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The
I. L. Peretz Community Jewish School provides a secular Jewish school and
community for children and adults in Central New Jersey. We offer an
education program for young children leading to a graduation at the end of
7th grade. Older children return for our teen group. We also
offer weekly educational programs for adults, including a conversational
Yiddish class. We gather for traditional holiday celebrations and
social-cultural events including twice-yearly retreats at Stokes State
Forest.
The I. L. Peretz Community Jewish School is a nonprofit educational
institution. But we are the proud descendant of a secular Jewish
school in Central Jersey that dates back more than 85 years. Our
school grew out of and is linked to the Arbeter
Ring, or Workmen's Circle,
which like many other labor and fraternal
organizations, started secular Jewish schools. These schools educated
children to find fulfillment both as Jews and as citizens of their new
countries. The curriculum emphasized Yiddish language and literature,
Jewish history, holidays, and folk creativity in dance, song and
drama. Today's secular Jewish schools may vary in the language and
literature emphasized (our school emphasizes Hebrew), but the other
elements are held in common.
Our school was named after the great Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz. He was
born in 1852 in Zamosc, Poland. Though raised in
the orthodox tradition, he also absorbed worldly knowledge. He is one of
the most influential figures of modern Jewish culture. Dedicated to Yiddish
culture, he recognized that Jews needed to adapt to their times while
preserving their cultural heritage, and his captivating and beautiful
writings explore the complexities inherent in the struggle between tradition
and the desire for progress. At his funeral in 1915 more than one hundred
thousand mourners followed his coffin.
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