Preschool Impact Trip inspires nursery school teachers to bring Israel to life in their classrooms. r'M 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.