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