News Highlights HC Students and Alum Learn and Process in iCenter Fellowship
Early this month, the iCenter Master’s Concentration in Israel Education iFellowship convened for a three day seminar of intensive learning and conversation. Fellowship director Rachel See and iCenter senior consultant Rabbi Dr. Jan Katzew shared about the seminar in an op-Ed at eJewishPhilanthropy. “In the lead-up to our January gathering, our goal was to create a kehillah lomedet, a learning community in which the participants could be as fully present, as vulnerable and as resilient as possible…The true impact of our learning community will only become known when the participants reengage with the people they serve and lead, where they learn, teach and live, but one aspect of our experience was immediately and palpably manifest: Learning can be healing.”
This sentiment was echoed by Brett Lubarsky, an alum of our Graduate Certificate in Jewish Education, one of several current and past HC students and staff in attendance, who explains that the retreat provided, “the space and permission to breathe, connect with colleagues and mentors, process my personal feelings, and consider opportunities to incorporate new learnings and perspectives into my work.”
Shanah Dalet student Naomi Gurt Lind was also in attendance. She shared the following reflection on her experience: “[The iCenter event] gave me a chance to both process the unfolding catastrophe and to pause from processing it. It was a great opportunity to learn together about Israel with Israeli voices in the conversation, and to imagine how to teach about Israel in our home contexts. Some of the content was crisis-specific and some offered a glorious reminder that Israel is more than the conflict.”
As our Winter/Spring semester begins in earnest, we are grateful for programs and organizations like the iCenter that deepen the learning experience of HC students and alum alike. Read more at eJP!