Heed the Hyphen

Heed the Hyphen

We aren’t only teachers. We are teacher-dads or teacher-moms. Some of us are teacher-cyclists and others are teacher-runners. Some of us are teacher-gardeners and others are teacher-travelers. I suggest that summertime is a time to heed the “hyphen.”

Taking Our Schools L’ayla Ul’ayla

Taking Our Schools L’ayla Ul’ayla

If you were to ask your students to describe the process of teshuvah, my hunch is that most would echo some version of Rambam’s Hilchot Teshuvah: regret and renounce the sin, resolve not to do it again, and when the opportunity to sin occurs again, take a pass…

Advice for Day 1 of School

Advice for Day 1 of School

I was always nervous the night before the first day of school. It didn’t matter if I was a student, a teacher, or a head of school. I slept very little the night before and was exhausted by the end of the first day…

Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

The indicators point to an intensifying shortage of Jewish educators in North America and beyond, and it looks like it will only get worse. This is not new and there are likely multiple causes, but COVID has brought about a wave of early retirement and teacher burnout so that the need has become more acute faster than anyone anticipated and the effects are being felt almost everywhere.

Relating the Four Sons to Holocaust Memory

Relating the Four Sons to Holocaust Memory

The Passover Seder serves not only as ‘the quintessential exercise in Jewish group memory’ according to the Yerushalmi, but it can serve as a paradigm of what Jewish education should be. The Seder with its symbols, practices and intellectual stimulation resonates in us all.

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