Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa will transform its religious school this September by holding classes Friday afternoons instead of Sunday mornings. The shift is intended to orient religious education around Shabbat while freeing up Sunday mornings for busy families.
“I’m already getting new applicants, which is really exciting,” said Anya Concoff Por, the synagogue’s new director of youth education, who introduced the program to the congregation’s families at a Shabbat dinner on July 17. “I think it’s going to be a really great way to catch those families who have opted out of religious school altogether.”
Beth Ami currently has about two dozen students between preschool and high school age in its religious education program, said Por, 33, a lifelong member of the small Conservative congregation and the daughter of the Sonoma County JCC teen and camp programs director Rick Concoff.
The new religious school program will include a Tuesday afternoon class for older students in addition to the Friday afternoon class. On Friday afternoons, kids will come to class at 4 p.m., study religious topics, light candles and hold a student-led Kabbalat Shabbat service.
Por said the new timing will facilitate family participation in the congregation’s Shabbat services. “It will be convenient for them to be at services because they’re already picking them up at that time. We want to increase the convenience and the access.”
Though the religious school is small, Por expects to make more teacher hires this year as new families find out about the program, especially those who were previously turned off by the Sunday morning commitment. She hopes the shift also might increase attendance at Saturday services.
“We want our families to be observing Shabbat,” Por said, but when religious school is held on Sunday, she added, it might send the message that “we’re really expecting them to spend the entire weekend at synagogue.” — drew himmelstein