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Pre-Confirmation
The ninth grade is part of the Confirmation Department. The curriculum for the Pre-Confirmation year is a most interesting one, made up of three components, each one presented in a nine-week course by a different teacher:
Students will explore the issues surrounding Jewish views of afterlife, the World to Come, death and mourning practices and their meaning for the living, and a number of other topics in this area. Students will read about and discuss the science (?) of Cryogenics and debate the impact of such technology on our Jewish traditions and beliefs.
The course on Jewish Bio-Ethics is very interesting as it challenges students with the important and very real ethical questions involved in today's practice of medicine, issues such as euthanasia, abortion, genetic engineering, quality of life, Alzheimer's Disease, issues of the handicapped, and more. Students are given texts from Jewish sources as background. The discussions are lively and serious, as the issues are real and often touch the lives of family members or friends.
The third course offered in the Pre-Confirmation year discusses responses to anti-Semitism in the modern era. Students will, through viewing films and discussing articles, see the problems faced in by former generations of Jews in the United States and will examine their responses. Students will learn about the importance of tolerance of diversity in the general culture, and also within Judaism, as we see from the difficulties here and in Israel between Orthodox and Liberal Jews.
The Pre-Confirmation class will participate in a special program or trip which will be announced near the beginning of the year after classes begin. We expect all of our students to attend as one of the requirements of the Pre-Confirmation Class. Pre-Confirmation students are required to complete six hours of MITZVAH activities and attend four Friday evening services at SHIR AMI. At the opening meeting, which includes students and parents, held in September, all the requirements will be explained.
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