Our Vision
Among the proudest traditions at JCDS is living the Jewish calendar. We make our way through the year as a Jewish community, in which students delight in marking the Haggim (holidays) together; older students model Jewish traditions for the younger ones, teachers, and often parents, join in the celebrations.

The seasons come to life on the school’s walls with stunning artistic displays created by the students. We are careful to shape our celebrations in accordance with our pluralistic mission, emphasizing religious, folk, Israeli, and social aspects of the holidays. By devoting the energy we do to celebrating the Haggim, JCDS helps to inculcate and cultivate, in our students, an appreciation for sacred time and the values embedded in the Jewish calendar. We concretely demonstrate that a diverse Jewish community can walk and dance through the year together, for no matter how individuals express their Jewishness, we all have our calendar in common.

Our Practice
From the first days of the school year, JCDS draws the joy and spirit of every holiday into our students’ lives. Shabbat – the Jewish holiday that comes every seven days – closes each week with Kabbalat Shabbat services or activities in every grade. During the High Holiday season, the whole school walks together to a local bridge over the Charles for Tashlikh. This powerfully conveys that Tishrei is a time of renewal for child and adult alike, individually and communally. Sukkot is wall to wall celebration at JCDS, from the rituals of lulav and etrog to meals and classes in our parent-designed/student-built Sukkah, to the annual Sukkah Sleepover for our 3rd and 4th graders. JCDS is attuned, as well, to the American calendar, and we commemorate Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, MLK Jr. Day, and Memorial Day. Come winter, Hanukkah is a time of great warmth at JCDS. Our annual Hanukkah evening gathering for candles, songs, and, of course, sufganiyyot (doughnuts), is a joyful time for adults and children alike. Purim at school has everything it should have, from a Megillah Reading and Seudah to Mattanot la’Evyonim and Mishloah Manot. Our blow-out Purim celebration culminates in a carnival designed and hosted with serious silliness by our 8th graders for our younger students. Pesach is a time of anticipation and preparation as students pour their creative energies into creating objects and materials for their own family’s seder. For Shavuot, everyone comes to school in a white shirt and weaves a garland of flowers to wear. Adorned this way, we celebrate Revelation through school-wide, pluralistic Torah study. Contemporary observances like Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikkaron, and Yom HaAtzama’ut are, in turn, powerful experiences of solemnity, unity, and, finally, rejoicing.

It’s important to us that teachers have a stake in the holiday celebrations. Every teacher serves on holiday program committees, assuring variety in the style of observance and providing a valuable opportunity for staff collaboration. Classroom learning on the Haggim is a necessary complement to the communal celebrations; experience requires academic exploration behind it, and formal study is paired with experience. Our Haggim curriculum encompasses values, songs, diverse traditions and detailed dinim (Jewish ritual practices). It assures that our students are continually learning new concepts and practices related to Shabbat and all of the Haggim, while reinforcing what they have learned previously.

In short, Haggim at JCDS are integral to the life of the school. Through them we express our love for Judaism, Israel, and the United States and in them we celebrate our learning, our delight in one another, and pride in our JCDS traditions.