Religious School

Religious School Director
Dr. Leah F. Cassorla, Cantor Educator
(631) 421-3224, ext. 12
(631) 253-1446

Education Vice President
Hilary Kalb

Class Schedule – 2023-2024 (5784) School Year

Dates and times t.b.d.  Below are the times for last year.  Religious School will begin on Thursday, September 28, 2023.

Class Schedule – 2022-2023 (5783) School Year

General Information and Overall Philosophy

We believe that every learner is endowed with an innate sense of curiosity and that rather than creating a school in which a teacher acts as a “sage on the stage,” pouring knowledge into their charges’ minds, we are working to create a school in which students work on real world projects to find real world solutions, thereby empowering them to tap into and feed their curiosity. Through Project based learning, students learn to: understand the basics of spoken modern Hebrew; read Liturgical and Biblical Hebrew; learn the core prayers of Judaism; understand their history and heritage; connect their Jewish identities and Israel; and make real change in the world through a Jewish lens.  
Therefore, Melville Jewish Center Religious School is now Project-Based.  This model is active, inclusive, accessible, and individualized.

Special Programming

Melville Jewish Center’s Religious School holds monthly Shabbat services with a lovely Oneg for students and families.  In addition to our monthly services, students learn with clergy 3-4 times a month.  Of course, we have special events surrounding holidays such as creating a Purim Shpiel, baking Matzah, and celebrating Yom Ha’Atzmaut with spirit!

We have age specific special programming, as well.  Our Kids’ Club is a unique opportunity for younger students to begin Religious School early and enjoy being part of our community.  These children are learning through play, art and small group experience; we set the tone early that Religious School is fun!  Our third graders have the option of a club as their second day.  This provides a natural transition to a two day a week program in an engaging manner.

Our older students lead services regularly during the school week.  This enables them to feel comfortable and confident as they head toward Bar and Bat Mitzvah.  It also gives them a sense of pride in their leadership roles.  Lastly, our oldest students take an annual field trip to the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove.

Our Director

Dr. Leah F. Cassorla was born in Israel and raised both there and in the US. The third of four siblings, Cantor Leah is currently studying for dual ordination as Cantor-Rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion, which will make her the 9th generation of rabbis on her father’s side. With an equal lineage of military service on her mother’s side, Cantor Leah served at the Naval Academy in the US and in the National Service program in Israel. As an adult in Israel, she had the opportunity to study jazz at Rimon School of Music, the only worldwide partner to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA.

Cantor Leah has worked as an educator in higher education as well as in religious education for more than two decades. She works hard to bring compassion, curiosity, and joy to her teaching, modeling for her students the love she has for lifelong learning and for Judaism, both of which were fed from a young age by her studies at the Phoenix Hebrew Academy, as well as her father’s pulpit, where she was given the opportunity to teach and to practice Hazzanut (prayer leading). It is in leading prayer and in teaching that Cantor Leah finds her greatest joys. Cantor Leah is accompanied by her therapy dog, Boobah, a 10 (ish) year old, one-eyed, Lhasa-Apso-Shih-Tzu mix her students often turn to for comfort and calm.