24 | JANUARY 18 • 2024 J
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OUR COMMUNITY

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early 3,000 students attended
Federation-supported day schools
last year. The schools cater
to different segments and age groups
within the community, yet they share the
mission of nurturing children in a Jewish
environment. Last year, they faced the
same challenge: restoring normalcy after
years of pandemic-impacted learning.
We gathered educators to talk about
the joys and challenges from the past
year, their hopes going forward and their
shared zeal for Jewish learning. From
left to right in the photo above we
spoke to: Lissie Rothstein, Director of
Special Education and Support Services,
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah; Chana Steinmetz,
Preschool Director, Yeshiva Darchei
Torah; Rabbi Ari Ellis, 3rd-grade Judaics
teacher, Farber Hebrew Day School;
Rebecca Strobehn, Rabbinics instructor,
Frankel Jewish Academy; and Phreddy
Nosanwisch, Judaics teacher, Hillel Day
School.

‘YOUNGER KIDS DIDN’T KNOW
HOW TO BE IN SCHOOL’
Rabbi Ari Ellis: I’ve taught third, fourth
and fifth grade the last couple of years.
The younger kids didn’t know how to
be in school. The first-graders had not
ever eaten in the lunchroom. Things like,
where you get a fork, and where are
benchers (a booklet of prayers) for Birkat
HaMazon [grace after meals] — parts of
our daily routine — those things were
new to them.
Chana Steinmetz: In terms of coming
out of the pandemic, I think little
children were least impacted. There
was no big academic gap. Now, our
kindergartners who went to first grade,
there was [a gap] because they missed
out on instruction — even though we did
it by phone and with packets. Parents had
multiple children, and it wasn’t always
easy for them to be next to every child.

HEALING TRAUMA —AND NOT JUST
FROM THE PANDEMIC
Lissie Rothstein: One of the things that
we’re looking at is trauma-informed

teaching — and not just having to do
with the pandemic. We live in a society
where children are impacted by things
that maybe 25 years ago, they were not
— even children in whose homes the
internet is not a major feature. When a
teacher walks into a classroom and, say,
she has 20 students, probably at least four
or five children have been impacted by
something that could look like trauma.
Not something that we would find on
the ACES interview, but just a sort of a
trauma. A teacher needs to walk into a
classroom really prepared to use language
and feelings and allow all children to
feel that sense of belonging to allow
their brains to be ready to and open to
learning.

‘THERE’S NOTHING LIKE BEING IN
RELATIONSHIP’
Phreddy Nosanwisch: I have so many
friends who do remote work now. There’s
nothing like being in a relationship
with peers — talking about poetry with
an English teacher, practicing Hebrew
with a colleague; everybody shares the

Jewish educators share insights on the joys and
challenges of teaching from the past year.
Teachers Talking

DAVID ZENLEA SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Lissie Rothstein, Chana
Steinmetz, Rabbi Ari Ellis,
Rebecca Strobehn and
Phreddy Nosanwisch

JOHN HARDWICK