Welcome to the Town Meeting HCRJ

I want to welcome each of you who is becoming a new incoming member of the Town Meeting HCRJ for the 5767 academic year. You will find that this will be unlike most classes at Sunday School of which you will be a part. TM-HCRJ began as an experiment last year to create a learning enviroment in which our students could become more active participants in the process of learning.

We have tried to create a learning community in which each participant could explore the rich ideas and values of Judaism in a way that they could relate those ideas to their own lives today. And we have tried to create a community in which each of us receives the respect for our ideas and perceptions that we are due. And each of us is expected to afford our fellow members of our community the same level of respect and consideration.

We are each making a journey through our lives and we will be travelling together for the next nine months. Let us help each other to better understand what is happening to us in our lives and our world. Hopefully, over the next year we will begin to learn what it really takes to make a community a success.

In Judaism, the idea of community is one of the most important considerations that affect how we carry ourselves from day to day and year to year. Each of us is a part of a community at every phase of our lives. This year we will all be part of a very exciting community in which we will get to know and value each other and in which we will learn and hopefully have a lot of fun in the process.

Again, welcome to Town Meeting HCRJ. Each of you will undoubtedly play your own important role in making the coming year a great success.

Kindest Regards,

Howard Fireman
Teacher/Moderator