Learning About Judaism in Year 2

This week, we have been excited to learn more about Judaism.

As a class, we think it is really important for us to learn as much as we can, and to understand different faiths, especially as we live in such a diverse and exciting city. We started the week with an assembly with a special visitor, Susannah Alexander, from the London Liberal Jewish Synagogue. She spoke to us about the Torah and how it is written and read and taught us about the Kippah and the way in which Jewish people show respect to God.

We were hoping to visit the Synagogue this week as an opportunity to learn even more about Judaism but due to tube strikes, this would have been really tricky! We really hope that we get the chance to go next year.

Throughout the week, however, we have been learning about Shabbat and the celebrations that families have at home. We learned that Shabbat is a festive day that is celebrated from Friday evening to Saturday evening and is considered the day of rest. This linked to our prior learning in Religious Education, where we learned about the Creation Story from the book of Genesis. We found out that Jewish people similarly believe in this story, and show their respect and thanks to God by resting on this day. Did you know that Shabbat means to stop or rest? This means that Jewish people must complete all of their tasks, clean their homes, shop, and cook before the sun sets on a Friday evening. We learned about the Friday night dinner that is a big part of Shabbat celebrations. We watched a short video to explain this further and we wrote about the steps involved with properly preparing for Shabbat. Families will traditionally buy or bake challah bread and will drink wine or grape juice that has been blessed before the meal begins.

On Friday, after an exciting morning of performing our class assembly, we came together to celebrate our learning from Judaism week. We shared all that we had learned and were able to recall the steps involved with preparing for Shabbat with such confidence. We spoke about some other important symbols that are used within Judaism, such as the menorah, and the mezuzah, which is a small case that is placed at the door frame of each room in a Jewish home that contains a scroll of parchment with a prayer. We learned that Jews will touch the mezuzah every time they pass through a door and kiss the fingers that touched it. They do this as a way of showing respect to God. We also tried on a kippah and reminded ourselves that this is a way for Jewish people to show their respect and honour to God.

After this, we tried some challah bread! We were all really patient and excited to try this, and we all thought that it was delicious and wanted seconds. We thought that this was a nice way to end our week of learning, especially on a Friday, as we remembered that Jewish people around the world would be celebrating Shabbat by eating challah bread on the same day that we were.

Well done for such a great week, Year 2. You have all impressed me with your thoughtful and insightful questions. It is so lovely to see the way in which you are interested to learn about other people and their faiths, and I know that you will continue to learn more and treat others with great respect.

What has been your favourite part of Judaism week?