Published:
October 5, 2010
Source: Shalom Hartman Institute
On October 6, the Shalom Hartman Institute, in partnership with Keren Karev, will launch the new Be’eri School for Teacher Education. The School will offer a basic and advanced track for teachers, as well as a track customized for school principals.
The basic teachers training track provides junior and high school teachers with the tools required to become instructors in Jewish heritage—Tarbut Yisrael. The advanced track is targeted at accredited teachers in the field of Jewish heritage who wish to broaden their expertise in this field and potentially become Tarbut Yisrael coordinators in their schools.
The principal track will equip participants with advanced Tarbut Yisrael training, enabling participants to play a leading role in strengthening pluralistic Jewish values and identity among their students. In response to requests from graduates of the principal track, a special program, led by a SHI faculty researcher, has been created. Graduates will meet six times a year to enhance their knowledge through a Beit Midrash learning format.
Eighty-five educators have registered for the 2010-11 school year. Be’eri schools proactively encouraged their staff to obtain the School’s enriched education, integral to the program mission. 70% of the participating educators hail from institutions that are part of the Be’eri program. The remaining participants will support the outreach of the Be’eri program to new schools.
The Be’eri Initiative for Pluralistic Jewish Education
Be’eri serves as a nationwide resource center for Israel’s public non-religious high schools. Be’eri transforms schools into providers of meaningful and diverse expressions of Jewish life for their communities. Working at present with over 70 schools and tens of thousands of students, Be’eri is a far-reaching, comprehensive intervention program that places Jewish identity studies at the center of secular Israeli high school education. Within five years Be’eri will encompass 120 schools (25% of the country’s non-religious high schools), on its way to transforming the educational system across Israel.