When COVID-19 hit, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills’ Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education Adam Lutz had an idea: He would put Jewish content online so that communities around the world could engage in learning. His program was a success, with 60 different organizations partnering up and providing content to over 13,000 users.
At the same time, he heard about how synagogues were struggling to stay afloat as well as find the staff they needed to run their programs. In particular, his father, Rabbi Barry Lutz, interim rabbi at The Santa Monica Synagogue, as well as Temple Beth Israel of Pomona’s Rabbi Jonathan Kupetz were having difficulty finding a part-time administrator to run their religious schools.
Adam came up with a plan. He would start Jewish Community School of Los Angeles (JCS), a community religious school partnership. The Santa Monica Synagogue and Temple Beth Israel would pay a flat fee and have the JCS maintain the overhead as well as manage administrative duties, supply the curriculum and find teachers and staff to run everything at their schools.
“This whole idea of sharing resources amongst different Jewish institutions is exciting,” said Adam. “It allows us to provide high quality Jewish education in places where maybe they had to settle for someone part-time because they didn’t have the resources.”
Through the JCS, religious school students in kindergarten through 12th grade meet at the individual synagogues on Sundays to learn in person, and then on Wednesdays, all three synagogues meet virtually. Many of the students are preparing for their bar and bat mitzvahs and also participating in the project-based learning curriculum that has been so successful at Temple Emanuel.
‘Students learn how to apply Judaism to their lives no matter what they’re interested in, whether it’s science, art, politics or environmental studies.’ — Rabbi Adam Lutz
“We believe Jewish education and learning needs to be rooted in real world experiences for students,” said Adam. “Students learn how to apply Judaism to their lives no matter what they’re interested in, whether it’s science, art, politics or environmental studies.”
At Temple Emanuel one year, students wanted to solve the problem of homelessness in Beverly Hills. Adam said they studied Jewish texts to see what it had to say about homelessness and helping the needy, like how Avraham would welcome people into his tent. The school brought in the past mayor of Beverly Hills, Barry Brucker, who gave feedback on the students’ projects.
“It meant the work they were doing in the world was real and relevant because they could share it with someone who had power,” said Adam.
Fourth through seventh graders in the JCS will get to participate in Theatre Dybbuk, which will provide arts-based leadership training, and Adam said that COVID permitting, he plans on taking the JCS teens to Washington, D.C. in March for the annual L’Taken Social Justice Seminar, hosted by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
According to Barry, there are a lot of resources that go to waste in the Jewish community because each school thinks they have to do everything on their own. “[The JCS] allows the kids to expand their boundaries and meet other kids, and to participate in a really excellent and thoughtful curriculum that they otherwise might not have had been able to do,” he said.
Kupetz said that since his synagogue is in an area without many Jews, it’s been tough to find someone to run the school. Now, however, his students are “meeting kids beyond our Temple Beth Israel community. As the program grows, we can leverage even more sharing costs of programming and build a Jewish community for our kids that goes beyond the small Jewish community in Pomona.”
Above all, Adam said his goal is to offer authentic learning for students, no matter where they are based in L.A.
“It’s about being able to give the Jewish community in L.A. the richest and most exciting Jewish educational experience that we possibly can.”
