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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
One of my favorite children’s Chelm stories is “Malke’s Secret Recipe,” by David Adler which tells the story of Malke, who was known for her delicious, succulent, and soft latkes. The only problem was that she would not share the recipe…
My neurodiversity is likely a form of ADHD, partially due to brain surgery. Some of my distractions are due to wandering thoughts and others to sensory stimuli. I also have Irlen syndrome and irregular auditory processing. Irlen syndrome causes visual distortions due to inefficient perception and processing of light and is treated using colored spectral filters.
Thirty-five years ago, a short book of essays called “All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” was published by a Unitarian Universalist minister named Robert Fulghum. Fulghum argued that he learned life’s most valuable lessons in Kindergarten…
I’ve been heading up the Israeli division of the education, research, and documentation unit of the Holocaust Claims Conference since 2019. We fund Holocaust museum exhibits…
Before I assumed a new headship a few years ago, I was given some excellent advice: to read a modest-sized booklet entitled “Entry Plan Approach: How to Start a Leadership Position Successfully.”