Sarah Brodbar-Nemzer

Jewish Education Teacher (Tuesday and Thursday)

Sarah is a graduate of University of King’s College (Halifax) where she studied philosophy and contemporary studies. She is a Jewish educator and agent for change and is currently the Coordinator of Jewish Life at the MNjcc where she both helps shape the Jewish Life Department, and develops and runs programing-including a weekly Shabbat Club for 3-6 year olds.

Sarah’s previous experience includes work as Director of the Jewish Discovery Museum which included running the Museum, overseeing all of the classes, programs, events, and school groups, developing curriculum and teaching some of the programs. Some examples of Sarah’s experience in this role include: Torah Thursdays-a parsha class for toddlers; Cooking from the Beginning-a cooking class for 4 to 6 year-olds based on stories in Genesis; and the Shabbat Party-which Sarah grew into a weekly program of 70 participants.

Sarah has facilitated about a dozen Shabbatons for children ages 2-14 years (according to Sarah: “this was a lot of experience in informal education, learning to balance creating a curriculum with following the needs of the group”). She not only ran the Shabbatons, but restructured them to allow for more child centered activities and greater learning opportunities.

She has also taught with Community Builders Youth Leadership (doing leadership training and inclusion work in elementary schools across Ontario, CBYL excels in making important issues accessible to children)

Sarah’s goals in Jewish Education:

1. To help you see how Judaism can be relevant to your life
2. To use Judaism as a tool for community development and relationship building (giving you both enhanced relationships and teaching you how to do this throughout your life)
3. To nurture a positive relationship with Judaism (when I say Shabbat, your face lights up)

Leah Breslow

Hebrew Language Immersion (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Raised in Toronto, Leah is a fluent Hebrew speaker who has lived and worked in Israel for several years. She earned a Bachelor’s of Humanities from York University, in partnership with Midreshet Lindenbaum and Bar Ilan University in Israel.

During her year of National Service at the Temple Institute of Jerusalem, Leah led Hebrew and English tours for children and adults at the institute’s museum. She also planned and facilitated workshops and theatre performances in Hebrew for primary schools across Israel.

While living in Israel, Leah worked as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for adults. Through this teaching position, Leah became experienced in immersion education and was successful communicating with students who did not speak even one word of English. She believes that immersion is the most effective way to learn a new language.

Leah has worked with children in many different settings and for a wide range of ages. This has included being lead teacher for a kindergarten, camp counselor, and a teaching assistant for children with special needs. She also served as the Rosh Madricha (Head Counselor) of Bnei Akiva youth group at two synagogues and ran weekly Shabbat programs at a third.

Sharing her love and talent of music with people is a particular passion of Leah’s. While she has played piano for many years and taught herself guitar, her true joy is singing. Most recently, Leah served the community as the manager of Israel’s Judaica Centre. In that capacity, she became knowledgeable about the most current Hebrew language materials, music, and other learning media.

It is with much enthusiasm that Leah joins our program as the Hebrew immersion teacher. She is looking forward to being a part of this innovative program and to sharing her love of the Hebrew language with our children.