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World

Israe1101

Federation mission to
Israel inspires artists
and teachers.

HARRY KIRS BAUM
StaffWriter

N

early 100 religious school
educators, including 10
artists, spent 10 days in Israel
on a program developed to enhance
religious school education in Metro
Detroit.
Sponsored by the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's Alliance for
Jewish Education and funded by the
Hermelin Davidson Center for
Congregation Excellence, the trip was
designed to show the K-5 teachers dif-
ferent ways to relate to the children
the importance of the relationship
between Israel and the diaspora.
"They were comparing different
types of curricula," said Doreen

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Hermelin of Bingham Farms, mission
chair. "We will do a follow up to see
what they bring into the classroom."
The mission was part of the TEAM
Program (Teacher Education
Advancement Model), a series of
workshops and activities formed to
hone teaching skills.
The teachers were in a two-year pro-
gram and met 20 times, said Dale
Rubin, who led the mission with
Rabbi Judah Isaacs. The teachers
received a stipend for attending the
learning sessions. All local Reform and
Conservative congregations participate
in the program.

Teacher Michelle Sider

The artists were part of the
Alliance's "Artists in School" program
supported by a grant from the DeRoy
Testamentary Foundation
The teachers and artists were on dif-
ferent tracks, visiting schools and gal-
leries in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya
and the Federation's Partnership 2000
region of the Central Galilee.
Linda Jacobson, a second-grade reli-
gious schoolteacher at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, has been to Israel five
times, but said this trip was different.
"We visited three different schools,
talked to administrators and teachers
to see what they were doing, and see if
we could integrate what they were
doing" in our classrooms, said
Jacobson of West Bloomfield.
Michelle Sider, a painter and teacher
at the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit , said this sec-
ond trip to Israel was more powerful
than her first.
"The mission is to come back and
truly teach Israel using all five senses,
and really helping the kids have a con-
nection to Israel and their own sense
of Judaism," said Sider of Huntington
Woods. "I brought back 10 years
worth of ideas."
The next mission will include sixth-
to 12-grade teachers, but no date has
been set yet. CI

Linda Jacobson with fellow teacher Itzi
Saar of West Bloomfield