Welcome to Israel Education

A Blocked Cave

According to Shmuel Yoseph Agnon’s “The Story of the Goat,” there was once a secret cave that led directly to the holy city of Safed in the Land of Israel. But because of the foolishness of human beings, an enormous rock came to rest at the cave’s entrance, obstructing passage to the Holy Land. Ever since that time, according to the story, access to Israel has been blocked.

That rock should have been rolled away in 1948 when the new State of Israel was created. But, alas, Israel remains an inaccessible place for many involved in Jewish life and education. The pamphlets in the new series known as the “Aleph Bet of Israel Education” are part of a concentrated effort to help displace the rock so that children and teens in twenty-first century North America can come to learn and love the site of many remarkable chapters in the history of the Jewish people – the contemporary State of Israel.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

What makes us so hopeful that we can now move the stone?  What is different about the second decade of the 21st century that promises better luck than the many well-intentioned past efforts to make Israel a an integral component of the Jewish education of the young in the elementary and secondary years?

Sometimes it takes time to make sense of monumental events.  It took until the Eichmann Trial in 1960 for world Jewry to wake up to the fact of the Holocaust and even longer for serious curricular work to take place. It took hundreds of years after the destruction of the second Temple and the Exile for Jews to reformulate the meaning of Israel in their lives. After over six decades of Israel’s existence, we need to “push the envelope” and find its rightful place in Jewish education.

Creating a comprehensive Israel education requires people, ideas, resources, and “stick-to-it-iveness.” There are increasing signs of a new generation of educators, academics, and philanthropists who are serious about this subject and ready to be in it for the long haul.

The cave has been opened in terms of travel to Israel. In the past decade, a revolution has taken place whereby unprecedented numbers of young Jews up to the age of 26 now actually go to Israel. The Israel trip has arrived as a seminal experience in Jewish life.

The subject of Israel is too important for us to continue to allow FOX News, USA Today, YouTube, and Facebook to be the “classroom” for Israel education. It is time for Jewish education to reclaim its mission in this arena. We shouldn’t wait until the crucial young adult years; educating the heart begins the day a child is born, and we must care for Israel in the hearts and heads of our young.

Revolutionary new concepts about learning, the mind, and education are emerging in our era, and these new ideas portend a whole new approach to what “Israel education” means.

These developments all point to the conclusion that now is the time to make the supreme effort to move the rock.

“It’s Aleph Bet- Abc!”

The phrase aleph bet in Hebrew means ‘alphabet’ and also is used (as in the English phrase “it’s A, B, C”) to refer to “obvious,” common sense, and basic core ideas. The group of educators, thinkers, and practitioners associated with the iCenter devoted time, thought, discussion, and writing to create a series of core ideas which reflect its understandings of a 21st-century approach to Israel education. These are ideas, not rules; insights, not dogma.  The phrase aleph betis used because these ideas seem fundamental and basic; but, in truth, the constellation of ideas is best visually represented as either a circle or a puzzle – and not a list – that together represents the magic called “education.”

The puzzle begins with the belief that Israel can significantly relate to the emergence of the Jewish being and character of the young, as they engage in the journey called life. Israel education is as much about shaping character, personality, mind and social connectedness, as it is about “furnishing an empty room with facts.” It’s actually a part of what our tradition, thousands of years ago, asked us to love “with all your heart, soul, and might!” We examine this new direction of viewing Israel education as related to Jewish identity development.

read Dr. Leonard Saxe’s Jewish Identity Development

These “aleph bets” reflect a learner-centered approach, which in no way minimizes the importance of Israel but, at the same time, maximizes the importance of the individual. The subject of our Israel education is the person, and our aim is to have contemporary Israel speak to the needs, interests, and future of that person. We examine various dimensions of the nature of today’s youth, including the ways in which they make connections.

read Dr. David Bryfman’s An I-Centered Approach to Jewish Generation Me

One of the “stones” that has blocked Israel education has been confusion about the terms Eretz Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael, and Am Yisrael. Is Israel Eretz Yisrael (“the Holy Land”) of the Siddurand the Tanach? Is it Medinat Yisrael, a contemporary state of malls and high tech? Or is it not even a place but a peoplehood (Am Yisrael)? These three terms are defined, analyzed and then put together as an organic whole to enable us to know what we want to teach.

read Dr. Zohar Raviv’s Eretz Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael, Am Yisrael: Negotiating Multiple Landscapes

Another hindrance in Israel education has undoubtedly been not with students, but with narrators and narratives. The core text does not consist of just one Israel story, or just one photograph. There are diverse narratives – most of which revolve around politics – both within Jewish life and between Jewish and non-Jewish perspectives. Indeed, for many educators, clergy, and community leaders, the dilemma of the narratives has often been the paralyzing factor in Israel education. We discuss the issue of narratives, propose five core narratives, and suggest an approach to teaching for narrative diversity.

read Dr. Barry Chazan’s Lenses & Narratives for Teaching Israel

One of the important teachings of the “new education” is an awareness of the diversity of learning styles, teaching styles, and accessibility of knowledge. Learning about “learning” tells us that people come to know, connect, feel, and internalize in diverse ways. No subject is more conducive to these new notions than contemporary Israel. Israel is best experienced in a multitude of ways: seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, feeling, reading, dancing and thinking. It even has a unique language which, if taught creatively, can be an entry point into the soul of a people and of a country. We discuss some diverse pathways into Israel – through arts, culture, and Hebrew language.

read Vavi Toran’s Contemporary Israeli Arts & Culture: The Power To Engage

read Lori Sagarin’s Modern Hebrew in Personal Identity Development

Israel education involves some core educational issues. But it ultimately is the art of the practical; it’s about teachers, materials, contents, settings, activities, benchmarks, measurement, and being ready for tomorrow’s classes. Educators need – and deserve – topics, subjects, and themes. They need curriculum and pedagogy. We discuss core curricular themes and pedagogic methodologies.

read Dr. Jan Katzew’s Curriculum & Israel: Principles & Themes

Israel education has one huge advantage that few of the other “subjects” of Jewish education have: it has Israel! There is a real, live, breathing place with buildings, streets, sites, history, cafes, parks, and most of all, people. Of all the research done about Jewish education, none is more conclusive or unanimous than the vast body of knowledge which unequivocally confirms the power, magic, and significance of a visit to Israel. Moreover, central to the experience of visiting Israel is the mifgashwith Israeli peers. The DNA of a person seems to be significantly altered by breathing the oxygen of Jerusalem on erev Shabbat, eating artikim(popsicles) with Israeli peers on a hike in the Galilee and seeing even the dogs and cats understanding Hebrew! The nature and components of the actual trip to Israel are explored.

read Adam Stewart’s Mifgash

read Clare Goldwater & Michael Soberman’s The Israel Experience

Finally, all education deserves and requires exceptional people.  The role of the teacher, the educator, the youth leader who knows Israelis, loves Israel, and breathes Israel, is crucial to make the diverse pieces of the puzzle come together. Israel education requires very special educators who, in Parker Palmer’s words, “reach from within” their souls to ignite the spiritual flame of Israel in everyone. Thoughts on this kind of person are explored.

read Lesley Litman’s The Educator &Israel Education

I The Dreamer

These pamphlets are not “how to” books. They are not “grilling for dummies” manuals. But these are only “pamphlets” and are inert until you hold them, talk to them, turn them over and over, agree, disagree – and enter into the dialogue.

May we together open the way through the cave to the hills of Safed, flowing with milk and honey.