Differentiation, Relationships, and Planning with an AI Partner
Tzvi Hametz is the Director of Educational Technology and STEM Innovation at Berman Hebrew Academy. Rabbi Hametz’s work focuses on integrating technology in classrooms to support diverse learners, increase creativity, and strengthen relationship-centered teaching in Jewish studies and beyond. He partners with teachers to design practical, values-aligned learning experiences that leverage emerging tools to enhance learning.
Jewish studies teachers have long known the importance of meeting students’ individual needs, yet differentiation in practice has remained elusive. Judaic studies teachers often lack ready-made resources or formal training in differentiation models. In this article, we share our experience using AI to help Jewish studies teachers overcome those challenges.
Why Differentiation Breaks Down
The idea of differentiation in Jewish studies is baked into our tradition. Aphorisms such as that there are “seventy faces to the Torah” and “teach the child according to his way” are just two of many ways the idea has found expression. Despite that, differentiation for Jewish studies has historically been difficult for structural reasons. Judaic teachers often work without the curricular supports that are common in General studies. Adapting lessons for diverse learners often requires rewriting texts, creating parallel assignments, hands-on learning, or designing multiple assessments. That work takes time most teachers simply do not have.
The time element becomes more acute when we consider that for learning to be long-lasting and meaningful, it must happen in a relationship. While it is possible to learn something in isolation, learning in a vacuum is incredibly difficult. Students build understanding by connecting new knowledge to something they already hold—an experience, a belief, a question, or a prior idea that serves as an anchor. One of the most sacred responsibilities of educators is to help facilitate these connections. To do this intentionally, teachers must deeply know their students. Constructing and scaffolding meaningful learning experiences requires more than content knowledge; it requires an understanding of who students are, how they learn, and what shapes their engagement. Differentiation, at its core, is not about materials or strategies—it is about relationships.
When teachers have a strong understanding of their students and their varying needs, they are better positioned to plan intentionally. In this context, the teacher’s role begins to shift—from content creator to learning designer and relationship builder. The work becomes less about producing materials and more about designing experiences that allow students to encounter Torah meaningfully. The challenge, of course, is that this kind of relational and intentional planning takes time, which teachers simply do not have.
Using AI to Help
We believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to create a shift in the way Judaic studies teachers can differentiate—not by replacing teachers or automating learning, but by acting as a planning partner. Tasks that once required hours or teams of teachers, such as generating simplified versions of a Gemara, scaffolded vocabulary, or tiered questions for hevruta study can now be completed in minutes. If we use AI thoughtfully, it can remove barriers so teachers can focus on the most essential work of all: knowing their students and guiding them toward meaningful Torah learning.
Coming from different schools with different populations and ideologies but in the same geographical area, we collaborated to develop a simple framework we call PAL: Personalization, Agency, and Leveled Learning. PAL is not a new instructional philosophy or a replacement for existing differentiation models. It is a planning heuristic—a way to structure thinking and guide how teachers plan and prompt AI tools.
We begin with students, not technology.
- Personalization asks: What support does this learner need to access the material?
- Agency asks: What will motivate this student and help them take ownership of learning?
- Leveled Learning asks: What level of challenge will stretch this student without overwhelming them?
AI becomes useful only after these questions are answered. Without them, AI-generated materials risk becoming generic or misaligned; with them, AI helps teachers act on insights they already have but previously lacked the time to implement. When AI is used as a planning partner, it reduces the mechanical load of preparation and creates space for more intentional thinking about students. A teacher who previously would not differentiate because doing so felt overwhelming can now do so because it feels manageable. It is important to note that AI is only as useful as the thinking that is guiding the process—the teacher’s. The goal is not to produce the perfect AI output; the goal is to provide the materials which help the teacher to become more responsive and to enable relational teaching.
Practical Example 1: Planning for Multiple Levels in Middle School Talmud
A middle school Talmud teacher described how he leverages AI to help him with differentiation in his classroom. His class operates across several skill levels of learning—all studying the same sugya—but he wants his students to be able to engage with text at different levels of independence and support.
At the highest skill level, some students are working to refine their ability to read Tosafot (Talmudic glosses printed on the page of Talmud) more fluently. A second group can learn largely independently, engaging with Rishonim (medieval commentaries) and responding closely to the text with some guidance, often no more than a dictionary or occasional word list. A third group works at a slower pace and requires more structured support and regular teacher check-ins. A fourth group needs something fundamentally different, as these students may lack the linguistic foundation to access the text without significant scaffolding. For them, the teacher has been building a guided, “teach-yourself” style workbook that breaks the sugya into manageable steps and focuses on core skills rather than on volume.
This is where AI has become a genuine planning partner. The teacher uses AI to help draft new sections of the workbook, rewriting explanations, generating practice questions, and lowering the reading level of material he has already written. As he feeds the tool more of his own examples and instructional style, he finds that the output is improving. The AI does not format the final product, and it does not replace the teacher’s judgment; everything still requires review and editing. But it provides a structure and starting point that dramatically reduces the time needed to produce his materials.
Here is the prompt I use for this.
I’m teaching a middle school Gemara class.
Here is the text we’re learning:[PASTE TEXT HERE]Create a student-facing worksheet for learners who need strong linguistic support. Use simple language (about a 5th-grade level), explain key terms, and break the text into small steps with guiding questions focused on basic understanding. I’ll edit before using it. As the teacher reflected, “My natural writing style can be graduate-level. These students need middle school age language. AI helps me translate my thinking into something they can actually work with.”
What matters most in this example is not the technology, but the intentionality behind it. The teacher knows his students well enough to recognize that they do not all need the same thing and he uses AI to act on that knowledge. The result is not four separate classes, but one classroom with multiple points of entry, where students can experience success without being removed from the shared learning environment.
Practical Example 2: Agency Through Moral and Ethical Exploration in Humash
During a planning session on differentiation and AI, a group of high school teachers explored how PAL might help address particularly challenging lessons. One teacher shared an example from Deuteronomy chapter 7, which includes the commandment to wipe out the seven nations, a passage which often raises moral, ethical, and theological questions for students.
She didn’t want to avoid the difficulty of the text by glossing over it or offering a single interpretive lens, so the teacher used AI as a planning partner to support student agency. The teacher prompted the AI to generate multiple moral and ethical entry points through which students might explore the passage. These included questions about collective responsibility, historical context, moral absolutism, and how later Jewish thinkers have wrestled with the text.
This is the prompt used.
I’m teaching Devarim, Chapter 7 in a high school class.Generate several different ethical or moral questions students could use as entry points to explore this text, approaching it from different perspectives (historical, moral, theological, or contemporary). The goal is student choice, not resolving the tension. I’ll review before use.
The AI also generated a range of related source suggestions, some classical, some modern, that students could use to explore the questions that resonated most strongly with them. As expected, not every suggestion was usable. The teacher reviewed and verified each source, discarding some and refining others. The technology did not replace the teacher’s judgment; it expanded the menu of possibilities.
What made this approach effective was not the AI itself, but the teacher’s clarity about the goal. The aim was not to resolve the tension of the passage, but to give students ownership over how they were going to wrestle with it. AI made a daunting task more manageable to plan for that agency quickly, but the learning remained grounded in careful teaching, thoughtful curation, and trust in students’ capacity to grapple with complexity.
What Changes When Teachers Have Time
One teacher reflected on the shift which takes place when AI does much of the groundwork:
When AI-generated leveled questions for a Navi section, I realized I could finally sit with the two students who usually check out during hevruta. They didn’t need easier content; they needed someone to connect it to their world.
This moment captures a real promise of AI-supported differentiation. As students encounter texts they can access, confidence grows. As confidence grows, engagement follows. What seems to be a technological shift is, at its core, a return to a relational one.
Conclusion
Differentiation in Jewish studies has never been simple, and we have hesitated out of concern that we might lower our standards or abandon rigor. It has always been about meeting students where they are and helping them grow. In order for us to have students who see themselves in the texts, the teacher needs to be able to see what the students see in themselves. What has changed is that teachers now have tools that make this work more feasible.
AI does not differentiate learning. Teachers do. AI, when used in collaboration, as a planning partner through a framework like PAL, can lower hurdles that have previously made differentiation seem unattainable. The use of AI can create space for teachers to do what matters most: get to know their students, design aligned learning experiences, and guide each learner toward meaningful engagement with Torah.
Tzvi Hametz is the Director of Educational Technology and STEM Innovation at Berman Hebrew Academy. Rabbi Hametz’s work focuses on integrating technology in classrooms to support diverse learners, increase creativity, and strengthen relationship-centered teaching in Jewish studies and beyond. He partners with teachers to design practical, values-aligned learning experiences that leverage emerging tools to enhance learning.
From The Editor: Winter 2026
For many years I believed that I was a good educator. Students, alumni, and parents told me so. I was mostly effective at exciting my students to learn, drawing them in, and teaching them content and skills they remembered for a long time. Students thought that I was fair and sensitive and really committed to their success. Hey, I even learned how to admit my mistakes and learn from them.
And then I got married and started raising children.
From Scaffolding to Independence
I run a progressive N-8 Jewish day school (Luria Academy of Brooklyn) committed to inclusion of children with a broad range of abilities and needs and backgrounds. One of the questions I get asked frequently by parents is when we are going to build a high school. Truthfully, it’s not currently part of our plan and we are blessed to be in New York City where Jewish high school options abound. What prompts the parental requests for a high school is their very reasonable concern for how their child will transition from our student-centered, individualized, supportive classroom to a more traditional, less flexible environment.
What Mainstream Schools Can Learn From a School Like Mine
I recently had a conversation with a faculty member at a school of education which is part of a local university. He teaches a course titled “Learning and Cognition” and finds himself under pressure from students every year not to teach it. The students, as they enter the classroom, understandably want practical tools, and do not see the connection between how people learn and what they do in a classroom.
Choice in the Middle School Beit Midrash
In a small Jewish day school, differentiation is a fact of life. Some of our students have diagnoses which explain why they have challenges in learning and some do not; some need lots of repetition of material in order to synthesize ideas and others seem to understand and be prepared to explain the content the first time they read or hear an idea. In our small community, some are able to thrive in a Hebrew immersion class while others begin to shut down in this environment. A typical curricular model in middle schools at small Jewish day schools is to offer grade-specific Jewish studies courses; this has the advantage of all students being exposed to the same content, and building upon past learning is an easier task. At Oakland Hebrew Day School (Oakland, CA), a K-8 school, we, too, had this model until ten years ago, when we found ourselves grappling with the following issues:
Traditional Text Study for neurodivergent Students
During our time in school together, Jewish studies classes were streamed based purely on Hebrew language skills. This approach, with its exclusive focus on Hebrew facility, prevented us—and we suspect many other neurodivergent students—from accessing and engaging in the depth and richness of Jewish texts and traditions. Furthermore, by focusing solely on translation and basic comprehension, it denied us the opportunity to apply our own strengths of analytical and creative thinking, which are often reserved for advanced streams.
Trauma Awareness In Jewish Day Schools
A painful reality for Jewish educators is that, despite our most valiant efforts, a significant population of young people who go through the Jewish day school system feels distanced and removed from their education, as if they are perpetually outsiders to their community. Who are these young people? What causes this sense of distance? What can we do to help them? While every case is different, often these children are dealing with some sort of trauma that educators are not always equipped to support, and sometimes can inadvertently inflict. However, proper awareness and appropriate responses can go a long way in helping these young people feel welcome and understood.
The Unique Opportunities for Personalization in Jewish Studies
My experience at Jewish summer camp played an important role in forging my identity, first as a Jew, and then as a Jewish educator. When I made the jump from Director of Education at the camp I grew up at to the Jewish day school classroom, I would often reflect on what made camp so impactful and how I could bring aspects of experiential education into the formal classroom. I soon realized that it is not just about what camp has that the classroom does not, it’s just as much about the aspects of formal education that camps are unburdened by.
Forty Ways to Learn Navi
One of the most powerful sources of professional reflection for me has always been hevruta—the back-and-forth of honest, challenging dialogue. Several years ago, a teacher with whom I shared a classroom told me that my teaching was “too frontal” and that I needed to give students more “voice and choice.”
Being naturally competitive and reflective, I took the critique to heart. During winter break, I spent two solid days redesigning my Navi curriculum for my sixth graders. My goal was simple: to create a system where students could take genuine ownership of their learning while still meeting our academic expectations.
Differentiated Instruction in the Judaic Studies Classroom
Judaic studies is a high-stakes undertaking for teachers who aspire to cultivate in their students not only deep knowledge of texts and traditions that shape Jewish identity, but also a personal relationship with the Torah and with God. Either of those objectives without the other misses an opportunity to foster in children a love of their heritage and the desire to keep it vital in their lives.
Making Tefilah More Student-Centered
Every student enters tefilah with a different story. Some find comfort in familiar words and melodies; others feel unsure, disconnected, or skeptical. Yet tefilah in schools often assumes uniformity—everyone doing the same thing, in the same way, at the same pace. When we shift our focus to the people in the room, new possibilities for meaning can open up.
Unlocking Every Learner: An Instructional Reflection For 1-5 Grade Judaic Educators
Educate the child according to their path (Proverbs 22:6).
This well-known verse beautifully captures the essence of differentiated and personalized learning: each child enters the classroom with a unique constellation of strengths, challenges, interests, and ways of understanding the world.
Blended and Personalized Learning in Jewish Studies
Blended and Personalized Learning (BPL) has become a valuable approach for Jewish studies classrooms seeking to meet wide-ranging student needs without overwhelming teachers. BPL provides structures that allow educators to teach more precisely, differentiate more naturally, and build student independence and choice. When implemented with clear routines, consistent expectations, and thoughtful planning, BPL transforms classrooms into dynamic spaces where learners move at an appropriate pace, engage more deeply, and take increasing ownership of their learning. Educators also benefit from having a mentor/coach guide them through the different steps. The following overview outlines the core principles of effective BPL and illustrates how these principles come to life in real 1st–8th grade classrooms.
Hevruta as a Tool for Differentiation and Personalization
Meeting the needs of every learner in the room is one of the most complex tasks a teacher faces. No two students process text in the same way. Some absorb information quickly, while others need more time. Some think visually, others verbally. Some feel confident sharing ideas in front of the class, while others shut down the moment they feel unsure. Even highly motivated learners approach Torah with very different strengths and needs. Teachers want to support every student, yet it is difficult to personalize instruction when the class is moving through the same pasuk or section of Gemara at the same pace.
From Teaching the Class to Teaching Each Student
Walk down the hallways of many schools today or step into a teacher’s lounge, and the shift in conversation is unmistakable. Instead of talking about plans for a trip, Shabbat, or the newest and most exciting curriculum, the conversation frequently has shifted towards struggling students, classroom behaviors, and the plight of supporting an ever-growing diverse Jewish student population. These discussions reflect a new reality: Teaching at a Jewish day school now requires an expanding skill set to meet the evolving needs of students and the growing challenges teachers face.
Differentiating Jewish Education – Not If But How
In the early 1970s, my mother sat in her 9th grade halakha class cowering in fear. Her teacher loudly berated the class as not one student volunteered to translate the words of the Rosh Hashana prayers. Her pulse racing, my mother suddenly realized she had an advantage. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors who came from two different countries, my mother’s first language was Yiddish and the mahzor she had pulled from her parents’ bookshelf the night before was a Hebrew-Yiddish one. She timidly raised her hand, provided the translation, thus saving her class from incurring further wrath from the teacher. Jewish education is unique in that each student brings their own personalized version of Judaism with them into the classroom. For my mother that day, it looked like a mahzor with a Yiddish translation.
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