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Home > Sunday School > About our School

About

Who We Are

Mitzvah Secular Sunday School is our custom youth education program for the secular Jewish community, dedicated to preserving, passing on and understanding Jewish identity, values, and culture through a non-theistic, humanistic lens.

What distinguishes our curriculum from other Jewish Sunday Schools is...

  • Our radical inclusivity (all are welcome here),
  • Contextualizing the stories in our holy texts as essential Jewish mythology and fables rather than as historical fact, and
  • Emphasizing both Jewish and humanist values, especially the many which overlap, such as the necessity of personal responsibility in tikkun olam (repairing the world), rather than appealing to or waiting on a higher authority.

Who We Serve

Mitzvah Secular Sunday School offers open enrollment year-round for grades from Pre-K (minimum age 4) through 7th, including a cultural B Mitzvah Program for alumni and age-appropriate new enrollees.

As secular humanists, we firmly believe in radical inclusivity and self-identification. All families are welcome in our classrooms:

  • Regardless of familiarity: Whether your family actively practices Judaism at home, or if this will be an entirely new concept for your child, you are welcome here.
  • Regardless of guardianship: Nuclear and intergenerational families, single-parent and multi-parent families, families where the guardians are not the biological parents, families with same-sex or otherwise LGBTQ+ parents, and families with parents who are married or just cohabitating, you are welcome here.
  • Regardless of heritage: Single-faith and interfaith families, multi-racial and multi-ethnic families, ethnically-Jewish and converted families, families with either patrilineally or matrilineally-Jewish children, and even families who just choose to identify with the Jewish experience despite no genetic or religious ties to Judaism, are all welcome here.

What We Do

Classes meet for two hours on Sunday mornings, twice a month (except Pre-K, which only meets once per month, from September through June, to mirror the class schedule of local public school districts.

Following classes, we hold a thirty-minute "Circle Time" activity, gathering together all the students, their families, and staff, to catch up and review the day in-person.

Our curriculum also includes several activities, projects and field trips throughout the year that take kids out of the classroom and into their communities, to instill a sense of connection to, ownership of, and responsibility for improving their communities, including:

  • Volunteering at Jewish Family Service's Annual Food Sort
  • Environmental restoration activity at a public park for Tu Bishvat
  • Fundraising for causes our students care about

Our goal as a school is to ensure our alumni come away with...

  • A contextual understanding of Jewish history, culture and traditions.
  • Humanist values, such as critical thinking, personal responsibility, and commitment to and engagement with one's community.
  • A deep connection to their unique Jewishness, influenced by humanist values, their family's unique Jewish experience, and what is personally meaningful to them.

Where We Are

Formerly, our classes were centralized at the reform-aligned Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island.

For improved philosophical integrity, we have relocated our school for the 2025-2026 academic year to Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle. It is a  secular-aligned, nonprofit organization committed to radical inclusivity and community service that offers dedicated classroom spaces for rent, which includes access to a kitchen and a playground.

Wed, 30 July 2025