Jewish Education

In a groundbreaking collaboration, the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center and three nearby synagogues are teaming up to offer Jewish U, a wide-ranging three-month series of adult education courses.Beginning this week, Jewish U will offer courses in Hebrew, Biblical studies, marriage and family, and other topics related to Judaism."This is quite innovative," said Michael Wegier, the JCC's director of Jewish Education and coordinator of Jewish U, which is planned to operate each year from January to March.

An article in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly reported that Sinai Hospital relies on the general fund drive of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Sinai conducts its own fund-raising campaign.The Sun regrets the errors.For the eighth straight year, Baltimore-area Jews have increased their giving to The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.The local network and a similar organization in Palm Beach, Fla., are the only two of 200 Jewish federations in the United States that have raised more money each succeeding year in that period, said Ricki Baker, director of marketing here.

Noting that the Archdiocese of Baltimore recently pledged tens of millions of dollars to improve its schools, a group of rabbis and lay leaders is asking The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore to increase its financial support for Jewish day schools.The group, which calls itself Advocates for Leadership in Educational Funding, is seeking a threefold increase in The Associated's annual allocation for the private day schools that teach religious and secular courses.The Associated's annual campaign last year raised about $24 million for Jewish agencies here and in Israel.

Less is more at Beth El Congregation's religious school.Youngsters in the Baltimore County synagogue's pioneering religious education program are spending less time in after-school and Sunday classes but more time "devoted to Jewish learning."And parents are spending less time in car lines and more in prayer and study, fostering not only their children's Jewish education, but also their own.Project Mishpacha -- Hebrew for family -- is innovative for the Conservative congregation of 1,700 on Park Heights Avenue and for Jewish education.

It's true that Harriet Chaitovitz doesn't stand in a classroom and teach anymore. But one rabbi insists she's still "the classiest woman in Howard County."So on Wednesday, more than 100 parents and children gathered at Beth Shalom Congregation's synagogue on Guilford Road to honor Mrs. Chaitovitz, who this year retired as a nursery school and day care teacher at Bet Yeladim -- a religious school that rents space at the synagogue.Mrs. Chaitovitz received a plaque for helping to establish the county's first Jewish preschool 20 years ago.And to honor her, children dedicated Bet Yeladim playground's 260-foot pathway by drawing an outline of their feet with chalk.

Richard L. Pearlstone, member of a philanthropic family that has left its imprint on the artistic, educational and religious life of Baltimore, was honored here recently for accepting chairmanship of the world's largest Jewish fund-raising effort.At the annual meeting of Baltimore's Jewish Federation at Center Stage June 16, Mr. Pearlstone received tributes for his record of service to Jewish interests in the United States and abroad. He was installed in New York on May 24 as national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal.

They came from as far away as Richmond, Va., and Allentown, Pa., looking for new ways to teach old ideas.Nearly 700 people crowded into classrooms at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation on Park Heights Avenue yesterday to learn how to use Mother Goose rhymes to teach values, how to teach Judaic concepts through ecology and how to teach martial arts in Hebrew.The daylong series of workshops was one of eight miniconferences being held this year throughout the country for Jewish educators and others interested in religious studies, said Julie Auerbach of Cleveland, a board member of the national Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education.

Baltimore's troubled Talmudical Academy has apparently escaped foreclosure by the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC) by obtaining a $1.1 million mortgage from the Bank of Baltimore.The 76-year-old school's new leadership also has begun efforts to pay $4 million owed to as many as 50 individuals who have lent money over the years. It has also begun a greatly expanded fund-raising campaign to bolster its financial future.Plans are for the private school for 640 Orthodox Jewish boys to pay off the old mortgage by the close of business today, said Bruce Eisen, vice president of the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

When 7-year-old Hannah Chalew pulled the long, meaty bone from a boiled animal horn yesterday, her second-grade classmates responded with a resounding, "ee-YEW!""When I pulled out the bone, it was weird," said Hannah, who got a close-up look at the making of a shofar, or ceremonial ram's horn blown on Jewish high holy days.She was among 58 students from the Krieger-Schechter Day School, a Jewish school in Baltimore County, who visited the Lubavitch Center for Jewish Education in Columbia for the eye-opening demonstration.

Theological seminar set"Theological Reflections on Current Urban Issues" will be the subject of an Ecumenical Institute seminar at 4 p.m. Sept. 20 at St. Mary's Seminary and University, 5400 Roland Ave. Graduates of the institute working in inner-city churches, social services and law enforcement will lead the discussions, open to the public.A reception at 5:30 and a dinner at 6:15 will follow. For information: 323-1463.Yesterday, the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's began its 24th year of graduate theological education.

Baltimore Hebrew University, grappling with a long-term decline in enrollment, is in negotiations to become a part of Towson University, officials said. The state Board of Regents has informally indicated its approval of the talks. The plans are not complete, but the heads of both institutions said they believe negotiations will succeed. As part of Towson, Baltimore Hebrew would maintain its identity, said Jonathan Lowenberg, chairman of the board of the 90-year-old college. "Baltimore Hebrew University, as with any number of small universities around the country, faces financial issues and the ability to grow our programs as we think is appropriate," he said.

Hillendale Meeting to consider community plan A community meeting on developing an in-depth plan for the Hillendale area has been scheduled for Wednesday. The forum is the first in a series that will be held as residents, merchants and county officials work to draft a Community Conservation Plan for the greater Hillendale area. The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be held in the cafeteria of Halstead Academy, 1111 Halstead Road. Information: 410-887-2909, or e-mail mlynch@baltimorecounty md.gov.

It wasn't their mother's Sunday Hebrew School class, what with the panel discussions on cosmetic surgery and Jewish sex manuals and the yoga in the library. But the room was packed all the same. More than 100 people - 20-somethings, grandmothers and even a few teenagers - came to the Jewish Museum of Maryland yesterday to hear a half-dozen experts talk about everything from prayers said during pregnancy to what the Torah and other sacred texts have to say about intercourse. The event, "Women's Sexuality: Bodies, Beauty and the Ethics of Intimacy," was part of Rashi's Daughters, a Jewish education organization that, until now, has focused on teaching women about sacred texts in small groups during monthly gatherings.

Jewish educators around Baltimore are studying an unusual topic this year: God. Teachers often shy away from discussions of God or defining beliefs at Jewish day schools and supplemental classes offered by congregations, said Lawrence M. Ziffer, the executive vice president of the Center for Jewish Education in Park Heights. "Most other religions have a lot of God talk," Ziffer said. In Judaism, however, "that almost never happens on a communal level." Instead, religious education usually covers areas such as holidays, rituals and liturgical or modern Hebrew.

Rosh Hashana starts at 6:47 tonight Rosh Hashana, the solemn and joyous festival celebrating the Jewish New Year, begins tonight locally at 6:47 p.m., 18 minutes before sunset, when candles are lighted in Jewish homes to inaugurate the Sabbath and the holiday. "It's the Jewish New Year and the Day of Judgment, the day when we make a resolution to improve our ways, to make amends ... and go in God's way in the future," said Rabbi Hillel Baron of the Lubavitch Center for Jewish Education.

Program to teach teens about Judaism Gateways to Judaism, a program for teenagers to learn about and celebrate Judaism in a nonthreatening and hospitable environment, will be offered this fall by Columbia Jewish Congregation. The program -- for teens from interfaith marriages and those who would like to be bar or bat mitzvahed but have little or no knowledge of Judaism, will provide information about Jewish life-cycle events, Hebrew and prayer, customs and elementary Jewish history and theology.

On Sunday, examine your conscience, Journeys Community's theme for this week's 10 a.m. Sunday service will be "Examen of Conscience" -- a method of prayer developed in 1541 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, which has since enabled believers and seekers to examine their thoughts, words and actions to deepen their relationship with God and others. Those who attend Sunday's service are invited to participate in the almost 500-year-old spiritual exercise for improving spiritual health. The group's Sunday services are held in the second-floor auditorium of Vantage House Life-Care Retirement Community, 5400 Vantage Point Road in Town Center, Columbia.

Topic is discovering Jewish ancestry Novelist and retired professor Carolivia Herron will talk about her discovery of her Jewish ancestry at a "Lunch and Learn" program after Shabbat morning services tomorrow at Columbia Jewish Congregation. Her talk, "Peacesong: An African-American Journey to Judaism," will describe her conversion to Judaism from the Baptist faith in which she had been raised, and her subsequent discovery that she had a Jewish great-great-great-great-grandmother. Lunch will be served.

I. Leon Glassgold, a retired civil engineer and construction business owner who was a founder of the Krieger Schechter Day School, died of stroke complications Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. He was 81, and a resident of the Cheswolde neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore. Mr. Glassgold's business, Masonry Resurfacing and Construction Co., was founded by his father in 1928 in Philadelphia. He moved his father's business to Baltimore's Curtis Bay in 1954, and specialized in concrete bridge repairs.

In Baltimore County Pupil hurt in fall from bus upgraded to fair condition The Old Court Middle School pupil who fell out the emergency door of a moving school bus Tuesday was upgraded to fair condition yesterday at Sinai Hospital. Sedrick Alexander Bailey, 11 and a seventh-grader, had been in serious condition. Police and school officials said yesterday that they do not know whether Sedrick accidentally fell, jumped or was pushed out of the bus shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Windsor Mill section of Baltimore County.