A Purim Special

I have always been enthralled with the holiday of Purim and the Book of Esther. The first unit I ever designed to teach was of the book of Esther. I explored its satiric storytelling use to create a blueprint for a diaspora community struggling to survive and maintain its Jewish identity amidst great assimilation and mortal threats. I think it went over most of those eighth graders heads.

The Book of Esther provides the basis for celebrating the holiday of Purim. Amidst a story of threatened genocide and a "miraculous" turn of events leading to revenge, the authors of the book of Esther provide a response intended to guide the diaspora community of Jews against future threats and long term sustainability. Yet unlike many other biblical guides, the book of Esther avoids any religious, theological or even the centrality of a homeland in their prescription for future success.

In Esther, Chapter 9, Queen Esther and Mordechai, the Jew, instruct the Jews, and subsequent generations to observe a holiday of feasting a drinking. During this holiday, the people are instructed to partake in four activities to remember their history and commemorate their victory. In a world of upheaval, where only by "turning things upside down" can the Jews be safe, these four activities serve as a guide to securing the one element that will provide for the future:

1. Mishloach Manot: The giving of a portion to another
2. Matanot L'evyonim: Gifts to the Poor
3. Seudat Purim: The Purim Feast
4. Megillat Esther: A Public Reading of the Book of Esther (twice)

These four activities provide the means to create COMMUNITY, in varied ways. Gift giving and feasting occur within the private domain, with close friends and family.  The reading of the holiday's narrative and providing monies to the poor occur within the public domain within a broader circle of one's community. Each emphasizes a different aspect of sustaining relationships, and relating community to past, present and future.

Here is an article exploring this theme within the Mitzvot of Purim: http://www.jewishmag.co.il/111mag/purimmitvot/purimmitvot.htm
 
So in the spirit of Purim, I would like to borrow from these four mitzvot and apply them to the field of Jewish education. Much has been said about the importance of Jewish education to do the very thing that Esther and Mordechai fought so hard for: to create a vital Jewish people in the face of assimilation outside of the land of Israel. To do this, we must enure that our community of Jewish educators remains strong and vital.

I propose the following for activities for Jewish educational leaders:

1. Mishloach Manot: As Rav Shmuel Herzfeld explains in this article, in lieu of gifts of food, we can share Torah with others. Jewish educational leaders should find ways to openly share their wisdom and understanding. It is not just a matter of self aggrandizement, but rather in spirit of building community that each and every Jewish educational leader should create a blog, a twitter account and facebook account to be a part of a larger professional learning network and share their "Torah" with others.
2. Matanot L'evyonim: Jewish educational institutions struggle even to provide the highest quality of educational services to their consumers/members/constituents/students, but it is imperative to fully strengthen our community for the long term that Jewish education also concern itself with those beyond its walls. How can educational leaders provide educational opportunities to those in need of quality Jewish education, but may not be able to afford it, access it or be ready for it. Projects like Harkham Hillel Academy's Project Kesher are great stars.
3. The Purim feast: This is intended as a joyous way to bring people together to celebrate, be merry and connect. Unlike the Shabbat dinner, there are no Shabbat restrictions or rituals. This is the Thanksgiving dinner for the Jews. So let's remember to give thanks and be merry. It is so critical to bring your stakeholders together to celebrate the many accomplishments of your institution. This includes your faculty, staff, board, lay leaders, parents, volunteer AND students. By celebrating together we appreciate each other and the roles we play in creating success.
4. Reading the Story: Every institution should share its history. Thankfully many institutions have proven success over time, but as time passes and generations of students move in, it is critical to be reminded why the school originated, what community it was intended to serve and all those that have sacrificed for its success. Yet, even when creating a mythology around history, be very careful to remember to lessons of the Megillat Esther. Being able to satirize one's narrative, and poke fun at one's authority figures is what enables creativity and innovation to thrive, rather than fear and survivalism.

These four activties, inspired by Purim, serve as a worthy guide to creating stronger community through Jewish education, internally and externally. There is one more aspect of Purim, coming from the term V'nahafoch Hu, meaning "it was turned upside down." This reference from the Book of Esther, provided over time as a source for other Purim customs, including masquerading, drinking during the Purim Feast and the Purim Shpiel (Play) and carnival. While these customs bring much joy to children, bring about false parallels to Halloween and enhance the spirit of the Purim feast, they also provide a final lessons for Jewish education.

1. Don't take yourself so seriously
2. Don't forget to leave time for play.
3. Don't forget it is all about the children.

Here is a brilliantly Purimy, Stupid Video my former students did for the Jewish Journal

Happy Purim and get ready, it's just one month until Passover.

Partnership for a Day School & Informal/Supplementary Jewish Education

Having walked both sides of the proverbial fence, I find myself highly interested in the tug-of-war between Jewish day schools and Jewish informal/supplementary education (specifically religious/Hebrew school models either synagogue or community based). As an educator, I have worked in religious schools and day schools. As a parent, I have children in both.

Both day schools and informal/supplementary education models have the same end goal: to create/cultivate knowledgeable and active members of the Jewish community. The meanings and definitions of creating and cultivating, knowledgeable and active, will vary for sure. But in truth, the end result is we want our children and students to know what it means to be Jewish, to want to be Jewish, and to live a Jewish life. The path to that end goal varies with the educational model – as it should.

The Pesach Haggadah references Four Children: wise, wicked, simple, and one who doesn’t know how to ask. The very story of our exodus and the meaning of the Pesach Seder are discussed from four different perspectives as a result. This fundamental lesson is often overlooked. If we must teach our tradition at the Seder to our children at their level, in a way they can understand and accept, then our educational models should reflect that everywhere. Children (and their families) have different needs and different interests. Day schools are not for everyone and neither are supplemental schools. What has always puzzled me is why it has to be an either or proposition.

Day schools and supplementary education have different paths. Instead of forcing families to choose one, why not allow them to straddle the fence and follow both? My oldest son was in a day school. It was not a positive learning experience for him. When we put him in a public school, he was simultaneously enrolled in a synagogue based religious school to pursue a Jewish education. My family participates in both day school and religious school life. Friends and fellow educators are puzzled – what we are doing is surely redundant and unnecessary. I disagree.

It is a fact that both day schools and informal/supplementary education models are suffering right now. Both are facing problems and are at a critical point where change is both inevitable and necessary. 21^st century education is here, and we need to rise to the occasion and welcome the challenge it presents to Jewish education. Judaism can be accessed in so many ways now, without ever leaving the house – we need to provide the relevancy and incentive for people to connect in the physical community and in our educational environments. People no longer have to come to a physical building or space to learn, to form a community, or access extensive knowledge. Websites abound with information about ritual and reason, tradition and text, prayers and Tanakh. There are ways to study Hebrew online – and with native Hebrew speakers for maximum efficiency and learning. Virtual communities online can provide a community connection and collaborative environment for some people. It is our task to find a way to take the abundance of offerings in the virtual world, bring them into the physical space of our schools and educational experiences, and make it all work. We have to ask ourselves what we have to offer beyond what someone can get on their own; what we can do to bring those amazing possibilities into our spaces.

As a day school educator, I am faced with a particularly strong dilemma. Parents do have other options for secular education and for religious education. Day schools are no longer “the” place for a serious Jewish education; informal and supplementary schools have become serious contenders and work hard to provide a solid educational foundation for their students. There are parents that are strongly pro-day schools and parents that are strongly pro-supplementary/informal education models. A large portion of the population is waiting to see, choosing between the offerings based on their needs and desires. Both models are doing something right, both have major strengths. Collaboration and learning between the models will help strengthen both. There is room for everyone – and we can learn from each other.

What the collaboration between day schools and informal Jewish education could look like needs exploring. More importantly – the idea needs to be considered more fully and a substantial conversation needs to take place. One place I want to begin that conversation is at NewCAJE . CAJE collapsed in the wake of the financial scandal and crisis; it was a tremendous loss. NewCAJE has begun and is not replacing CAJE, but reinventing it. CAJE was long the reigning domain of professional developing and networking for informal Jewish educators and professionals. Day school educators were never successfully integrated into the fold, instead they were a separate part of the family that was largely uninvolved. NewCAJE has the incredible opportunity to bridge the gap and bring the two worlds of Jewish education together, to start the conversation and explore the possibilities. Join NewCAJE; come to the second conference (check out the Young Professionals area), be a part of the conversation.

Last year I attended the first NewCAJE conference and Young Professionals post-conference institute. As part of the main conference, I took advantage of conference sessions. These weren’t limited to professional development but also spiritual and personal development. I was one of five or so day school educators present. A few of us offered sessions – and the attendees weren’t day school educators; they were people from all over the spectrum of Jewish learning. They learned something from us – and we learned something from them. In one evaluation, an attendee for one of my sessions said “I was surprised that a day school teacher could make something relevant to me as a religious school teacher. I came to this session without high hopes and I’m leaving with something that I can do and use.” At the post conference Young Professionals institute, a group of young professionals came together for the first time as part of this new organization. We discussed what Jewish education is right now – but more importantly what it could and should be for the future. We formed relationships with other educators and discussed the challenges we all face. I found that the problems aren’t as unique as one might suppose. We highlighted some issues we each are passionate about and began planning ways to address them. NewCAJE is just getting started; we have the opportunity to truly shape what it becomes. It’s rare that an opportunity like this come to fruition; we would benefit greatly from taking advantage of it. The power of any group is in its members. NewCAJE needs a diversity of members from the Jewish professional world; day school and informal/supplementary educators need to come together and shape an educational landscape that will be effective and enduring for all of us.