Creating a sense of community is at the heart of everything we teach, learn, value and do at the Day School. Classrooms are model communities with guidelines that emerge out of Jewish values and American principles of good citizenship. Students are invited to create classroom communities in which they feel comfortable, safe, free to learn, to face challenges and to form healthy friendships.

The great Jewish sage Hillel was once challenged to teach someone the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel wisely answered: "V'ahavta l'reyacha kamocha"--"love your neighbor as yourself" - that is the essence - everything else is commentary, now go and learn!" From this wise and terse response, we learn that treating others as we wish to be treated is at the core of all Jewish learning. Once we master that, we are free to study new texts, develop new skills, and meet the challenge of more sophisticated learning.

At the Day School we are all students of Hillel. Whether we are in the classroom, the hallway, the library, the lunchroom, the chapel, the gymnasium, the stairwell, or out on the field, our behavior reflects the desire to create a welcoming and caring community grounded in Jewish values. With this primary mandate, we can then "Go and Learn!"

Click here to return to the Building Blocks
of Jewish Life and Learning