EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING

Over the last 20 plus years, the leadership of Jewish day schools around the world have realized the impact of institutions and programs of experiential Jewish education and what they provide that schools struggle to. The importance of incorporating the best practice of experiential Jewish education into the day school graduate’s educational and religious journey is clear for all to see. With more than 30 years of experience in informal and formal Jewish education, I am in a unique position to be able to consult with school leadership on how best to do this, and to train school faculty and personnel on the theory and practice of experiential Jewish education.

Since developing the Koren Magerman Educational Siddurim Series, I have had the opportunity to witness many diverse schools around the world and their programs of tefilla education, spoken to many tefilla educators, and spent significant time thinking and writing about tefilla education. There are no easy answers to this challenging area of the Jewish day school curriculum (or in fact many other educational institutions where tefilla is a central educational element) but there are many creative approaches that can be employed and experimented with to make tefilla a more meaningful and educational experience. From my experience in this field, I can offer consultations with educational leadership, as well as workshops, seminars, and training for tefilla educator specialists.

Even before the global pandemic of 2020/21, online learning was proving to be a powerful educational tool. My experience, both as a teacher and administrator in this field dates back more than ten years ago to the early days of experimentation with online remote instruction. The field has come a long way from those early days, and of course has been intensely scrutinized and advanced in response to the experience of the pandemic. I can help you think through both a short-term “war-time” model to cope with the current emergency situation, as well as a long-term an integrated “peace-time” approach for the future, including the training of faculty.

Israel education has been central to my career as an educator from the very beginning, in many diverse educational contexts, including youth movements, camp, Jewish Day Schools, and gap-year Israel programs. My specialties include curriculum development and implementation, integrating Israel education and experiential education, and educational tourism.

“Who is wise? He who learns from every person.” Avot 4:1

Teacher education and professional development is vital for the continuing professional development of the practitioner, addressing the continuously changing reality of the 21st century world of Jewish education. Areas of expertise in educational professional development include:

• Tefilla education in the classroom

• Bringing the methodology of experiential education into the classroom

• Jewish educational leadership through Jewish texts

• Online teaching

What would an educational system based on the thought of Rabbi Sacks tz”l look like? Since the death of Rabbi Sacks, those who considered him their teacher, Rabbi, and religious inspiration, have been charged with the task of actualizing his vision for the Jewish people and the wider world which he laid out for us so eloquently in his writings and speeches. I have begun to think what this may look like through education, with the very initial thoughts laid out in this article. The next stage is to develop and implement these ideas in a school (or camp or other educational institution) setting.