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Passport To Israel

Judaic preschool teachers mix hard work and pleasure while perfecting their craft.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Copy Editor/Education Writer

I

f you're going to teach in a Jewish
preschool, it helps to know a few
Israeli dances, a lot of catchy
songs and a smatterina b of survival
Hebrew.
These skills and others were taught
Jan. 13, at a day-long conference for
early childhood Jewish educators. A
resource fair allowed teachers to pur-
chase Israeli-Chemed items for them-
selves and their classes.
Organizers Wendy Sadler and Sandy
Cohen, of the Agency for Jewish
Education of Metropolitan Detroit's
school services department , borrowed
an idea from the public schools. Instead
of the more than 200 participants mov-
ing from room to room, the six presen-

ters came to them.
"The dances I'm teaching are easy,"
said presenter Loraine Posner Arkus of
Albany, N.Y. "The children learn the
steps and then they can plug them in to
whatever tape you put on."
The author of Z;nan Lirkud (Time To

Dance): A Manual for Teaching Israeli
Dance, Arkus is a recent Covenant
Award winner for Excellence in Judaic
Education. She puts her theories to work
every week, teaching kindergarten at a
Jewish day school and Israeli dance at a
synagogue.
Arkus told teachers to stand in front
of their class, while the children gather
in rows facing them. "That way, you can
see what's going on, and everybody can
see you," she explained.
Then it was dance time, with 30 pre-
school teachers punching their fists into

the air and swinging their hips in time
to Noladti L'Shalom (I Was Born In
Peace), Arkus' favorite beginners' dance.
Nira Lev, AJE Hebrew language coor-
dinator, used 30 action-packed minutes
to prove that teaching Hebrew doesn't
have to be dull. She taught vocabulary
that covered everything from how to
introduce yourself to how to find the
bathroom.
"If everyone could teach the way she
teaches, the whole world would learn,"
said Robin Hermann, assistant director
of the Sarah and Irving Pitt Child
Development Center at the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community Center.
Shir Tikvah teacher Gayle Hirsch
explained how to make Hebrew-themed
bulletin boards, including a kotel
(Western Wall), complete with crevices
for inserting messages.

Other presenters were Ronit Lipsky,
who teaches immersion Hebrew at Adat
Shalom Synagogue's preschool; Lisa
Soble Siegmann, director of the AJE's
Jewish Education For Families program;
and Massachusetts-based children's folk
singers Peter and Ellen Allard.
"It was the best program this group
has ever put on," said Pitt Center
teacher Sandie Landau.
The only complaint was that, at 30
minutes each, the presentations were too
short. "But," said Sadler, "I'd rather leave
them wanting more."
The event was sponsored by the AJE,
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's Alliance for Jewish Education,
the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America and Michigan Jewish
Association for the Education of Young
Children. ❑

Lc fi to right: Nira Lev, director and teacher of the Hebrew progTani at the AgentT fir Jewish Education, gi /vs a mini-class in survival Hebrew. Congregation Shir Tikrab teacher
Gayle Hirsch displays SOIlle Of 17CT Color /III pa'SCI1001 pOSICPS. Local preschool teacho-s, including Kelly Ratztshinak, centa; of the Sarah and Irving Pitt Child Delqopment Center,
and Linda Rosenbaum, 10, of Congregation ffnai Aloshe, lath;! an Israeli
dam-e. "two teacher s from lemple En/aim-El in Oak Park review their notes.

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2002

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