Jewish learning Holistic Jewish Education: Hebrew College Educates Teachers for this Moment
By Wendy Linden
We spoke to Hebrew College Vice President, Dr. Susie Tanchel, and Senior Advisor in Jewish Education, Susan Morrel, about the challenges Jewish educators across the country are facing and how Hebrew College’s graduate programs meet those needs. Below are excerpts from that conversation.
What are the biggest challenges facing Jewish educators today?
ST: The challenges we’re seeing are twofold. The first challenge I would call “generic educational challenges in this moment”, including issues related to the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We are still feeling the effects in the classroom on children who lost two to three years in a key developmental period in their lives. In some noteworthy ways, their growth in important skills and capacities was stilted, and we now need to give them extra support. But in order for us, as educators, to do that, we need to first have an intellectual understanding of what’s going on for our students, and second, we need to have the skills, knowledge, and understanding ourselves, so we know how to respond to students in an educationally effective way. And third, we need to remember that teaching always starts with the teacher. So, at Hebrew College, are thinking of the mental health challenges educators are facing post-COVID — we’re thinking about their wholeness, self-care, w, and well-being. our educators aren’t taking care of themselves, they won’t be able to take care of the kids. That’s why the airlines say to put your own oxygen mask on first!
Out of this need, we created a module in our program specifically focused on mental health, which offers educators new ways of taking care of themselves — to gain a sense of what’s happening to their own bodies and how to regulate it — so that they will be able to be present for their students in a different way.
Susan Morell and Dr. Susie Tanchell
What’s is the other category?
ST: In the context of the U.S., there’s a lot of anxiety about the upcoming elections and how to respond to them. Specifically, educators are expected to hold productive classroom conversations in which their students hold diverse opinions. Some educators are feeling a bit apprehensive in knowing how to help their students navigate the complexity of holding multiple opinions. They are asking to learn new skills so their classrooms can be places where students can really talk about their different perspectives.
Layered upon that are the issues related to what has happened in the Jewish world post-October 7, in terms of Israel, the rise of antisemitism, and Jewish identity in the United States.
Post October 7th, there has been a deep yearning from educators to know more about the nuances and complexity of Israel’s history and current events in Israel (and what’s beneath and beyond the headlines). Then, on top of that important desire, they are eager to learn how they can help their students navigate that information and how they can most effectively respond to their students’ questions. We’re helping them meet these needs by providing them with deep pedagogical content knowledge. What do I mean by that? I mean teaching educators how to hold and use their knowledge for the purposes of teaching. In our program, we want to give teachers enough subject-matter knowledge to be able to teach, but also an awareness and the tools to know how to teach this content in a way that their students can understand and absorb.
Sounds challenging.
ST: It is! Part of what we’re noticing is that this is not only an intellectual conversation. There are a lot of emotions at play. We as educators have had to confront a reality in the United States that hasn’t been felt in some places for many decades. Educators in public schools and day schools are being asked to respond to rising antisemitism, but they don’t feel equipped to do it. We want to help them — both to have a place and space to think for themselves about how they’re feeling about it, as well as to hold a space open for their students to think about it too.
SM: It’s also challenging because there’s has been an epidemic with the rise of teacher burnout in Jewish education. Long before October 7th, Jewish educators have been on the front lines, managing crisis after crisis, from school shootings to COVID-19 to more personal crises. Since Oct. 7, educators are being called upon to teach about Israel, the war, and the conflict, in new ways and they are struggling to support the students and their families as they navigate the intense emotions that are arising. Not only do the educators have to keep up with the ever-changing environment, but they also need to learn new pedagogies and become more comfortable and effective in having difficult conversations. This is all while they are navigating their own feelings and overwhelming responsibility. They need help. They need support. And we are here.
Dr. Susie Tanchel
Post October 7th, there has been a deep yearning from educators to know more about the nuances and complexity of Israel’s history and current events in Israel (and what’s beneath and beyond the headlines). Then, on top of that important desire, they are eager to learn how they can help their students navigate that information and how they can most effectively respond to their students’ questions.
So, you’re hearing educators ask how to talk to their students about Israel and antisemitism?
ST: Absolutely, yes! But an additional complexity about antisemitism right now is that we don’t want kids’ Jewish identities to just be about antisemitism. But I think it’s irresponsible in this moment to totally ignore it. What we’re trying to do for our students as part of their Hebrew College educational experience is say to them, “You don’t have to be either this or that.” We actually want to find ways where we can bring Jewish values and sensibilities to speak to the issues of the moment.
Are there other emerging trends teachers are grappling with?
ST: Environmental education has become more and more central. Again, educators want to understand how to deal with it themselves — there’s much new knowledge and information that they don’t have because many of them were in school a long time ago. We want to equip them with that and give them strategies to teach it.
SM: Students and adults alike in our Jewish settings are dealing with climate anxiety. This is sitting with them all the time. They want to learn more, and respond to the climate crisis. They are asking for our support. They see the relevance to their Jewish identity in making the world a better place. They see the connection to our Jewish text and tradition. It’s an important focus in the field right now. We are proud that Hebrew College is a place where educators can both learn about this emerging trend in Jewish education, and bring their learning to their own settings. And they are learning from expert practitioners in environmental education. These faculty members are steeped in the subject matter.
Susan Morrel
Students and adults alike in our Jewish settings are dealing with climate anxiety. They are asking for our support. They see the relevance to their Jewish identity in making the world a better place. They see the connection to our Jewish text and tradition.
Tell us more about the program faculty.
ST: Their knowledge does not live in the ivory tower. They offer our students both the content and the knowledge of how to teach it. A great example is Risa Alyson Cooper, who is the Chief National Program Officer at Adamah. Adamah focuses on the vast world of environmental education, asking questions like: What are the essential issues and understandings that people need? How can we motivate the children in our classrooms to get involved? Risa’s work is around giving educators knowledge and strategies to answer these questions.
SM: I think what makes Risa so inspirational and effective as one of our emerging trends faculty members is not only because she is a leader at Adamah — the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America — but also because she’s a practitioner in the field. She’s on the ground doing this work, feeling the pulse of what’s going on and what’s needed. She doesn’t just know the tools, she uses them in a variety of Jewish educational spaces including on college campuses and synagogues.
Any other big trends you’d like to address?
ST: As we’re talking about emerging trends, we also understand that it’s important for educators to know the nuts and bolts. We often refer to the MJED [Master in Jewish Education] as an “applied degree.” Students are gaining practical knowledge, skills, and capacities that they can apply right away in their educational contexts, and in the world. The program is flexible so we can meet the educator wherever they are in their educational journey when they enter the program.
SM: But knowing the foundational skills is not enough anymore.
ST: Agreed. It’s necessary, but not sufficient.
SM: We’re adding a layer. We’re educating the whole person. We do this by making sure each of the modules of the program starts with the educator. Where are they right now in this moment? Why does this matter to them? We have to help them think that through before they can engage with their students.
SM: We carefully choose the subjects of our rotating graduate-level certificates — which are open to MJED students too — based on our areas of expertise and in response to what’s happening in the world and the field of Jewish education. We’re excited to have designed a specialized certificate this year focused on emerging trends. And last year we introduced two certificates one focused on Jewish educational leadership and another on spiritual education.
Dr. Susie Tanchel
We’re educating the whole person. We do that by making sure each of the modules of the program starts with the educator. Where are they right now in this moment? Why does this matter to them? We have to help them think that through before they can engage with their students.
I’m curious, how do you teach spirituality?
ST: We’re thinking about education holistically. What does that mean? We’re thinking of the educator as a whole person and then the students as whole people. Education is no longer just about the mind. Right? We know the social-emotional work that has been happening in our field for the last 10-15 years. Now we’re including somatic education, That is, learning more about what is happening in our bodies and spiritual education, so we know more about how we are developing spiritually. We’re saying that when you are a reflective practitioner, as an educator, when you know and understand more about the different parts of yourself, that is critically important to being a teacher.
ST: Similarly, in our leadership certificate, we are hoping to give educators new skills, to help them develop certain dispositions in leadership so that they can still feel comfortable standing on the front lines — whether in the classroom or as the leader of school. We want to be a resource for them.
SM: I’ve seen it many times, where after Oct. 7, a parent gets a hold of you, and they don’t want you talking to students about the war. It could be in any grade. And yet you know you have to address it. There are just so many complexities now. The roles of the educator are expanding significantly. As Susie said, they need new understandings, new frameworks, new tools.
ST: I love how Susan just said that: The role of the educator is expanding. And when they were first learning the craft of teaching, they didn’t necessarily get the kind of training and opportunities to grow and develop in the ways that we’re offering now. They were educated for a different time.
Teaching is a dynamic and complex profession. And you have to keep learning and growing as an educator to be able to educate your students in their current milieu — which is different from what it was even 10 years ago.
SM: From a year ago! The pedagogies for teaching about Israel are completely different post-Oct. 7.
ST: Yep.
How can our Jewish text help inform that process?
ST: Well, let’s start with: אם אין אני לי מי לי” (im in ein ani li, mi li?),“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” from Pirkei Avot (1:14). Hillel knew this. The work of mindfulness and meditation is being used in a Jewish framework. We have wisdom from Jewish sacred texts about this. If you want to know more, sign up for the last module!
This fall, Hebrew College welcomes nine new Master of Jewish Education (MJED) and five new graduate certificate students. Learn more about Hebrew College’s pioneering graduate programs in Jewish education here.
