L'dor V'dor Jacksonville Jewish Center

By Liat Walker, Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and DuBow Preschool

I still remember being in Mrs. Judy Paul’s Pre-Kindergarten class at the DuBow Preschool and the fun we had every day! (It is a treat to see her at the school as she is still teaching there!) Of course it has evolved since the time I attended, but so much is still central to the education my children receive today including the pride of being Jewish, Jewish ritual practice, the importance of Israel, kindness, and simply what it means to be a friend. To this day, some of my closest friendships are those that I made at the DuBow Preschool. The school taught me a love of Judaism that has stayed with me throughout my adult life.

While my husband and I were living and working in New York, our children were born. When we thought about what we wanted for their future, we immediately thought of the DuBow Preschool. We returned to Jacksonville and our boys now attend the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and the DuBow Preschool where they are thriving. They insist on lighting the Shabbat candles, love Jewish Studies, recite Hebrew with a perfect accent (thank you, Morah Irit) and, most importantly, are happy, loving, kind and proud of their heritage. I know they are learning a love for Judaism and a respect for themselves and others that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

When you have children, you want to give them all the best parts of your childhood. When we decided to move our family back to where I grew up, I was excited for my kids to grow up in the Jacksonville Jewish Center community, where I spent my foundational years, learning and making lifelong friends. I wanted my kids to develop the same love and confi dence in both secular and Jewish education that I received growing up.

Registering at the DuBow Preschool was an obvious decision. It has a great reputation and was an easy way to immediately integrate ourselves into the Jewish community. What we did not anticipate was for our kids to immediately feel so comfortable with their peers, that respect and kindness would be key tenets in their classroom’s learning objectives, or that their teachers would take the time to discover the qualities in my children that we were sure only our family would notice and love about them!

With our oldest now in Kindergarten at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, I love that our children are attending a school where they will grow up confi dent in their Judaism, comfortable leading a seder or participating in a service, no matter where they are in the world. But for now, we are just so happy to be a part of this wonderful bubble, where our kids have found a second home running around the campus with their friends just as I did at their age. l'dor v'dor.