Planting Seeds
Planting Seeds is our series of programs for children ages 5 and under. Torah Tots Holiday parties take place five or six times during the year where parents and children come together to learn about a holiday, make crafts, share food and hear stories related to the holiday. Teddy Bear Shabbat Services are Havdallah services for young children. Children come in their pajamas with their teddy bears to hear stories and celebrate the end of Shabbat. Read With The Rabbi is a special Jewish storytime led by the Rabbi for youngsters and their parents.

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Religious School
Temple Adath Religious School strives to educate children to become committed Jews with strong, positive connections to Judaism. This is done through a curriculum of Hebrew reading instruction; Hebrew language; Torah study; holidays and rituals; and Jewish values and history. Kindergarten and first grade students meet on Sunday mornings for three hours for a hands on, interactive program of activities in reading readiness, Bible stories, holiday rituals and beginning prayers.

Students in grades two through seven meet two times a week for a total of five hours. Learning to read Hebrew accurately and fluently is a priority at our school as is building the skills needed to sing the prayers and lead services. The upper grades take a more mature approach to the subjects of Jewish values, Torah and holidays through a curriculum that builds as the student moves through the grades.

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B’nai Mitzvah
Becoming a bar or bat mitzvah at Temple Adath is an exciting time for study, achieving goals and celebrating! Students invest years in our Religious school in preparation of standing before the congregation and being embraced with love and admiration. The children participate in various aspects of services, chanting Torah, haftara and presenting their interpretations through a d’var torah. They work primarily with the Cantor in both classroom study and private study. The d’var torah is developed with the Rabbi. After months of study, practicing in the sanctuary, our students individually stand on their own striving to fulfill their potential as young Jewish leaders.

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Confirmation
Temple Adath is the only Conservative congregation in the Syracuse area that provides for a Confirmation program. All of our youngsters who have had a Bar and Bat Mitzvah are eligible for the program. The criteria is that they either continue their education with three years post Bar/Bat Mitzvah at our local Epstein Hebrew High School of which Temple Adath is the largest partner in this community educational endeavor, or demonstrate participation in some other meaningful Jewish life experience be it a Temple Adath Torah reader, a teachers aide in our religious school or some other Jewish educational experience. We are fast approaching our eightieth annual Confirmation program, that always take place on the first day of Shavuot, and is taught by Rabbi Sherman Sunday mornings. The young people attend services in the morning with the Rabbi and then engage in serious study for the next hour. Temple Adath is very proud to showcase its youngsters who have made that commitment three years beyond Bar and Bat Mitzvah by maintaining a special place for their photographs in our school wing as an indication of their commitment to Jewish study and Jewish life.

The major goal of our tenth grade Confirmation Class, which is taught by Rabbi Sherman, is to prepare students to be responsible, aware, participating, Conservative Jews. Through a curriculum that includes Jewish texts, Holocaust studies and Israel, students gain a further understanding of what it means to be a Jew.

Our sudents attend the community-sponsored Rabbi Jacob H. Epstein Hebrew High School. This school affords students the opportunity to continue their Jewish studies with other youth in the community.

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Adult Jewish Learning
Temple Adath takes very seriously its commitment to Adult Jewish learning. It sees every opportunity as a place for adult Jewish learning. In 2005 our theme has been the 350th anniversary of the American Jewish experience. Rabbi Sherman has taught a very popular six-week study course “Celebrate 350 – Jewish Life in America 1654-2004”. He has just begun a second study class describing the local Syracuse Jewish experience “A History of the Jews of Syracuse from a Minyan to a Community” There is an ongoing adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah program for those who can read Hebrew and for those whose exposure to Hebrew is just beginning. The class is taught by both Rabbi Sherman and Cantor Lieberman. In the spring there is a planned one-day trip to New York City to further explore the roots of the American Jewish experience.

Scholars-in-residence also play a part in the adult Jewish learning experience. This past year the Temple was honored to have Professor Benjamin Gampel who holds the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In the recent past it has entertained such impressive speakers as Wolf Blitzer, Professor Joel Roth, Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, scholar in Jewish human values clarification. Lena Romanoff, Conversion in Jewish life. Rabbi Louis Jacobs, London, England, Philosopher Theologian. Rabbi Moshe Tautenaur, Leading Conservative Rabbi in the State of Israel. Rabbi Reuven Hammer, author, scholar in Jewish liturgy, Professor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, President of the Rabbinical Assembly. Rabbi David Feldman, Jewish scholar in bio-ethics and human sexuality, Cantor Sol Zim, Ron Wolfson and Rabbi Harold Kushner.

We offer individualized instruction for Jews by choice to help you become integrated into our Jewish community..

Adult Jewish learning at Temple Adath takes place many times and in the most informal moments, during our daily Minyan service, Saturday afternoons between Mincha Ma’ariv, and a word of Torah spoken by the Rabbi.

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Library
The Temple Adath library is a special and valuable resource to the members of the congregation and the Syracuse community at large. Materials range from children's literature, through young adult and adult interests. The library is broken into categories that include fiction, biographies, the Holocaust, philosophy, religion, holidays, science, language, folklore, and the bible among others. Along with the more than 3000 titles are contemporary Jewish works including music, videos, books on tape and Yiddish videos.

Our library boasts the largest collection of Jewish literature in upstate New York, and continues to acquire fiction and non-fiction books, videos and compact discs for children and adults. The library is a tremendous asset and its shelves are always full of materials for reference and pleasure.

There are three funds available for people interested in donating to the Temple library. They include; the Weinstein-Solomon Fund, established to purchase books in our Adult Sections of the library. It presently includes fiction, non-fiction, biographies and travel books, the Andrea Katz Laffer Fund, established to purchase books and furniture for the children’s section of our library. We have easy-reader books, juvenile literature, biographies, Holocaust materials and books, and young adult books and the Muriel & Irving Katz Fund, established by the parents of Andrea Katz Laffer to purchase audio and visual materials. We presently have videotapes, CD’s and tapes including music, canatorial music, books on tape and Yiddish videos. To make a contribution to any of these funds please contact Ruth Borsky at 315-488-2525.

The library is not just about books. It is also the site of Adult Jewish Learning, book review series, movie programs, etc.

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