Ask yourself: How often do we continue to hear the same laments from educators about teaching Israel in Jewish day schools? Allow me to offer a sample of the eight most commonly expressed below.
“This was a great workshop, I learned so much, but I can’t bring this back to my school because I’m afraid of upsetting parents and I don’t know if I will lose my job.”
“I am not sure it’s age-appropriate to teach young people about war and conflict.”
“I’m not qualified or knowledgeable enough to engage students in difficult conversations about Israel.”
“I don’t think I can be unbiased when teaching students; I’m very passionate about my views and I want students to love Israel.”
“The modern state does not live up to my expectations, so I avoid bringing it up in class.”
“We teach about Israel on the Yoms…”
“There isn’t enough time to do Israel education justice, and history just keeps growing every day!”
“As a graduate of a Jewish day school, I feel ill-equipped to engage in on-campus and in workplace conversations about Israel…my teachers lied to me.”
Now consider the following. With all the calls and suggestions for post October 7th Israel education, how many schools are actually engaged in transformative change that addresses deep underlying challenges raised by educators from long before then? How many schools are engaged only in transactional additives that placate the need for a timely and tone-sensitive response to the continually unfolding crisis?
I can attest that there are a small but significant and growing number of schools that are committed to long-term transformational change. Here are five shared components of their successes:
Transformative schools have cultivated a shared faculty and parent culture. This culture provides clarity about the mission and vision of Israel education, with specific language about who delivers it, when and where it is incorporated into the program, and why it is vital to the community. These schools also have a detailed profile of a graduate the school aspires to foster vis-à-vis what they know and can do with their Israel literacy.
Israel is no longer relegated to the Judaics Studies portion of the day, as a sliver of time at the expense of holidays, prayer, text study, and more. Rather, it is purposefully integrated into humanities, arts, and sciences all year round. All faculty members, Jewish and non-Jewish, are engaged in lifelong Israel learning to model for students that it is relevant to our lives and is as worthy a pursuit as math.
Israel education incorporates primary sources so that students are grounded in history, context and reliable, trustworthy sources. Significant instruction around skills of critical consumption of information is conducted to help debunk unfounded narratives and convenient omissions in support of bias.
Israel conversations happen in safe and brave spaces, with teachers as facilitators who do not share their own leanings. Students are free to pursue lines of question and debate without fear of penalty in grade or social reprisals.
Conversations about current events include a healthy dose of wonder and humility, given that many sources may not become public record for decades due to confidential security and privacy needs. Transformational schools do not seek to judge Israel or take stances, but ask students, parents, faculty and the broader community to attempt an informed, deeper understanding of its policies and actions, based on other cases in Jewish and world history, while accounting for Israel’s unique challenges and successes.
Six years ago, when Israel celebrated its 70th Independence Day, Professor Ken Stein described Israel as unfinished, as an evolving state with open-ended domestic and foreign policy issues. He compared it to the unresolved issues of the United States in 1846, and then asked if the U.S. is considered “finished” today. Watching Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously order the military to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men (who’ve long been exempt from service), I am reminded that we are witnessing and experiencing not only collective painful trauma, but also historic developments in Jewish sovereignty and self-determination; in this case the young state defines its balance of religious and democratic norms. Seismic changes may take days or decades, checks and balances on power may seem chaotic or overdue, and we may feel pride or disappointment, but Jewish freedom and sovereignty must endure.
This is a call for courageous leadership in Jewish day schools; for people who heed the call to foster the next generation of Jews, who in turn see themselves as active participants in the nation’s future. You too can bring about transformational change in your school, and we are poised to offer tools and support at every step of the way.
Dr. Tal Grinfas-David, head of TGDConsulting, consultant to the Center for Israel Education (CIE), former mentor to Emory University student interns, and DEEP Consortium member, shares key insights from years of coaching Jewish day schools to embrace transformative change.