Tartak Curriculum Guides 1982-1994

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Subject	Title	Goal of Curriculum Guide	Grade Level	Setting	Date	Author
Art	A Course in Jewish Folkart	To study pieces of folkart as a vehicle for teaching Jewish concepts in our civilization and literature	9-12	High School	1982	Roth, Shana & Silver, Cheri Ellowitz
Bible	Prophets and Prophecy	To study the classical prophets in their historical context and define their significance today.	8	Religious School	1988	Malofsky, Lyn
Bible	Mishley, My World, and Myself: A Curriculum for the Study of Proverbs for Young Teenagers	To present Mishley as an accessible book that offers timeless insights into contemporary issues.	8	Religious School	1991	Nosan-Blank (Cohen), Sheryl
Bible	Rashi on Genesis: His Interpretations and Their Role in the 20th Century	To be familiar with key stories from Genesis, to understand the concepts of peshat and drash, and to connect to prior generations of Jews.	6-7	Religious School	1994	Romalis, Jenny
Bible	Listening to the Voices of the Women in the Bible	To explore the experiences of women in the bible as a reflection of their time.	9-12	High School	1986	Silverstone, Lesley
Bible	The World of Torah	To develop a personal connection with Torah	6-8	Religious School, Camp, Youth Group	1984	Steinbock, Steven
Bible	Cherish the Torah: An Introduction to the Sefer Torah	To explore the Torah’s symbolism, preparation, protection, celebration, and legacy in eight lessons	1	Religious School	1992	Tamara Lawson (Schuster)
Comparative Judaism	Three Paths to One God: Reform , Conservative, and Orthodox Ideology for High School	To explore the ideologies of the three dominant movements in Judaism today by studying mitzvot.	9-12	High School	1986	Fein, Elliot
Comparative Judaism	Unity Within Diversity: Jewish Religious Pluralism in America	To explore the three dominant movements in America. To foster a sense of pluralism.	8-9	High School	1984	Walsh, Jane West
Family Education	Jewish Lights: Signs and Symbols: A Curriculum for First Graders and their Families	To recognize light as a Jewish sign and symbol. To be familiar with and develop skills using ritual items involving light.	Adult	Adult Parents with Children in First Grade	1986	Goldberg (Cole), Melanie
Family Education	Re-Empowering the Jewish Family	To enable parents to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to create a Jewish home life.	Adult	Adult Parents with Young Children	1992	Niederman, Deborah
History	Being Jewish in America: The Tensions and Struggles of the Eastern European Immigrants	To study the third wave of immigration to the United States (1880-1920) specifically, the factors which led Jews to leave Eastern Europe and the life they found in America.	6-8	Religious School	1990	Backer (Burt), Dina
History	A Look at Our Past: The Tannaitic Period	To study the concepts of retention and adaptation after the destruction of the second Temple/rabbinic Judaism and relate these ideas to our times.	8	Religious School	1986	Barzilai (Lieberman), Lisa
History	One People: A Junior High Curriculum on Immigration and Integration	To study the Jewish immigrant experience.	6-8	Camp	1983	Kosmal, Nili
History	Jewish History Under the Romans: An Era of Interaction and Adjustment	To expose students to the history of the era and the Jewish interaction with outside culture.	5-7	Religious School	1984	Mooso, Carolyn
History	Critical Events and Commonplaces: A Ten Lesson Course in Jewish History	To study three historical events through the lens of God, torah, land of Israel, and people Israel.	9-12	High School	1987	Stern, David
History	The Creation of a Community: A Case Study, Los Angeles	To examine the history of Los Angeles as an example of how Jewish community forms.	8-9	Religious School/High School	1994	Winer, Laura Novak
Holiday	Ritual: How Ritual Re-enacts Covenant.	To examine rituals as an expression of covenant	4-7	Religious School	1988	Dotan, Lisabeth Seldin
Holiday	The Sanctification of Jewish Time	To explore how Jews mark time, what makes time holy, and the nature of the specific holidays.	5-8	Religious School	1988	Lipschultz (Barrington), Joanne
Holidays	The Harvest Festivals: A Prism for Understanding Our Relationship to the Land of Israel	To examine the Jewish perspectives on the land of Israel throughout history by studying the three harvest festivals.	9-12	High School	1988	Lipman, Steve
Holocaust	Through Their Eyes, Through Our Eyes, and Someday Through Our Children’s Eyes	To understand and identify with the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. To study the historical background and the various personal and communal responses.	8-10	Religious School/High School	1990	Michelson, Holly
Holocaust	The Study of Values Through Holocaust Literature	To study the values within the range of human responses during the Holocaust.	9-12	High School	1984	Schneider (Epstein), Kyla
Identity	Understanding the Concept of Am Yisrael	To develop a spiritual, emotional, and intellectual understanding of Jewish peoplehood through a study of text.	9-12	High School	1988	Kasten, Nancy
Identity	Film and the Jewish Self	To examine the ways a film can affect the individual and the group’s self-image	High School to Adult	High School and Adult	1984	Serotta, Isaac
Israel	Can the State of Israel Co-Exist with the Land of Israel?	To address the interplay between the Land of Israel (a religious, value-laden, ethical concept) and the State of Israel (the modern, sovereign state with specific political realities)	11-12 and Adult	High School and Adult	1991	Abramson, Joel
Israel	In Relationship with Israel	To study the Jewish people’s relationship with the land of Israel.	9-12	High School	1986	Fein, Eve Melman
Israel	I’m Not Jewish, I’m Israeli	To study secular Israeli Jewish identity and the role of Judaism in Israel.	9-12	High School for Secular Israelis	1990	Goldman, Joel
Israel	One Can Make a Difference: A Curriculum for Teaching Israel	To see Israel as an integral part of Jewish life by exploring the relationship between Jews and Israel.	6-8	Religious School	1984	Schwartz (Robinson), Wendy
Israel	If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem: The Centrality of Jerusalem in Jewish Life	To develop a personal and Jewish communal understanding and connection to Jerusalem.	9-12	High School Pre-Trip	1984	Tishkoff, Larry
Israel	When Visions Collide: A Perspective on Religious Tensions in Israel	To explore the roots of the rift between the Orthodox and secular in Israel. To struggle with what Israel should look like and the role of liberal Judaism in Israel.	9-12	High School Pre-Trip	1987	Wolfe, Gregory
Israel	The Jewishness of the Zionist Pioneers	To examine the lives of the early Zionist pioneers and view them as examples of Jewish commitment to Israel.	9-12	High School for Secular Israelis	1992	Yoffe, Meir
Israel/ Identity	Who Are We? Who Are They? The Israeli Jewish Experience	To encourage a connection to Israel through an analysis and comparison of North American and Israeli modes of Jewish identification.	10	High School Pre-Trip	1991	Wise, Ira
Law/Values	Halakha and Jewish Values	To explore the problem of balancing Jewish law and the Reform concept of individual choice.	9-12	High School	1986	Elkins, Marilyn
Life Cycle	A Jewish Approach to Death and Dying	To study issues relating to death in a Jewish context focused on three areas: psychology, morality, and religious issues.	Adult	Adult	1990	Davids (Averbuch), Mindy
Life Cycle	Exploring the Jewish Life Cycle Through the Prism of Covenant	To examine the role of covenant in life cycle rituals and daily life.	5	Religious School	1988	Vanek, Julie
Literature	Stories of the Past that Lead to Our Future	To study Jewish folk tales as a medium to for Jewish identification.	5-6	Religious School	1992	Gavish, Hamutal
Midrash/Bible/Art	Art, Midrash, and the Bible	To study the struggles of biblical characters and how these struggles were interpreted by artists and writers.	9-12	High School	1986	Ettinger, Eileen
Mitzvot/Values	Tzedek	To explore the importance of tzedek (righteousness) in Jewish tradition.	9-12	High School	1992	Cohen, Cheryl Seidman
Mitzvot/Values	Test Your Words Before You Utter Them: Developing a Code of Personal Jewish Ethics	To examine Jewish text and stories involving ethics. To develop a sense of personal ethics.	6-8	Religious School	1988	Cohen, Jordan
Mitzvot/Reform Judaism	Reform Judaism and Mitzvot	To explore and experiment with mitzvoth.	9-12	High School	1984	Fox-Greene, Marcia
Mitzvot/Values	Human Sexuality: A Jewish Response	To explore Jewish texts on sex, birth control, abortion, homosexuality, gender, and love in order to play a role in decision making.	9-12	High School	1984	Sagarin (Baumblatt), Lori
Mitzvot/Values	Mah La’ashot: Making Decisions Jewishly	To study Jewish values and use them when making decisions.	7-8	Religious School	1983	Spitzer, Julie
Mitzvot/ Values	The Sanctity of Life in Modern Dilemmas	To examine the Jewish notion of the sanctity of life. Topics covered include: life cycle events and medical ethics.	9-12	High School	1991	Farkas, Terri Ostach
Passover/World Religions	The Passover Seder and the Eucharist	To explore core events of Judaism and Christianity as a path to interfaith understanding.	9-12	High School Interfaith Dialogue	1986	Oppenheim, Chani
Prayer	The Story of Jewish Liturgy: Jewish Values Through Prayer	To explore the siddur focused on values found in the structure, content, and context of Jewish liturgy.	7	Religious School	1986	Cohn, Debra
Prayer	B’rakhot	To examine b’rakhot as the human verbal acknowledgement of noticing our world. To view occurrences as encounters with God.	7-10	Religious School/ High School	1986	Crane (Roshal), Margit
Prayer	Another Prayer Curriculum	To be able to read prayers, be familiar with prayer vocabulary, and understand the order of the service.	5-7	Religious School	1984	Greenspan, Ellen
Prayer	Prayer	To create spiritual prayer. To link spiritual experiences to prayer.	9-12	High School/ Camp	1988	Roucher, Roslyn
Prayer	Aspects of Prayer	To study the different aspects of prayer, such as communication with God, oneself, and others.	8	Religious School	1990	Sidlofsky, Paul
Prayer	Da’at Halev: A Prayer Curriculum	To ground the student in both the “bima skills” and the understanding of siddur Hebrew. To develop skills such as translation, shoresh recognition and comprehension.	5-6	Religious School	1991	Weiss, Karen Winkler
Rabbinic Texts	Midrash and Meaning	To engage students with torah and midrash allowing them to form a relationship to Jewish text.	9-12	High School	1987	Kraus, Jonathan
Reform Judaism	Searching for Reform Jewish Identity Through a Study of the Platforms of American Reform Judaism	To grapple with dominant issues of Reform Judaism by analyzing three Reform platforms.	9-12	High School/ Camp	1991	Kipnes, Paul
Special Education	M’soret and Me: A Curriculum for Special Needs Children on Jewish Symbols and Rituals Used in Camp	To understand and embrace Jewish symbols and rituals used at camp. (Can be adapted for all students and other settings)	1-5	Camp	1982	Dickman, Marci
Spirituality	Spirituality: The Jewish Way	To explore spirituality in and out of the classroom. Designed with eight in class sessions followed by a five day wilderness backpacking trip.	6-7	Religious School and Wilderness Experience	1990	Biers-Ariel, Matt
Spirituality	The Holy Relationship: A 10th Grade Confirmation Class Curriculum	To explore the concept of kedusha as a holy relationship and encourage students to have kedusha in all their relationships.	10	High School	1982	Klein, Debra & Sobel, Karen
Spirituality	The Mystic Perspective	To introduce Jewish mystic tradition, specifically its perspective on community and the importance of spirituality and study of Jewish texts.	11 and up	High School-Adult	1984	Lutz, Barry
Synagogue/Art	Jewish Symbols in Synagogue Art-Enhancing Their Meaning	To examine Jewish symbols such as the Star of David and the Lion of Judah as they relate to the concepts of God, Torah, and Israel.	6-7	Religious School	1992	Hjulberg, Carol
Theology	Who am I to God?	To explore different perceptions of God in Jewish tradition.	9-12	High School	1992	Aaron, Jonathan
Theology	The Development of the Concept of Messiah: A text-Based Study	To trace the evolution of the traditional concept of Messiah from biblical through modern texts.	9	High School	1991	Abramson, Lori Levy
Theology	Covenant: A Model for Responsibility and Relationships.	To explore the Biblical and modern concept of covenant as a Jewish responsibility	7	Religious School	1986	Bloomstone, Deena
Theology	Quest for God	To stimulate students to develop their own responses to the classical God questions with which philosophers grappled.	9-12	High School	1988	Gerstle, Brad
Theology	Jewish Approaches to Evil	To examine the concept of evil utilizing stories from Jewish tradition. Three units include: the nature of evil, theodicy, and human responses to evil.	8	Religious School	1991	Goldstein, Lisa
Theology/Spirituality	Redemption: A Curriculum for High School Students	To explore Jewish yearnings for redemption and formulate their own visions of a redeemed world.	9-12	High School	1984	Reich, Cynthia
Values/Bible	Values We Learn from Abraham	To explore the Jewish values demonstrated by Abraham in Genesis.	9-10	High School	1985	Greenbaum, Bruce
Women	Toward a New Understanding of God, Torah, and Israel: The Feminist Challenge to Judaism	To explore questions of Jewish feminism now that equal access has been established for liberal Jews.	Adult	Adult	1992	Stineman, Scott
World Jewry	Sephardic Jewry: A Curriculum for 7th Grade	To learn Sephardic history, customs, and traditions.	7	Religious School	1984	Katz (Mishkin), Madelyn