12 | AUGUST 26 • 2021
essay
Israel Education, Not Advocacy,
Belongs in the Classroom
I
’ve dealt with all kinds of
conflicts as an Israel educa-
tor the past 25 years, from
the mad parent who storms in
and says, “Why do you have
that map on
your wall and
not this map?” to
the parents who
get into fights
in the carpool
line because they
don’t agree about
something tak-
ing place or what somebody
posted on Instagram.
Israel education could face
even more pitfalls and political
pressure this fall after May’s
conflict in Gaza and a new
survey of American Jewish
voters that found 22% of all
respondents believe that Israel
is committing genocide against
the Palestinians and that 20%
of respondents under age 40
don’t believe that Israel has a
right to exist.
It’s challenging to make the
classroom a safe environment
for such conversations if the
home and community are
not. That’s why it’s important
to take the stance we have
adopted at the Center for Israel
Education: Educators should
not use their podiums to
spread their political views or
launch polemics.
Our job is not to tell stu-
dents what to think, but rather
to train them how to think, an
effort best accomplished by
incorporating as many prima-
ry sources and as many differ-
ent voices as possible.
Taking that apolitical stance,
checking your biases at the
classroom threshold, is an
empowering approach to the
education of Israel for teachers
and students. Educators can
explain to parents that their job
is to enable students to think
critically for themselves, to
assess sources, to understand
the differences between history
and narrative and between
competing narratives, and to
appreciate the ideals of a Jewish
state and its realities, which are
messy, complex and imperfect.
Israel educators should
establish a tone of respectful
discourse incorporating lis-
tening and critical thinking
at the beginning of the school
year. It’s OK to disagree with
somebody else’s opinions and
ideas, as long as the discussion
is based on the sources.
That’s how we teach every
other subject. A literature stu-
dent, for example, who wants
to assert that Nietzsche or
Sartre was a nihilist has to pro-
vide evidence from texts, not
just cite a parent, a teacher or a
social media influencer.
Educators also must help
students understand the
vagaries of vocabulary: What
words are laden and to whom?
“Occupation” means different
things to different people, and
there are reasons some peo-
ple talk of Judea and Samaria
while others speak of the West
Bank.
Understanding vocabulary is
a skill that needs to be taught,
as are map reading and literary
analysis. When we teach stu-
dents these skill sets, we enable
them to reach and defend con-
clusions based on documents
they’ve examined themselves.
That educational approach is
far different from the advocacy
model: “If you hear X, you
should say Y.” My two kids,
who are now in college, would
have rebelled if I had told
them that. They would have
done the opposite just because
they were teens.
We can’t engage, empower
and prepare students for those
tricky conversations by teach-
ing them automatic answers
or avoiding the complexities
altogether. That path leads to
students concluding that their
teachers lied to them and to
believing the worst accusations
against Israel.
Instead, we educators must
tackle those difficult topics by
modeling respectful, informed
conversations regardless of
personal opinions about, say,
whether Israel used dispropor-
tionate force in Gaza in May.
We must provide historical
context and complexity to
equip our students with resil-
ience and help them become
critical consumers of informa-
tion so that the slogans they
encounter on campus and
social media don’t resonate.
This endeavor can’t be limit-
ed to one Judaic studies class-
room; it has to be embedded
into the daily consciousness
and experiences of everyone in
the school. It requires support
from non-Jewish educators
and those teaching science
and math, literature and social
studies. It involves school
administrators, board mem-
bers, rabbis and parents engag-
ing in those same respectful,
informed conversations and
accepting that the best practice
in Israel education is to treat it
as education.
That’s how we avoid the
pitfalls and politicization of
teaching about Israel and pro-
duce thoughtful Jewish adults
who can engage with difficult
questions rather than drown in
competing narratives.
Tal Grinfas-David is the vice presi-
dent of outreach and pre-collegiate
school management initiatives for the
nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Israel
Education in Atlanta and is a former
Jewish day school principal.
Dr. Tal
Grinfas-David
PURELY COMMENTARY
CIE/ISMI Teen Israel
Leadership Institute
Sept. 19 and 26, 2021
Teens in grades 10-12 are invited to apply for this
enriching virtual opportunity where CIE staff impart
leadership ideas for sharing an understanding of Israel
with their peers in their communities. Participants will
gain tools for shrewdly interpreting contemporary
events and framing them in context. Apply at
israeled.org.