Karyn Salkin taught Hebrew school for years. She knows how kids often feel about it.
They complain to their parents; they don’t want to go; they hate sitting for a couple more hours after a day in school of doing just that.
So, when she became the education director at Darchei Noam, an Ambler synagogue that opened in 2021, Salkin set out to do the impossible: make Hebrew school fun. The way to do that, she realized, was to bring “the spirit and energy of camp into a year-round learning environment.”
First and foremost, that meant more moving around. As Salkin explained, the teachers get a book, but they don’t spend classes going page by page. Instead, kids learn through games, improv sessions and other fun, active methods.
They still get their Hebrew, their biblical history and their lessons on Jewish holidays. It just doesn’t feel like school.
So far, the program has been successful. Darchei Noam’s religious school enrolls 90-100 students per year, according to Salkin. The synagogue itself has about 235 member families.
“They’re constantly out of their seats. We sit in circles; we sit on the floor; the kids are always up, throwing things; it’s just very active,” said Salkin.
The Ambler resident was a founding member of Darchei Noam. She also taught general studies at Perelman Jewish Day School for almost 10 years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For much of that time and after, she guided religious school classes at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley as well.
Even then, Salkin attempted to make her lessons more lively. Through mnemonic devices, games and other methods, she developed a philosophy: start with games and don’t work out of a book, but still make sure that kids got their knowledge by the end of the year.
By the time she helped found Darchei Noam, Salkin was ready to implement this philosophy across an entire Hebrew school. The new synagogue’s rabbi, Danielle Parmenter, let the founding member take the lead in the education department, though the rabbi was still technically overseeing the school. It grew so quickly that Parmenter needed to delegate it entirely to Salkin.
“I knew the rabbi from another place. She said, ‘I really could use your creativity.’ I was in charge, at first, of just kind of bringing the games and things to start Hebrew school off,” Salkin said.
After taking over in full, the director transformed the school into a reflection of her old classrooms.
To teach Hebrew, her teachers use “fun, silly mnemonic devices that kids learn from preschool through their bar mitzvah.”
To learn about biblical prophets, students get different parts and create a wax museum.
“When somebody pushes a button, they come alive. It’s an interactive performance,” Salkin said.
For Tu B’Shevat, the school hosts two big seders where kids try different foods. For High Holidays, students walk a “beautiful nature trail” to do tashlich, the ceremony of throwing bread into water to wash away one’s sins.
“They’re not even realizing they’re learning because they’re having fun, but they are,” Salkin said.
Darchei Noam’s confirmation class takes a similar approach, just for older kids. Amy Polis, a mother with a son in the program, said they get to choose electives on Tuesday evening and volunteer on Sunday morning.
The electives range from the Holocaust to cooking to art. For Sunday volunteering this year, her son is helping fifth graders in the religious school.
“It’s more conversational, experiential. They’ll sit down and look at a five-minute funny YouTube, and have a discussion about it,” Polis said. “And the kids, they love it. I’ve never heard one negative thing.”
Darchei Noam’s religious school still conducts assessments, according to Salkin, but they go something like this: The teacher walks around during an activity, asks a student to read a line in Hebrew and then marks down the quality of the response.
“I believe this approach reflects a broader shift in how we think about Jewish education, meeting kids where they are, and creating joyful and meaningful experiences that foster connection and identity,” the director wrote in an email explaining the program.
When she walks around during Hebrew school hours, she likes what she sees.
“It really comes alive,” she said. “What I see are happy kids who love being there and love learning what they’re learning.”