Charlotte Jewish News -October 2014 Page 14
Choosing A Jewish Preschool
ByBecca Weiner, CJP Judaica
Specialist
As a Jew growing up in Char
lotte, it seemed like a no-brainer
for my parents to enroll me at The
Charlotte Jewish Presehool. Even
baek in 1989, the CJP provided
exeellent seeular and Jewish edu-
eation for students and families.
Simply put, it made sense for a
Jewish girl to go to a Jewish pre
sehool. Then and now, the CJP
provides a foundation of Jewish
learning for ehildren, ineluding
the following:
Judaiea themes and elasses.
When a Jewish holiday is ap-
proaehing, our elassroom themes
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revolve around that holiday. As
you walk down our hallways
you’ll see deeorations and boards
that refleet our holiday unit. Sim
ilarly, our Judaiea eurrieulum is
holiday-driven. When there isn’t a
Jewish holiday, I foeus on a Judaie
value sueh as derekh eretz (the
way of the world) or tzar ba 'aid
chayim (taking eare of animals).
Students talk about these seem
ingly seeular values
and learn about how
they are Jewish.
Shabbat. Shabbat
is a time for rest and
reeonneeting with
your family. At the
CJP we invite our
parents to eome
spend Shabbat with
their son or daugh
ter, espeeially when
it is their ehild’s
birthday. At every
Shabbat, we eall up
our students eele-
brating a birthday
to lead the sehool
in Kiddush and
Hamotzi. It gives families a time
to observe Shabbat together and
eelebrate a birthday in a Judaie
way. Our parents are involved in
our Shabbat and other holiday-
based eelebrations like our
Passover sedarim or our Purim pa
rade.
Musie. Miss Patty leads our
students in song during our musie
elasses. Along with traditional
presehool songs, like a roeked out
version of the A, B, C’s, our stu
dents also learn Jewish songs. For
example, around Passover our stu
dents learn the Frog song and at
Chanukah our students sing songs
about dreidles and latkes.
r
Nowadays, if you were
to look at the demo-
graphie of The Charlotte
Jewish Presehool, you
will find that while we
are, indeed, a Jewish
learning institution, not
all of our students eome
from Jewish families.
As a Jew in our eom-
munity, I know why I would
ehoose the CJP - I’ve eome full
eirele, from student to teaeher.
charlotte Jewish
Preschod
CJP kids all ready for Shabbat in their kippot.
But, I wondered what the pull was
for non-Jewish families to experi-
enee this edueation. I reaehed out
to Beth and Brendan Putz, parents
of two of our students, who do not
identify as Jewish. When they
were enrolling their two ehildren
in presehool, they had many op
tions available to them, but ulti
mately that ehose to eome here. I
asked them why, as a non-Jewish
family, would they ehoose a reli
gious-based edueation and as a
family, they eonstrueted their re
sponse below:
“As we toured the elassrooms
and were given a thorough run
down of the aetivities that our then
two year old would be
doing in her upeoming
three year old elass
room, we were not only
impressed by the ‘eur
rieulum’ but also by the
fun that the kids and
teaehers seemed to be
having in their rooms.
During our visit, several
elassrooms were working on art
projeets displaying events in the
Old Testament. We diseussed the
Jewish teaehings during our
visit, and were very happy
with the way that it was both
diseussed and on display. We
really believed that our
shared Judeo-Christian val
ues were first and foremost in
the teaehings, and we still be
lieve that today.
“We know that our daugh
ter will be extremely pre
pared for Kindergarten next
year as she’s already begun
writing and reading after her
experienee in the full-day
fours last year, and will be
even more prepped with writ
ing, mathematies, and lan
guage this year. We know our
son will eontinue to thrive, learn
letters, shapes, eolors, ideas, and
eontinue to grow and diseover his
own unique person. But besides
that the great aeademies, the won
derful faeilities and the extra-eur-
rieular events, it is the CJP staff,
front offiee, teaehers, parents,
families, ehildren, and CJP eom-
munity that eontinues to remind us
of the great deeision that we made
to send our ehildren to the Char
lotte Jewish Presehool.”
Come join our eommunity. For
information about our presehool,
please eontaet Alyson Kalik at
704-944-6776 or akalik@shalom-
eharlotte.org. ^
Kosher by Design Chef Susie Fishbein
Comes to Charlotte November 5 and 6
Food is always an important
faetor as we eelebrate the Jewish
holidays. Whether it is the tradi
tional Shabbat meals or the ehal-
lenge of making the eight days of
Pesaeh as tasteful and manageable
as possible, food faetors into the
diseussion of almost every Jewish
holiday. Fortunately, renowned
kosher ehef Susie Fishbein will be
in Charlotte next month for two
eooking demonstrations exploring
the world of gourmet kosher
eooking. Tiekets are available for
dinner November 5. There will be
a wine reeeption with appetizers.
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followed by a three eourse eook
ing demonstration and meal, fin
ishing with dessert. Luneh on
November 6 will inelude a three
eourse eooking demonstration.
Contaet Gale Osborne for reserva
tions and availability. Seating is
limited.
So as we approaeh the holiday
of Sukkot we wanted to share a
perfeet fall side dish great for
Sukkot or Thanksgiving. These
muffins take just 10 minutes of
Prep time and eook for 45 min
utes. This is from Susie Fishbein’s
eookbook, “Kosher By Design
Short on Time.”
Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins
3 e. bread flour or all-purpose
flour
3 e. sugar
l-Vit. ground einnamon
t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1(15 oz.) ean pumpkin (not
pumpkin pie filling)
1 e. eanola oil
3 Ig. eggs
‘A e. sweetened dried eranberries,
sueh as Craisins
shelled pumpkin seeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 3 (6-eup) muffin tins with
paper muffin liners or set 16
panettone eups on a parehment-
lined eookie sheet. Set aside. In
Susie Fishbein
the bowl of an eleetrie stand
mixer, mix the flour, sugar, einna
mon, baking powder, and baking
soda. Add the pumpkin, oil, eggs,
and eranberries. Mix on med.
speed for 2 minutes. Pour the bat
ter into the prepared muffin tins or
panettone eups. Eaeh eup should
be filled 2/3 of the way. Top eaeh
muffin with a few pumpkin seeds.
Bake uneovered, 40-45 min. or till
a toothpiek inserted into the eenter
of one of the muffins eomes out
dry. If you are using the pareh-
ment eups, whieh are higher it
will take a few more minutes: go
by the toothpiek test. Serve hot or
at room temperature. ^