Search results for: Communal education

Koolulam’s popularity has soared since it kicked off in Tel Aviv in April 2017, with Israelis jumping at the opportunity to come together with thousands of strangers — to sing. The NIS 40 ($11.50) tickets for recent Koolulam events have sold out in mere minutes. In under an hour, participants learn a three-part arrangement of a Hebrew or English song, and then perform it for a video to be shared on social media. Views of the videos reach into the hundreds of thousands, and millions in some cases.

Rabbi Joy Leasked herself founded the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative designed to “revolutionize Jewish education for children,” five years ago. The JJP is rooted in a flexible model for children in 3rd-7th grades, and offers courses held at several partner synagogues and at the JCC Manhattan weekly from Monday-Thursday. The program takes advantage of rich opportunities to engage outside of the classroom, making use of the vast Jewish resources of New York City. In addition, the Jewish Journey Project offers small classes and different learning modalities aimed at resonating with all families, including those with children who have special needs. There’s also a learning specialist on the JJP staff that can help families choose which classes might work best for children.

Several years ago an Israeli came to my synagogue, Bais Abraham Congregation in St. Louis, Missouri, and told me there was one thing secular Israelis desperately wanted from the Jewish community: a school to teach their children to read and write the Hebrew language. Realizing this was an opportunity to engage secular Israelis on their own terms, and perhaps eventually to engage them in the Jewish community and religious life, we opened a synagogue based religious school specifically for the children of self-identifying secular Israelis. We staffed the school with experienced Israeli language teachers and used opportunities like Jewish holidays to teach the students about Jewish life, about which, to their parents' chagrin, they know almost nothing.

Jewish educators across the country have experimented, wrestled, and explored Israel education in many ways. While some have successfully launched meaningful educational experiences, others struggle to teach a topic that is foreign to many of our teachers and also raises many contentious conversations in our communities. In our three communities – Houston, Cleveland and San Francisco – we have taken a communal approach to bringing meaningful Israel education to learners in part-time settings. We recently had the opportunity to share these initiatives with each other through our participation in Shinui: The Network for Innovation in Part-Time Jewish Education. While our communities each offer different unique approaches to Israel education, we found that we had all experienced some success in this arena by focusing on it through a communal lens.