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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Try Chabad OP. There’s no membership costs and the Hebrew fees are affordable. Best of all, it’s just one Sunday per week for 2 hours— even as they get older. [/quote]

You’re suggesting Chabad to someone who barely goes to temple? It’s orthodox.[/quote]

Yes! People make so many assumptions about Chabad that simply aren’t true. Kids who go to Chabad are mostly not observant. I have never felt more accepted and comfortable. We still rarely go to synagogue but our kids are learning Judaism [b]in its most traditional fashion [/b]and they can pick and choose what they would like to incorporate in their lives when they are adults and have families of their own.

My son went to a conservative Hebrew school for two years. He hated it, we hated the scene. Felt more like high school than inclusive and welcoming. I thought that hating Hebrew school was a right of passage but it doesn’t have to be. Chabad is genuine, sincere and their teaching techniques are amazing. My kids have learned more Hebrew in one year going once a week than they ever did 2x a week for 2 years. [/quote]

I would questioin whether Chabad is really Judaism's most traditional fashion on many grounds. from its cult of the rebbe, to its PR/marketing style, to its resistance (along with the rest of Orthodoxy) to evolution in halacha.

Conservative jewish schools and communities have lots of things they need to do to improve.  But be aware that Chabad is so passionate because they think what they are doing will bring moshiach, and because they have an essentialist love for other Jews - all Jews (but not non-Jews) are intrinsically holy and love worthy, so your misdeeds can be overlooked. Its admirable, but also creepy.  I don't want C Judaism to become like that, even if I want us to be warmer and more welcoming.

I also wonder if you have done anything in your shul to or school to make it better. So much of what I see among people with R or C beliefs who go to chabad, is a preference for a place where everything is done for you (not that there are not lay people helping make chabad communities work, but that is not asked of newcomers from R and C backgrounds, and its not as needed given the way entire chabad shaliach families devote themselves)  To make a C shul better takes a lot of hard work, and some people don't want to do that.  If anything, my greater admiration goes to the new independent minyan communities, which achieve a lot of the warmth that Chabad manages, without being right wing in theology or politics - but they tend to requite even more volunteer commitment than established C or R communities.[/quote]

PP who questioned the Chabad suggestion here. I totally agree. I went to Shabbat at the Chabad House in grad school once and was immediately turned off by the fact that they separate men and women. Way too socially conservative for our family.[b] They also seemed weirdly like they were trying to proselytize. [/b]We are considering our local conservative (but on the socially liberal side) shul for our daughter. [/quote]

That's because they were, even if it's more subtle than the Lubavitchers who walk up to you on the street and ask you to shake the lulav at Sukkot or whatever. The reason Chabad is so warm and welcoming is they want less strict Jews to come to (or back to) the fold and become more observant. Now, if you can deal with that, it can be lovely. I went to some lovely Chabad seders as a college student. Way better than the crap ones the campus Hillel did, which always ran out of food before everyone was served. But make no mistake, Chabad is rigidly Orthodox. Separate seating for men and women, the works. I admire them but I wouldn't send my kids to Hebrew school there because I don't need them coming home after a few years and telling me how I'm doing everything wrong, or wanting to become strictly observant which I admire in others but have no desire to do myself.

OP, why don't you check out some Reform or Reconstructionist temples? Personally, having been raised Conservative, I can't sit thru a Reform service, but from what I've heard from friends their communities and Hebrew schools / instruction are far more dynamic and open than the typical Conservative shul.[/quote]

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