’nai Amoona (our synagogue can only serve others with all these important tikkun olam projects if B’nai Amoona itself is financially stable and our members taken care of)

We look forward to exploring homelessness and the pressing issues facing the entire St. Louis community, Jewish and otherwise, with our students.  We hope during this process, our students will find a personal connection with one of these organizations (or another that speaks to them) and begin to plant their own “carob trees” that will leave a lasting legacy for the future of the Jewish community and St. Louis at large. 

Tfillot in the Learning Center

Tfillot is a significant part of our curriculum. We want our students to feel comfortable praying with our community. We believe that prayer is best experienced. Therefore, we offer several prayer experiences for our students. Each Sunday morning, K-2^nd grade and 3^rd -6^th grade join together for a community service. On Tuesdays, 6^th & 7^th grades gather for the afternoon service and conversations about what it means to have a prayer life. These services are led by Cantor Sharon and Rabbi Ari. We also strongly encourage frequent attendance at Shabbat morning services.

We also believe that our students need to the opportunity to learn about the meaning of the prayers. Each time we learn about a prayer in the classroom, we have the same four goals:

Students should be able to

1.     Understand the basic meaning of the prayer

2.     Read and sing the prayer

3.     Explain the place of the prayer in our liturgy

4.     Identify key root words

Here is a list of prayers that we focus on in each grade:

Kindergarten & First Grade              Modah Ani,  Mah Tovu, Oseh Shalom, Friday night Shabbat brachot, Four questions

2^nd Grade                                             Havdalah, Bracha over the study of Torah, Adon Olam, Shema & Va’ahavta

3^rd Grade                                              Brachot for holidays, Shabbat & Mitzvot, Birchot Hamazon (first paragraph), Four questions, Shema

4^th Grade                                               Bar’chu, Va’ahavta, Mi Chamochah, Amidah, Eyn Keloheinu, Yotzer Or

5^th Grade                                               Ein Kamocha, Av Harahamim, Kee Mitziyon, Barchot Hatorah, Barchot Hafaftorah, Aleinu, Kiddish, Prayer for the state of Israel

6^th Grade                                               Review of all previously learned tfillot, Ashrei          

Mitzvah Heroes

Planting Trees in St Louis City Parks

Parents getting into the Mitzvah Hero action

Building bears to donate to Give Kids a Smile Clinic

Mitzvah Heroes. That is what we call our 8th grade class. Each Sunday morning 22 students learn about how their actions can help make this world a better place. Then they get up, get moving and get working. Here are some of their recent projects.

World Wide Wrap

 Each year we partner with our Men's Club to participate in the World Wide Wrap. This year about forty of our 7th, 9th & 10th graders joined the Men's Club this past Sunday to wrap t'fillin and enjoyed a delicious brunch.

Men's Club members getting into the action

Making sure the fit is just right

All of our wrappers!

It was a great Tfillin refresher for many of our students. We had a parent come and wrap Tfillin for the first time and some of our 10th grader commented on what a nice connection to the community the morning was.

Hazzan Sharon helping our student wrap