The CBH Blog

Peggy Dugan – 1st Vice President

Peggy joined CBH in early 2004 just after relocating to Summit from London. Peggy has been involved in many areas of CBH, including teaching kindergarten/1st grade in the religious school, cooking with the teens, running the Shabbat morning breakfasts, and helping Michael Hyman organize the High Holidays. Her eldest child studied for her bat mitzvah at CBH (but had the service in Florida), and her twin boys became bnai mitzvah at CBH. Peggy is very excited to be joining the board as 1st Vice President. Peggy and her husband, Terry, live in Summit and are empty nesters. She looks forward to when her kids and grand dogs come to visit!

Daniel Pearlman – Communications

My wife, three children, and I joined CBH in 2019, shortly after my father passed away and we moved to Summit. CBH has helped our family remember my father and preserve our Jewish heritage. I hope my own involvement with CBH will help my children appreciate the importance of...

Explore Judaism through taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. Delight in the Jewish holidays and Shabbat through experiential activities that awaken the senses.  Engage with Jewish customs and traditions, and connect with your children through meaning making.  

5 Senses of Judaism programs take place 9:30 AM - 11 AM at Congregation Beth Hatikvah, 36 Chatham Road, Summit, NJ. These programs are open to the community and free of charge.  Join us for one or all.  

Sat, October 2nd - Five Senses of Shabbat
Sat, December 4th - Five Senses of Hanukkah
Sat, January 8th - Five Senses of Tu B'Shevat
Sat, March 12th - Five Senses of Purim
Sat, April 2nd - Five Senses of Pesach

Interested in joining us?  Please fill out the  survey here!

We are excited to have three events for children and families this High Holiday season. If you are planning on coming to any of them, please fill out the survey below.

The Bible Players in Apples & Funny! - A Rosh Hashanah Family Comedy Show: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1:30 PM (In-person, outdoors, rain date is Wed, Sept. 8^th at 1:30)

You won’t want to miss this very special High Holiday family event in the park! The Bible Players infuse comedy and laughs into tales from the Torah and beyond. In Apples & Funny! - A Rosh Hashanah Comedy Show, the Players will help us connect to the simcha/joy in our lives through gratitude and prayer. Kids will love the interactive improv, and we’ll all be reminded of the joy of gathering together. Open to all and best for kids ages 5 – 12. Bring a picnic blanket or low chairs to sit on.  Stay afterwards to hang out!

Location: Loantaka Brook Reservation at Kitchell Road, Morristown (use 115...

Shabbat Young Family Park Program

Sat, July 10^th 10 – 11:30am at Mabie Memorial Playground in Summit

**find us on a grassy area right near the playground**

 Bring a blanket to sit on and join us for casual and uplifting Shabbat songs with guitar playing, prayers, and a special treasure hunt.  We’ll have plenty of time for playground playing.  Leave with a challah and grape juice! 

 Please wear a mask if you are not vaccinated.

Best for 8 year olds and under, however older children are absolutely welcome! 

FREE and open to the community – Bring your friends!

Please email Leemor Ellman, Education Director at Congregation Beth Hatikvah to let us know you will be joining us at [email protected]  Or feel free to reach out to Leemor at 917-674-2845 if you have any questions!

Songs | Prayer | Shabbat Meaning | Friends 

Leemor Ellman

Education Director

Congregation Beth Hatikvah

36 Chatham Road

Summit, NJ 07901

This week’s lesson was all about mitzvot, or commandments, found out in the Torah. If you were to count them all, there would be 613 in total. In our two groups,

Younger students:

• Took part in a mitzvot scavenger hunt
• Ate pomegranate seeds
• Sang songs about the mitzvot
• Played “Guess the Mitzvah”

Older Students:

• Discussed the purpose of mitzvot and why we feel compelled to do good
• Discussed how we could do mitzvot in our lives
• Acted out various mitzvot

--==Dungeons and Dreidels==--

Dear heroes and heroic 4th grade parents,

Today we explored the next chapter of the Purim story, with our own creative and theatrical twist.  Mordecai discovered the plot of two rotten guards to overthrow the king – but the corrupt cronies caught Mordecai listening in, and he ended up in some hot water!  After some madcap antics and a poolside chase, our newly appointed royal heroes got Mordecai out of his jam and brought the news to the...

Our Religious School program in the CBH Parking Lot this week was an absolute blast! The students continued working on their Mt. Sinai re-enactment, to take place on May 15th. Within the two groups,

Our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders:

• Discussed the meaning of Shehecheyanu and how it relates to our own experiences and firsts

• Reviewed the Israelite perspective as Moses climbed Mt. Sinai

• Sanctified Shabbat with wild movement and songs (as shown in below image)

• Climbed our own Mt. Sinai (aka the playground) to retrieve mitzvot and discuss them

Our 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders:

• Wrote the words “DO FIRST, UNDERSTAND LATER” and discussed when studying or action should come first

• Ranked a list of mitzvot important to Judaism (as shown in below image)

• Finished with meditation, much to the students’ enjoyment

--==Dungeons and Dreidels==--

As our trusty Game Master Aaron Cooper has summarized

“Dear rockstars and rockin’ 4th grade parents,

...

Today’s class in the CBH Parking lot was split into 2 groups (1st - 3rd graders & 4th - 7th graders). Here are the highlights from each

1st, 2nd, & 3rd graders:

• Practiced the 4 questions, incorporating movement, song, props, and food

• Used a chalked obstacle course on the pavement to learn the story of exodus

4th, 5th, 6th, & 7th graders:

• Created a giant seder plate of our school

• Talked about the foods the represent our emotions over the past year

• Reviewed parts of exodus through illustrations and storyboarding

• Had an extensive discussion about the story Exodus

• Designed obstacle courses on the pavement relating to the story of Exodus

• Wrote various names for God on the bricks of the CBH building

Going forward, please note the following:

There will be no classes for the next 2 weeks (March 27 & April 3) due to Spring Break. We will return to classes in the parking lot after that until May 8, when we will have the Lag B’Omer...

During Saturdays celebration of Passover, families gathered at the CBH Parking Lot in a program that made students ask

• The importance of asking questions in life. What are our family’s most important questions?
• During the Seder we ask many questions.
• Dayenu - what is enough in our home or good enough in our lives?
• How do we experience feeling stuck and free? Write a blessing for your family related to this concept.
• Where do we find sweetness in our lives?

The program began with edu-tainment Passover songs with Jill, and then families moved on to the self-led section:

• Families were given the story of Passover in paragraph to cut and tape together in the correct order
• As they did so, families thought about questions they would ask Moses or the Pharaoh
• The Rabbi returned dressed as Moses in a surprise arrival
• Families solved riddles with puzzle pieces they searched for across the parking lot
• Families wrote questions on each side of a die, and answered the questions as they...

Today’s class consisted of a discussion of what defines God in reconstructionist Judaism and determined that

• God is not anthropomorphic
• God can have many names
• God is a force within us and within the universe
• The concept of God is always evolving
• God can lead us to loving and caring for others

(See images for more detail)

Next Saturday, March 13th 10-11:15am we have a Passover Drive-In at the CBH Parking Lot in place of Hebrew School

Shabbat Shalom!

CBH's 2021 virtual spiel brought together some of the greatest hits of spiels past to tell the Purim story.