32 | AUGUST 18 • 2022 

A

mong Elissa Berg’s 
earliest connections 
to Jewish learn-
ing was feeling the pride 
bestowed upon her by her 
grandparents as she recited 
erev Shabbat 
Kiddush on a 
weekend away 
with the extended 
family in one of 
the fabled kosher 
hotels on the 
Jersey shore. It 
was unheard of for girls to recite 
the Kiddush. Berg remembers 
her grandfather’s approval of 
the accomplishment.
“Early in my life, I realized 
that so much of what I loved 
about being Jewish came 
from my grandparents and 
how they made a big deal 
every time I came to them 
with something new that I 
had learned,” recalled Berg, 
69. “That stuck with me 
all throughout my years in 

Jewish education. Children 
thrive when they see their 
efforts to learn are appreciat-
ed. That provides warm feel-
ings and pride about Judaism. 
And that’s how I always 
approached Jewish education.”
After teaching religious 
school for Conservative and 
Reform congregations and 
serving as a Jewish program-
mer for Camp Tamarack 
Brighton, and directing 
schools for Temple Kol Ami 
and Adat Shalom, 
Berg retired 
after serving 
Congregation 
Beth Ahm as 
Jewish educator 
and programmer 
for nearly 10 
years. 
Rabbi Steven Rubenstein of 
Beth Ahm said Berg’s dedica-
tion made congregant families 
fortunate to have her as direc-
tor and primary teacher over 

the years. 
“Her deep background as 
a Jewish educator, her love of 
Jewish life and her care with 
her students made her a won-
derful person to have at Beth 
Ahm,” Rubenstein said. “I 
think that the students appre-
ciated Elissa and responded to 
her because she was attentive 
both to the material she was 
teaching as well as to the chil-
dren in front of her.” 
After 46 years in Jewish 
education, Berg understands 
that the makeup of the Jewish 
community has changed since 
her own childhood. Today’s 
Jewish families may not reg-
ularly attend Shabbat services 
or live in a neighborhood 
clustered with other Jewish 
families. There is more diver-
sity in Jewish households, 
which may contain different 
religions and races. 
But what has remained the 
same, Berg said, is the way 

a child feels when they have 
mastered something they have 
learned and when they know 
what they have learned is val-
ued in the Jewish household 
and the Jewish community. 
This May, Berg received her 
doctorate in Jewish studies 
from Chicago-based Spertus 
Institute of Jewish Learning 
& Leadership and focused on 
21st Century Non-Day School 
Jewish Education. In her dis-
sertation, she crafted several 
models of curricula intended 
to be used in a flexible after-
school care setting where chil-
dren could learn at their own 
pace and ramp up the learning 
according to the desires of the 
child and the family. 
Berg describes it as a “pipe 
dream” for now in Detroit, 
but she did point to other 
places like Boston and the 
San Francisco Bay Area where 
such models were created to 
teach Judaism during after-

Elissa Berg puts family in the 
forefront of religious instruction.
Elissa Berg puts family in the 

Jewish Educator 
Extraordinaire

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Elissa Berg

Rabbi 
Steven 
Rubenstein 

BACK TO SCHOOL

