Celebrating Pesach at Kesher

We celebrate Pesach in different ways: each family has its own customs and traditions. In some families, one person readis the whole text of the Haggadah. Others pass the Haggadah around the table;  Some always have make sure to serve their grandma’s recipe for gefilteh fish; and, some families are convinced their traditional sweet charoset is the best in the world.

At Kesher, we celebrated this year with an emphasis on the story of Geulah (redemption). In this photo, the kids were making skits of moments in which we, through our identification as Israelites, contribute to the story of our redemption. This is one of the ways in which Pesach traditions become unique for each family — we are all free to create our own celebrations.

Geulah – redemption

At Kesher we place a lot of value on text-study, but this lesson was the first time that I tried reading to the Shorashim from the Torah directly, with no adaptation. I opened the book after just a short introduction, apprehensive that this was going to fall flat, maybe they are too young for this, and the language of the Torah is too difficult for them, too terse. I read the passage from Exodus telling how the Jews cried out after many years of suffering under the Egyptian yoke, and how after they cried out, God responded.  I had to repeat the few lines again to the kids, but I was amazed by how they responded! These young, young children went directly to the most important questions, and directly echoed the questions that are asked in the pages of our great scholars.

“Why haven’t they cried out before? why did they wait so long?”

“Why did God wait until the people cried out to respond?”

“Why did they have to cry out loud to God?”

“Sometimes you cry out loud and no body helps you, did they know they’re going to get help?”

We have many children’s books about the Exodus at Kesher, but their amplified storytelling sometimes tries to answer important questions before the kids have a chance to ask them. The Shorashim responded magnificently to the openness of the original Torah text.

Lee

In these photos you can see a discussion about the story of Exodus  in Anafim, and Shorashim depicting various moments of ‘Ge’ulah’ – redemption -  in the story.

Benayim learning about cloning

The T’marim class is currently working on a series of lessons reflecting contemporary issues through the lens of traditional Jewish texts. Last week they were considering some of the ethical questions thrown up by cloning technology. Here you see a cloned set of T’marim doing the hard work whilst their genetically identical progenitors kick back with some hot chocolate in porter square.

The Mandel Center at Brandeis Uni. publishes article about Kesher

Beit Midrash Research Project, Piloting a School-Based Research Initiative

The Mandel Center for Jewish education at Brandeis University publishes an article about the work our tzevet (staff) does on the Havruta project, as part of our teacher development, here it is:

This year, the Beit Midrash Research Project has partnered with the Kesher Community Hebrew School in Cambridge, MA, an innovative afternoon school, to establish a Beit Midrash for Teachers.

The Kesher Beit Midrash serves both as a professional development program for the Kesher staff as well as a research site for exploring and expanding the use of havruta learning tools in the classroom. These tools are based on Orit Kent’s work identifying key practices of havruta learning (Download her dissertation abstract). The hope is to enhance the teaching of Jewish texts and student learning in havruta at Kesher, as well as to better understand how teachers translate this experience into their classroom teaching.

An onlooker to the Kesher Beit Midrash for Teachers would observe teachers, paired in lively havrutot, deliberating over Jewish text. While exploring and sometimes disagreeing over the text’s meaning, teachers are also keeping track of the nature of their discussion.

To the read whole article click: www.brandeis.edu/mandel/projects/beitmidrashresearch/beitmidrash_kesher

Ometz Lev (courage) in the Chanukah story אומץ לב בחנוכה

Anafim Nitzanim and Shorashim were all busy this week learning about the Ometz Lev (courage/strengthening hearts) through the Hanukkah story. We all have our moments when we can’t do something cause we feel ‘faint hearted’ but we also all have the amazing ability to strengthen our hearts to enable us to do things. In the story of Chanukah the Jews stood up for their right to live their lives as Jews, despite the surrounding obstacles that the Greek empire tried to impose.

We were joined by Lesley student Heather Zeiden, who has designed a special book making project for our Ometz Lev curriculum. Kesher kids are preparing a Chanukah booklet divided into eight candles for eight stories of courage from their own lives. Here we can see the preparation of these books, which feature special ‘paste paper’ that Heather taught us to make.

Rodef Shalom – Pursuing Peace – unit drawing to a close

Our classrooms have been exploring the idea of Shalom Bayit – domestic peace- in the conclusion of this curricular unit. I was particularly impressed at the seriousness with which I saw Nitzanim groups considering how to promote peace in their own homes. They exhibited a level of self-awareness that was surprising to me, and is a testament to the environment that Chemda and Bryna have been creating with them. It was also clear that many of them have carefully honed techniques for tormenting their siblings…

Also this week, I witnessed the Shorashim taking part in an enormous game of Chutes and Ladders, in which they ‘pursued peace’, working out ways to avoid generating conflicts (snakes), and taking opportunities to promote peace (ladders), as well as meeting several famous ‘pursuers of peace’ including Yitzchak Rabin, Anwar Sadat, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Asaf organized a very engaging exploration of conflict for the Anafim. Each individual was given a single Torah text which they had studied in the preceding weeks, and asked to make it their ‘watch-word’. They were then split into two factions, arguing over territorial issues (loosely modeled on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict), and tasked with achieving peace. Through video-tape the kids then got to watch there performances and analyse the impact of there strategies on the debate. Fascinating stuff.

As Chanukah approaches, we begin a new unit next week on Ometz Lev – Courage – exploring the importance of standing up for oneself, and for others.

Kesher Walk on the Fells (Mini Retreat)

Learning from Yaakov, we find out that peace can't only exist if you keep it only in your home, in your community. Rather it is outside of your house where you find true peace, true God.

This Sunday, Kesher families came together for another community fun day at the Middlesex Fells. It was a surprisingly nice, though chilly day. We played around the parachute “getting to know you” games.

The parachute games were so much fun that we had a hard time putting the parachute aside! Therefore, we decided to learn the Torah portion under it. We all huddled together under the “tent” and listened to Rafi speak in the voice of Jacob.

Jacob told us how he was thrown out of the comfort of his house, the only place he thought God dwelled in. Outside of his house, where he had stones instead of pillows to sleep on, Jacob realized that God actually can exist, not only within. As it is written, “Jacob woke up from his sleep, he said, Surely there is God in this place and I did not know. He was awestruck and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!” בראשית 28:16-17

After our Torah study, we went for a really nice walk along the trail and up the hills of the Fells. We ended the hike with hot cocoa, which was a wonderful treat for everyone.

Overheard

I just overheard four Anafim kids during Zman Chofshi (free time) debating a translation up on their classroom wall. The text uses both male and female pronouns to refer to God. Some of the kids think it makes more sense that way, some think less.  I just love that Kesher kids will take a minute to chat about this stuff amongst themselves. And then move on to a conversation about soccer without skipping a beat.

- Rafi

About the Yesodi Curriculum night (K-5)

At the Yesodi (K-5) Curriculum night, Kesher parents came together to learn about what their children study here, and to be introduced to their children’s teachers. Starting with a little communal text study, together, we went through an overview of this year’s Yahadut (Judaics) curriculum  and it’s 9 units; – the curriculum document itself runs to around 80 pages and is designed and refined here in Kesher Cambridge and shared by our sister sites in Newton and  NYC.

At Kesher, we visit and revisit the topics embedded in our curriculum over the course of a three year cycle. Each year of the cycle focuses on a different aspect of Jewish tradition and culture. This year our focus is on Values and Ethics. All groups at Kesher are engaged  in the same material at the same time, at a level appropriate to their age. At the Curriculum Night Rafi talked about how the Shorashim might study the same text as the Nitzanim and Anafim, but at a different level of abstraction.

Chemda then introduced Kesher’s proficiency approach based Ivrit (Hebrew) curriculum and ended the evening with a short Ivrit lesson in which the parents experienced a taste of the proficiency approach.

You can pick up an overview of this year’s Values and Ethics curriculum from your family’s folder.