Registration for the 2025-26 school year is OPEN!
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Families must be TBI members to enroll. Not yet a member? Become one today.
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The first day of Talmud Torah classes is Sunday, September 21, 2025.
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View the class schedule and the calendar for the 2025-26 school year.
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This year, we are exploring offering “intracare” for those students under 2nd grade whose siblings remain at Talmud Torah past 11:15am on Sundays. As part of the registration process, you will be asked to indicate whether you would be interested in this for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or 1st grade student(s). Sign-up for intracare will be a separate process, in which you will be asked to commit to intracare for your child either per term or for the full school year, with a reasonable supplemental charge required up front; this will not be a drop-in service.
To register, follow these steps:
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Registration is done via ShulCloud. Log into your ShulCloud account and make sure all of your info is up-to-date. This includes making sure each child in your household is listed, along with their birth date, and is designated as “child.”
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Click on the “Start School Enrollment” tile, and select "Talmud Torah 2025-26." Complete the registration form.
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After you submit your registration, the Talmud Torah Office will confirm your child(ren)’s enrollment, and you will receive an email indicating that the enrollment has been confirmed. Your tuition charges will then be posted to your ShulCloud account, and you can set up your payment preferences there.
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If you requested a scholarship application as part of the registration process, the Talmud Torah office will send you the application and let you know how to submit it.
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If you have a student in 2nd grade or older, you will be notified when JEWL class options for each term are available, and you will be instructed how to select your student’s JEWL classes.
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Keep an eye out for the family volunteer sign-up. Every family is expected to sign up for at least one volunteer role for the school year. This year, our volunteer structure is undergoing some slight changes, and sign-up will be sent out after registration is live. Learn more about parent volunteering.​​
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Staff
Contact us!
Address:​
Temple Beth Israel Preschool
1175 E. 29th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97403
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Phone:
541-485-7218, ext. 108
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Email:
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More information about Talmud Torah
Annoucements
TBI Talmud Torah needs you!
Do you have some Hebrew skills? Are you comfortable with liturgy? Do you have a particular Jewish subject you might be interested in teaching to children or teenagers? Do you consider teaching the next generation of Jewish adults to be a mitzvah? Do you have 1-2 hours a week in your schedule available to teach on a Sunday morning and/or Wednesday afternoon (plus some lesson prep time)? If so, Talmud Torah needs you! Did you know that most of our teaching staff are not professional educators, and weren’t aware how much they’d LOVE teaching Talmud Torah until they gave it a try? Please contact Sheri Konowitz at sheri@tbieugene.org and let’s talk! What do you have to lose?
Tuition 2025–2026
​*** Register by August 31 before tuition increases ***
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Register by August 31 and tuition for the Sunday Class Only (Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade) is $575 per year. With a sibling discount, the rate is $517.50.
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Register by August 31 and tuition for the Full Program (Grades 2–7), which includes Sunday classes, Hebrew, and JEWL, is $955 per year. With a sibling discount, the rate is $859.50.
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Tuition will increase for anyone registering on September 1, 2025 or later. This page will be updated with the new tuition on that date.
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Sibling Discount
Families enrolling more than one child receive 10% off the lower tuition amount. The more expensive program is considered the first child. If your family is able to waive this discount, it is a generous gift to our Talmud Torah community. Thank you.
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Scholarships
Scholarships are available. During registration, you will be asked whether you would like information about financial assistance. If you check “yes,” we will send you a scholarship application after confirming your child’s enrollment.
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Payment and Billing
There is a $100 non-refundable registration and materials fee, which is already included in the tuition amounts listed above. At the time of registration, families may choose to either pay tuition in full or set up a payment plan. For those using a payment plan, a payment method will need to be kept on file, and payments will be processed automatically, either by credit card or through recurring payments from your bank. If you are applying for a scholarship, please be sure to complete your scholarship application by August 31 before tuition increases!
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If your plans change after registering, please contact us. We will work with you individually.
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Questions?
For billing or tuition-related questions, please contact Jake Short, Finance Assistant, accounting@tbieugene.org or 541-485-7218 x107.
Calendar for 2025-26 (5786)
View the calendar (please note that the calendar is subject to change)
Weekly Schedule for 2025-26
All classes in-person at TBI ​
Sundays
9:30 am-9:45 am – All-School Havdalah and Assembly
9:45 am-11:15 am – Cohort (includes 30 min music/shira sessions by age group)
11:30 am-12:15pm – Hebrew classes
12:30 pm-1:15pm – JEWL classes
Wednesdays
3:45pm-4:00pm – Snack
4:00pm-4:15pm – Tefillah
4:20pm-5:05 pm – Hebrew classes
5:15 pm-6:00 pm – JEWL classes
Drop-off/pick-up procedures
​Drop-off — Parents are welcome and invited to come in the building and bring their children to their classrooms. Zra’im and Gan (preschool and kindergarten) families: Please make sure to walk your children into their classrooms and greet their morim (teachers) and/or madrichim (TA’s).
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Pick-up — All parents of students in Zra’im through Hay (Preschool-5th grade) must come to the classrooms to retrieve their children. Children are not to exit the building without the presence of their designated adult.
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On Sunday mornings, parents and guardians are welcome to hang out in the social hall, and feel free to bring your morning coffee and breakfast items to enjoy while you schmooze. Keep an eye on the TT Updates, the TBI e-news, and the website for Sunday Sisterhood Cafe and Brotherhood Breakfast dates!
Parents/guardians are most welcome to check in with your children’s teachers on Sundays and Wednesdays, visit the classrooms, or stop by the TT office to touch base with Sheri and Rachel. We love to see our families and value any chance to connect. You are a key part of your children’s TT experience!
Registration Policies
Regarding eligibility and participation:
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Students may enroll in Kita Zra’im (preschool class) if they turn 3 by the first day of classes (September 21, 2025).
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Students may enroll in Kita Gan (kindergarten class) if they turn five before December 31st of the school year.
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Some children with fall birthdays (before Dec 31st) may choose to be in a Talmud Torah cohort class that is a year ahead of their day school grade. Parents are encouraged to talk with the Director of Youth Education to determine the best fit for each child.
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Students that get a late start in Talmud Torah may be asked to start in a cohort class that is younger than their day school grade.
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All TBI classes are for TBI member children only unless there is special permission.
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Supporting Your Student
As part of the registration process (at the beginning of the school year), you will be asked if your child has any unique learning needs. Please include any relevant diagnosis, school related learning plans, medical or religious practice matters. If your child’s needs change throughout the year, please contact Sheri Konowitz, Director of Youth Education, to update your child’s learning needs.
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Such matters are then communicated to the students’ teachers and substitutes by Sheri Konowitz.
IF you have a shared a request or matter that you would either like a specific response to and/or to discuss personally with Sheri, please indicate: “I would like to speak with Sheri about this” and she will reach out within a couple weeks of receiving your request to follow up with you as to whether or how your request can be accommodated.
Food policy
Talmud Torah is a program which celebrates the diversity of its participants. It is important to Temple Beth Israel to ensure that people with all dietary needs can eat at Talmud Torah. That said, given the diversity of dietary needs, we cannot expect or ensure that all items served at all TBI events will conform to all culinary needs.
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TBI’s baseline for food is its “Eco-Kosher” policy, where all food in the building must be vegetarian/pescatarian as a default. Special culinary needs include certified kosher, gluten free, vegan, and allergen free foods. Staff must be informed about the special culinary needs of Talmud Torah participants to make accommodations.
To that effect, we instruct Talmud Torah staff and TBI staff supporting Talmud Torah events to take reasonable efforts to ensure:
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There are, in addition to foods complying with the Eco-Kosher policy, food options which satisfy all communicated special culinary needs among the known event attendees. a. We suggest that raw fruits and vegetables be present where possible, as these can serve a broad range of dietary needs.
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The food satisfying special culinary needs will not necessarily be nutritionally or culturally equivalent to the other food being offered.
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For those with known anaphylactic airborne allergies; we will ensure that there is a comfortable and not-socially isolated space located as far as reasonably possible from the source of the allergen. TBI cannot ensure that the entire building or entire social hall will be free of allergens.
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If a person with special culinary needs informs staff that they plan to attend an event that is not a Talmud Torah event at least one week in advance, staff will work with organizers of the event to ensure that food satisfying the person’s special culinary needs is available, if possible.
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Potty Training Policy
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Children enrolled in TBI Talmud Torah must be potty trained. Children must not be in diapers or pull-ups or have frequent accidents.
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We understand that even potty trained children will occasionally have accidents. While Talmud Torah staff will do their best to support your child during any medical emergency or toileting accident, staff are not trained to manage bodily wastes or come into contact with a child’s private body parts, and so will not be able to assist your child with cleaning themselves or changing into new clothing. For that reason, we ask that parents remain within a reasonable driving distance from TBI when Talmud Torah is in session so that you can assist if your child has an accident or emergency.
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TBI Talmud Torah is committed to inclusion and does not intend for this policy to be a reason to bar any child from attending Talmud Torah. If your child is not potty trained because of a medical, developmental, or other concern, please contact Sheri Konowitz, TBI Director of Youth and Family Education, to more specifically discuss how your child’s needs can be accommodated.
Parent Volunteer Information
​As usual, we want to thank all of our parents for their volunteer roles! Your dedication and talent are a big part of what makes Talmud Torah a wonderful experience for all our students.
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This year we are going to restructure some of the volunteer roles. Every family is still asked to volunteer their time towards building our beautiful learning community. Our new structure is in response to volunteers wanting to feel more connected to the larger picture of the program and wanting more certainty around expectations and roles.
Some of our volunteer roles will be the same. We need volunteers on Sundays to bring snacks and to greet families at the door. We need volunteers who can help us with teacher appreciation and help organizing Shabbat family dinners, which happen 3 times a year. Finally, we loved all our cohort class captains and will continue those roles this year (with some additional guidance)!
The new roles will be focused on coordinating our holiday events. Each holiday event planning will be the responsibility of the parents of two assigned cohorts. We are asking two parents from each grade to sign up for specific holiday planning. The TTAC will help you get started, so no worries if you haven’t done this before! These assignments are as follows:
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Chanukah: 6th and 7th grade
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Purim: 4th and 5th grade
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Passover: 2nd and 3rd grade
We will send out a link to the sign up genius for these roles as soon as everything gets solidified.
And thank you again for all your support!!
Learning & Curriculum
Vision of Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah is the religious school of TBI for students from 3 years old through 7th grade (and Teen Sundays) to learn about Jewish life, practice, prayer, ritual, and history. Our school offers students a place to build life-long friendships, gain literacy in Jewish skills and traditions, take part in holiday celebrations, learn Torah, and experience the benefits of community.
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Talmud Torah strives to plant seeds of Jewish joy, literacy and practice that will continue to grow over a lifetime in the lives of our students and their families.
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Talmud Torah is made possible by our dedicated and enthusiastic staff of teachers, morim, with a love of teaching, children and a passion for Jewish identity and life-long learning. Most Talmud Torah classes also have a teen madrich/ah (TA) who is a Talmud Torah graduate. Our programs act as a supplement to Jewish home life, which, along with Jewish summer camp and a connection to Israel, all combine to deepen individual Jewish identity and family practice.
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Talmud Torah is led by Sheri Konowitz, TBI’s Director of Youth Education, Rachel Burstein, Talmud Torah’s Administrator, our Talmud Torah Advisory Committee, co-chaired by Naamith Heiblum and Gabe Tabak.
We meet Sundays and Wednesday afternoons depending on the grade. Our overall curriculum and school philosophy and vision is rooted in Our Four Pillars: relevance, depth, experiential and relational learning.
Students in Preschool, K, and 1st grade attend:
Sundays from 9:30am-11:15am
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Students in 2nd-7th grade attend:
Sundays from 9:30am-1:15pm
Wednesdays from 4:15pm-6:00pm for Cohort, Hebrew & JEWL classes
Sunday Cohort Classes
Our age/grade level Sunday cohort classes focus on Torah and holidays while incorporating Jewish life and literacy, while our Z’raim (preschool) and Gan (Kindergarten) cohorts cultivate an enjoyable and age appropriate Jewish experience for little learners including music, movement, crafts, and positive association.
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This page will be updated soon with more details about our cohort curriculum by grade level.
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Students in 2nd through 7th grade also take multi-age Hebrew and JEWL (Jewish Experience, Wisdom, and Lifestyle). JEWL classes are elective classes and include such subjects as culture, history, art, Israel and more.
If one of your goals for your child is to become b’nai mitzvah, make sure you see the b’nai mitzvah page for information about requirements.
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Hebrew Reading Classes
Hebrew classes enable students to study, decode, and explore the meaning of Hebrew prayers, daily and holiday blessings, and songs in the siddur (prayer book) and passages from Torah in preparation for their b’nai mitzvah experience and beyond.
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Hebrew reading classes have a clear goal of enabling students to decode Hebrew prayers, blessings, and songs in the siddur (prayer book) and passages from Torah. As students work their way up the Hebrew levels, they should also master a small but powerful set of Hebrew vocabulary words that are used most regularly in synagogue life. This skill set is markedly different from learning to read and write in either their first language or a standard foreign language class.
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Classes meet twice a week on Sundays 11:30 am -12:15 pm and on Wednesday afternoons 4:20-5:05 pm (students are required to arrive at 4:00pm for all-school tefillah) for a trimester, with three trimesters per school year. Students are expected to come to Hebrew class twice a week to best facilitate learning, but they can master the material with additional independent work if there is an unavoidable personal schedule conflict. All students in grades 2-7 are enrolled in Hebrew reading classes, and families should be aware that siddur/Biblical Hebrew is an important component of most students’ b’nai mitzvah preparation. If students haven’t learned enough Hebrew, they aren’t able to “read” from the Torah or assist in leading a Shabbat service.
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This page will be updated soon with more details about the Hebrew levels and curriculum.
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Talmud Torah staff and parents work together to determine which Hebrew level is right for each student. Students will move to the next level when they can demonstrate mastery of the benchmarks for that level. Many students may master a level in one school year; some may need some extra time in a level to move to the next class. Both approaches are respectable.
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Jewish Experience, Wisdom, & Lifestyle (JEWL) Classes
A solid Jewish education includes much more than just Hebrew, holidays, and Torah stories. Traditionally, religious school has also been concerned with ethics and values, social action work, life cycle rituals, learning about the rest of the Jewish Bible, Jewish history, Jewish culture, and Israel. There’s a lot to cover! JEWL classes are elective classes that rotate over the years, depending on the passions of our teachers and community members. Subjects include history, art, Israel, the Shoah and more.
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Some classes will meet weekly on Wednesday afternoons for 45 minutes; some classes meet on Sunday afternoons for 45 minutes.
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Students in grades 2-7 should plan to take a minimum of three JEWL classes a year. You may take as many as you like. Some students’ schedules will make it possible to take two JEWL classes in the same trimester.
Previously offered JEWL classes have included, among many others: Modern Conversational Hebrew, Hebrew through Pop Music, Art, Jewish Cooking, Judaism and Nature, Shtetl Stories, People Worth Menschioning, Hereos of the Holocaust, Choir, Torah Caretakers, Kosher Living, Hebrew Calligraphy, Introduction to Yiddish Language and Culture, Introduction to Israel: People and Culture, Exploring Kabbalah, and Holiday Hoopla.
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B’nai Mitzvah: In 6th and 7th grade, Talmud Torah students intensify their focus on b’nai mitzvah with private mentoring, meetings with the rabbis for study of prayer, ethics, anti semitism, faith/doubt and more. See our b’nai mitzvah page for more info.
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Teen Sundays, Kehillat Yeladim, & Madrichim Opportunities
Students who have completed their Talmud Torah studies are encouraged to continue to participate in Jewish life and learning at TBI, through our 3x per month Teen Sundays, leading Kehillat Yeladim (Junior Congregation), and Madrichim opportunities supporting younger students and our fantastic teachers to provide joyful Jewish learning.
Talmud Torah Advisory Committee
The Talmud Torah Advisory Committee works collaboratively with the Director of Youth Education to support the mission of the Talmud Torah educational experience at TBI. During the school year, we meet monthly to think and act in areas of need for the Talmud Torah school and community building ranging from supporting our teachers, holiday planning, and family days of learning. We also serve as ambassadors of the Talmud Torah community to the larger TBI and Eugene community, reporting annually to the congregation on the status and needs of the school.
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The mission/scope of the TTAC is likely to include: helping with recruitment and fundraising, offering support to our teachers, coordinating parent volunteers and planning for holidays and Yommai Limmud, family days of learning. We serve as ambassadors of the Talmud Torah community to the larger TBI and Eugene community, reporting annually to the Board/congregation on the status and needs of the school. We also gather for a summer retreat to celebrate, debrief the year and plan for what’s ahead.
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The committee is interested in hearing from parents and other members of the community. If you have questions, concerns, or ideas for the Talmud Torah program, please email us at talmudtorah@tbieugene.org.
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Support Talmud Torah!
Here are some ways you can contribute to TBI’s Hebrew School, Talmud Torah, serving ages 3 ““ 13 and beyond:
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Dedicate one of new White Flowering Crape Myrtle trees to be planted in our sanctuary courtyard as a reminder of the sacred art of teaching and learning. Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez,’ crape myrtles are small, ornamental trees that produce lovely flowers in late summer or early fall, a timing that is likely to coincide, some years, with our largest attendances at TBI. Crape myrtles are more famous in the American southeast than here, but are usually excellent small trees here too. Perhaps there is someone who has been a significant teacher in your life who you’d like to honor? Or, is there a family member who has passed or has just been born who you would like to bless for health, strength and study?
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If you’d like to sponsor one of our cohort classes for the Fall, please let us know.
Please keep in mind that there are four special funds dedicated to Talmud Torah, each serve a unique purpose:
a. Kinberg Talmud Torah Scholarship Fund
b. Maliner Rubin Education
c. Religious School Projects
d. Talmud Torah
Contributions are also invited by ShulCloud.
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To dedicate a tree, sponsor a class, or contribute in any way to support Talmud Torah, please reach out to sheri@tbieugene.org.