Preschool Impact
Trip inspires nursery school teachers to bring Israel to life in their classrooms.
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SHARON LUCKERMAN
StaffWriter
T
,
71 9
2004
56
emple Beth El nursery school
teacher Connie Aidenbaum still
gets choked up describing her
"amazing" first trip to Israel and her
great sense of pride participating in the
program that sent her there.
Aidenbaum of West Bloomfield is one
of 60 local synagogue-based nursery
school teachers who went on an educa-
tional trip to Israel June 6-18. The trip
was offered to those who completed the
first Jewish Early Education
Enhancement Program (JEEEP) of the
Federation's Alliance for Jewish
Education.
This unique two-year program
explored Judaism in a more in-depth
way to impact the classroom, said Rabbi
Judah Isaacs, the Alliance's executive
director.
As a result of the trip, Aidenbaum said
she is making a conscious effort to bring
Israel into the classroom c6ily.
"I feel an enormous need for children
here to feel how important it is to sup-
port Israel. Israel is there for them and
we must be there for Israel."
"Education in Israel is phenomenal,
very hands-on and creative," said Marla
Gartrell of West Bloomfield, a teacher at
Temple Israel. "Children did puppet
shows, played music, dressed up in cos-
tumes and had a good time learning."
The importance of JEEEP lies in the
belief that educating our children- begins
at a very young age, Isaacs said.
"We could teach Israel from here to
tomorrow but going there brings it to
life. The teachers came back with a total-
ly different way of teaching about
Israel," he said.
"This is the time when children just
drink up information," said Penny
Blumenstein, co-chair of the AJE with
Jewish News Publisher and Jewish
Renaissance Media President Arthur M.
Horwitz, and Peter Alter, Federation's
president-elect. Blumenstein was one of
six to staff the trip.
"Jewish preschool is our first and best
opportunity to form a lasting relation-
ship about being Jewish," Blumenstein
said. "By sending a child to a Jewish pre-
school, you really make a difference in
that child's life and in the whole family's
life."
ended, but delayed because of the
Palestinian intifada. Each participant
paid $500.
Simple Pleasures
Above: Temple Beth El nursery school teacher Connie Aidenbaum meets an
Ethiopian Jewish mother on the JEEEP trip to Israel.
Below: Israeli preschool students have fun during the Detroit teachers' visit.
The ongoing program plans to send
religious-school teachers of kindergarten
to fifth grade to Israel next year.
Two-hundred teachers from seven syn-
agogues and the Sarah and Irving Pitt
Child Development Center at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield participated in JEEEP. Each
teacher had an individualized program
and met with a mentor — a rabbi or
master teacher — twice a month for two
years. The synagogues participating'
included Reform Temples Beth El,
Emanu-El, Israel and Conservatie
Congregations Adat Shalom, Beth Ahm,
Beth Shalom and Shaarey Zedek.
The Israel trip was subsidized primari-
ly by Federation's Hermelin-DaVidson
Center for Congregation Excellence. A
grant from the Jewish Agency in Israel •
also supported the trip, which was
planned for 2001 when the program
4,0 44,:•t ioNgM 41
•
The 12-day trip packed in visits to
museums, historical sites and schools in
the Central Galilee, the Federation's
Partnership 2000 region. Israeli guides,
teachers and rabbis accompanied the
group, relating their Israeli experiences
to teaching.
"Each teacher had a hands-on, peda-
gogical and Judaic experience," said
Harlene Appelman, AJE's chief Jewish
education officer, who coordinated the
program in Israel.
The teachers all had special highlights,
from touring the zoo and biblical park
to visiting classrooms at Netanya where
new Israelis from the former Soviet
Union and Ethiopia live.
But not every event needed a guide.
While all the teachers welcome Shabbat
by lighting candles at their schools each
week,. sharing Kabbalat Shabbat in
Jerusalem turned into a most moving
experience.
"We each got candles to light before
going to the Wall," said.Jody Schaefer of
Farmington Hills, who teaches at Adat
Shalom. "We all had a ledge near the
Kotel and we lit them. Here we were, 60
young and old women, all saying our
prayers together, saying 'amen,' then we
were hugging, kissing and crying togeth-
er.