MaToK, the Bible Curriculum for Jewish Day Schools

A Bible curriculum for the third through seventh grades, MaToK (Mezam Tanakhi Konservativi: Conservative Bible Project) is currently being used by more than 40 Solomon Schechter Day Schools and community day schools in the United States, Canada, and abroad. The curriculum is jointly sponsored by JTS's Melton Research Center for Jewish Education and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

The curriculum seeks to develop students who study Torah, so that they:

• View Torah as kadosh (a sacred text) and read it in an inquiring, deep, and reverent way
• Are participants in the continuing revelation and uncovering of truth emanating from God
• Learn Torah in the original Hebrew
• Develop literary skills to study the Torah independently
• Engage in critical thinking
• Become sensitive to shades of meaning
• Search for personal meaning in Torah
• Connect Torah with their lives as Jews
• See themselves as links in the chain of Torah understanding and interpretation
• Prepare to explore traditional commentaries
• Engage with questions about God
• Grapple with moral issues that arise from the Torah

Students are encouraged to ask and respond to open-ended questions, and to struggle with the dilemmas inherent in the Torah's narrative.

Visit The Schechter Day School Network for information about orientation seminars, orders, and sample pages of student booklets.

The new full-color student booklets are designed and produced by the Center for Educational Technology (CET) in Israel. The project was originally funded by a generous grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation.

MaToK is directed by Galya Pinsky Greenberg. For further information, please call (860) 521-2626 or email gagreenberg@jtsa.edu.