18 | MAY 18 • 2023
OUR COMMUNITY
I
n an exciting community
partnership between
The Shalom Hartman
Institute, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, Farber Hebrew
Day School, Frankel Jewish
Academy and Hillel Day
School, a core group of
parent leaders, educational
professionals and student
leaders are challenging
themselves to explore what
Israel education might look
like within their institutions
going forward.
Head of School at the
Frankel Jewish
Academy Rabbi
Azaryah Cohen
explained, “The
initiative
confirmed and
reinforced for all
of us that Jewish
education, in
general, and Israel education,
in particular, ought to be
a communal effort and
responsibility.
“Even without
collaboration in the past,
we discovered there is
significant alignment
between schools regarding
how we value the State of
Israel, and the resources
and creativity that go into
planning and implementing
programs, formally and
informally, in our respective
schools.
“Through discussion and
collaboration, we were able
to ‘make visible’ and better
articulate the significant role
Israel and Israel culture plays
within the day-to-day school
program and activities.”
This unique learning
experience, one that
serves as a pilot program
for the Shalom Hartman
Institute, brings scholars
from Hartman to Detroit to
present frameworks and texts,
through a values-based lens,
to help leaders think about
the orientation their schools
are taking when it comes to
teaching about Israel today
and Israel of the past.
The group also spent time
thinking, brainstorming and
reflecting on the values and
orientations around Israel
that they want to bring into
their schools.
Ilana Block,
board member of
Hillel Day School
and program
participant, said,
“I do not know
that there has ever been
one set curriculum of Israel
education at any of our local
day schools, let alone a plan
across the board that has
the day schools working
together.
“This initiative is designed
to teach our children that
they can love Israel despite its
many challenges rather than
denying that those challenges
exist altogether,” Block said.
“I think in previous
generations, our schools
taught Israel education
through rose-colored glasses;
but we have learned that does
not properly prepare students
for what they will encounter
on college campuses and out
in the world.
“The more they
understand the nuances of
Israel’s religious, ethnic,
racial, and political diversity
and the challenges they
pose — as well as the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
— the more completely these
students can love, defend and
support Israel, and respond
to its detractors.”
Rebecca
Starr, director
of regional
programs at the
Hartman Institute
added, “We
know that Israel
education needs
a change to reflect a new
North American relationship
to the state. Bringing a
variety of understandings of
what Zionism has been and
could be with our students,
starting at the youngest
Local community day schools
explore new ways to teach about
the Jewish state.
Israel
Education
Revisited
Ilana Block
Rabbi
Azaryah
Cohen
Rebecca
Starr
FJA senior Ethan Grey and FJA teachers Rebecca Strobehn and
Joseph Bernstein