Riverdale Temple Learning Center
The Rabbi Stephen and Karen Franklin
Riverdale Temple Learning Center
Nurturing Jewish Hearts and Kind Souls
Welcome to our engaging, diverse Jewish community!
We welcome children in kindergarten through Bar/Bat Mitzvah for meaningful, uplifting Jewish learning and enrichment. We help every child at Riverdale Temple Learning Center find joy in our traditions, strengthen their Jewish identities, and make lots of wonderful friends!
Riverdale Temple is a progressive, welcoming, multigenerational Reform congregation.
Riverdale Temple Learning Center fosters our children’s connection to Judaism through
- Warm, welcoming classrooms
- Nurturing teachers
- Participatory holiday events
- Personalized Hebrew education
- Creative music and art programs
- Exciting family celebrations
We believe each person’s Jewish identity is unique.
We look forward to accompanying you and your family on your Jewish journey.
For more information, please email Judith Lewis at judithlewis@riverdaletemple.org.
Our School Mission
Education is essential for connecting us to our Jewish heritage and strengthening our identities to secure our future.
Riverdale Temple Learning Center offers a creative and engaging experience where children and families can find enrichment through our innovative programs focusing on Jewish Holidays, Social Action, Torah, and Hebrew. Students will connect to the warmth and joy of Judaism through music, art, prayer, and Torah. Our hands-on curriculum provides new, fun ways to learn with challah baking, Jewish song festivals, family Sukkah building, singing at senior centers, and other activities to give back to our greater community. We recognize and appreciate the uniqueness and diversity of all of our learners and together, with our teachers and clergy, we will travel with you on your Jewish journey. We look forward to coming together as a community to make new friendships, sustain old ones, and explore all that Judaism has to offer educationally, spiritually, and socially.
Judith Lewis
Interim Education Director, Riverdale Temple Learning Center
Rabbi Lewis is excited about “coming home” to one of her favorite activities — helping children learn the Joys of our Jewish heritage.
She retired as Rabbi and Education Director at the temple in 2015 to care for her father. After his passing in 2022, she realized retirement wasn’t for her, so she helped a colleague with his religious school in Cincinnati, OH in 2023 — and loved it!
When the opportunity presented itself for her to return to Riverdale Temple as Interim Director or Education, she couldn’t resist the chance to come home to her “family.” The Riverdale Temple Learning Center (formerly Simcha Learning Center) will help your children acquire the knowledge and skills to feel fully empowered and engaged as members of the Jewish community, and have fun doing it!
If the children are not having fun, or if you have any questions, suggestions, reactions, please feel free to contact her. She looks forward to hearing from you — and exploring our Jewish heritage with your children.
judithlewis@riverdaletemple.org
(718) 548-3800 x6
Click Here To Meet Our Riverdale Temple Learning Center Educators
Our Promise
Students who complete our entire program will have an understanding and appreciation for:
- Components of the prayer service
- Basic concepts and values of Jewish holidays and rituals
- Major events of Jewish history from the Torah to today, including a focus on Israel
- Values that define modern Judaism and how they have evolved from biblical times
- What it means to be a Reform Jew today and how to make responsible Jewish choices about observing mitzvot
- How to read Hebrew text and how to translate basic words and phrases
We accomplish this by putting students in small, mixed-ages learning groups with thoughtful, engaging discussion; direct instruction; art, music, dance, and cooking experiences. Children will develop a sense of community, connection to and confidence in their Judaism.
If you have any questions about our school, its curriculum, our philosophy or concerns about your child and religious school, please do not hesitate to contact our Director Judith Lewis at the temple, (718) 548-3800, ext. 6, or email to judithlewis@riverdaletemple.org.
Registration
You can now use the newly-created Riverdale Temple Learning Center Registration Form to register your children. Please fill in the requested information for each child you are registering. For tuition information and to register your child, please click the button below.
Tuition information
Please note that payment arrangements and accommodations may be discussed with a finance officer. We will not allow financial difficulties to deprive your child of a Jewish education!
