At Emanuel, we seek to foster a love of Jewish learning and living.
We strive to build a community of caring and knowledgeable individuals, who experience Judaism as personally engaging and meaningful. With a diverse student body and staff, we honour and promote pluralistic expressions of Judaism as enriching and deepening our shared heritage.
Our inclusive and welcoming school environment serves to nurture responsible and concerned individuals contributing to both our Jewish and world communities.
Pre-School
Kornmehl Pre-school supports and celebrates diversity, honouring our heritage by providing a rich and unique learning experience that values family, history, traditions and cultures.
Through our daily practice, the children’s knowledge and understanding of the traditions and importance of a Jewish heritage are celebrated and cultivated. Children feel valued as they come together for Kabbalat Shabbat and enjoy the warmth, spirituality and sense of community that this creates.
We embrace all Jewish festivals with enthusiasm and teach the values of Miztvot, Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam. In keeping with our ethos, Hebrew is taught by a specialist teacher and is also integrated into the daily life of the Pre-school.
Primary School
Jewish Life in the Primary School provides students with knowledge, skills and memorable experiences as they learn about their Jewish heritage and build their own sense of Jewish identity. By creating an inclusive and welcoming Jewish community, we nurture a love of Judaism, Hebrew, the Jewish people and Israel so our students grow as responsible Jewish and global citizens.
MIND לבבך
Hebrew is taught through immersion using the programs TalAm, iTaLAM and Chaverim B’Ivrit. These programs are used around the world and have a holistic approach and a connection to Israel.
Students engage in Hebrew learning through texts, technology, music, drama and games to experience Hebrew as a living culture.
In Jewish Studies students explore Jewish history, texts, ethics, tradition and Jewish living in an open, pluralistic environment that encourages questioning and the creation of personal meaning.
SPIRIT נפשך
Ruach (spirit) fills the School during tefillah (prayer), Shabbat and festival celebrations as students learn, lead, create and celebrate Jewish living through prayers, readings, music and dance.
Students learn, lead and experience various opportunities involving the siddur, Torah readings, personal reflections and Jewish meditation.
BEING מאדך
Hebrew is visible and experienced on our school campus and through music, Israeli dancing, plays, reading clubs and student presentations at assemblies.
Pathways ceremonies bring students and families together to celebrate significant moments and milestones in Jewish learning and living.
Students live the Jewish values of Gemilut Hasadim (acts of kindness) and Tzedakah (working for justice) by engaging with the community and joining with various organisations as partners in the process of Tikkun Olam (bettering the world).
High School
In accordance with our school motto, we are committed to educating the whole child, in Mind, Spirit and Being.
MIND לבבך
Within our Jewish Studies classes, which are compulsory from Years 7-11, we challenge our students to explore and discover Judaism as a living dialogue in which each individual has a voice.
Through project-based learning, electives and thematic units, our students are encouraged to develop both an appreciation of the wisdom of our tradition and a critical and authentic understanding of how it may help them forge a mindful and meaningful Jewish life.
Our students encounter their Hebrew studies as a means to engage more fully with their Jewish heritage and present-day Israel. They experience Hebrew as the shared language of our people and as a core component of their Jewish identity.
SPIRIT נפשך
Every Friday, we enjoy a student-led welcoming of Shabbat that highlights the joy of communal celebration. Our students sing Shabbat and Hebrew songs, dance together, share in a variety of theme-centred Shabbat experiences, join in the kiddush and motsi (prayers over the wine and bread) and, in a spirited expression of simchah (joy) and ruach, honour the best of Shabbat.
On Monday mornings we communally experience moments of prayer, reflection and study. Student members of each House lead their peers in prayer and share their thoughts and perspectives on the weekly parashah (Torah reading), through their own D’Var Torah. In addition, a variety of tefillah (prayer) groups, such as Jewish meditation, encountering prayer as a personal journey, or exploring challenging and personal theological and ethical issues through the lens of Jewish thinking and living, are provided to our students.
BEING מאדך
Coming together in chaggim and moadim, celebration and commemorations, we give living expression to our Jewish being. Our Jewish Life madrichim and their peers develop programs and activities that highlight the essence of holiday and commemorative events, while generating new rituals and observances that speak to them. Our students become empowering agents in creating a living Judaism in which being Jewish is an ever-renewing enterprise.
Our students engage in many diverse Tikkun Olam projects and programs. Being Jewish, they learn that we are called upon to live as God’s partners in bettering our world through caring for the wellbeing of others (gemilut hasadim) and working for equity and justice (tzedakah) for all people. Students initiate and participate in Tikkun Olam endeavours within our local, national and world-wide communities.
Chavayah – The Jewish Experience
Being Jewish comes alive for our students, in mind, spirit and being, when they join their peers on our residential Israel program, Chavayah, at the end of Year 10. Living Jewishly in Israel, through learning, celebrating and praying, inspires our students to aspire to a lifelong commitment to our people and our heritage.