Welcome to The Agnon School

ברוכים הבאים לבית ספר עגנון

We’re Cleveland’s only community Jewish day school – a school that celebrates both the richness of pluralism and the strength of diversity.

At Agnon, academic excellence in general studies and in Judaics reinforces and supports one another. Our graduates go on to the best high schools in the area, and are prepared to enter the most challenging universities four years later with a set of values and self confidence to last a lifetime.

A low student-to-teacher ratio, superb master educators, and a sophisticated and values-driven curriculum: this is what you’ll find at The Agnon School.

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Agnon Gallery

Celebration of Learning (view more)

From the Head of School

Welcome!
ברוכים הבאים
B’ruchim HaBaim

I've got one of those I-can't-believe-I-get-to-do-this-for-a-living jobs. On any given day I can move from observing six-year-olds discussing what goes into being a good and responsible friend - to middle schoolers citing Biblical verses and the speeches of Gandhi and Martin Luther King as rationale for their becoming engaged in the world as adults. Welcome to Agnon!

Every school “integrates” its subjects, but that often takes the form of students discussing the same book in both language arts and history classes. At Agnon we take the concept of an integrated curriculum pretty seriously. Our fifth graders learn the different phases of the moon and how its gravitational pull affects the tides in science; in language arts they explore how the moon has been used as a literary metaphor; in music they learn the Moonlight Serenade; and in Judaics they dive into the concept of “rosh chodesh” – the celebration of the new moon – and its profound impact on Jewish philosophy and theology. At the end of the unit they develop a comprehensive appreciation of the moon, from varied perspectives and disciplines. It’s a learning process that goes far beyond the memorization of facts (or worse, factoids – little bits of non-connected information); it moves a student from the accumulation of knowledge to the appreciation of understanding.

But a school is even larger than its curriculum. We believe strongly that Agnon is a learning community, in which parents are encouraged to participate in Shabbat dinners with their children; where our students engage in acts of g’milut chasidim – acts of righteous behavior – in their broader community, both in Cleveland and in the world; in the Jewish and in the non-Jewish world as well.

Continue reading "Welcome"-->>

Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro, Head of School

The Agnon Agenda

Did you get your copy of the latest Agnon Agenda email newsletter?

Links from
The Agnon Weekly E-Mail
March 4, 2010

(Read the whole email here)

♦ Bring friends to hear Dr. Sylvia Rimm on "Parenting in the 21st Century," 3/14
♦ Early Childhood Pajama Party 3/14.

Volunteers needed for:

♦ Nautica Charity Poker Tournament, 2/16-2/17. Contact Debbie Shaw.
♦ Spring Auction, 3/17-3/24. Sign up here.
♦ Scholastic Book Fair, 3/22-3/26. Contact Aimee Lurie.

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