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.
