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