Events

Rosh Hashanah Ceremony - 11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

Open House, 11:00 AM — 12:30 PM, Rutgers Prep (Call 732-545-9691 for directions and further information.)

Yom Kippur Ceremony - 11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

(Class 1) School Opening Ceremony/Parent Orientation

(Class 2) Sukkot Celebration - 11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

(Class 3) Adult Program: Sunday Morning Program Group Discussion: Brainstorming to gather ideas for the year’s Sunday morning programs. Everyone is welcome. 10:30 AM at Rutgers Prep.

(Class 4) Adult Program: “Spaceships, Survivors, and Superheroes: Subverting Narratives in Contemporary Jewish Children's and Young Adult Literature” A presentation by Jill Ratzan, Peretz school librarian. Everyone knows the stories: Jews in WW II Europe were as helpless and alone as mice caught in a mousetrap. All Jewish people look the same. Orthodox women are[...]

(Class 5) Adult Program: “The Unknown Role of Jews in American Sports”: A presentation by Bennett Muraskin Bennett Muraskin is the author of three books on Jewish subjects and co-author of Celebrating Jewish Holidays: A Guide for Secular Jewish Families and their Communities. Come join us for a fascinating journey through Jewish sports history that[...]

Adult Program: “The Truth About Fracking - New Jersey and You”: A presentation by Jim Walsh Jim Walsh is a dedicated political organizer with over ten years experience working in local and national movements to empower communities to work for social, environmental, and economic justice. Jim currently serves as the Eastern Region Director for Food[...]

(Class 6) Adult Program: "Bar and Bat Mitzvah in a Secular-Humanistic Community" - a presentation by Peretz President Ira Mintz. This annual program will address the many options one has in celebrating this rite of passage into young adulthood. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah can be a very special opportunity to explore how to make[...]

(Class 7) Adult Program: "Lilith's Cave", "Zayda was a Cowboy", "Letters From Rifka", "Why Be Different" Peretz Principal Jeremy Freedman will lead a discussion of this year's curriculum showing the wide range of topics that we offer the students. The highlight of the program will be a sample lesson(s). If you want to see and[...]

(Class 8) Adult Program: “Exploring the Bintel Brief” Peretz Member, Debbie Silberstein will guide us through an exploration of The Bintel Brief, a "Dear Abby" collection of letters for American, Jewish, Yiddish speaking immigrants! The translation in this collection brings to life a time gone by. We will read in small groups through a selection[...]

Adult Program: Movie and Dinner at the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival - "God’s Neighbors” at 3:30PM at the Regal Theater in North Brunswick. Leading a brigade of Orthodox watchdogs, Avi and his friends patrol the streets of the Israeli coastal city Bat Yam to ensure strict adherence to laws of Shabbat and modesty.[...]

(Class 9) Adult Program: Kristallnacht and Beyond: Memories of my escape from Germany in 1939 and my new life in the United States. A presentation by Ruth Gottlieb, a former teacher from East Brunswick. On the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Ruth will share with us her personal memories of her life in Germany, the events leading[...]

(Class 10) Classroom Visitation

(Class 11) Latke Making (Family Event)

No School - Thanksgiving Break

14th Annual Chanukah Party for the adult members of the entire Peretz Community – Call or email for info

(Class 12) Chanukah Celebration (Family Event)

(Class 13) Adult Program: Regulation and Politics--How Government Regulation Gets Written: Everything you wanted to know but didn't think to ask. A presentation by Stuart Shapiro, Peretz member and Director of the Public Policy Program at Rutgers University. Author of a book coming out this fall, The Politics of Regulatory Reform, Stuart will talk about[...]

No School - Winter Break

No School - Winter Break

(Class 14) Adult Program: “The Gershwin You May Not Know” Peretz member, musician, and Gershwin aficionado, Ken Schmidt will present a discussion of the music of George Gershwin, showcasing works perhaps not as well known to the public as Rhapsody in Blue or American Paris. Ken will also play selections from a wonderful (and now[...]

(Class 15) Tu B’Shevat Celebration (Family Event)

(Class 16) Martin Luther King Day Observance (Family Event)

(Class 17) Adult Program:       "Is the Bible Historically Accurate?" A presentation by Bennett Muraskin What is the historical basis (or lack thereof) of biblical stories? How much truth is there in biblical narratives? Bennett, a frequent speaker at Peretz adult programs, will share with us a selection of stories from the bible--from[...]

(Class 18) Adult Program: Regulation and Politics--How Government Regulation Gets Written: Everything you wanted to know but didn't think to ask. A presentation by Stuart Shapiro, Peretz member and Director of the Public Policy Program at Rutgers University. Author of a book coming out this fall, The Politics of Regulatory Reform, Stuart will talk about[...]

Adult Program: “What Makes A Jewish Woman Poet”   A presentation by Alicia Ostriker. Alicia Ostriker is a major American poet and critic, and Professor Emerita of English, Rutgers University. Twice nominated for a National Book Award, she authored thirteen volumes of poetry, most recently The Book of Seventy (2009), which won the Jewish Book[...]

(Class 19) Adult Program: "Is Peace Still Possible?" A presentation by Deborah Schlossberg Deborarh Schlossberg is the Co-Chair of J Street Central Jersey and is a dual American-Israeli citizen. She is a resident of East Brunswick who made Aliyah and lived in Israel for more than a decade. She will show a short video clip[...]

(Class 20) Postponed due to snow removal! Rescheduled for March 9 Adult Program: Evolution, Creationism, and the State of Science Education in America A presentation by Peretz School Principal Jeremy Freedman Evolution has been a grand unifying theory in science for 100 years and yet there are groups that are still challenging this idea. These[...]

(Class 21) Adult Program: "Our Jewish Past in Postcards" A presentation by Peretz member Judy Rosenthal. Long before cell phones, email, text messages, Face Book, and Skype, picture postcards were all the rage. First issued around 1870 in Europe and the United States, they were not only a popular means of inexpensive communication but also[...]

(Class 22) Adult Program:       "The Role of the Righteous Gentiles during the Holocaust" A presentation by Peretz member Deborah Silberstein Who are the heroes of the Holocaust? What inner strength and sense of ethics did they possess to have aided and/or saved not only individual lives, but also the preservation of conscience[...]

Adult Program: Avrom Sutzkever: Legendary Poet and Hero of the Vilna Ghetto Avrom Sutzkever (July 15, 1913 - January 20, 2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. This multimedia presentation by Nikolai Borodulin will give an account of his astounding life with samples of his breath-taking poetry. The New York Times wrote that Sutzkever was "the[...]

(Class 23) Adult Program: Evolution, Creationism, and the State of Science Education in America A presentation by Peretz School Principal Jeremy Freedman Evolution has been a grand unifying theory in science for 100 years and yet there are groups that are still challenging this idea. These groups have a great influence on the text books[...]

(Class 24) Purim Celebration (Highland Park Food Pantry Drive) (Family Event)

(Class 25) Adult Program: "Biblical Laws from a Secular Jewish Social Justice Perspective” A presentation by Peretz member Ron Herrmann Ron will use a secular social justice perspective to examine a few original biblical laws from the Torah. To do that, he will review the original biblical terms for law, justice, judgment and the later[...]

(Class 26) Adult Program: A Tikkun Olam Book Discussion Group: “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer” A presentation by Peretz members Nancy Glazer and Nancy Bernheimer Peretz parents and community members are invited to read “The Life You Can Save,” a book by Peter Singer, Princeton philosopher[...]

Sunday School Class Sunday School Class AM; Passover Seder at 3:00 PM (Family Event)

(Class 28) Adult Program:       " Hava Nagilah: The Movie" A documentary on the history, mystery, and meaning of the ubiquitous Jewish standard that follows the areound-the-world journey of the song Hava Nagila from Ukraine to YouTube. Presentation and discussion of this movie will be moderated by Susan London. We will follow the[...]

No School - Spring Break

(Class 29) Yom HaShoah Ceremony (Family Event)

Open House, 11:00 AM — 12:30 PM, Rutgers Prep (Call 732-545-9691 for directions and further information.)

No School

(Class 1) 9:30AM School Opening Ceremony/Parent Orientation (Family Event)

Rosh Hashanah Ceremony - 11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

(Class 2) Adult Program: Sunday Morning Program Group Discussion: Brainstorming to gather ideas for the year’s Sunday morning programs. Everyone is welcome.  10:30 AM at Rutgers Prep.

Yom Kippur Ceremony - 11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

(Class 3) Adult Program: "Bar and Bat Mitzvah in a Secular-Humanistic Community" - a presentation by Peretz President Ira Mintz. This annual program will address the many options one has in celebrating this rite of passage into young adulthood. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah can be a very special opportunity to explore how to make[...]

(Class 4) Sukkot Celebration -11:00 AM - Rutgers Prep. (Family Event)

(Class 5) Adult Program: "You Know More Yiddish Than You Think": A presentation by Bennett Muraskin Bennett Muraskin is the author of three books on Jewish subjects and co-author of Celebrating Jewish Holidays: A Guide for Secular Jewish Families and their Communities. Come join us for an interactive program that reveals the hundreds of Yiddish[...]

(Class 6) Adult Program: "The Peretz School Curriculum 2014-15" IL Peretz Principal Jeremy Freedman will lead a discussion of this year's curriculum showing the wide range of topics that we offer the students.  The highlight of the program will be a sample lesson(s).  If you want to see and experience what we offer at Peretz, come join us[...]

(Class 7) Adult Program: The Rabbi's Cat       - An award winning animated film       (French with English Subtitles), presented by Peretz member Susan London Based on a novel by Joann Sfar, The Rabbi’s Cat, a movie set in Algeria in the 1930s, tells the story of a rabbi and his talking[...]

(Class 8) Adult Program: "Obamacare update: How much closer are we to a just healthcare system in the US?" – a presentation by Joel Cantor, Sc.D. Joel Cantor is the Director of the Center for State Health Policy and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University where he leads research on healthcare financing and[...]

(Class 9) Classroom Visitation

(Class 10) Adult Program: Is anyone interested in playing Mah Jong? We have only one Mah Jong set so if at all possible it would be great if someone else could bring one. Germaine Wyetzner will bring her set, along with photocopies of a 2014 card. If we end up having 4 people who know how[...]

No School - Thanksgiving break

(Class 11) Adult Program: " Substantial and Sincerely: The Religious Freedom Clause, RIFRA and the Impact of Hobby Lobby” by Giles Davis. While most people are quite familiar with the term "Separation of Church and State," to truly understand this principle, we need to first understand the two Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. This[...]