By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Four new Jewish preschool options in the Puget Sound region this fall will give parents even more choices for getting their children started in the basics of Jewish learning.
Three of the new preschools are located on the Eastside: Temple B’nai Torah’s Solomike Early Childhood Center in Bellevue, Chabad of the Central Cascade’s Gani Preschool of the Arts in Issaquah, and First Steps Play Center, an educational Jewish toddler program for fall, located within the Jewish Day School.
In Seattle proper, the Seattle Jewish Playschool Co-op, which co-directors and longtime educators Stefanie Robbins and Jennifer Magalnick refer to as more of a program than a school, hasn’t found a location yet, but it will likely be in the city’s Northend. They plan to operate on Thursday mornings and accommodate children between 18 and 35 months old.
Robbins said that the program will be “parent-driven.”
“Parents are hiring the parent educator and the teacher for the kids,” Robbins said. “The parents are also in the classroom.”
Magalnick, whose background is in early childhood education, holds a master’s degree in Jewish Communal Service with a concentration in education. She works as an early childhood specialist for the Union for Reform Judaism.
Robbins holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Child Therapy and is also a musician who works with children and adults.
Robbins said the program will have Jewish content and that families need to identify as Jewish.
“We want it to feel organic, and not a hit-you-over-the-head constantly talking about being Jewish,” she said. “There won’t be a lot of prayers, but on the other hand, we’ll make challah together and maybe teach the kids a blessing before we eat a snack.”
When the Chabad headquarters in New York notified Chabad of the Central Cascades in Issaquah that a grant for a preschool available was to them, Rabbi Shalom Farkash jumped into action.
Currently, no other Jewish organization actively serves the “far Eastside,” defined by Farkash as Issaquah, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, and even Ellensburg, where he teaches Judaic subjects by phone to people who contact him.
The school is located on the land Chabad owns in Issaquah, adjacent to their primary building. Chabad purchased a prefabricated building and are currently tying up final arrangements for city permits.
The school, which opens Sept. 6, will be the first bilingual English–Hebrew program that serves children from ages 2 to 4 years old.
“There is a tremendous need for a Jewish preschool,” Farkash told JTNews. “Many parents came to us and spoke about the issues that they have with their children going to a local preschool, where the children are exposed to non-Jewish content that sometimes can contradict the Jewish way of life.”
The curriculum will include art, movement, pre-writing and reading skills, and early math skills through hands-on learning taught by instructor Sharon Eichberg. Organizers are setting a 10-child capacity for the first year.
Chabad believes that parents will find many advantages to starting their children’s education there. For those living in the area, the location of the school, right off the I-90 freeway ramps, is also convenient.
Lisa Morris, creator and director of the First Steps Play Center, is starting an educational Jewish toddler program located at the Jewish Day School in Bellevue called Educational Play Center. Designed as an eight-week program, Morris intends the sessions to be “an entry point into the Jewish community for young Jewish families, giving them an Eastside place to meet and get to know other Jewish parents.
“This program stimulates childhood development through imaginative and educational play strategies,” Morris described in a press release, “and also serves as a resource for parents and caregivers by providing weekly handouts and a forum for discussions about various parenting issues.”
Leyna Lavinthal will be the new director of the new Solomike Early Childhood Center at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, which opens Oct. 10. Named after the late Michael “Solomike” Negrin, a longtime B’nai Torah member, the school will be focused around two central Jewish values — being “green” and being Jewish. Lavinthal developed the program with B’nai Torah’s associate rabbi Yohanna Kinberg and musician Chava Mirel, who as the daughter of the temple’s head rabbi grew up in the synagogue, will be on hand as music specialist.
“We’ll be working on a sustainable classroom and working in the mitzvah garden we have outside,” Lavinthal said. “We will be donating the vegetables that we grow to Jewish Family Service and to other local charities and families in need.”
The program will focus on sustainability, serve organic food to the children, attempt a “zero-plastic” toy policy in the classroom, and keep it a generally healthy environment.
The toddler class for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2-year-olds, scheduled for Wednesday and Friday mornings, will be more of an enrichment class, Lavinthal said. It will focus on music, art, play, and social skills.
“On Monday mornings from 10 to 11:30 we’ll be giving a caregiver and baby class, where we’ll be exploring Jewish culture, nature, music, in an interactive, community-building environment,” Lavinthal added.