Beit David Hebrew School runs classes for various ages and levels of Hebrew/Jewish Studies knowledge. The School holds weekly classes for children from the age of ten preparing the younger members for B’nei Mitzvah and living meaningful Jewish lives. A child passing through the entire Hebrew School system will be fluent in Hebrew reading and have a good background of Progressive Judaism.
Children should enrol in Hebrew School in the year in which they turned 10. Classes are run on Shabbat mornings before the service.
If you would like to learn more, please contact the office on 031335 4488.
A brief history of Beit David Hebrew School
The Hebrew School was started in the same year as the founding of the original Temple David Durban.
Through the sixty-eight years of its history, the Hebrew school has had some wonderful experiences and has ensured that our children, both boys and girls, had the opportunity to participate in Bar and Bat Mitzvah. At first girls had their Batmitvah in a group, but from the time of Rabbi Richards, girls performed in exactly the same way as our boys, leading the service and reading from the Torah at the Sabbath morning service.
Many of our teachers were dedicated women, although we also have had some excellent male teachers. Some of those include Mr Sonny Benjamin, Jack Freedman and Gary Budlender. The current teachers are Kendyl and Sue Jacobson.
However, one cannot think of the Hebrew school and not think of people like Helga Ucko who used to travel all over the province to prepare our children for bar and bat mitzvah – Pietermaritzburg, Durban North, Westville, South Coast, North Coast, as well as at Temple David. There was also Ann Lipshitz who taught for 25 years and Paddy Meskin who taught for 26 years (especially the barmitzvah class). Others include the late Yiska Schmahman, Nina Gibbings, Annette Cavanagh, Melinda Carr (now Rabbi Carr) and Vivienne Gibbings all who made significant contributions in our Hebrew school. In the late 1970’s, We had more than 150 children in the school and there were six classes. A record year included 28 bnei mitzvah…