Orna Sonnenschein,

Director of Education

Orna Sonnenschein is thrilled to begin her first year as Director of Education of the Chaverim School of HBT.  She comes to our congregation with over 15 years experience in Jewish Education.  The past 10 years she served as the Director of Education for Temple Beth Am in Framingham.  Orna has extensive experience teaching students of all ages.  She has come to learn that she can learn an important lesson from a five year old as well as 85 year olds.

Orna earned her Master’s Degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University.  Her focus was Bible…in particular discussions surrounding authorship.

Orna grew up right around the corner from HBT in South Brookline.  Her parents moved to the United States from Israel in 1966.  She was raised in a secular Israeli household.  Her family did not belong to a synagogue, she never attended Hebrew School, nor did she have a special ceremony upon turning 13.  Despite the lack of formal Jewish education Orna’s parents instilled in her a deep pride in her culture and Jewish identity. 

While her Jewish friends were jealous of Orna’s freedom from Hebrew School…she quickly learned that there were many benefits that accompanied community membership.  

It wasn’t until College that Orna began to take a formal interest in her history and heritage.  She became an active member of Hillel which served as her first “Jewish Communal” experience.  Over the course of her years in school Orna learned to appreciate the importance of belonging to a community; a home away from home.  She became and adult bat mitzvah her senior year and was extremely fortunate to have her professor, Torah tutor and mentor Julius Lester guider her through that memorable and meaningful experience.

After graduating college Orna spent a year in Israel on Project Otzma which is a ten month volunteering program.  While there, she worked with people from all walks of life including Ethiopian immigrants, at-risk youth, farmers and kibbutzniks.  There was also an educational tract which afforded Orna the opportunity to meet with politicians, journalists, activists, authors and other influential individuals.  One of her favorite educational trips was to Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam which is a cooperative village of Jews and Palestinian Arabs of Israeli citizenship.  She found Neve Shalom to be quite an inspirational community and feels it serves as a wonderful model of peaceful coexistence.   

When Orna returned to the United States she began teaching Hebrew School.  She was amazed at how much she herself had to learn, but with the support of her director Orna continued to develop and went on to teach in several synagogues educating all age groups on a plethora of topics.      

Orna earned her Maters degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and since then has been working in the capacity of religious school educator.  Orna hopes to bring the joy of being Jewish to those who may no longer remember what being Jewish means.  A temple should serve as a second home to families.  It should not be a place once goes to out of guilt, obligation or coercion.  It has the potential of being a true sanctuary.  A place where all are welcomed, appreciated and feel like they are contributing members to the community.  It is Orna’s aspiration that through her role as Director she will be able to inspire more families to get involved, take classes and model the importance of Jewish learning to their children.

She is eager to meet everyone.  Feel free to set up an appointment with her.  Even if it is just to say hello.  education@templehbt.org