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Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Nature-filled religious program brings Bible to life Jewish Sunday school reaches out to non-traditional crowd by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer
Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Students in the Country Chedar Sunday school class get a hayride from farmer Mervyn Schwedt at his farm in Potomac. At top, are Mat Tonti, the school’s youth director and sole teacher, daughter May, and wife Julie. 
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The young religion students gathered in Potomac over the weekend had recently learned the biblical story of Jacob, a shepherd who built his flock by crossbreeding spotted sheep. And on Sunday, the Bible came to life during a field trip to see possible descendents of the ancient flock.
Such hands-on interactions are the hallmark of Country Cheder, an alternative Jewish Sunday school sponsored by Am Kolel Jewish Sanctuary & Renewal Center in Beallsville. Lessons are taught to children 6 to 11 through stories, song, arts and crafts and real-life examples in an informal, engaging way.
‘‘It’s a different model of education than what’s usually offered,” Mat Tonti, the school’s youth director and sole teacher, said Sunday outside the Potomac home of Mervyn and Hania Schwedt. The couple own two Jacob sheep, a spotted, multi-horned breed said to have descended from Jacob’s Mesopotamian flock, in addition to two llamas, two goats, three peacocks, an assortment of chickens and geese and a dog.
After sorting out biblical family trees while sitting in a circle on the grass, the students took a break to feed the animals and learn to blow a handmade Shofar, an instrument made from the horn of a ram or another kosher animal.
The school, currently in its first year, has about six students, and three more families have signed on for next year, Tonti said. The classes meet Sunday afternoons during the school year, and Tonti advertises it as open to intermarried families, single parents and children with special needs. Alternative Sunday schools that teach children about culture, Jewish identity and God outside of a temple are becoming more popular around the country among families who want something less traditional than twice-weekly classes conducted in Hebrew. There is no mandatory temple requirement, and children with parents of different religious backgrounds are welcome.
It also reaches out to those who may be bored with traditional religious classes.
Rachel Miles, 10, was losing interest in Hebrew school and becoming burnt out from early morning classes, said her mother Cathy Miles of Boyds.
‘‘She rebelled against it so much that we were lucky to get there once or twice a month,” Cathy Miles said Sunday. Things have been much easier since switching schools, she said.
‘‘It’s really nice,” Rachel said with a smile after returning from a lesson-filled hayride. ‘‘It’s not the usual sit down, read a textbook class.”
Adults also get in on the lesson. The students’ parent or guardian sits in on the class so they can help ensure their child’s religious education continues at home.
‘‘I like the fact that it’s parent participation, you don’t just drop them off,” said Cathy Miles, who never had a Bat Mitzvah growing up and hopes to celebrate the Jewish rite of passage with Rachel when she turns 13. ‘‘I’m learning, too.”
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For more information, visit countrycheder.weebly.com.
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