It was the model of a truck that made us realize that the project was a success. Students were challenged to create artifacts for a museum as the culmination of our unit focused on Megillah, discussing objects that serve holy things or God’s name. Once an item functions to serve something holy, such as a Torah, that item takes on special status and needs to be treated differently. What better modern, practical implication could there be of these laws than a truck carrying Torah scrolls?
Teachers play an essential role in student development in two central ways: first, they broaden and deepen student knowledge; second, they promote the skills students need to become purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, strategic and goal-directed—what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) calls “Expert Learners.” Jewish studies teachers can help students transform Jewish learning into living meaningful lives.
With the onset of COVID, classes moved online and digital texts proved to be crucial to continuing instruction while students were learning outside the walls of the classroom. Now that teachers and students are returning to the school buildings, digital texts can continue to provide opportunities to model authentic learning and create lifelong learners. This article will point towards exciting ways to reorient pedagogy using digital texts as a core feature of instruction and will provide examples from teachers who have used the digital library to open the world of the Torah to their students. With proficient use of new technologies for learning, students develop their familiarity with the Jewish library, set off on their own paths of discovery, expand the range of texts that they access, and gain new understandings of the Torah.
In the United States and across the globe, there is an all-out assault on Jews arising from the political left, political right, and seemingly everywhere in between. From virulent and overt violence to the dog whistles of antisemitic tropes, one can see antisemitism alive and growing in almost every facet of life. In a survey conducted by ADL, over 1 billion out of 4 billion people surveyed across the world harbor antisemitic attitudes. That is over 25%. As the Program Manager for Echoes & Reflections, my career is focused on helping secondary educators effectively and responsibly teach about the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism. This work has been inspired by my previous role in the classroom and the reaction to antisemitism I saw in my own
Memory is a critical part of our tradition, and also a powerful educational force as it provides an emotional, personal connection to the past. The academic study of history, on the other hand, is the reconstruction of the past based on factual evidence and primary sources. This bootcamp explores the relationship between memory and history, best practices in Jewish history instruction, and student-centered approaches. Hands-on workshops make up the bulk of the training program and give teachers the skills and tools they need in order to teach Jewish history in an engaging and creative way.
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 grew up with antisemitism. The ugly kind. There were certain nights during the year that my parents didn’t allow us out of the house because “bad things” tended to happen on those nights. I was attacked on my bicycle while delivering chickens for a local kosher butcher, beaten on the public bus going to school, punched out on the street coming home. We heatedly debated amongst ourselves whether “it” (the Holocaust) could happen in America. Some of the adults told us not to wear a kippa in public. Others encouraged us to be strong and learn to defend ourselves.
When was I not concerned about antisemitism! My father spoke to me about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor when I was really young, three, four years old. That was part of his educational philosophy, that a Jew has to be prepared. And sooner or later, something is coming down the road again. My father’s great concern was that he was raising American children who wouldn’t have the survival skills, that because of growing up with luxuries, taking comfort for granted, we would be unprepared. My father was a very angry survivor. He was angry at the whole
Jewish students at many universities are confronted by a rising tide of antisemitism. A recent survey of openly Jewish students found that over sixty-five percent of respondents felt unsafe on campus due to antisemitic incidents, while ten percent reported feeling physically unsafe. Half reported needing to hide their Jewish identities. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the backdrop to many of these incidents, as the campus has become a central stage for the most organized, motivated, and effective anti-Israel activist movement in recent memory. This activism is a major component of a “cognitive war to prepare [public opinion] for Israel’s destruction.”*
The school I lead sits exactly 1.2 miles from the site of the October 27, 2018 white supremacist terrorist mass shooting that targeted three congregations housed in the Tree of Life synagogue building. My home sits around the corner, 900 feet away. I could hear the police response and shooting battle that morning reverberating through my windows and walls.
