We all like the snow

Today was the first snow we could really play outside on Z’man B’chutz (time outside)

OPEN HOUSE 12/20/09 CANCELLED FOR SNOW

We will reschedule for January. Stay warm!

Tonight is the last night of Chanukah

It has been such a joy to be able to celebrate chanukah with the Kesher kids, and a reminder that as much as we work to enrich the Jewish lives of our students, these kids enrich our Jewish lives, both with the joy and excitement they have brought to the weeks activities – among them ‘Major League Dreidel’, sufganiot (doughnut) baking, and oil-lamp sculpting- but also with their inspiring insights and reflections on the theme of ‘Ometz Lev’ – courage. This is what being a part of a learning community like Kesher is about. The Jewish tradition is very old, and the kids make it come alive. As teachers we often bring old truths to our students, and they find something new in them, and make them new again for us as adults. It renders Jewish life not just joyful and fun, but also meaningful.

It’s cold and dark outside. Kesher is alive with warmth and light.

Chag Chanukah Sameach,

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

Our own story of courage

One of the kids wrote this beautiful story about how he needs אומץ לב (ometz lev) when there's a black out. On the other side of the dreidle he wrote: "but I find אומץ לב when I come into our parents bed"

Yesterday the Shorashim group made dreidle books. From the cover they look like a book, and then when you open them you can see a dreidle, but the secret lies within… inside the booklets there is a secret story of Ometz Lev (courage), each child wrote or drew a story, of his or her daily life. The story describes a moment in which they felt afraid of something and how they found Ometz Lev to deal with it. Some said they’re afraid of getting a flu shot, one child made a picture of how he’s afraid when his mother goes downstairs but he gets over it and find courage by hugging his cat.

…The dreidle connection? According to legend, children secretly gathered to continue their schooling, despite the study of Torah being outlawed by Antiochus. In the event that someone entered the room, the children would all be pretending to play dreidle together, disguising their real reason for assembling. The simple childs toy conceals a secret story of Ometz Lev, just like Shorashim’s books.

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.

A visit to Kesher NYC

Around a fortnight ago, our Tzevet (staff) were joined by their counterparts from Kesher NYC (our latest sister site), visiting us to learn more about the Kesher model and observe more established classrooms in action. The NYC folks returned home energized and enthusiastic about what they had seen, and eager to bring it home to their program. Just prior to thanksgiving, I paid a visit to them at their home in Tribeca to continue training, and to observe the program in action. I am pleased to report that things are going very well down there. I really felt that I was observing Kesher in action – the same qualities of community amongst kids and teachers, and the same striving for both fun and richness in their teaching. A joyful experience!