Tefillah
At Chicago Jewish Day School, daily, age-appropriate tefillah (prayer) anchors our days while Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath on Fridays) and Havdallah (a ceremony marking the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of a new week on Monday morning) shape our weeks. Together with parents, grandparents and guests, students celebrate Shabbat and the holidays, learning music and melodies that instill a sense of community and belonging. Our Kabbalat Shabbat guests - visitors from all our various communities - share stories and teachings to nurture students' minds and souls. Students become confident reciting and leading prayers, reading and chanting Torah, and preparing and delivering D'vrei Torah (their own interpretation of the weekly Torah portion) in Hebrew and English.
After sending our girls to CJDS the past three years, I cannot imagine them anywhere else. The warmth inside the building is palatable. The focus on helping parents turn their children into contributing, respectful members of society is profound. Teaching Jewish values, history and culture aside, CJDS is simply a place of higher learning for our children.
Morry S., CJDS parent
This is a place where parents who are our friends teach my children in after school classes, and seek ways to tie in their special talents with the curriculum of the regular classes. This is a community coming together to raise up incredible kids.
Max H., CJDS Parent
Our son teaches us Hebrew and parasha weekly... we love learning what he is learning and he loves feeling like he has a lot to teach us... it is amazing!
Michael B., CJDS parent
We love the 1st grade unit on the Marine World in which the kids use technology to research sea animals, writing to create letters to President Obama about the importance of protecting our oceans, and Hebrew/Judaic Studies to learn Hebrew vocabulary and prayers for protecting our environment.
Karen G., CJDS Parent
In a few short months our 1st grade daughter became a wonderful reader. She was not alone --her entire class reads beautifully. The CJDS environment fosters not only a love of Jewish ritual and tradition but also gives our daughter and her classmates an outstanding secular education. We are very fortunate to be members of the CJDS community."
Jay G., CJDS parent
I love teaching at a school where there is a coherent philosophy of education which drives all aspects of our practice.
Morah Nina, CJDS Faculty
At parent-teacher conferences, we were impressed with the integration of the curriculum, the way the teachers knew our son, the things he had learned and created. But what blew us away was that, beyond anything else, his teachers were impressed with his character. "Your son is such a kind person," they said, and they told us a story about how careful he was with the feelings of another student. That was the most important thing to his teachers, as it is to us.
Rabbi Josh F. & Natalie B., CJDS parents
CJDS truly epitomizes the concept of differentiated learning. My 2 children, who have very different learning styles are both thriving. The teachers are creative, flexible and make learning fun. We love this school.
Gayle S., CJDS Parent
CJDS makes a tremendous effort to celebrate what every individual child creates, sky rocketing their self image and self confidence.
David F., CJDS Parent
We feel comfortable practicing Judaism in a way that is right for our family and makes sense to us. In no way have we felt any pressure from anyone involved with the school that our choices are either too Jewish or not Jewish enough and that is exactly how we want it.
Joel S., CJDS Parent
David F., CJDS Parent