150 Israeli teachers gathered from all over North America recently for the professional training conference of the Department of Education of the World Zionist Organization
These are teachers who chose to go on an educational mission overseas. During this period, for several years, the teachers teach various Jewish subjects in Jewish schools, including history, holidays, Talmud, and of course, Hebrew.
The teachers come from across the social spectrum in Israel and work in very diverse schools in the US, from ultra-Orthodox schools to public schools where Jewish students are a small minority. These emissaries are exposed to a different religious culture where families often place a fir tree next to the Hanukkah menorah.
The common denominator for these educators is the task of bringing Israel and its values into the school. In a reality where American Jewry is fighting for the continuity of the Jewish people, Jewish identity education is a critical component. That is why the communities invest significant resources in employing these teachers in their educational institutions.
Among the lecturers who came to the conference was journalist Ariel Schnabel who delivered a lecture to the teachers about the United States in general and American Jewry in particular. The educators got to know each other through in-depth tours tour of the academic institutions of American Jewry, including the orthodox Yeshiva University (YU) and the Jewish Theological Seminary ((JTS) of the Conservative stream.
Gael Grunewald, Vice-Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, said, "Your mission as emissaries is to educate about Jewish identity in a world where each of the following three words – education, identity and Judaism – is in question. In a pluralistic world where everything is true, who are you to educate in a certain way? Today, there is an escape from identity – an attempt to blur the identities – nationalism, ethnicity, gender and more – that define us. The challenge of preserving Judaism is something that we are less exposed to in Israel than here in the United States. Jewish identity and the continuity of the Jewish people is not a default. We need to choose and educate the next generation so that Jews remain Jewish."