I am delighted to be teaching again after about twelve years away. When my children were growing up and beyond, for a number of years, I not only taught almost all grades and Hebrew for over twenty-five
years, but also was a director of the Religious School at Temple B’nai Sholom. During my years teaching and directing the religious school, I was fortunate to get instruction on teaching in religious school from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, CAJE, a two week course on teaching Holocaust Studies sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves as well adult education at TBS.
I have been a member of Temple B’nai Sholom since August, 1981. Before moving to Huntsville, my husband and I had been students at Tulane University in New Orleans, where we were very active with the Hillel on campus.
Prior to that, in spite of having been born in Portland, Maine, I had lived all over the South. My family belonged to temples in Louisville, KY, Atlanta, GA, Macon, GA and St. Petersburg, FL. I spent summers at Camp Coleman in Cleveland, GA. I spent seven weeks in Israel on an American Young Zionist Organization tour in 1971.
In all places we lived, my parents set an example for my sisters and me that without sticking your neck out and being involved in the Jewish community, you didn’t have an anchor in a community. I took this lesson to heart, and feel that with my involvement in TBS not only as a teacher but as congregational President for two terms, Sisterhood president in the 1980’s and volunteer, I have come to have an ownership in the Jewish community, building an extended Jewish family here. I raised three children in Temple B’nai Sholom, all of whom were Consecrated, became Bat or Bar Mitzvahs and were confirmed. I was married at TBS in 1991 to Ken Rhodes, and still get an overwhelming sense of awe and spirituality when I step foot in our beautiful sanctuary.
I look forward to teaching your 6th and 7th graders Jewish Values and Holidays as well as Hebrew this year. I look forward to seeing the families participating in their children’s Jewish education. And I am a firm believer that without putting into practice what is taught in daily life, then the students won’t really absorb the teachings of our beautiful religion.