Welcome
Welcome to The Jewish Educator - NewCAJE's journal of Jewish Education. Here you'll find summaries of the articles, links to the full PDF's, and - most importantly - a chance to comment on what you read.
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A Model for Using Diversity to Bridge Cultural Differences
by Dr. Hana Bor
“Die!” That’s what it sounded like I shouted to my English-speaking students when they overwhelmed me one day with questions in our American Jewish classroom.
!די (Dai) is what I knew I was saying. It means “Enough! in Hebrew, the language I grew up speaking as an Israeli.
My students were shocked. I was confused by their reaction.
I asked why they look insulted. Then I explained what I meant and they took turns asking questions.
Eventually we understood each other and worked together.
That’s an example of a model we are building into our program of Master of Arts of Jewish Education (MA in Jewish Education) at Towson University in Maryland: recognizing diversity’s dangers and using diversity as a bridge rather than a barrier in education. We are working to bring new teachers into Jewish education, encourage professional development for veteran educators, and help develop a vital environment for day school, supplementary and informal Jewish education. Our students reflect their own diversity, coming from a variety of religious, educational and personal backgrounds.
Combating Educator Burnout
by Rachel Kasten
I have yearned to be a Jewish educator since first breathing in the ruach at a URJ summer camp at age 13. And yet, after my first year in the field, I was seriously considering giving up on my dream. The work was truly meaningful, and I was honored and excited to have an impact on so many Jewish children and teens…but I was exhausted. The kind of exhaustion that you feel in your bones; the kind that can’t just be cured by a good night’s sleep. If you are a Jewish educator, you probably know the feeling all too well.
One of the biggest challenges facing Jewish education today is teacher and administrator burnout. Our schools have some of the most innovative educational models, vibrant curricula, and dedicated lay leaders. We have so many resources at our disposal, but they cannot be implemented without enthusiastic and energized administrators and faculty. My perspective comes from working in a large congregational school as a young professional, but the following suggestions for combating educator burnout could apply in many different settings.
A Non-Judgmental Space for Teachers to Grow
by Tamara Beliak Neumeier
Jewish education is now enjoying a renaissance that it has not experienced since Germany in the 1930s. There are many different models of education open to students, from chavurot to supplementary schools to yeshivot. The opportunities for men and women to study have opened up, with new Internet technologies that allow people to communicate across continents. Many schools are focusing on expanding opportunities for their students to learn through different modalities and focus on the Jewish text and technology skills that will prepare them for an ever-changing world. I believe that this is an exciting time to be a child in a Jewish day school, because teachers and schools are focused on the individual student and his needs.
However, the world of Jewish education is not perfect. Sometimes in the pursuit to create a better learning environment for students a school forgets that teachers also have an ability to learn and grow. Professional development for teachers has not kept pace with the requirements schools have for teachers. Most of the teachers I encounter are in a constant quest to continue as learners and find the best ways to reach their students. They do not always feel comfortable sharing that they perceive their teaching as less than perfect. Teachers in Jewish schools who have finished their formal instruction and training often turn to schools’ in-service programs to continue their education. As a teacher, I have heard many of my colleagues complain about these in-service programs. The most common criticism is that the programs are in lecture format and teachers are treated as a monolithic group, without regard to individual needs.
The Future Of History: Reviving Primary Sources in the Age of Wikipedia
by Adam Soclof
The 1995 remake of the film “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” stars Kirk Cameron as Dexter Riley, a so-so college student who is struck by lightning while browsing his computer online, effectively downloading the contents of the Internet to his brain. As Dexter’s self-confidence as an information warehouse inflates his ego, a sagely teacher warns him that the information on the Internet isn’t always accurate, and shouldn’t be accepted at face value. Sure enough, while hustling the quiz show circuit with his new superpowers, Dexter calls up a website of information about ancient Greece only to discover that this information was recorded incorrectly online. More than 15 years later, the premise of this film offers a prescient message about the importance of managing the relationship between students and educators in a world where a wealth of information is freely available to all.
Today, teachers still rely heavily on textbooks to teach material. With students increasingly capable of searching for information online — not to mention increasingly dependent on procuring this information (e.g., turning to Wikipedia for quick answers for papers and exam-preparation) — it is increasingly difficult for these students to accept the authority of assigned secondary sources at face value. Rather than place limitations on students’ independent exploration for information, educators and digital information specialists should partner to help students develop the critical faculties necessary in order to assess the quality of the information they discover outside of the classroom.
Technology and Jewish Education
by Anna Salomon
Jewish education is constantly evolving and is highly debated. Technology has provided both an opportunity and a challenge for Jewish education today. Education as a whole, whether Jewish or secular, is most successful when engaging and relevant. Technology is highly relevant to the students we are educating– for most of them it is also highly engaging.
The ability to learn about and participate in Jewish communal life always has predicated affiliating with a particular physical community. That is no longer necessary. Skype allows for conversation and study – even prayer – in a community on the other side of the city or the other side of the world, from your very own home. Live feed video broadcasting can be used to attend services. You can even convert online – though immersion in a mikveh must still be done “offline.” Jewish texts and sources are more widely available: different languages, translations, interpretations and commentaries – all at the click of a button. Practice Hebrew with a native speaker, plan a vacation, apply for a Birthright trip, watch the sunset at the Western Wall, buy Dead Sea salts, find new recipes, research and explore holiday and life cycle information, read Torah portions, give tzedakah, create and explore Facebook pages for Judaism/Jewish life, follow people/places on Twitter, start and/or read all kinds of blogs, and so much more. No longer is information and learning out of reach to those outside of a community.
Differentiated Bnai Mitzvah
by Eitan Gutin
At times I feel as if, instead of being in the Jewish education business, or even the God business, I am in the B’nai Mitzvah business.
I am responsible for “lifelong learning” at the congregation where I work. If something educational is happening in the synagogue involving anyone from birth to death, I have a hand in it. Given the range of ages and venues in which I work, including weekly parasha classes, the Hebrew school, youth groups, and cultural arts, it is amazing how often a child’s preparation for her Bat Mitzvah is the center of the conversation. It comes out in conversations with 7th graders who cannot wait for their journey to end and in the anxiety I hear from parents of four–year-olds, nine years before the event will take place.
A Call for Jewish Education Through Gaming and Game Design
by Owen Gottlieb
What will “Jewish” look like as today’s new media evolves into tomorrow’s new media? Learners are increasingly Gamers, Designers, and Builders (Tinkerers). New media landscapes allow learners to develop and hone their affinities, teach themselves, and mentor their virtual peers. They collaborate in problem-solving online and offline, and their design skills are increasingly important. How does the formation of identity morph as game spaces allow us, through role-play, to try on a variety of new possible selves? What do Jewish educators and leaders need to know as print shifts to digital, the role of teachers increasingly becomes that of guide, and games become a new language of learning?
In the secular world, Games for Learning are receiving a great deal of attention. This inter-disciplinary set of pursuits combines the learning sciences, media studies, design, performance studies, linguistics, and other fields. In particular, Games for STEM Learning (STEM refers to Science, Technology Engineering, and Math) have received attention from the White House and funding from MacArthur Foundation, AMD, Microsoft, and others. But Games for Learning reach beyond STEM (now, some add an “A” to STEM to make STEAM – adding “Art” to the mix). Games for Learning are being built to teach civics (Sandra Day OConnor’s iCivics.org), environmental awareness, and social entrepreneurship (GlobalKids.org and its student designers).
New Media Development and Virtual Content Communities in 21st Century Jewish Education
by Efraim Feinstein
I enter this field as a technologist, not as a traditional “educator.” I am the volunteer lead developer of the Open Siddur Project, where we are building a web-based platform that will include a database of Jewish liturgical texts and related materials (such as commentaries), in addition to an application for choosing texts and compiling them into a customized, printable siddur. While the Open Siddur and similar resources have an obvious function as an online reference volume, its most important feature will be to allow its users to share their customized texts so that they may be found, reviewed, and built upon by other users. The aspects of sharing, peer review, and iterative development open up a new model of teaching and learning that is not limited by geographic boundaries or by a single institution’s limited resources. This essay intends to discuss briefly what role projects such as mine have in the larger Jewish educational ecosystem.
The Internet has long offered many resources that provide materials suitable for use in Jewish learning. However, the promise of currently emerging technologies is in the expansion of the Internet from a read-only resource (“Web 1.0”) to a read-write, participatory resource (“Web 2.0”): a multi-directional communications medium that has the potential to facilitate simultaneous interaction between teacher and student, and each student with other students. It also enables connection and communication between disparate real-world communities.
Adapting to the Culture of the Community
by Liz Singer
Last fall, something extremely unexpected happened. I was approached to lead a small religious school. As a new Director with a social work background, I was advised to sit back and learn the culture. Often times, this was difficult, and often I was criticized for taking this “hands off” approach. I assumed my post after school already was in session. During the search prior to my being hired, the school was kept afloat by lay leaders. There had been no evidence of a clear and consistent education model being utilized. The curriculum had been used as a resource by the educators, if used at all.
Programs existed without an underlying structure of what the vision of the future of the religious school looked like. Not having a formal background in education, I initially did not know how to begin creating a vision. I learned in a local young professional development leadership program that, when in doubt, look at what is working and build a support structure to complement it. This was the perfect approach for this community, who had a vocal contingent that had a hard and fast preference for what had been done and how it had been done. After all, my predecessor had been in the position for twenty years. The families in the religious school were hungry for change.
New Jewish Educational Models: Engaging Stakeholders – Travelling Up the Get-It Scale
by Lori Riegel
An education director of a large supplementary school, with enrollment numbers that have been increasing consistently each year, sits down for an annual budget presentation with the congregation’s finance committee. The meeting, which last three hours, involves picking apart pieces of the school’s program, from the textbook costs to the reason why payroll costs went up slightly after the state raised the minimum wage by ten cents per hour. The education director went into the meeting feeling optimistic and prepared, with a narrative prepared with research on trends in Jewish education and plans to include Jewish educator conferences in the upcoming budget. The director left the meeting feeling frustrated and unheard.
The scene is probably familiar to many education directors at supplementary schools across the country. The annual budgeting process seems to conflict directly with the mission of the school. Educators fight for every penny of their budgets, while the finance committee attempts to keep the organizational fiscally stable, let alone keep the doors open. The challenge is deeper than matching figures to forecasts on a spreadsheet. The supplementary school, as part of a congregation, has many stakeholders. Rarely do the stakeholders come together on their visions, with each shaving different ideas about the purpose of the religious school.
The Dirty-Handed et Roll-Back Model of Jewish Education
by Jordan Hill
Think about the classical portrayal of aliens — the extraterrestrial sort — in American culture: massive heads, eyes, and finger tips held together by a spindly, almost shriveled, body. A friend of mine pointed out that this is a pretty good representation of what we as modern humans tend to develop in ourselves: our heads for thinking (almost non-stop!), our eyes for gazing at computers/books/TV/movies/phones/etc., and our fingertips for using the tools to help us navigate that which we spend so much of our time staring at. I think many would agree that we Jews go this route as much as, if not more than, our fellow society members. I mentioned this to the headmaster of the Jewish day school where I teach, and he concurred that Jewish educators put a disproportionate amount of our emphasis on teaching students’ heads, often leaving their hearts, bodies, hands, feet, imaginations, and (dare I say) spirits behind. I do my fair share of “head” (a.k.a. conceptual) teaching. It’s hard to avoid as a modern teacher, and anyways the point isn’t to avoid it. Rather, my goal as a Jewish educator is to strike a balance.
Thus I strive to implement the dirty-handed ET roll-back model of Jewish education. Why dirty-handed? Instead of just feeding information to students, the dirty-handed approach is to give them opportunities to engage in the material in as many hands-on, experiential ways as possible — i.e., to facilitate their “getting their hands dirty” as they embark on their own direct explorations. And ET roll-back? Rolling back our tendency of turning Jewish youth into “aliens” with huge heads and eyes!
Community and Meaning
by Jill D. Eisen
Jewish education is about community and meaning. It should be imaginative, interactive, exciting, meaningful, and spiritual for both adults and students. It is through real life experiences and intimate interactions during learning, praying, and volunteering that adults and students develop strong Jewish identities and powerful ties to Judaism, congregation, clergy, community, and Israel.
In his book, Taking Hold of Torah, Arnold M. Eisen, now chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, explains that by gaining emancipation from the ghettos and participating fully in American society and culture, Jewish communities paid the price. Along with our highly-valued modernity, enlightenment, social acceptance, and political liberties came the consequence that Jews could choose whether, as well as how, to be Jewish. Like Mr. Eisen, I believe that Jewish Americans are returning to Judaism because it offers precisely what they have lost, thanks to the freedoms and choices conferred by modernity: “integral community and meaning profound enough to live by.” Therefore, it is our responsibility as Jewish educators to fashion a community that helps Jews live by Jewish values while they fully participate in American society.
Just Ask
by Emilia Diamant
One of the reasons I was so inspired at NewCAJE last year was the Young Professional (YP) post-conference. In a room with Cherie Koller-Fox, Yavilah McCoy, Joanna Ware, and others, we discussed the barriers that keep people from congregational life. Being an educator at a Reform synagogue in Raleigh, NC, has put me square in the middle of what we were all saying we didn’t want — heterogeneity and stagnancy with no movement toward meeting the Jews of tomorrow where they are. Through the conversation that afternoon I came to the realization that no matter where my career path takes me, Jewish education will be a part of it. That being said, the Jewish education models of the past (Sunday School, learning Hebrew through memorization and books) do not seem as important to me as our world changes. If we, the 20- and 30-somethings, are shifting away from what we knew as students, it’s time for Jewish education to evolve alongside us.
I am not suggesting we throw out what we’ve been doing, but rather we look to our constituents and see what might be worth changing. There are a few principles I feel our model of Jewish education should be based on:
- Inclusion—of all types of people, families, ability levels, education. If we are not actively inclusive and finding ways to celebrate difference, we are irrelevant.
- Tradition—there’s a reason we’ve been doing things this way for so long. Something about it resonates, whether it is the way we sing Aleinu or how we teach the Alef Bet. Many of my YP counterparts feel that tradition is stifling, but rather I suggest we find ways to make the traditions of our ancestors work for us.
- Exploration of Space—it’s time to move out of synagogues and out of JCCs. It’s time to find people where they are and explore Judaism there, together. Whether it’s in an art gallery, a yoga class, or a bookstore, it would behoove Jewish educators to find a way to meet people, physically, where they are.
Thoughts on New Models For Jewish Education
by Noah Aronson
If a teacher or parent tells a child that they HAVE to do something or NEED to feel something a certain way, what’s the first thing that child does? — So, obviously telling a child that he or she needs to feel a certain way about Judaism will inevitably have the same effect. This problem only gets compounded in a religious school setting because nine-out-of-ten children we’re teaching are being forced to be there by their parents to be.
I must admit that I certainly wasn’t the child at the front of the classroom begging my teachers to teach me how to chant the v’ahavta! It took me many years of pushing Judaism away for me to eventually find my way back, slowly. It wasn’t until I started creating my own personal relationship with God and then with Judaism that I truly began to love and appreciate all the beauty that Judaism has to offer. And, just to be clear, there are still many aspects of Judaism that I haven’t fully gotten behind yet and it may take me many more years to feel comfortable with them (i.e., I still have issues with the idea of “chosen-ness,” but that’s a conversation for another time!).
The Other Day School Crisis
by Adam Tilove
While everyone is talking about the Middle Class affordability crisis in day schools, there is one essential stakeholder in the community that seems to be forgotten: The Jewish Studies teacher. Jewish day school teachers have a shockingly high rate of leaving the field early in their careers. (Note: I am not a researcher. This conclusion is based on my observations and anecdotal information from many friends and colleagues in the field.) This is a deeply troubling trend because Jewish day schools depend on these teachers to put the Jewish in “Jewish day school.”
Consider the skills of a Jewish Studies teacher: they know modern and ancient Hebrew, and often Aramaic; they are able to read and explain ancient texts, exciting students who may be indifferent or even hostile; they must have skills in classroom management, planning assemblies and events, and leading Tefillah (Jewish Prayer). They must love kids, live passionate Jewish lives, and be dedicated to their craft. And to be truly effective, they need experience.
Sharing Our Earth
by Evon J. Yakar
Hiking up one of the Flatiron Mountains in Boulder, Colorado, put most of us out of breath. Yet the journey provided a great experience … it was a modern day ascension of that sacred mountain from our Jewish collective memory. That is where I celebrated Shavuot 5765 in Boulder, Colorado. Together with other rabbinical students from the three stateside campuses of HUC-JIR, we studied, we learned, we hiked, and we explored new possibilities with Rabbi Jamie Korngold of Adventure Rabbi: Synagogue w/o Walls. The experience left me with many great colleagues and new ideas. Eager to explore what was possible with this new and unique community Rabbi Korngold was creating, I was determined to follow her success.
Almost seven years later, I was invited to work with Adventure Rabbi and build upon the great success of our B’nai Mitzvah program, the Adventure Class, and propose new ideas for Jewish educational models that jive with the Adventure Rabbi: Synagogue w/o Walls community. This summer begins the journey and we are proud of what has been accomplished and the opportunities ahead.
A New Model For Jewish Teacher Training: Bridging the Worlds of Jewish and Public Education
by Rebecca Shargel and Hana Bor
Baltimore Hebrew University (BHU), a renowned teachers college and school of Judaic studies celebrated its 90th birthday in 2009. The same year marked a dramatic transition, a merger with Towson University, the second largest university in the state of Maryland. On our new campus we continue our mission to prepare students for Masters degrees in Jewish studies, Jewish Communal Service, and Jewish Education.
As professors of Jewish education, we knew that we had an enormous opportunity at Towson, the largest teachers college in Maryland, which has a faculty of over 100 professors. Not only would we enjoy the multiple resources of a large state university while preparing students for careers in the Jewish world, we knew that we could also find ways to create bridges between our students and those students preparing to work in public schools. These bridges would broaden the context of our students’ learning and give them an appreciation of how Jewish and general education could mutually benefit each other.
Some Effective Teaching Strategies Chosen From Secular Education
by Barbara Rosoff
In response to the question “Who is wise?” Ben Zoma replies “One who learns from all.” Rabbi Joseph Hertz reflects upon the eloquence and simplicity of both question and answer, and comments that, in addition, a wise person has an open mind. (Hertz, 1945). With these sage words to guide us, we begin our quest to determine what we can learn from secular education that will enhance Jewish education.
An obvious place to start is with the teacher. Teachers’ thinking, planning, and decision-making constitute a large part of the psychological context of teaching. Within this context, curriculum is interpreted and acted upon. This is where teachers teach and students learn. Secular school research in this area has just begun to describe in detail the many ways in which teaching is complex, demanding, and uniquely human. Suffice it to say that what is taught and learned by the student, the atmosphere in the classroom, and teacher-student relationships are motivated in part and frequently by the mental constructs of the teacher. It is incumbent upon both teacher and supervisor to be aware of and sensitive to this area.
A Proper Preparation of Teachers
by Barbara Rosoff
There is a hot debate taking place today in the arena of secular school teacher preparation. It is truly a great debate in which the National Council on Teaching Quality just issued a study noting that the “Training of Teachers” is flawed. Kate Walsh, president of the Council, noted that “this is shaping up to be a battle royale, not just between the education schools and us, but between K-12 education and higher ed.”
Much of the battle focuses on student teaching, the standards of which (i.e., how many weeks required by each school of education) are structured differently in each school of education. Models of education also concentrate on diverse areas; some pay more attention to traditional classroom study, others point to student teaching as being more significant.
by Nechama Retting and Tobey Greenberg
Jewish customs, traditions, and knowledge always have been passed on from generation to generation, Dor L’Dor. In our hectic society, however, less and less of our traditions are being passed down and fewer rituals are being observed. Those customs that once had so much meaning to us seem to have fallen by the wayside and have little or no meaning for some of our younger generations. How can we as Jewish educators change this path?
We can begin in the Early Childhood classrooms by creating a multitude of opportunities to create connections to Torah, to Israel, and to Judaism and also extending those connections to our families at home. In our busy world today, parents don’t always have the time, or often the knowledge, to teach and share our traditions with our younger generations. In some instances, the children are teaching their parents what they have learned in their Gan, which is the reverse of what our grandparents did. We need to create a bridge between school and home, not only educating the children, but also their families.
by Kathe Pinchuck
What is lifelong learning? It can be defined as “all purposeful learning activity undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge, skills, and competence. It contains various forms of education and training, formal, non-formal and informal, individually, in a group setting or within the framework of social movements.” As Jewish educators, we facilitate these activities, but we also strive to inculcate our students with a love of Judaism that will amplify the learning experience.
A relatively new model in both business and education is “backward design.” Using this approach, the first step for Jewish educators is identifying the desired results (laying a foundation for lifelong Jewish learning). Then, consider the evidence needed to determine whether the desired results are being achieved. Finally, plan the learning experiences to help students understand key concepts, and generate action plans focused on obtaining the desired results. While each educational institution will have its own goals and ways to determine if they are being met, most can look to an integral collaborative partner: the Judaica librarian.
Focus on the Future: Jewish Education Unbound
by Deborah Nagler
When Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, the clarion call of the shofar brought down its walls. For Joshua, this was a pivotal conquest in his campaign to establish a Jewish homeland in Canaan. In like fashion, the future of Jewish education will depend upon our ability to bring down the walls or boundaries that have defined its institutions, classrooms, and curricula in the twentieth century. Against the backdrop of globalism, technological development, social change, and economic instability, only a plastic and easily permeable system will give us the tools to engage and educate the twenty-first century Jewish learner.
On an institutional level, this means that schooling will not necessarily take place only in schools. Online learning will continue to filter down into Jewish high schools and elementary schools, as it has in the public school sector. Hybrid formats, combining computer-based learning with face-to-face classrooms, will become more common. Informal or experiential education increasingly will combine with formal education, bringing the motivational and immersive strengths of camping to year-round programs. Further, creative partnerships between institutions will allow for the sharing of resources in what is likely to be an environment of ongoing fiscal challenge. Because technology has removed geographic barriers, partnering institutions will be found anywhere in the country and in the world.
The Synagogue- The More You Know About Its Past, The More You Want to Be a Part of Its Future℠
by Abe Katz
Query – What Jewish practice has been most responsible for Judaism surviving two thousand years of Diaspora and persecution? Undeniably, it is the synagogue. The requirement that a quorum of ten be present before performing rituals such as the Torah reading and the recital of Kaddish has by default caused Jews to live within close proximity of each other and to a synagogue. The synagogue then became where families developed their social circles – where husbands found wives and children found playmates.
Today, the synagogue competes with other activities that lead to social relationships. Nevertheless, many Jews, among them the Orthodox, still view the synagogue as the center of their social network. How do we impress upon all young Jewish men and women the idea that the synagogue can and should be viewed as the place from where their social circle can sprout, particularly in the years when they attend college and beyond? An argument will be made here that a course of study centered on the synagogue service taught the year before boys reach Bar Mitzvah age and girls reach Bat Mitzvah age can create such a view of the synagogue.
What Could Be: Successful Supplemental Ed: Congregation Magen Avraham, Omer, Israel
by F. Penina Hoffnung
My family is still mortified by the memory: in 2007, I cried every Shabbat in synagogue. I was not making a spectacle of myself loudly, mind you, just quietly weeping as if I were the grandmother of the Bar Mitzvah, not an American Jewish educator on sabbatical in the Negev. I cried so routinely that they began to sit a row away. It wasn’t hormones, or burnout, it was joy and frustration. I was witnessing a professional vision come true. Joy because I saw supplemental, short-term Jewish education that worked; frustration because I couldn’t replicate it, on a technicality.
In the years since, I’ve pondered how to overcome that technicality, and I think I’ve figured it out. But first,
First there’s the ceremony. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah almost singlehandedly conducted Friday and Saturday’s prayers, chanted Torah and Haftarah, and gave an amazing D’var Torah referencing Talmud. The Bar Mitzvah child’s parent(s) publicly spoke about the impact the Bar Mitzvah process had on them. The president of the congregation presented an intimate biography of the child: interests, hobbies, achievements, friends, pets’ names, the out of town guests’ names and hometowns, without notes. I have no idea how to replicate that: the man’s simply a genius. Then the rabbi, with great fanfare, reviewed all the child preparatory work and then led the audience in loud applause. But I was puddled, because in some cases, less than a year before, the child had never been in a synagogue.
