Micah Commences Momentous Education Reform

Temple Micah's religious school will undergo a monumental transformation in the fall, shifting from the traditional format of Sunday school and midweek Hebrew to a life experience that weaves together key aspects of Jewish life and identity in America.

Described not as a revolution but as an evolution, the change will involve adults and children learning separately and together on Sundays as well as on Jewish holidays.

"Calling ourselves a school or a program doesn't encapsulate the full vision of what we're trying to achieve," education director Deborah Srabstein told the congregation during a recent meeting.

Consequently, the new religious school will have a new name, "Machon Micah: Ha- Merkaz l'Atid," or the Micah Institute for the Jewish Future.

"We are deliberately being a bit audacious in choosing a name," Rabbi Zemel said. "We really want to strive for something bold."

The change comes as a result of a lengthy review of Jewish education in general and Micah's education programs in particular--a study spurred by Rabbi Zemel's belief that the 20th-century religious school model was no longer working in a country in which Jewish life and American life were nearly indistinguishable.

"The problems were not that the school was not performing well enough," Rabbi Zemel explained. "The problem was much greater."

A significant question was Jewish identity, "who we are as American Jews," he said.

"A large part of young people coming into our doors come in with great uncertainty about what it means to be Jewish," Rabbi Zemel said. "We lack a personal Jewish narrative and familiar intimacy with narratives of the past."

He said that Jewish children in America too often have been taught Torah without the associations needed to put the lessons to use or to give them meaning. For instance, he asked, "What can it possibly mean to study Torah without being familiar with the Shabbat table?"

Rabbi Zemel said he wanted the temple to partner with families to teach "rich context rooted in experience"--in other words, to create and explore Jewish identity.

He listed a number of themes the exploration would include: Jewish peoplehood, holiness, universal ethics, a sense of poetry and beauty, a sense of deep mystery about God, culture and historic experiences, Torah, Hebrew, modern Israel, associations with other Jews and Jewish survival.

Further, he enumerated three guiding principles for Machon Micah: moving Jewish learning into Jewish time, "experience is everything" and meaningful community involvement.

Prayer, Rabbi Zemel said, "is an art form" and is meaningless if simply committed to memory in a classroom. "We have to think it through to create vitality," he said. "We have to apply that principle to everything."

That's where experience comes in.

Further, he said, learning can't be for children alone. "We are one community. We are all engaged in Jewish learning as a community. We should do it together. We're going to try to create an organic approach to our young people's learning opportunities and our adult learning opportunities."

To facilitate community learning, Srabstein said Machon Micah will meet about once a month on Saturday afternoons or evenings--in conjunction with Jewish holidays--with experiences and activities for the entire community. On those weeks, there will be no "school" on Sunday mornings.

There also will be changes in the way Micah teaches Hebrew. In the past, students in fourth grade and up attended midweek Hebrew classes twice a week until they became bar or bat mitzvah. Parents complained that the time commitment was onerous and the students' knowledge of Hebrew unsatisfactory.

This past year, fourth and fifth graders participated in a pilot program in which they received one-on-one tutoring over the phone or over the Internet with Skype, which allows children and tutors to view each other through webcams. The 10-minute, twice-weekly lessons replaced midweek Hebrew in the classroom. Instructors also monitored the students as they played computer games that reinforced their lessons.

"I have never seen progress this rapidly or dramatically!" Srabstein said.

In the fall, the program will be expanded to include children in grades three through six. The third graders will have one-on-one tutoring through Skype once a week and fourth graders twice a week. Fifth and sixth graders will have tutoring once a week and midweek classes once a week. Seventh graders will attend midweek Hebrew classes once a week in the coming year in addition to their bar/bat mitzvah preparation. Older students will have the option of learning modern Hebrew.

Rabbi Zemel, previously a supporter of midweek Hebrew classes, said he became convinced that students couldn't learn enough that way. "We came to the conclusion that the emphasis should be Hebrew the way Hebrew is used in the life of an American Jew--meaning liturgical, being able to function in a wide variety of prayer settings," he said. "One thing American Judaism has been greatly unsuccessful at is preparing generations of Jews who want to pray."

The temple also is working to enrich the Jewish learning of teenagers, Srabstein said. She suggested setting Sunday evenings aside as a time when teens would have their own programs and space in the building.

In addition, she said, there will be opportunities for children and adults to create social connections through Shabbat dinners and lunches and an expansion of the youth group to younger children.

"For me, if it's not fun, I don't want to do it," Rabbi Zemel said. "I want it to be engaging."

Jennifer G., a member of the education task force, told parents that the new program will challenge them to become equal partners with Temple Micah in their children's Jewish education.

"We're upsetting the apple cart," she said. "We're asking you to come at times you wouldn't normally come. We want a community that's growing in every way, shape and form."

[By Jodi Enda; from June 2009 Vine]