Lynn Rothberg

Lynn Rothberg is smiling broadly—she is so thrilled to be teaching third grade for the third year. After retiring from thirty-six years of teaching elementary and middle school students in the DC area, she still relishes the opportunity to work with lively young students. She and her husband, Donald, joined Micah when it was based in a church in Southwest Washington and love everything about the Micah community. Lynn was in the first adult B’nai Torah class led by Meryl Weiner and is currently in the adult Hebrew class taught by Miriam Grogan. Lynn is teaching the Being Torah curriculum, as outlined below.

Being Torah

Being Torah brings students into Torah by inviting them to become biblical commentators. The book works with words. Based on a real translation of the biblical text, students are drawn into the words of Torah. Using colored clues, they focus on the number of times given words are used in a story, the changes between what one person says and what another person says that first said, and into the parallel words that link one story to another. This is not a book about Torah. It is actual Torah study made accessible and age appropriate. The Student Commentary facilitates this exploration by breaking the inquiries down biblical story into a series of individual inquiries. It is also designed specifically to create classroom community.

Sarena Loya

Sarena Loya is currently a senior at the University of Maryland, majoring in Psychology. She graduated from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD in 2006. She grew up attending Capital Camps and spent several summers there working as a camp counselor. Sarena has also spent one semester and one summer living in Israel. She has had experience running youth services, Hebrew tutoring,and doing Jewish programming.This is her second year at Temple Micah. Prior to working at Micah she taught fifth grade at Shaare Torah. Sarena is very excited to be teaching an Israel curriculum at Micah this year! Sarena is teaching the Yisrael Sheli curriculum.

Yisrael Sheli

Yisrael Sheli exposes students to two different stories about Israel. The first is the story of the people who created the State of Israel. The second is the story of the places in the Land of Israel. As we tour the land of Israel, we learn about the stories that created Israel.

What's it like to travel Israel with the people who built her? Ben Gurion leads the tour at Sde Boker, his kibbutz. Rachel (the Poetess) reads her poems on the shores of the Kinneret. Joshua leads us across the Jordan river, and Josephus tells the story of Masada. In the cobblestone streets of Tzfat, Isaac Luria gives a lesson on mysticism, while Ilan Ramon points our eyes to the stars from his balcony in Beersheva. For our third graders, it’s the next best thing to actually being there!

Yisrael Sheli brings Israel alive by fusing the adventure of a visit to the Jewish homeland with the adventures of those who shaped Israel, the people and the place. The book is filled with discussion questions and activities that make it engaging, exciting, and fun!