Jewish Education – Page 8 – A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

Marching With Fruits & Vegetables (5779 Remix)

What’s that giant sukkah you ask? That’s our brand new (to be finished today) OJCS Sukkah – thanks to the Zaret Family & Gemstone – which we look forward to eating and celebrating in as a school community when we resume school during Chol Ha’Moed next Wednesday. The timing of the holidays with the start of school has been crazy/amazing as we are doing our best to launch all our new procedures, initiate all our new projects AND prepare for/experience the joy of our fall Jewish holiday season! We have come out of Yom Kippur and are headed straight for Sukkot on Sunday evening…and hopefully I will find time to put mine up before the holiday!

Sukkot is absolutely my favorite holiday of the entire year. There is nothing else like it on the Jewish Calendar – sitting outside in a sukkah you built yourself (which is pretty much the one and only thing I actually can and do build), with handmade decorations from your children, enjoying good food with friends and family in the night air, the citrusy smell of etrog lingering and mixing with verdant lulav – this is experiential Judaism at its finest.

But here is a complicated truth: Even though our school will be closed on Monday and Tuesday for Sukkot, it is reasonable to assume that a significant number of our students will neither be found in a synagogue nor a sukkah enjoying what is known as “The Season of our Rejoicing”. But I’d wager that many, if not most, were in synagogue a couple of days ago for Yom Kippur. So when it comes to “atoning” we have a full house, but for “rejoicing” we have empty seats?!

If our children – if we – only experience the Judaism of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and not the Judaism of Sukkot, the simple truth is that we are not exposing them to the full range of beauty and joy our tradition has to offer. So why, in fact, is this a common occurrence?

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with the exotic nature of the holiday. As someone who did not grow up celebrating this holiday, upon coming to synagogue as an adult and watching a congregation march in circles waving fruits and vegetables – well this was not the Judaism I knew! But for me, that is precisely what makes it so unique, special and not-to-be-missed!

No one likes to feel uncomfortable and adults, especially, are wary of feeling uneducated or unprepared. I know how I felt encountering Jewish ritual for the first time as an adult – it was scary. I, however, was lucky. I was pursuing a degree in Jewish education and, therefore, had all the support and resources I needed to learn and grow. I realize that most adults coming at Jewish practice for the first time (or the first time in a while) are not so lucky. The amount of “stuff” Judaism asks of us to do – building the sukkah with precise specifications, shaking the lulav and etrog in the proscribed way, chanting less-familiar prayers, coming to synagogue on unfamiliar days – can be overwhelming.

But don’t lose the forest through the trees…

I’d simply ask you to consider this: When building your child’s library of Jewish memories, which memory feels more compelling and likely to resonate over time – sitting in starched clothes in sanctuary seats or relaxing with friends and family in an outdoor sukkah built with love and care?

You don’t have to choose just one, of course, that is the beauty of living a life of sacred time – there is a rhythm to the Jewish calendar, evocative and varied. Come to synagogue for the High Holidays, to be sure. But don’t miss out on Sukkot (or Simchat Torah or Shavuot or “Add Jewish Holiday Here”). Let this Sukkot truly be the season of our great rejoicing. I hope many students find their way to synagogue and into sukkot this Sukkot. I hope many parents push themselves out of their comfort zones and join the parade. I pledge that next year OJCS will take a more active role in providing families with the tools they may need to get started through parent workshops and community sukkah-building parties. But if you are curious or inspired…go ahead…pick up your fruit and vegetables and march with us!

Chag sameach.

We Left As A School and Came Back As A Community

Wow.

That’s all I can say. We got back exactly one week ago from our three-day inaugural Middle School Retreat at Camp B’nai Brith Ottawa (CBB) and it was everything we could have hoped for in a Jewish informal educational experience. We had learning, games, athletics, prayer, social bonding, community building, hiking, zip lines, and a campfire to boot! It felt like we squeezed a summer’s session of camp into just three days…and we are all tired enough to prove it!

After having spent a good chunk of time, in between catching up with the rest of the school and planning through the rest of our holiday experiences, putting together a video of our experience, I will let the video to the talking. I will likely have more to say after the holidays when I’ve had a chance to properly process and reflect.

We didn’t necessarily know what we would come out with, so I apologize to parents and students that not everyone may have made it in – it is not a reflection of anything other than happenstance. We will more than make up for it with photos and videos throughout the year. It is, I hope, a taste of why this retreat will become an important part of our middle school. Our relationships are forever changed – for the good. We will be able to do things within the walls of the classrooms that we never would have without having spent time together outside of them.

Here’s a taste:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCy1RRCQ3L0

Shofar So Good! (This is a LONG blog that I hope you read.)

The holidays start so early this year that I can barely squeeze in my favorite pun! With only four school days before Rosh HaShanah, we are doing our very best to get into the holiday spirit. Our “Shofar Patrol” has been making the rounds, apples are being cut, and honey is being poured. Let me take a moment to congratulate all our new teachers and all our new parents on a wonderful first week of school. Your enthusiasm and your passion are welcome additions to our growing school and inspire our hopes not only for this year, but for the years to come here at the Ottawa Jewish Community School.

During our opening assembly, we talked as a school not only about the new colors and photos on the walls, but about the 18 new signs – 6 in Hebrew, 6 in French and 6 in English – that reflect what we now describe as “The OJCS Way”. These are the “north stars” that came out of the work we did last year – the core values that help describe what is unique about our school. We shared these values in a “Town Hall” last spring and they are described in greater detail in your OJCS Handbook. We are excited to begin living those values and seeing how they impact culture and innovation in our school and community. I also want to use them as a frame to discuss a few live issues we know are percolating…

“We learn better together.”

Those of you who are new to our school and to me, will learn that I embrace radical transparency. I believe it is important to be authentic, honest, open to feedback and willing to lean into difficult conversations – all traits we believe worth modeling for our children. We have nothing to hide in our school and our parents are our partners. One of our north stars is that “we learn better together”. There are lots of “we’s” in our school – students with students, students with teachers, teachers with teachers, etc. – but parents are also part of the “we”. Working together we can resolve almost any issue and adequately address any concern.

“Each person is responsible each to the other.”

I looked back to my blog a year ago and the number one issue facing our school was…our change to drop-off procedures! It is hard to recall just how much bandwidth this took up, but it was significant. There are a few lessons to be learned there…

We take the safety of our children as our highest concern. The reason we invested so much energy last year in changing our drop-off procedures is that we wanted to ensure that the parking lot was controlled and safe. We were so committed to it – and still are – that our entire administrative team commits itself each and every morning to being there. (And we also think greeting our students each morning is the best way to start the day!) It took a while for families to learn the ropes – and we have the emails to prove it! But sooner than later, we got into a rhythm and now we have a safe and efficient drop-off.

It is deja vu all over again now that we have turned our attention to pick-up. The issues are similar – we really want to make sure in a complicated world that each child finds his or her way to the right parent, carpool, bus or caregiver. We also want to make sure students don’t wander into the parking lot or off campus without anyone noticing – things that could have happened here as a consequence of simply opening the doors and letting our entire school pour out. There are minimal and maximal ways we could address this issue. Lean too much to one side and you have greater convenience and less safety; lean too much to the other and you have greater safety and less convenience. We are trying to find a middle path.

We invite your patience and appreciate your flexibility as we adjust to this new way of ending our day. We firmly believe that sooner than later we will get into this rhythm as well, and we will add a safe and efficient pick-up to our safe and efficient drop-off.

“There’s a floor here – but no ceiling.”

This may seem like an odd place to anchor a conversation about snack and recess – which is the hot topic of the week – but it is actually where it lives. The promise we make parents at the time of enrollment, not just at the beginning, but each and every year as we never take re-enrollment for granted, is that we have an appropriately rigorous floor for each student, but no ceiling of expectation for how far their passion and talent can fly. That is why we are moving towards personalized learning, investing in innovation consultants, reimagining our schedules, introducing new technologies, playing with our space, etc., etc., all in the service of providing the highest-quality education possible.

We spent an enormous amount of time last year collecting data from alumni, former students and families, current students and families, the schools our children graduate into as we grappled with three really important conversations: What needs to be true about our French outcomes? What needs to be clear about our Jewish expectations? What is unique about teaching and learning at OJCS? The answers to those questions were transparently shared out in Town Halls about French, Jewish Studies, and “The Future“. And part of those answers required a re-imagination of our schedule, because time is a zero-sum game. And the reason we shared it so openly then was that we knew it would invite questions and we were happy to answer them then…and we remain happy to revisit them now that we are beginning to live them.

I want to focus here on the Lower School (K-5). Up until this year, our Lower School had been functioning on a Middle School schedule – bells every 40 minutes dictating artificial changes that don’t suit the needs of younger students. We wanted to move towards a larger block schedule that gives students and teachers the breathing room they need to let the learning flow at a more relaxed pace or to extend the learning where enthusiasm takes it. So we have made that change. It isn’t perfect (yet). Some grades were easier than others due to personnel needs, but we are closer to where we want to be than where we were.

In Grades 1-5, in order to increase contact time in French and Jewish Studies – a need that came out loud and clear from our research last year – we are being more creative with the 50-minute block that was given to snack and recess each morning (a little over an hour after their arrival). There has been no decrease in recess or physical activity. (It has actually gone up with an added period of Physical Education.) What has changed – and where we are seeing the most questions and concern early on – is the nature of snack. Our desire to provide our students with the nutrition they require remains intact. Our willingness to provide our students with the time they require for snack has not changed. What has changed – and where we have growing pains to work through – is that the time being given over to snack comes with a little bit of learning.

This will look and feel different in Grade One than it will in Grade Five. It will look and feel different in Week One than it will in Week Thirty. And the flexibility and autonomy our teachers have (now) allow them to make daily adjustments as per the needs of the children. If some days the snack needs to come with little to no learning…that’s okay! If some days the recess needs to be longer…that’s okay! Another one of our “north stars” is that “we own our own learning” – and our teachers and students have full ownership of what needs to be true on a daily basis. They are not being micromanaged by the administration. That’s the real change to pay attention to – that we aren’t letting the bell dictate when learning begins or ends, or whether students can eat or not, or whether students get a body break or not – we are letting our teachers and students begin to take ownership of their learning since they know best what they need and when.

This is so new for us! And for you. It is natural that you have questions and concerns. We welcome them directly. We are having the same conversation with our teachers who also want to make sure that students have time to eat and time to play…and time to learn. A number of parents have asked whether it would have been smarter to simply increase the length of the school day. Believe me, I would love a longer day to work with and perhaps that’s a conversation we should be having. But please don’t think that aren’t carefully considering the wellbeing – mental or physical – of our children. We know the research on movement and on nutrition. We believe our teachers – working with their students and with you – will discover what is best for each class and that we will land in a place that feels comfortable for all.

“We are all on inspiring Jewish journeys.”

One of the highlights of the first week was our inaugural “Welcome Ceremony” for Kindergarten students and parents. Tears were shed as we took just a pause to name the liminal moment a child begins his or her formal Jewish learning. To see them all under the tallitot surrounded by parents as our teachers shared a poem in Hebrew, French and English, and as Rabbi Finkelstein led a parental blessing before a final farewell, was to see the beginning not just of a family journey at OJCS, but – we hope – “an inspiring Jewish journey” leading…wherever it leads. It was also a reminder of the sacred trust a family places in us for the education of their children and the holiness of such work. A truly special way to begin the year…

“Ruach”

We added ruach (spirit or joy) as a “north star” not just because we needed six to make sure our “north star” was a “north Star of David”, but because we know how important ruach is in the life of a school. We want our students and teachers to feel the joy of learning and the love of community. We want each person to feel that special feeling when he or she can be their truest self and know that they will be heard and respected and loved. That’s a lofty ambition, but one worth reaching towards. It is why we are so excited about next week’s Middle School Retreat at Camp B’nai Brith of Ottawa (CBB). It is why we are looking for greater parent engagement in our PTA and in our school. It is why we created cafeteria space to eat and to sing together instead being siloed into classrooms. It is why we raised money to install air conditioning in our hottest classrooms so our students can learn in comfort and not distress (with more to come). It is why we are increasing field trip opportunities, adding electives to Middle School, and constantly re-imagining what we do and how we do it. It is why we get up in the morning each and every day with a fire in our bellies and a smile upon our lips.

Research shows that one of the most important variables to academic success is teacher joy – when teachers are excited to teach, students are excited to learn. And when students are excited to learn, anything is possible. That’s the future we are building at the Ottawa Jewish Community School. That’s why we are willing to make changes, even when those changes are hard and sometimes even when those changes fail. We will never let fear of failure prevent us from reaching towards those (north) stars, because we’ll never get there if we don’t try.

As the eve of a new Jewish Year approaches, it is my most sincerest hope that this is the year we’ve been waiting for. To all the teachers, staff, parents, students, donors, supporters, and friends in this special school- thank you for your enthusiasm and your hard work. 5779 is shaping up to be a quite an amazing year!

From our family to yours, “Shanah tovah!”

Not Another Article About Jewish Camping & Jewish Day School

This is typically the time of year when we wax philosophic about Jewish camping and lament that Jewish day schools can’t seem to capture the efficacy, niche, demand and profitability of our educational first cousins.

This is not that article.

(I did my version of that article a few years ago.)

This is not a knock on Jewish camping.

My personal story and Jewish journey are inextricably linked to Jewish camping. But having just had occasion to visit many of our OJCS students at Camp B’nai Brith of Ottawa Summer Camp and to visit my own wife and children at Camp Ramah Darom, and being reminded of just how powerful those experiences can be, I want to name a few challenges that Jewish camping presents for families and for the Jewish day schools who enthusiastically support them.

I am convinced that one of the greatest challenges in Jewish education is identifying the vehicles of transferability from powerful experiences to meaningful Jewish choices. And although I am partial to Jewish camping and Jewish day school as the two most likely candidates to produce said experiences, I have participated in amazing supplemental school classes, transformative youth group retreats and excellent adult education seminars. There are opportunities abundant in Jewish education for creating connections – connections between people, connections to history and ideas, and connections to God. However, the difficulty lies in linking those experiences to an ongoing engagement with Judaism between and after the power of those peak experiences fade.

Let’s look at a stereotypical peak Jewish camping experience.

Havdalah is a transcendent highlight for children (and teens and adults) attending Jewish summer camps. It is amongst the most powerful events that take place at camp and for many Jewish children it takes place exclusively during the summer. The same is true for daily/weekly prayer, Shabbat observance, kashrut (of some form or another) observance, etc. For many Jewish children (and teens and adults) these rituals only exist during the summer months when they are not only viewed as normative, but as ultimate. Likewise, for many day school kids, kashrut, blessings, prayer, speaking in Hebrew, study of Jewish text, etc. – these activities are imbued with meaning and purpose within the confines of the school walls, but for many they end with the closing school bell. The power in camp and day school experiences lie in their ability to make normative [or even better “cool” – which camp particularly excels at] Jewish rituals and practices that are anything, but normative in children’s family, synagogue and Jewish communal lives.

Havdalah with your parents at home on a Saturday night while your friends are waiting for you to meet them at the movies cannot hold a candle (even a braided one) to havdalah under the twinkling stars in a redwood retreat, arm-in-arm with your newfound closest friends and a guitar strumming away. The day school student who cannot use his/her Hebrew outside of school with friends and family will only find it so meaningful for so long. It is difficult to replicate a magical sukkah experience at a home without one. Etc. The potential dissonance between what is lived in Jewish educational settings and what is lived in the family is well-known and is as difficult to breach now as it has been for the last half-century or more.

Jewish schools are on the front lines of this conversation. Although there is a meaningful percentage of families whose primary concerns are Jewish Studies, there many families enrolled in our school because they are looking for a variety of things, a topnotch secular education being at the top of the list. The fact that it also comes with a high-quality Jewish Studies program and is housed in a Jewish setting emphasizing Jewish values can mean anything from “also important” to “nice” depending on the family. Even in the Jewish educational setting where families are arguably the most invested, we still struggle to find the motivation and vehicle for transference.

What can we do?

In our school, where we have explicitly named “We are always on inspiring Jewish journeys,” as one of our “North Stars” it begins with admissions and carries through to graduation. During initial family interviews, we are candid with parents about our school’s agenda for the inculcation of Jewish ritual and practice. It is really no different than the agenda we have for the inculcation of any other facet of our program. We want our children to go home from school excited about everything they are learning and seeking to find meaningful ways of incorporating lessons learned into lives lived. Unlike math or reading, however, we need to be willing to reach into families’ lives to provide encouragement and education to bring the Jewish Studies curriculum to life. Nurturing the relationships that allow that process to occur is, perhaps, the most important, fulfilling, and sacred aspect of our work.

Finding the way to sow the seeds for Jewish journeys is the secret sauce that can connect the dots from summer’s peak Jewish experiences to the school-year’s rich and rigorous Jewish education to families’ Jewish lives, enriching and enhancing each in turn. As we prepare in the weeks ahead to welcome our children home from camp and to welcome them back to school, let’s work together to help our children appreciate that being actively engaged Jewishly is a year-round and lifelong endeavour.

Let’s Talk About the “J” in “OJCS”: The Jewish Studies Town Hall

As promised, we held a Town Hall on Thursday, April 26th to share back the results of our investigations, thus far; to discuss what we currently believe to be true; and to sketch out next steps. We were pleased by the turnout and with the candor and seriousness of the conversation (see more below). We would be happy to share out the entire slide deck from the town hall so that folks who were unable to attend can be in the know. Please feel free to email me ([email protected]) with your request. What I would like to do here is walk you through the highlights and offer you the chance to add your voice to the conversation by commenting below.

A few caveats as prologue…

The spirit of this conversation is one of “transparency” – a value we have discussed in depth in prior posts.

You can read an earlier post about why this is a pressing issue for our school.

Let’s restate the fundamental issue…

Unlike the work we do in secular education (which is also going through revisiting and re-clarifying), there is no external set of benchmarks and standards that we are required to follow.

There are no universally adopted textbooks or curricular materials shared by all Jewish day schools (or even by traditional groupings of Jewish day schools). We have to translate our school’s mission-vision-philosophy into self-created (or borrowed) academic benchmarks and standards.

We have to build a schedule around those outcomes. We have to choose curricula based on what we believe to be true about teaching and learning.

There are also no norms for Community Day Schools on how to meet the needs of a diverse Jewish population. If there was a “best model” out there for a school of our size with a population such as ours…we would be happy to borrow it!

What does Jewish Studies currently look like at OJCS?

K: 10/40 Periods in Hebrew
1-3: 5/40 Periods in Hebrew & 8/40 Periods in Jewish Studies
4-5: Core: 5/40 Periods in Hebrew & 8/40 Periods in Jewish Studies (w/English as the language of instruction; Extended: 13/40 Periods in Jewish Studies (w/Hebrew as the language of instruction.)
6-8: 5/40 Periods in Hebrew & 8/40 Periods in Jewish Studies

What kinds of data collection are we doing to better understand the issues?

Grade 9 Alumni Surveys
Grade 12 Alumni Surveys
Annual Parent Surveys
Conversation with Synagogue Partners
Anecdotal Testimonials
Exit Interviews (pending)

What have we learned thus far?

We know that the questions we have historically asked don’t give us much data on answering the hard questions. Two difficult truths we have to acknowledge about the recent history of our school:

Most graduating students don’t speak fluent Hebrew.
Our children are not entirely well-prepared for B’nai Mitzvah (regardless of denomination).

For many of the parents who shared critical feedback, these were the issues most flagged as being of concern.

What couldn’t wait for process?

We felt that some things simply couldn’t wait for the fuller discussion to unfold, so we immediately restored brachot and tefillah to the best of our ability and launched Extended Hebrew pilots for Grades 4 & 5 at the beginning of this academic year.

Hebrew we will get to below, but in order to work on tefillah in a school such as ours, we needed to engage our wider community:

We invited our entire community’s pulpit rabbinate to join an ad-hoc “Rabbinic Advisory Committee” (RAC) of our board to help us tackle the challenge of revisiting our Jewish Studies mission and vision, to strengthen the relationships between our school and our community’s synagogues and to help us think through the challenge of meeting the spiritual needs of a diverse Jewish community.

We were blessed with full participation, rich conversations, respectful disagreements, sage advice and collective wisdom across our three meetings, thus far.

The end result of our work so far with our RAC, with the input of our Jewish Studies Faculty, and board, is the proposed re-launch of meaningful tefillah next year.

The OJCS Tefillah Prototype

Prologue

There are two really important things to keep in mind…

We are committed to the idea of not letting the “great” get in the way of the “good”…our prototype for next year is not great. There is a lot still to be figured out and we are open to ongoing critical feedback to help it eventually get great. But we believe it is good…and that good is at least one step further ahead than our current location.

There are very few Community Day Schools left in North America that view their Jewish missions to extend to the furthest reaches of its community. We did a lot of research and in most communities of our size, particularly when there is an Orthodox Day School, the Community Day School simply aims towards the center of the population that exists from the perceived edge of the Orthodox school through to the left. It is really important to know that The Ottawa Jewish Community School remains committed to klal yisrael and believes we can and will continue to be a home for all Jewish families. Doing so both makes the work more challenging and more vital.

Schedule

With budget and schedule being the leading indicators for value, we intend to restore tefillah to our formal schedule next year by recapturing at least 30 minutes (daily) out of the current schedule and repurposing them for tefillah. This will be a net gain of at least 30 minutes of Jewish Studies “time” without impacting other academic time. In the Lower School (K-5), timing would be more flexible (during a larger JS academic block). In the Middle School (6-8), timing would be fixed (likely mid-morning) and shared to provide opportunities for full Middle School participation.

We will additionally look to schedule more opportunities to bring families in for special services, like Friday Kabbalat Shabbat, or Middle School Shacharit.

Staffing

With support of qualified administrators, the teaching and facilitation of tefillah at OJCS will remain with its Jewish Studies Faculty. We could explore additional mentoring/support from our local clergy (including hazzanim) once we are clear on matbeah and nusach/tunes. We could also partner with clergy if/when we introduce targeted sessions on ta’amei ha’mikrah.

Gender

OJCS is committed to the idea that both boys and girls will have the same academic requirements for tefillah and have the same opportunities for religious performance.

This represents a logical extension of the status quo. For example, we will continue to require boys to wear kippot and continue to offer support for girls who express an interest to do the same. When engaged in morning minyan, we would honor each child’s sense of personal obligation to wear tallitot and don tefillin regardless of gender.

This extends to the leading of brachot, birkat ha’mazon, Shabbat rituals, etc. We believe as a rule of thumb that we should continue to employ more of a developmentally appropriate, unspoken egalitarianism of this nature (assigning co-leaders, co-hazzanim, equal distribution of brachot and rituals, etc.) in the Lower School and more of an intentional egalitarianism of this nature (checking with students and likely parents about comfort levels) in the Middle School.

On a final note, we should, perhaps, as a next phase of this work extend the conversation to address hetero-normative, gender-normative and LGBT perspectives as we serve children from all kinds of families. The images and language that we use, even something that can feel as benign as a weekly “Abba & Ima” can feel exclusionary for children being raised by a single parent or same-sex parents. Their spiritual wellbeing is worthy of our consideration as well.

Structure

We imagine that most tefillah in the Lower School will take place at the class/grade level and that most tefillah in the Middle School will take place as a middle school. The goal in the Middle School would be to offer two daily, halakhic minyanim: Traditional Egalitarian and Traditional Non-Egalitarian.

What do we believe to be true about Jewish Studies at OJCS?

We believe we will need to collect more data over more years to better answer questions and address concerns.
We believe that for some families nothing short of a Judaism that looks and feels like theirs will satisfy and we will have to figure out what that means – for those families and for OJCS.
We need to ensure that we don’t overly focus on structure and lose sight of why we want our children to engage in meaningful Jewish experiences in the first place!
We will need to dedicate time and resources to ensuring that joy, music, Jewish camping wisdom, creativity, student ownership, etc, receive as much attention as the formal learning. They are all required for the outcomes we collectively hope to achieve.

Pivoting back to the larger questions, what can we do next year?

We will increase the rigor and immersive experience of what contact time with Hebrew we presently make available. We will move K-5 to an “ivrit b’ivrit” [technically “Hebrew in Hebrew”, but better understood as Jewish Studies with Hebrew as the language of instruction] model (with next year’s Grade 5 grandfathered out) and explore additional streaming in Grades 6-8 to increase contact with Hebrew during “Judaics” classes.
We will be able to adjust our schedule to add contact with Jewish Studies (without coming at the expense of other academic time) to build tefillah back into the schedule.
We will wait until the Middle School Retreat to launch the new Middle School minyanim so as to lay the proper ground for our students to be set up for success.
We will provide additional extracurricular contact time with Hebrew through clubs, lunch, etc.
We will look to launch prototypes around parent engagement and social justice.
We will work with parents, faculty, board and Rabbinic Advisory Committee to explore additional areas of our Jewish Studies program in need of exploration, re-imagination and innovation. Next up? Our Middle School Jewish Studies Curriculum!

We had in attendance at the “town hall” our full administration, our Board President and several board members, and a good mix of parents who represented different age groups, different views on the school’s Jewish mission and vision, but who demonstrated a shared sense of the issue’s importance, provided meaningfully constructive feedback and exhibited a genuine desire to partner with the school to get it right.

We took good notes from the serious conversation that followed the presentation and I have opened a GoogleDoc to track the feedback and recommendations that we hope continue to come in (see below). Here are some highlights from that night’s conversation:

Although turnout on a weeknight was good, there was a real desire to see the school invest more resources in engaging parents in this conversation. We need more voices and more buy-in as we move the work forward. We will have to look towards additional forums (including virtual ones) to onboard more folk on this journey.
There were questions raised about how the school values religious diversity among its administration, teaching faculty and board. And though the status quo (in all three) does reflect denominational diversity, it is a fair question about whether that was strategic or happenstance, and how to embed that value moving forward.

So…here we are 1,800 words or so later.

This is where you come in. We desperately want to know what you think…

…what questions did this answer for you?

…what questions did this raise for you?

…what do you want to know more about?

…what else do you want us to know?

We cannot encourage you more to email, comment or come in for a conversation. We need all voices heard as we work towards clarifying and enhancing our Jewish mission and vision – next year and in the years ahead.

By the way…if you like Town Halls (and you know you do!)…

Stay tuned for a Town Hall later in May where we will share back the results and the plans we’ve been working on to clarify our value proposition and how it will impact the 2018-2019 school year!

If you have not filled out your Annual Parent Survey (and 70 already have as of today!), please do so by April 30th if you want your feedback included in the report.

When the Rhythm of the Jewish Calendar Reaches Crescendo

What a two weeks back from Passover Break!

Last Thursday was Yom Ha’Shoah – the day on the Jewish Calendar where we pause to remember the events of the Holocaust and the memories of all who perished therein. Yesterday we celebrated Yom Ha’Atzmaut – the day on the Jewish Calendar where we celebrate Israeli Independence Day. In between, on the roller coaster of spring holidays and immediately the day before, was Yom Ha’Zikaron – the day on the Jewish Calendar where we commemorate Israel’s Memorial Day.

It is always a remarkable juxtaposition of days – complete 180 degrees of emotion that take place with a click of the second hand and, in Israel, the siren’s call. Unlike in North America, where fewer families are personally touched by military service, in Israel no one is untouched by war’s destruction and all pause to personally mourn.

I feel so blessed to have had a chance to observe and celebrate these holidays as part of the OJCS and larger Ottawa Jewish Community. In addition to attending powerful communal gatherings for each of the holidays, our students and teachers helped lead incredible assemblies and programs here at school. This is when the power of living in rhythm with the Jewish Calendar is most obvious; this is when the power of a Jewish day school education is most clear.

We began with Yom Ha’Shoah, where our Grade 8 students, led by our Shinshinim Idan and Noa, Morah Ruthie and Rabbi Rotenberg, prepared a powerful assembly for our older students which incorporated presentation, liturgy, music and a candle-lighting. I was so impressed by how seriously our Grade 8 students took their responsibility and by how seriously our students took the assembly. It was an appropriate tribute to such a solemn day on our calendar.

It was Grade 7’s turn this week – with huge help from Morah Ruthie, Noa and Idan – to lead our school in an incredible Yom Ha’Zikaron assembly. Hereto, they incorporated presentation, liturgy, music, dance, and a candle-lighting. It was extra special to have had a chance to hear from our slightly ad-hoc “choir” who had a chance to perform both at the community’s commemoration as well as our own. We were also blessed to hear from a special guest, Col. Amos Nachmani, the Israeli Defence Attaché to Canada, who shared some remarkably personal words to help our students better understand and connect to this important holiday. This is one of the true blessings of being a Jewish day school in our nation’s capital.

As for our school’s epic celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary? Are there enough words to capture the day? Is there enough praise for Morah Ruthie, Idan and Noa? I could try to capture in words our appreciation for all the time and love that went into the planning. I could try to describe the celebration of raising the Israeli flag back to full mast, the spectacle of the assembly, the energy of the “7 Stations for 70 Years” where our students rotated between experiences of Israel’s accomplishments across the arts, science, sport, etc., or the joy of the closing festival. But sometimes words are simply not enough. So with great thanks to our new IT maven and overall tech and media guru Josh Max, please enjoy a taste of yesterday’s magic.

https://youtu.be/ibz4N0kmvKQ

Two quick reminders:

If you have not filled out your Annual Parent Survey (and 55 already have as of today!), please do so by April 30th if you want your feedback included in the report.

Please join us on Thursday, April 26th at 7:00 PM for our next “OJCS Town Hall” – this one about how are gong to strengthen the “J” in OJCS. You can RSVP to Jennifer Greenberg ([email protected]).

Planning for a Seder Too Good to Passover: Part II

As we launch this year’s model sedarim, heading into the Passover Holiday itself this weekend, let’s continue the conversation about planning a seder we began in Part I last week…

It has become a tradition for organizations to use the pedagogy of Passover to advocate for causes. We can change customs (“The Four Children”), add customs (“Miriam’s Cup), or adjust customs. One common adjustment is the addition of a “fifth question”. In addition to the traditional “Four Questions” we add one to address important issues of the day. You can go online and find a myriad of examples of “fifth questions” that deal with everything from gun violence, hunger, drought, Israel, peace, etc. You can find a “fifth question” for almost every cause.

Of course sometimes the questions and the conversations they inspire are more important than the answers…

As we collectively prepare to celebrate our freedom Friday evening, I would like to share with you some of my “fifth questions”:

Jon’s “Fifth Questions” for Passover

Head of the Ottawa Jewish Day School: Why is this conversation about OJCS different than all other ones?

Jewish Day School Practitioner: How can I meaningfully address the “relevancy crisis” while still addressing the “affordability crisis”?

Israel Advocate: If I will not literally aim towards “Next year in Jerusalem…” how can I use those words to inspire my deeper engagement with the Land, People and State of Israel in the year to come?

American Expatriate in Canada: How do I understand an “exodus” story living abroad for the first time? How do you balance exercising the responsibility of citizenship with the responsibility of residence?

Parent: How can the imagery of the “Four Children” remind me that my children are unique – from each other as well as everyone else – and that the responsibility for “personalized learning” is as much (if not more) a parent’s as it is a teacher’s?

What are some of your “Fifth Questions”? Drop your answers in the comments below and I will highlight any good ones that come back to me. I will also share any interesting answers to mine, or other questions, that I hear during the holiday. I know my seders will be enhanced through your wisdom…

Wishing you a chag kasher v’sameach…

Planning for a Seder Too Good to Passover: Part I

I’ve had to wait a long time from Rosh Hashanah (if you follow me shofar) to my next horrible holiday pun, but despite outside appearances, Spring has arrived and the countdown to Passover (Break) has begun!

This week, while we gear up in school for next week’s model sedarim and a new Middle School “Passover Experience”, many families are gearing up for sedarim of their own…

The Passover Seder is the most widely observed Jewish ritual throughout the world. Yet, many sedarim are spent with families sitting around the table with books in front of their faces, until Uncle Morris asks, “When do we eat?”

The seder is a wonderful opportunity for families to spend time doing something they might not otherwise do—talk with one another! The seder was designed to be an interactive, thought-provoking, and enjoyable experience, so let’s see how we might increase the odds for making that true. Without further adieu, here are my top ten suggestions on how to make your seder a more positive and meaningful experience:

1. Tell the Story of the Exodus

The core mitzvah of Passover is telling the story. Until the 9^th century, there was no clear way of telling the story. In fact, there was tremendous fluidity in how the story was told. The printing press temporarily put an end to all creativity of how the story was told. But we need not limit ourselves to the words printed in the Haggadah. Feel free to be creative in the way in which you tell the story (we certainly will in school!). This could be done by means of a skit, game, or informally going around the table and sharing each person’s version of the story. If there are older members at the table, this might be a good time hear their “story,” and perhaps their “exodus” from whichever land they may have come.

2. Sing Songs

If your family enjoys singing, the Seder is a fantastic time to break out those vocal cords! In addition to the traditional array of Haggadah melodies, new English songs are written each year, often to the tunes of familiar melodies. Or just spend some time on YouTube! Alternatively, for the creative and adventurous souls, consider writing your own!

3. Multiple Haggadot

For most families, I would recommend choosing one haggadah to use at the table. This is helpful in maintaining consistency and ensuring that everyone is “on the same page.” Nevertheless, it is also nice to have extra haggadot available for different commentaries and fresh interpretations. Encourage your guests to bring to the seder any unusual haggadot they may have collected over the years. Consider starting your own haggadah collection, it is never too late!

4. Karpas of Substance

One solution to the “when are we going to eat” dilemma, is to have a “karpas of substance.” The karpas (green vegetable) is served towards the beginning of the seder, and in most homes is found in the form of celery or parsley. In truth, karpas can be eaten over any vegetable over which we say the blessing, “borei pri ha’adamah,” which praises God for “creating the fruit from the ground.” Therefore, it is often helpful to serve something more substantial to hold your guests over until the meal begins. Some suggestions for this are: potatoes, salad, and artichokes.

In our extended family, where adhering to candle-lighting times may not be everyone’s norms, we tend to eat our gefilte fish before we light candles to tide (younger) folk over.

5. Assign Parts in Advance

In order to encourage participation in your seder, you may want to consider giving your guests a little homework! Ask them to bring something creative to discuss, sing, or read at the table. You may suggest that your guests come in costume—dressed as their favorite plague! All you have to do is ask, and you may be pleasantly surprised with the response.

6. Know Your Audience

This may seem obvious, but the success of your seder will largely depend on your careful attention to the needs of the seder guests. If you expect many young children at the seder, you ought to tailor the seder accordingly. If you have people who have never been to a seder before, be prepared for lots of basic questions and explanations. Do not underestimate your guests; if you take the seder seriously, they will likely respond positively.

7. Fun Activities

Everyone wants to have a good time at the seder. Each year, try something a little different to add some spice to the evening. Consider creating a Passover game such Pesach Family Feud, Jewpardy, or Who Wants to be an Egyptian Millionaire?! Go around the table and ask people fun questions with serious or silly answers.

8. Questions for Discussion

An adult seder ought to raise questions that are pertinent to the themes found in the haggadah. For example, when we read “ha lachma anya—this is the bread of affliction,” why do we say that “now we are slaves?” To what aspects of our current lives are we enslaved? How can we become free? What does it mean/what are the implications of being enslaved in today’s society?

We read in the haggadah, “in each generation, one is required to see to onself as if s/he was personally redeemed from Egypt.” Why should this be the case? How do we go about doing that? If we really had such an experience, how would that affect our relationship with God?

As you read through the haggadah, push yourself to ask these type of questions, and open them up for discussion.

9. Share Family Traditions

Part of the beauty of Passover, is the number of fascinating traditions from around the world. Encourage your guests to share the traditions they remember about Passover as a child. Some families begin their own new traditions as well. One family I know likes to go around the table and ask everyone to participate in filling the cup of Elijah. As each person pours from his/her cup into Elijah’s, s/he offers a wish/prayer for the upcoming year.

10. Preparation!!!!

The more thought and preparation given to the seder, the more successful the seder will be. Don’t expect to just “wing it,” and hope that everything will fall into place. A thoughtful, creative, and enjoyable seder takes time to prepare. We often get so caught up preparing for the meal, that it is easy to forget about the content of the seder. Spend the time, and you won’t regret it! Don’t forget to have fun.

And for one final quote to get you in the spirit to take action this holiday season…I leave you with:

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote, “History, Judaism says, cannot move or progress without the individual. God waits for man if there is something to be done. God does nothing until man initiates action. God waits for man, for a single person, to accept responsibility and initiate the process of redemption.”

The story of Passover is a dramatic example of this. While there is no question as to the divine authorship of the Israelites’ deliverance, freedom had to wait for Moses – for just one person – to see a burning bush, hear a call to service and answer…

“Hineini – here I am.”

Next week in “Part II”, we’ll explore the tradition of adding a “Fifth Question”…

Go to the Principal’s Office! You’ve Been “Caught Being Kind”!

If each time the school calls is to inform the parent that their child has misbehaved (or is sick or forgot their lunch), one imagines that when the phone rings and the school’s phone number comes up on the “caller ID”, the parent is not exactly excited to pick up. But what if just every now and again we are calling to let them know how proud we are of their child?

How often do principals or heads of school get to call parents with good news?

We are on a mission at OJCS to inspire acts of lovingkindness by building a community of caring. We want to be a school where we proactively avoid unkind behavior through explicit skill-building and incentivizing menschlichkeit, not (only) reactively addressing unkind behavior through meaningful consequences. Our students are engaged in the work through Knesset (our student government) and our faculty are engaged in the work through its “Minds Up!” committee. And the administration is eager to play its part as well…

If each time you were sent to the “principal’s office” was because you were in trouble, you probably wouldn’t want to be hanging out in that part of the building. And if a principal only spent his or her time with students referred for misbehavior, there would be a significant gap in relationships.

As part of developing this spirit of leadership and a community of caring in our school, how wonderful would it be if each of our students – and our parents and teachers – held the additional title of “Kindness Ambassador”!

One step we look to take right away is to empower our teachers to start sending students to us when they do something kind. We look forward, as an administration, to focusing on positively rewarding kind behavior as much, if not more, than applying consequences to unkind behavior, so that when the phone rings in the home of an OJCS parent and the school comes up on the “caller ID” that the emotion it triggers is excitement and not dread. Pick up the phone when we call…your child may have been caught in the act of being kind!

As promised…

The Silent Power of Chanukah

Why are these nights different than all other nights?

Wrong holiday, I know.

But there is actually something powerfully different about Chanukah that has much to teach us about the power of experiences and a pedagogy of meaning…

Chanukah is the only Jewish holiday without a sacred text of its own. (There is a Book of Maccabees, but it is part of the Catholic Bible.) Instead of a public reading, we are commanded to bear silent witness to the miracles of the season with a public doing – the lighting of candles in a window.

For me the pedagogical takeaway isn’t so much the “silence” as it is the “act”. It is an action that anyone can take; it is not so ritualistically complex that only the most knowledgable amongst us can perform it. It is an action performed publicly and in the home. And it is an act through which the meaning can be found through the doing. It is truly an act of “na’aseh v’nishma“.

This quotation from the Torah (Exodus 24:7) has been interpreted in many ways in Jewish tradition. The meaning which speaks most deeply to me is: “We will do and then we will understand.” This meaning comes from a rabbinic story (also called “midrash”) that explains Israel’s unconditional love for the Torah. The midrash is as follows:

When the Children of Israel were offered the Torah they enthusiastically accepted the prescriptive mitzvot (commandments) as God’s gift. Israel collectively proclaimed the words “na’aseh v’nishma “, “we will do mitzvot and then we will understand them”. Judaism places an emphasis on performance and understanding spirituality, values, community, and the self through deed.

Simply put, we learn best by doing.

This idea has powerfully stimulated my own Jewish journey and informs my work as a Jewish educator. I think there are two major implications from this: One, regardless of the institution, we have a responsibility to provide access to informal Jewish educational programs to our young people. Two, our formal educational institutions can stand to learn from what makes informal work. Namely, I believe strongly in education that is active, interactive, dynamic, and most importantly experiential. It is one thing to teach Judaism; it is something more powerful to teach people how to live Judaism.

“Grade 6 w/KISS FM celebrating the 107 purses collected for “Purses With A Purpose”.

It is one thing to teach social action; it is identity-forming for our children to go out into the world as part of their Jewish day school experience and make the world a better place by doing social action.

It is one thing to read about Israel; it is transformative to visit Israel.

And for this time of year?

It is one thing to study Chanukah; it is something infinitely more meaningful to light a chanukiah in the window, surrounded by family. Here at OJCS, we look forward to an opportunity to gather together to light the Chanukah candles and celebrate in song on Monday, December 18th at 6:00 PM (note new time) in the Gym.

Finally, this and each Chanukah, let’s not forget our Jewish values of tzedakah (charity) and kehillah (community). Along with your normal gift-giving, consider donating a night or two of your family’s celebration to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Chag urim sameach from my family to yours!