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Education & Youth

Our mission is to educate and inspire our youth about their Jewish faith, through learning and synagogue participation - so that they grow to become dedicated, thoughtful, knowledgeable Jews.

From its onset, the Rav z"l intended for the kehilah to function as an extension of the Maimonides school, and he intended that part of our kehillah's mission be to educate our children as they grow to become observant, Jewish adults.  

Many current Maimonides students, parents, grandparents, and alumni daven at Maimonides from all over the Brookline community.  The Maimonides Kehillah also offers a vehicle for the school to host classes, scholars, Shabbatonim, and other special events that serve to further the school's ideological mission beyond the four corners of the classroom and the five days of the school week. Our rosh kehilah, Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe, also serves as a master teacher at Maimonides Upper School.

Maimonides Youth program offers numerous regular events and special programs to help fulfill this mission of educating the seventy children that make up our youth contingent.  As a congregation organized around its youth, and which celebrates its youth - Maimonides provides its youth many opportunities to participate in the regular adult service as well - by leading prayers, giving Divrei Torah, and reading from the Torah.  

Rather than send our youth to a separate room or even an "annex building," we believe passionately that the role of youth is to participate and become a part of the regular adult service, as they learn from the example of their parents, and by being, themselves, a part.

Annual youth events

  • Cross-Brookline Succa Hop
  • Youth-led Kehillah Hakafot, for boys and girls of all ages
  • Annual teen-dinner and Oneg at the Jaffe's, for boys and girls of the teenage years
  • Youth Shabbat - where youth lead the services, and give divrei Torah afterwards
  • Annual Chanukah Party at the Jaffe's for elementary school boys and girls
  • Purim Costume Party after Megillah reading

Regular youth activities

  • Shabbat Groups, for youth in preschool through 2nd grade 
  • Taamei Hamikra class, for boys and girls in grades three through five - meeting durring the haftara
  • Bat Mitzvah Group, at the Jaffe's, offered Biennially for girls nearing Bat Mitzvah
  • Tefillin Club, offered Biennially for boys nearing Bar Mitzvah
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