The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat begins this year on Sunday evening, January 24, 2016. Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for Trees, marks the beginning of spring in Israel, when the winter rains start to subside and tree blossoms begin to bud. As the Jewish holiday most closely connected to the environment and natural world, Tu B’Shvat provides a yearly opportunity for teachers to include earth and environmental science in their curriculum. We’ve collected engaging and educational websites and apps that can find a place in both Judaic Studies and also enhance earth and environmental sciences curriculum.

Israel’s first college aimed specifically at students with autism, Asperger’s syndrome and complex learning disabilities is set to open in March 2016. According to the NRG news website, the BE Academic College will be a collaboration between Beit Ekstein, an organization that provides services to people with a variety of learning and developmental disabilities, and the Open University, a distance-learning institution with branches throughout the country. The new institution will be housed at Beit Ekstein’s campus in Givatayim, a suburb of Tel Aviv. It will offer three interdisciplinary tracks meant to prepare its target population for the workforce. The programs announced by the academy are psychology and education, economics and computer science, and psychology and communications.

The aim of the MOFET Center for Technology, Education and Cultural Diversity (The TEC Center) is to increase tolerance towards those different to ourselves and reduce stereotyping and prejudice. Very few pupils in the world get to learn with pupils who are different culturally as well as socio-economically to themselves. We know that this lack of connection leads to low tolerance towards others. The idea behind the TEC Center is to use technology to slowly get to know “the other” and to build trust gradually between the pupils.

We report on a multi-method study that seeks to explore if, how and why secondary teachers use Facebook (FB) to interact with their students. Issues of privacy, authority, and even abuse have fueled socio-political debates on the desirability of teacher–student FB contact, leading some authorities to curtail or even prohibit such contact. Proponents of harnessing Web 2.0 and Social media technology for learning purposes, on the other hand, have emphasized the many potential advantages for formal and informal learning. However, there is little empirical research on the scope, the nature and the purposes for secondary school teacher–student contact through social network sites. The present study makes a first step in this direction, by triangulating teacher survey data (N = 187) with in-depth teacher interviews (N = 11).

This issue of Hayidion presents a wealth of guidance and examples for day schools to stay on top of their game. Articles discuss how schools ensure that athletics stay informed by a school's mission, by embodying Jewish values and embracing inclusivity; how they can use sports as a vehicle for teaching about and fostering love for Israel; how a wide range of sports can bring out the best in students and faculty; and how schools can more broadly employ movement and teach healthy living.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is launching a “citizen history” project to examine Holocaust coverage during the 1930s and 1940s in local newspapers throughout the United States. Information about Nazi persecution and murder of Jews and others was available to the American public as it happened. This project will provide insight into how Americans—from ordinary citizens to the president—understood the threat of Nazism, perceived responsibility to respond to the Nazis’ expansionist and murderous goals, and dealt with the challenges that influenced response options. “Citizen historians” will be asked to engage in primary research using online databases, microfilm, and/or hardcopies of newspapers in local libraries, universities, and historical societies, and submit their resulting research data into a centralized online database.