Prozdor

Experiential Education

Prozdor’s commitment to Jewish experiential education provides students with additional opportunities to connect to their peers and to Judaism beyond the classroom, and our Jewish travel experiences serve to expose our students to Jewish life all over the world.

Develop Deep Connection to Israel through a Lens of Diversity

Prozdor promotes the value of “ahavat Yisrael” — love of Israel — culminating in Prozdor graduates who have a strong understanding of, and connection to, the State of Israel. Prozdor also promotes a community built on “k’lal Yisrael” — all of Israel — and a respect for Jewish diversity. It allows students to find their place in “am Yisrael” — the nation of Israel — and become aware of their responsibility to pass down Judaism to the next generation. Prozdor prepares students to enter their college years ready for the challenges of being a Jewish young adult in America and in the larger world.

Faculty

The faculty of Prozdor are as diverse as our students. Our teachers are Rabbis and Rabbinical students, professional educators, PhDs, librarians, Hebrew teachers, graduate students, philosophers, historians, artists, and more, and run the length of the denominational spectrum, from Orthodox to Humanistic Judaism. Their common denominator is their passion for teaching and learning in a pluralistic setting, their dedication to our students, and their willingness to foster meaningful connections with each and every one of our students.

Program Goals

• Facilitate the development of student intellectual and spiritual life through the study of Torah, Israel, rabbinics, Jewish history, ethics, literature and the Jewish arts, in an open environment that encourages inquiry.
• Enable students to develop and expand their proficiency in the Hebrew language.
• Provide a variety of teaching methods to promote experiential learning and critical thinking; provide a nurturing environment where students may develop mentoring relationships with their teachers.
• Foster meaningful peer relationships.
• Create an environment that encourages respect for divergent opinions, where students may learn about and honor diversity in Jewish life and embrace k’lal Yisrael.
• Offer opportunities for social action and political activism through which students learn to value participating in ethical “mitzvot” (commandment of Jewish law) and “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) and understand that Judaism obligates them to “make the world a better place.”
• Strengthen students’ sense of their Jewish identities.