Organization: Jewish Community High School of Gratz College
Website of Organization: www.gratz.edu/jchs
Favorite Place in Israel: I have so many favorite places in Israel!! I can only narrow the list down to two. The first is David Ben Gurion’s gravesite in Sde Boker. It is so amazingly beautiful!! The second is my adoptive family’s (from my participation in Project Otzma) house in Kiryat Ekron. I always feel like I am coming back “home” when I visit.
How has Israel played a part in your personal Jewish identity? The concept of “Klal Yisrael” is a significant part of my Jewish identity. I grew up in a city with a small Jewish community and always felt like my true self when I was with people with shared beliefs, history and experiences. This feeling is intensified during my times in Israel, and it’s a feeling I am able to carry with me when I’m not there.
Who was the educator who most influenced your path to Jewish education? Describe the effect that they had on you. There hasn’t been one person who has been influencial, but during one significant stage in my life, there have been a number of people. My path began during my time in a Jewish youth group. Everyone I came across during this experience was signficant, from the advisors who treated us with respect and trust, to the older teen leaders who I admired and wanted to emulate, and then the younger members who I was able to influence and make a difference in their own Jewish journeys. This was my first taste of what it means to be a passionate Jewish educator, and I can honestly say that I would be a different person without this experience.
If you had the ability to build the landscape of Jewish education, what would it look like? - in 140 characters or less. Jewish education would be a seamless, life-long experience which would integrate the best practices of formal and informal education. There would be no question that a Bar or Bat Mitzvah marks the beginning of a new stage in one’s Jewish educational experiences. And, these post-Bar and Bat Mitzvah experiences will be developed to meet the needs of a teen population who continue to grow and nurture their own Jewish identities.
What are you looking forward to most in the InCiTE Fellowship? Sharing this experience with like-minded professionals who feel we can truly make transformational differences in the lives of our Jewish teens.
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