A Brief History of the AJCSS
Serious talk about a
“combined” Sunday School began as far back as 2001, when the Augusta Jewish
Federation gathered representatives from Congregation Children of Israel, Adas
Yeshurun Synagogue, Chabad, and the Augusta Jewish Community Center to discuss
the possibility of a school where all the Jewish children in the community
would come together for their Jewish education.
Models of existing schools were explored and even visited. The driving force was the idea that the Jewish
children in Augusta needed to know each other; this was not happening with the
existing Jewish education system. The
goal of the “combined” Sunday School would be to teach the common elements of
the different movements of Judaism (e.g., history, holidays, and
traditions). After a year and a half of
meetings, the plan was temporarily abandoned, but fortunately, the idea was
revisited a short time later, when the Federation once again called together
representatives from the various Jewish entities in the Augusta area. This second attempt at a “combined” school -
backed by Congregation Children of Israel, Adas
Yeshurun Synagogue, the Augusta Jewish Community Center and the Augusta Jewish Federation - resulted in the establishment of the Augusta Jewish Community Sunday School,
our AJCSS, which opened its doors in the fall of 2004.