Engaging Parents and Families
Parent and family involvement is an essential component to creating thriving Jewish cultures and traditions through the generations. Therefore, we offer experiential learning for the whole family. To learn more about our Sunday Family Program, please click here.
Looking ahead: Your Child's B'Mitzvah
Once in 7th grade, students join our Or Shalom B’mitzvah program. To learn more about this program and its curriculum, please click here.
Learn the Alef-Bet as a Family
We have designed a Family Alef-Bet class. To learn more about this program, please click here.
Meet our Community School staff!
Head of Youth & Family Education
sarahmoss@orshalomsf.org
Sarah Moss Yanuck (ze/zir/zirs & she/her/hers) is an educator, facilitator, and songleader in Jewish and secular spaces, both in formal education and in community. Born and raised in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC, ze came of age in Philadelphia, PA, and moved to Oakland in 2022. Since 2014, Sarah Moss has taught in K-12 classrooms, racial literacy courses for adults, Hebrew Schools, and outdoor Jewish education programs. She is thrilled to be joining Or Shalom as the Head of Youth and Family Education, both to steward the community’s vision for the school and to support the students, families, and teachers. Ze is personally interested in the meeting points of justice education and spiritual education, and is excited to explore Judaism alongside young people!
Sarah Moss is currently a master’s student in International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco School of Education. Ze graduated from Vassar College with a BA in Environmental Studies and a concentration in Education. In her free time, Sarah Moss loves to explore forests and rivers, engage Jewish holidays and rituals, learn about reparations and teshuva, sing with loved ones, and write. According to her former 6th-grade students, Sarah Moss always wears warm sweaters.
Madeline Canfield (she/her)
B'Mitzvah and Teen Workshop Instructor
Madeline Canfield (she/her) is a community organizer, educator, facilitator, and writer in both climate and Jewish movement spaces. She works as an organizer in Jewish climate movement building, where she mentors high school and college students to write environmental and organizing curricula and develop campaigns that apply Jewish epistemological frameworks to contemporary challenges of the climate crisis. She designs and implements workshops that explore the intersections of existentialism, climate emotional resilience, ancestral memory, Jewish environmental epistemology, public narrative, and theories of liberation. At Or Shalom, she is proud to teach the bimonthly B’ Mitzvah Class, in which students delve into the rhythms of Jewish calendrical time as they extrapolate learnings from Jewish classical texts, history, and ritual to develop their own sense of commitment to identity at this pivotal moment in their lives. In the spring, she will also lead a series of teen workshops around the relationship between Jewish text, practice, and contemporary politics in community-based work for collective liberation. She has a bachelor’s in English and Judaic Studies from Brown University.
Outside of education, she developed extensive organizing experience across the youth climate and other justice movements. She serves on the U.N. Environmental Programme Faith for Earth Youth Council and the board of The Shalom Center. She recently earned a bachelor’s in English and Judaic Studies from Brown University and is excited to be a resident of San Francisco as of this past summer!
Raq Dunoff (they/them)
Raq (pronounced: rock) Dunoff (they/them) is an educator, weaver, and organizer in the Jewish community. Raq studied Experience Design at Olin College of Engineering with a focus on hands-on learning and maker education. After a brief stint as a product manager for an educational technology startup, Raq moved out to the Bay Area for the Urban Adamah fellowship to deepen their connection to Judaism.
Since then, they have immersed themselves in Jewish community working for various earth-based Jewish organizations and organizing with Jews on Ohlone Land, hosting a monthly havdalah ritual at the West Berkeley Shellmound. They are excited to bring their skills and experiences with Jewish hands-on learning to the Community School and share many more havdalah rituals with the youth!
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Or Shalom Community School (OSCS) embraces the wholeness of each child through education and a kid-centered community of Jewish life. Our learning program engages our students with joyful and dynamic experiences. Children will learn age-appropriate curriculum on the themes of Jewish food, music, and ritual objects, explored through the lenses of diaspora, Earth, and liberation.
You don’t need to be a member of Or Shalom to join our school.
NOTE: Masks required indoors at Or Shalom Community School.
Enrollment for 2024-2025 is now open!
The Community School is open to students from 1st–6th grade. You don’t need to be a member to have your child join Or Shalom Community School. Masks are required indoors at Or Shalom Community School.
For any programmatic questions before then, please contact the Head of Youth and Family Education, Sarah Moss, at sarahmoss@orshalomsf.org. Please complete the enrollment form first before requesting financial aid.
Curriculum and Details
The curriculum for Or Shalom Community School is experiential, hands-on, and inter-age. Students across the school engaged with the same content and ideas in developmentally appropriate ways, making ongoing conversation and learning possible for the whole family! This year, children and families will learn about Jewish food, music, and ritual objects, explored through the lenses of diaspora, Earth, and liberation.
Classes will be held in Bernal Heights (both in the office and outdoors)
Or Shalom Community School Calendar 5785 (2024-2025)
OSCS meets on Mondays from 4:30 – 6:00 pm. A light snack is provided.
- 4:30–5:00 pm: Tefillah (Prayer) and All-School Programming
- 5:00–6:00 pm: Class-Based Learning
We also have Fall and Spring family Shabbat services, and a closing youth programs celebration on Lag B'Omer!
September 2024
- September 16
- September 30
October 2024
- October 21
- October 28
November 2024
- November 4
- November 18
December 2024
- December 2
- Friday, December 6: Family Shabbat Service
- December 9
- December 16
January 2025
- January 6
- January 13
- January 27
February 2025
- February 3
- February 10
- February 24
March 2025
- March 3
- Friday, March 7: Spring Family Service
- March 10
- March 17
- March 24
April 2025
- April 7
- April 21
- April 28
May 2025
- May 12
- Thursday, May 15: Lag B'Omer Bonfire & Closing Youth Programs Celebration
Cost of Program
The cost for the Or Shalom Community School is $1050 for members and $1,350 for non-members. When you pay the non-member rate, your family is provided with a complementary membership package for your first year of participation. If you need financial aid, please reach out to us AFTER completing the enrollment form. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
