The Courage to Change: Transforming Jewish Education

Like many Jewish kids in the 1990s (or now), I didn’t love going to Sunday school, nor did I get much out of it. I remember being handed my Yiddish textbook, and the expectation was for me to go through the lessons on my own, or with friends. Except for the big moments (decorating the sukkah, making gauze masks for Purim, the end of year field trips to 7-11 and of course my Bat Mitzvah), most of my Sunday school experience was unforgettable at best.

When I began to teach Sunday and Hebrew school when I was in college, it was my mission to make sure that my students had fun. It was through my time teaching in East Lansing, MI and seeing the challenges of providing meaningful and experiential experiences for my students in the Sunday school classroom that e had me thinking that there had to be another (better) way.

Starting in the early 20th century, when our grandparents and great-grandparents came to the United States, their main goal was to become American, and the most patriotic thing they could do as new Americans was to send their children to public schools. To ensure that their children not only received an American education, but also a Jewish education, they “modernized” Jewish learning by creating supplementary Jewish schools, and they modeled them after the public schools. Their greatest hope was for their children and grandchildren would assimilate into American life.

Now that that hope has been realized, we must also now accept that the way we have been doing Jewish education, has met its purpose. Jewish Americans have changed, the needs of children and their families have changed, and yet the model of supplementary Jewish education has primarily stayed the same as it was when our grandparents and great-grandparents came here 100 years ago.

Here at Temple Beth Shalom, we are very proud of our Sunday and Hebrew educational programming, however, we also accept that new ideas, new energy, and new models are needed to move us into the 21st century of Jewish education.

It is with this mindset that the we have convened the Re-Imagine Religious School Task Force, bringing together parents, teachers and temple staff, to explore the vision and future of our educational programming at Temple Beth Shalom. These individuals were chosen to serve on Task Forces because they bring the diverse perspectives, ideas, and energy that are needed to represent our 21st century families and lead our congregation on this new journey.

Since we have convened, our Task Force has embarked on a journey where we began by looking inward--looking to our own pasts and what Jewish educational experiences have been meaningful to us and what “Jewish artifacts” represent our Jewish journeys. We have established a base of knowledge about our current school by looking at where we started, where we are now and the changes that have happened over the years. We have learned, discussed and explored the reasons why this work is important, and what Judaism teaches us about change and innovation.

And now, we are beginning to look outward—learning about the innovative education models that congregations around the country have created. We are beginning to explore the possibilities that are out there that will create meaningful educational experiences for our families. And as we continue this exploration, we will reach out to these congregations, to learn about the successes, the challenges and the failures of these innovative models to help us to think about our future.

As we continue to meet, we will begin to look to the future—to turn our hopes for our families’ Jewish experiences at temple into a vision of Jewish education for our congregation; a vision that meets the needs of our Austin community, that is compelling and that will help our entire congregation move into the 21st century.

It is only then that we will that we will look to our current model, to the models we have learned about and adapt a model or even design a new one for our congregation; one that fits the vision we have crafted. But even with a newly minted plan in mind, we will many any changes, slowly and thoughtfully. It is our hope to present a model to pilot in the coming year. This will be a chance for families and students to be our partners in this educational journey.

As we move into these next stages on our process, your input and experiences are important. Over the next weeks and months, members of our Task Force, will be reaching out to various members of our community to learn about their experiences with our youth educational programs, their hopes for the next generation of Jewish leaders in our community, and their thoughts about our best thinking.

This process is not about just enhancing the education for our children, it’s about our entire community coming together—lay leaders and professional staff—to build on the strong foundation of our founding families and to meet the promise that the future holds.

 Re-Imagine Task Force Members:

Chair: Joshua Levy

Members: Jesse Adland, Kate Benay, Sarah Levithan Daniels, Ariel Chasen Feingersch, Julie Franklin, Emily Kuperszotch, Jenny Lewin, Robyn Siegel