Notice: Undefined index: und in include() (line 119 of /home/icenter/public_html/drupal/sites/all/themes/genesis_icenter/templates/node--voices_article.tpl.php).
Yesterday, in partnership with the Schusterman Family Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Marcus Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation, the iCenter hosted iThink: A New Look at Israel Education. For a full day, more than 80 organizational leaders, Jewish and Israel educators, funder representatives and scholars reflected on the emergence of the field of Israel Education and envisioned what the future could look like.
Israel education has been Anne's personal and professional passion for three decades. As a pioneer in cross-cultural education and teen travel to Eastern Europe and Israel, Anne is the Founder and former Executive Director of Shorashim, a nationally-recognized Israel education organization. She is regarded as the seminal figure in making the mifgash a central component of Israel educational programs, and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards for her pioneering work in this field. Anne received her M.A from the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU, and is a graduate of the Senior Educator Program at the Melton Centre of Hebrew University. She served as Director of Education at Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, Illinois and taught Hebrew at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, where she developed new methodologies of Hebrew language and culture instruction. Anne also has experience in the world of Jewish youth group and camp settings. Anne resides in Riverwoods, Illinois with her husband Barry and their three children.
Yadoa teda ki ger yihyeh zarecha b’eretz lo-lahem.
Know that your descendents will be strangers in a land not their own.
~ Genesis 15:13
The condition of being a stranger, a ger, is woven into Jewish identity. From Abraham through the present day, to be Jewish is to stand inside and outside ourselves at the same time. It is to be at home and to be a foreigner, or at least to have the awareness that we were once foreigners, at every moment.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson serves as Educational Director for Ask Big Questions, a national initiative of Hillel to promote civil dialogue on campuses throughout North America. He is a doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University, focusing on the intersection of American Jews and American higher education. From 2005-2011 Josh served as Campus Rabbi at Northwestern Hillel, and currently serves as a spiritual leader of the Evanston Orthodox Minyan. He is an alumnus of Yale University and was ordained by Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Josh blogs about Jewish life and education at www.rabbijosh.com
This past Tuesday, students from the MA Concentration in Israel education Program at Spertus Institute gathered in Toronto for a 2-day intensive seminar. To find out more about this, I got in touch Yehudit Werchow, a student in the program and the Central Shlicha at the Union for Reform Judaism, and with Michael Soberman, Director of the Canadian MAJPS program. Here’s what they had to say about the 2-day seminar, which focused on technology in education:
Aliza's commitment to Israel was originally formed in childhood during family trips to Israel from her home in Toronto, Canada. Since then, Aliza has tried to share her passion with as many people as possible, whether it was during the numerous trips to Israel that she led for high school, college students and young adults, or through her three years working at the Hillel Foundation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Most recently, Aliza served as Communications Director for Genesis and BIMA at Brandeis University, two residential summer programs for Jewish high school students. Aliza holds an MBA in Social Policy and Management and an M.A in Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University, as well as a B.A in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario. Aliza constantly has a craving for Burger's Bar, her favorite restaurant in Israel.
