Sign In Forgot Password

Welcome to Kitah Vav (Grade 6)Meet your teacher, see your schedules, and learn about your curriculum! 

Joanna Marcus

Kitah Vav Teacher

Joanna (she/her/hers) is excited to be returning for her eighth year teaching at Dorshei Tzedek! Joanna is a violinist, and she recently received a B.A. in Music from Brandeis University. She is interested in how music can be used to promote mental health, well-being, and inclusion of marginalized populations. She loves the way music can convey such a breadth of emotional worlds, and she values the beautiful ways creative arts can impact people and communities. Joanna was a student at Dorshei Tzedek Religious School as a child, and she absolutely loves seeing the current students build their own sense of Jewish identity and create new memories where she once did as a child (and continues to do as a teacher). Joanna is thrilled to be teaching Kitah Vav this year!

Sarah Serrano

Kitah Vav Co-Teacher

Sarah (she/her/hers) is excited to be joining Congregation Dorshei Tzedek community. Originally from Chicago, she earned her BA and MAT at Tufts University with concentrations in African and African Diasporic literature and education. Sarah has been a middle and high ELA and Humanities teacher in MA, and also works as a birthworker and childbirth educator in the area. She is looking forward to working and supporting teachers and students this year.

 

 

 

Izzy Feinfeld

Izzy Feinfeld (he/they) is overjoyed to be returning to Dorshei Tzedek, this year as an assistant teacher for Kitah Vav. He is a senior at Westwood High School in Massachusetts, and he loves teaching and learning in the Jewish community; recently he has worked as a madriche and B’nei Mitzvah tutor at Dorshei. He has attended the Great Jewish Books Program at the Yiddish Book Center for the past two summers, and thoroughly enjoys Jewish literature and short stories. Izzy was a student at Dorshei Tzedek for most of their childhood, and continues to enjoy working with members of the Dorshei community to explore Jewish values and connect those values to many forms of social justice. 
 

Curriculum Overview

2022-2023, Siddur Creation Project: This year in Kitah Vav students will shift from learning about Torah stories to contributing to the community by creating a Friday Evening siddur that will be used at Dorshei Tzedek for years to come. The current All Ages Shabbat siddur is in need of repair, many copies are coming  apart, the font is not accessible, and it could use an update. Students will evaluate the current siddur and ask, what would be included in a siddur that reflected our values and community? Students will learn about Jewish artists and styles as they each create work to go into a Friday evening siddur. Students will deepen their connection with Shabbat and prayer as they work on their pieces. 

2021-2022, Introduction to Prophets and Rabbis: Picking up at the end of the Torah, this class introduces students to a selection of stories from the Prophets with a view towards perspectives on leadership and justice. The fall focuses on the Israelite experience entering the land of Israel, including pictures of centralized religious life at the Temple. In the spring, the class is introduced to rabbinic figures and the transformation of Jewish spiritual orientation in the rabbinic period post-Temple. Following the theme of leadership, Kitah Vav students and their grown ups will have family programming with Earnest and Rabbi Toba about the B’nei Mitzvah process.

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784