During the history of the Jewish people, we have often been in conflict with the outside world. We struggle with how to honor and learn from the cultures and wisdom in the world around us, while also protecting ourselves from adversaries who all too often intend to harm or negate our way of life. Attempts to reconcile the tension between Jewish tradition and secular modernity have had mixed outcomes. Today, it is more important than ever to better prepare our students to grapple with this dialectic. 

In my work as a Jewish makerspace educator, I’ve had the opportunity to work with students on the intersection of Judaism and the secular world. This year, I found myself in a microcosm of this challenge, one that symbolizes our journey through a world that doesn't always align with our values. A complex situation arose for a group of students, as together we faced a dilemma: How to bring our Judaism to our robotics team, and how then to handle a championship meet scheduled to take place on Shabbat? This story can serve as a metaphor for broader challenges that day schools face today.

Bringing real-world learning into our classrooms is essential. Each year, more students ask me why they need to learn Torah. Regretfully, students simply can't imagine why they need this learning after the school bell rings each day. In response, I ask you to imagine a classroom where learning isn't confined to texts but extends to solving real-life problems—like building a robot. This approach isn't new; thinkers like John Dewey and Ron Berger have long argued for education that prepares students for the real world. Judaism explored this idea long before those educational theorists emerged. For Jewish day schools, it's about blending secular knowledge with Judaic learning, ensuring our students are prepared for the world outside while remaining firmly rooted in their identity. As Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm wrote in his book Torah U’mada, we must peer at this knowledge through the lens of Judaism, and not the other way around.

When I set out to start a middle school robotics team at Berman Hebrew Academy at the start of this year, I received some reasonable pushback. Why was I bothering exposing students to a program whose culmination they ultimately couldn't participate in given that the championship meet was slated to take place on a Saturday? The thought was to let the students learn robotics but not ultimately compete, since there was no way that the organization would accommodate Sabbath observance. The apogee of our story—the robotics championship—surfaces a pivotal question: How do we balance our Jewish identities in a world that most often doesn't pause for Shabbat? Jewish day schools are more than just educational institutions; they are places where we teach our children to navigate these waters, finding harmony between their faith and personal passions. 

In a world before October 7th, we simply worried about not competing on Shabbat, but as we got closer to the competition, other concerns arose. We saw what was happening across the world at major universities and schools in our area. We worried deeply about whether we would be met with vitriol when it came to competition day. We held these concerns but trudged on in our preparation and learning. We prepared for the qualifying competition as best we could and were slotted in an early qualifying match, one of just a few held on a Sunday. As a rookie team, our expectations were low but our spirits were high. As Jews, we wondered what the world outside of our school would hold for us: would we be met with opposition at the competition, or would we be welcomed warmly? We talked about adaptability and resilience with our students, well-known characteristics in Jewish history, and what we would do if things didn’t go our way. We decided to lean in. By encouraging creativity and real-world problem-solving in education, we were not only preparing students for the challenges of today but also honoring our cultural legacy of adaptation and perseverance. We brought Judaism to the forefront of our competition and approached our problems through the wisdom of our sages.

We never expected to make it to the state championships. When we did, I expected the worst. Had I just set these middle schoolers up for disappointment, and had I prepared them well enough to grapple with what was to come? We expected to be told that we couldn't participate and that our students’ journey would end there. Rather than letting it lie, I went back and forth with the First Lego League and discussed with my students every possible situation. We were the first Orthodox Jewish team to make it to the state championships! The League had never dealt with this kind of accommodation. We talked about what it would mean to be told no. We all agreed as a team to stand tall and stand with Shabbat, and also to ask for what we had earned as a team.

Eventually, the First Lego League made space for us when they agreed to let us compete on the Wednesday before the tournament and to hold our results until all the other teams had competed. Then our results would be displayed on the board at the event alongside all other teams’ outcomes. 

The journey of our robotics team is a testament to what happens when faith, innovation, and education come together. Our team’s decision-making process, dedication to Shabbat observance, and creative solutions exemplify how Jewish education can empower students to shine in the secular world without compromising their Jewish way of life. This could have gone another way. We might have easily been met with negativity, animosity, or a simple rejection of the requested accommodation. Even so, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Our students learned a valuable lesson, grappling with what it means to be a Jew in this world. Sometimes others will let us in, other times they will hold us at arm’s length. This time, we were a part of the story as a collective, both within our Jewish culture and within the secular world of robotics.

Our story is more than a narrative of challenge and resolution. It's a call to action for stakeholders in the North American Jewish day school ecosystem: to embrace the challenge of fostering an environment where Jewish education thrives on innovation and real-world learning even when it is messy, even when students may encounter disappointment or rejection, and even when success, like placing in the finals, may lead to additional challenges for the school and for our students as individuals. Together, we can ensure our tradition stands tall within the modern world, not as a separate entity, no matter the barriers.

Rabbi Tzvi Hametz is the director of STEM Education and Innovation and the Director of Education Technology at the Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville MD]. He is also the founder and chief executive tinker of Bottled Lightning Labs. Rabbi Hametz operates at the crossroads of tradition and technology in all areas of his work and life and is dedicated to enriching Jewish education through innovative playful approaches, and real-world learning.