ShalomLearning

ShalomLearning is a values-based Jewish education curriculum. In our assessment, it is the closest thing to an off-the-shelf K-7 Judaic curriculum available to American homeschoolers.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Online academy / traditional / values-based Judaic
Worldview	Jewish (pluralistic; used across Reform, Conservative, and pluralistic settings)
Grades	K-7
Formats	Digital lesson plans, slides, videos, songs; Shalom LinkED live classes
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	No
Accredited	No
Established	2011
Website	shalomlearning.org

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Solid Judaics; Hebrew rigor varies by tier
Ease of teaching	4	Lesson plans, slides, songs ready to deliver
Content quality	4	Curriculum-grade Judaic content
Flexibility	4	Modular by year; can be paced to family rhythm
Value for money	4	Synagogue-tier pricing translates to affordable family use
Worldview scope	1	Specifically Jewish; not designed for non-Jewish use
Visual/design	4	Modern slides and video; not flashy
Support resources	4	Live-class option, teacher training, song library

Who the publisher is

ShalomLearning was founded in 2011 as a values-based Jewish education curriculum aimed initially at supplemental religious schools, the Sunday-and-Wednesday programs that meet at synagogues to provide Judaic education to children whose primary schooling is secular public or private.

ShalomLearning reports over 300 partners across Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and independent schools, and describes its approach as pluralistic and designed to be accessible to all learners, which makes it usable across the broad center of American Jewish life.

The curriculum is structured around seven Jewish values, teshuvah (return), achrayut (responsibility), b'tzelem Elohim (created in God's image), gevurah (strength), koach hadibbur (the power of speech), l'olam va'ed (eternity, and stewardship of creation), and hakarat hatov (gratitude), each treated as a year-long anchor with associated content in Bible, holiday observance, history, and Hebrew language. ShalomLearning Shalom LinkED is the live-class extension: students from multiple participating settings join a virtual classroom for synchronous instruction, which homeschool families can use to provide their children peer interaction in a Jewish learning environment.

The core pedagogy

ShalomLearning teaches Judaics by anchoring each year in a Jewish value and building the year's content around it. The mechanism is integrative: rather than parallel tracks of Bible, Hebrew, holidays, and history that occasionally cross paths, ShalomLearning weaves them around the year's value anchor.

Scope and sequence runs across seven years, K-7, with each year carrying a value as its organizing frame. Hebrew language instruction is offered in three tiers for students grades 3-7 to accommodate varying entry levels: Hebrew Through Movement for prayer-Hebrew foundations, modern Hebrew for conversational and reading fluency, and a tier for students preparing for a bnei mitzvah in two or three years. Lesson plans are delivered as PowerPoint slide decks the parent or teacher walks the student through, supplemented by short videos, original songs, and printable activity pages. Live-class students through Shalom LinkED join a Zoom-based classroom of children from multiple synagogues or homeschool families, taught by a ShalomLearning-trained instructor.

Signature mechanics: (1) Value-anchored years. Each year carries one of the seven Jewish values, and most material connects back to it. This is unusual among Judaic curricula and gives ShalomLearning a coherence that subject-organized programs lack. (2) Three-tier Hebrew. Recognizing that Jewish homeschool and supplementary-school students arrive with wildly varying Hebrew backgrounds, ShalomLearning offers placement into three different Hebrew tracks rather than a single sequence. (3) Live-class option. In our assessment, Shalom LinkED is the single largest factor distinguishing ShalomLearning from competitor curricula in the homeschool context.

What they do exceptionally well

Coherent values frame across years. Editorial view: ShalomLearning's value-anchored design produces a more thematically integrated Judaic education than the subject-by-subject approach most Hebrew-school curricula take. A child completing seven years has spent significant time engaging with seven distinct Jewish values and developing language for thinking about them; the residue is real.

Pluralistic-but-substantive framing. ShalomLearning manages a difficult balance, material is substantively Jewish, drawing on Bible, rabbinic tradition, holiday observance, and Hebrew language, but not denominationally tied to Reform, Conservative, or Reconstructionist particulars. This makes the curriculum usable across the broad center of American non-Orthodox Jewish life and unusable for Orthodox families who require fuller halakhic specificity.

Shalom LinkED for homeschool peer connection. Shalom LinkED gives homeschool children a virtual Jewish classroom of peers, taught by a Jewish educator.

What they do poorly

Not designed for primary Jewish day-school replacement. ShalomLearning is built around the supplementary-school model, three to four hours weekly of Judaic content alongside whatever the student is doing as primary education. A homeschool family looking for a full-time Jewish day-school equivalent (six to twenty hours weekly of Judaics plus full secular subjects integrated) needs additional curriculum, not ShalomLearning alone. Families pursuing this fuller integration can combine ShalomLearning with a separate Hebrew program such as Tal Am, plus a primary secular curriculum.

Hebrew rigor varies by tier and by family commitment. The three-tier Hebrew structure is a real strength for placement flexibility but a constraint on uniform academic outcome. A student in the entry tier emerges with prayer-Hebrew foundations; a student in the upper tier emerges with conversational fluency and Bible-reading capacity. Families should be clear-eyed about which tier their child is in and what outcome it will produce.

Limited material outside Judaics. ShalomLearning is a Jewish-content curriculum. It does not teach math, science, or English language arts. Homeschool families need a complete secular curriculum elsewhere. This is not a flaw, it is the program's design, but it is worth flagging to families coming from all-in-one Christian curricula who may expect comparable scope.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick ShalomLearning if: the family identifies as Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or pluralistic Jewish; you want a values-based Judaic curriculum the parent can deliver without rabbinic credentials; the live-class peer experience matters and Shalom LinkED schedule fits; the child is K-7 and Hebrew placement options serve real range; the family is content to pair ShalomLearning with separate secular curricula.

• Skip ShalomLearning if: the family requires halakhically specific instruction for a particular community, since ShalomLearning's pluralistic approach serves Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and independent schools; the child is in eighth grade or older and ShalomLearning's K-7 scope ends before high school work; the family wants a full Jewish day-school replacement and not a supplementary curriculum; the family prefers a Hebrew-immersion program to the values-anchored framing (consider Tal Am for Hebrew-first instruction).

Cost honest assessment

ShalomLearning does not publish family pricing. Its FAQ says it offers flexible subscription options and directs readers to contact the organization to find the right program, its programs page lists options for all curriculum and materials, the Jewish values curriculum only, or a Hebrew curriculum only, with quotes on request, and its Who We Serve page says families that want to provide Jewish education at home can use the online curriculum through flexible subscription options. These pages were checked in October 2026. Families should request a quote for their chosen tier before budgeting.

ESA eligibility notes

ShalomLearning has limited presence on US state ESA marketplaces, the curriculum is designed primarily for synagogue rather than ESA distribution, and most state ESA programs that approve religious-content curricula concentrate their approved-vendor lists around the larger Christian publishers. Some states with more permissive marketplaces (Arizona ESA, Florida Step Up For Students) have approved religious-curriculum reimbursement on a case-by-case basis when families submit documentation, but ShalomLearning is not a routine approved vendor. Families using ESA dollars should verify with their specific state program before subscribing. Some state ESA programs explicitly restrict religious-content materials, which would disqualify ShalomLearning regardless of marketplace listing.

Alternatives

• Behrman House, a family would pick Behrman House over ShalomLearning for a more traditional textbook-and-workbook approach to Judaics, denominationally diverse offerings, and lower per-volume cost without subscription.
• Tal Am, a family would pick Tal Am over ShalomLearning for a Hebrew language and Jewish heritage curriculum for grades 1 to 5 built on a Natural Approach to Hebrew Language Acquisition, which the publisher says is used by 320 Jewish day schools and is offered to homeschoolers through its iTaLAM at Home courses.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed shalomlearning.org, the family-subscription pages, the Shalom LinkED program description, and sample lesson materials in April 2026. We cross-referenced founding history, synagogue-adoption claims, and curriculum structure against the publisher's published About page, the Shalom LinkED FAQ, and Jewish-education industry resources from Jewish Education Project. ShalomLearning does not publish family pricing; as of October 2026 its FAQ directs readers to contact the organization for a quote.