Supplementary ewish Education: What Can Be Done?

The Autumn 2007 issue of Contact, the journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life just came out, and the topic is "Supplementary Jewish Education: What Can Be Done?"

Editor Eli Valley writes in his opening piece:

"... for the majority of American Jews, afternoon schools are and will continue to be the preferred venue of Jewish education. Instead of declaring the demise of Hebrew schools, the community should recommit itself to making afternoon schools work ... afternoon schools can take the initiative in creating innovative, dynamic and rewarding Jewish educational experiences ... that can help form the cornerstone of a revivified Jewish life."

The issue includes an article by yours truly on the full-time teacher model at Central Synagogue in New York. This is, to my knowledge, the first time that a description of this initiative has appeared on the web. I conclude:

"...It seems self-evident that having more qualified and better compensated teachers working longer hours with more responsibilities outside the classroom will improve a religious school program. The real value of such a shift, however, is the opportunity it provides to align the school’s curriculum, prayer experiences, and social justice activities with the vision and values of the synagogue as a whole. The integration of the religious school faculty into the daily life of the synagogue and the lives of its families provides new potential for building communities of learning and engaged Jewish living. True institutional transformation will come not only from improved pedagogy, but also from the creation of meaningful communal experiences outside the classroom."

Of course, no issue could cover everything - for me, the conspicuous absence is anything relating to technology - but this issue certainly provides one of the most accessible overviews of new trends in supplementary education currently available. Enjoy!

Pluralism, Diversity, and Jewish Education

I am pleased to report that my article "A New Kind of Diversity: Jewish Education in a Pluralistic Society" appears in the Fall 2007 issue of Jewish Education News.

The issue, on "The 21st Century Jewish Learner and the 21st Century Jewish Educator," features several excellent articles on the impact of technology on Jewish education and community, as well as pieces on Jewish professional networks, teacher training, early childhood and older adult learners, and so on. Enjoy!

Back in the USA

Liz and I are back in NYC and back in Bubbie's apartment on the Yuppie Waste Side.

As posting mailing addresses on a blog in this country results in the receipt of copious quantities of spam and junk mail, you're not going to see them here. But I'm still a friendly sort of fellow, and not that hard to locate if you're looking for me.

I'll keep updating the links to the right as time allows.

Reflections on the Hazon/Arava Ride, One Month Later

It has been just over a month since I completed the Hazon/Arava Institute Bike Ride from Jerusalem to Eilat. I wanted to share with you a few impressions that have stayed with me and a few reflections.

First, thanks to the generous support of our donors, Team Liz raised $8,224, impressively exceeding our goal of $7500. Truthfully, we are even more proud of the fact that this amount represents 99 separate donations, from individuals and families, friends and colleagues, Jews and non-Jews, from high school students to grandparents. This diversity among our supporters mirrored the diversity of the ride itself; in particular, I was astonished and delighted by the number of parents riding with children – and not only teenagers with their adult dads, but also adults who came along with their mom or dad (or both!).

The ride was, as expected, the greatest physical challenge of my life: 350 miles over the course of five days of riding, from Jerusalem to Eilat. It is indeed as beautiful as it sounds.

The ascents ranged from difficult to nearly impossible, but I am proud to say that somehow I managed. One moment stands out in my memory: At the base of the Makhtesh Gadol (the “Big Crater” - which I learned on the ride is not technically a “crater,” as it is usually translated, but the image should still work for you), at the end of our 2nd day of riding – a day that consisted almost exclusively of riding uphill (we started at the Dead Sea) – my friend and future colleague Rabbi Leon Morris and I looked up to the heights, at the extreme limits of our energy, and did what any good rabbi (him) and Jewish educator (me) would do: Started singing psalms: “Esa einai el heharim, me-ayin yavo ezri?” “I lift my eyes to the mountains – where shall my help come from? My help shall come from God, who created heaven and earth, he will not let your legs fail!” We couldn’t remember exactly which psalm this was, but in any case – we both made it up to the top. Well, I walked most of the way – but I made it nonetheless. Here is a photo of Leon and me at morning services at the beginning of the fourth day of riding.

The downhills made all the climbing worthwhile and I can say without hesitation that over the five days of riding I experienced the most exhilarating bicycling of my life, screaming down the hills of the Negev and finally down through the mountains of Eilat. Incredible! You can actually view a video of this final downhill, shot by rider David Eisenberg, at – it doesn’t get interesting until several minutes in, so you might want to skip forward. And, kudos to David for calling out while passing riders! There’s other videos, photos, and so on, for those interested, at the Hazon website.

On Friday night, I led the “alternative” worship service for 60 or 70 people, on guitar, accompanied by three drummers. The group included kids and adults, people who normally prayed at Reform congregations and Orthodox congregations and everything else you could imagine, and a smattering of people who’d never been to services before, some because they weren’t Jewish. We sang and prayed for peace and for unity and for strength, and I think we all walked away feeling hopeful.

Nevertheless, the most inspirational part of the ride was not the scenery, nor even the participants, but hearing from the primary beneficiaries of our fundraising at the Arava Institute at a panel on Shabbat afternoon. These 20somethings who come together from Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan to study environmental science shared stories of skeptical families and unsupportive friends, and detailed with great honesty the prejudices they had to overcome in order to share rooms, meals, and classes with students from “the other side.” That they succeed year after year in building real friendships and working towards a healthier ecology in the Middle East is a tremendous achievement.

And so, Liz and I express our deep and heartfelt thanks to all of you who sponsored us for the ride. And don’t worry about whether you’ll be hearing from us, you know we’ll be hitting you up again soon!

Where I've been...

Why should Jews care about a bike ride?

This May, I will join with 179 other riders in a 300-mile, 5-day ride from Jerusalem to Eilat.

I hope that everyone reading this needs no convincing that we are currently dealing with a wide variety of extremely serious environmental concerns that will have long-lasting impact upon the planet. For me, for religion to have any meaning at all, it must be able to provide guidance in responding to such pressing issues. I believe that the Jewish tradition indeed provides a starting point. Here are three such ideas:

1. Blessings (“Brachot”). We are taught to have a moment of reflection and appreciation before and after eating, connecting ourselves with the whole process by which we are nourished -- a process which involves many people across the world and responsible care for the planet that provides our food. We are also taught to say a blessing each time we hear thunder, see an ocean, smell fresh fruit . . . in fact, our days are filled with opportunities to make a connection with the natural world around us, with awe and gratitude.

Abraham Joshua Heschel taught that "prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive;" each time we say one of these blessings can be an opportunity to take our gratitude one step further by taking responsibility. These blessings can be a call to social justice and accountability.

2. The Stories of our People. Call them the Jewish identity-myths if God-talk makes you roll your eyes, but they still contain important truths that don't get trivialized in the retelling. To give just one example: Noah's ark. The whole 2 of every species thing asserts the importance of biodiversity; building the ark and bringing on the animals is a metaphor for our responsibility to be the caretakers of that biodiversity.

Certainly, not every Jewish story sounds like something written by Greenpeace, but there are enough to fill up a Sunday School curriculum. To me, I'd prefer it if my Jewish education taught me that for centuries upon centuries, at least some of my ancestors cared enough about the environment to pass along these stories.

3. Ethics. I don't think I am speaking out of turn when I say that for all of us who were in youth group together, tikkun olam (repairing the world) is central to our understanding of why be Jewish instead of nothing at all. We care about making the world a little bit better for ourselves and for others. There are a whole medley of Jewish concepts that cover environmental issues, and they weren't invented at the first Earth Day celebration in 1970.

For example, the concept of "bal tashchit" (not senselessly wasting) demands that we weigh our pressing human needs (for comfort, security, convenience) against a larger backdrop of their impact on others and upon the planet (resource depletion, destruction of beautiful places, creation of health hazards). It isn't a stretch to think about reduce/reuse/recycle" in this context. The beauty of it, to me, is that there isn't a prescriptive answer - just an obligation to take responsibility, to be conscious that the impact of our actions is often greater than we realize - and so to act carefully and with consideration.

Now, you may be thinking at this point, all that's great, but what does it have to do with a bike ride? Well, the bicycle is a terrific, non-polluting form of transportation. Part of it, I think, is just that a whole bunch of people doing a long bike ride attracts attention - and raising awareness about environmental issues is a key concern here in Israel. Part of it, for sure, is the whole "a-thon" philosophy (can he really do it? I'd pay money to see him get on a bike for that length of time!). And, also, it's just a gimmick to bring together people who care about the environment and care about Judaism.

The thing is, though, it’s a gimmick that works: Hazon has been incredibly successful at building community among Jews with an incredible range of political and religious sensibilities. For a great number of those people, Hazon is the only “Jewish” thing in their lives.

It seems self-evident to me that Judaism ought to be concerned with the quality of the air, water, and earth in the “Holy Land.” The Hazon Arava ride is more than a means for raising awareness – and funds – for Israeli environmental issues. Because the ride brings together Israeli Jews and Arabs as well as Jordanians, Palestinians, and people from other countries, it provides an opportunity for people who care about this land to come together on an issue of mutual concern. I believe that working together to build a livable natural environment in the Middle East and fighting for environmental justice provides a key opportunity to work towards resolving the political and social problems of the region.

I’m proud of the fundraising I have done for Hazon in the past and I hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to the ride.

Presenting at Limmud NY

I will be an invited presenter at Limmud NY: Jewish Learning without Limits.

Limmud NY is a Jewfusion experience that invites Jews of diverse backgrounds and all ages to come together for a long weekend to form a community that celebrates Jewish life. It is a dynamic, creative, and interactive environment, run almost exclusively by volunteers, which fosters personal growth and learning.

The list of sessions I will be presenting is now available on-line, as is the entire schedule.