At the JCC of Sonoma County, we have long believed that families with young children need a meaningful gateway into Jewish life. As parents make their first decisions about how to raise and educate their children beyond the home, the Jewish community has a unique opportunity to embrace and engage them.

This is why a few years ago our JCC recognized both an opportunity and a responsibility. There was no Jewish preschool in the area, and families were already seeking high-quality childcare. We are eternally grateful that with the support of EarlyJ, an initiative that invests in strengthening Jewish early childhood education, we moved quickly to open a new school in just four months. Our thinking was simple but powerful: if families are already investing in childcare, why not create a space where Jewish life, values, and community are naturally woven into that experience?

Our history as a “JCC without walls,” bringing programs into the broader community, made us especially attuned to meeting families where they are. Opening a preschool felt like a natural evolution of that mission.

We launched the school for the 2023–2024 year at a moment of both uncertainty and urgency, amid the expansion of free universal transitional kindergarten (TK) in public schools, and just before October 7. To some, it may have seemed like a risky time to begin. But we chose to focus intentionally on two- and three-year-olds, meeting families at the very start of their childcare journey and building a bridge between home and school.

That decision has proven meaningful. While many four-year-olds transition to public TK, some families are choosing to stay because of the unique continuity, values, and sense of belonging that a Jewish preschool provides. One child even returns after TK........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)