Jews: A question about Hebrew school.

By Hebrew school, I mean some manner of organized, after-school Jewish education program run by a synagogue.

I’ve recently discovered that, of my Jewish friends and acquaintances who did attend Hebrew school, 100% of them at some point attended on Wednesday evening (myself included). Granted, it’s a fairly small sample set, but it’s enough to awaken my curiosity.

I am not a Jew. However, I did teach at an Orthodox Jewish school for several months.

I don’t know about Wednesday evenings, but they often held all day classes on Sunday. I know this because they took the Sabbath very seriously, and on Monday morning, my furniture would be rearranged and not put back.

Technically, Hebrew school and Sunday school were different (Hebrew school - Hebrew reading/writing skills and Bar/Bat Mitzvah prep; Sunday School - general religious education). Not everyone did Hebrew School, but for those who did, Hebrew school was wednesdays after school (3:30-5:30ish). Advanced Hebrew School for high school students who had been Bar/Bat Mitsvahed was wednesday nights and they’d order in pizza.

ETA: I clicked “both” just to be clear

Being that the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday, what does that have to do with (obnoxious) non-rearrangement of furniture on Sunday afternoons?

I went to Orthodox schools the whole way through, so no after-school classes for me. We were Monday through Friday; I remember my childhood pity for my cousins in a different school who had half-day classes on Sunday also. (And uniforms. I was so glad not to have a uniform.)

It was Tuesdays and Thursdays for me.

Likewise. I grew up in Baltimore.

I was a Hebrew School drop-out, though.

In my experience, there is a difference between Hebrew school and religious school.

My husband (Reform Jew, 57 years old) went to Saturday school for religious school.
I don’t know what day he had Hebrew, but he did go to Hebrew school–my friend back in those days went on Wednesdays, maybe the husband did too.

Our sons (20-somethings, Reform) went Wednesdays for Hebrew, and Sundays for religious school.

We always went on either Saturday or Sunday. But for the period leading up to our Bar Mitzvahs we had to go an extra day; I seem to remember it was Tuesday.

Does an Israeli school that teaches everything in Hebrew count? :smiley:

(No, I didn’t vote – I’m not going to screw up the poll part :))

I’m not jewish, but our kids are. The younger two go to Hebrew school on Wednesdays from 4:30-6:30 and Sunday school from 9am to noon. The oldest stopped going to Hebrew school after her bat mitzvah and a year later she stopped going to Sunday school after she got her golden kepot.

I don’t really recall. It may have been Wednesday.

Well, I went every day to Hebrew School.

But then I went to public school so it was just Sundays at the synagogue and Tuesday evenings at what we called Hebrew High.

My autistic sister goes to a special school for developmentally delayed kids during the week. But on Sundays, she goes to a special needs Jewish program, and she’s always coming home with elaborate art projects.

Hmm, seems like I just happened upon an odd statistical cluster in my acquaintances.

Re: a potential difference between “Hebrew school” and “religious school” - the synagogue I went to just referred to the entire education program as Hebrew school. Which actually makes me curious with another question: Those of you who did specifically study the Hebrew language, how much tutelage did you get? We were taught the alphabet and the vowels, and in early elementary school did a few very basic vocabulary lessons. The theory seemed to be they’d teach us enough to more-or-less be able to read your portion at your bar/bat mitzvah, though not understand it*. Most of our education, though, was comprised of history and the rather nebulous “What does it mean to be a Jew?”

*We got three things to help us prep: a “full” copy of our portion with vowels and the chant marker things, a “plain” copy as it would appear in the Torah, and a recording of the cantor chanting it. Most of us just memorized it by ear, from the tape.

Well, they would never hold classes on Saturday, as that was the day of rest (no travel, no work, no creation), so the classes, therefore, had to be held on Sunday. It was a whole process-of-elimination thing for me.

[sub]I was proud of it at the time.[/sub]

I went on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. My kids go Sundays and Wednesdays. Going on Saturday would be very odd as writing is prohibited on Shabbat. It would make school work a challenge!

For me (late 1980s, reform congregation), it was held on Sundays after Sunday School and on Thursdays.