Stories from a Yeshiva

 ´I don´t remember when I stopped thinking every day would be my last day´.

Gerry Albarelli answered an announcement for an English teacher opening at a school in Brooklyn and will end up teaching for around five years in a boys religious school. He does not reveal in the book explicitly the name of the yeshiva, but it is a Satmar boys´ school, which according to his descriptions - non-judgemental, and this is a greatest merit of the book - looks like a very dangerous and chaotic place. Teachers are surrounded by 3-4 graders and almost lynched; the teachers are beating the children with no regrets and administrative consequences. Only the English teachers are running as fast as they can after a short amount of time.

The boys are rarely speaking English and the teacher doesn´t speak Yiddish but they will find a way to communicate and learn together, in the good spirit of the religious learning. The teacher will create attractive classes, creating stories with the boys themselves distributed as characters. An idea which boosted the interest for the classes. ´They wanted to learn English if only to find out what they were doing in the stories´.

One of the big merit of the book is to elegantly share the stories, without any trace of patronizing. This is what is going to a Hasidic yeshiva in Brooklyn, a secret for many, especially girls.  The non-critical stance is very important, as it avoids the horrible stereotypes easily sliding into the stories about Hasidic life and education in general. But what is the point of writing stories which are biased, stealing from the reader the pleasure of making his or her own opinions about a book. 

Last but not least, Teacha! suggests to educators creative ways to build bridges during the educational process especially in a diverse cultural context. After all, the role of a teacher is to share knowledge and this may happen no matter how different his or her culture his or her culture is compared to that of the students.

Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano

 

Born in 1926 in Paris, from Jewish parents - father originary from Austria, mother from Hungary - Dora Bruder was killed in Auschwitz in 1942. Modiano is trying to recreate her life from fragments of archives and encounters with the places she and her family lived. There is a race against forgetting, for marking the memory of the deported. 

I feel there are so many untold stories of French Jews, stories of resilience, of resistance, but also hopeless stories, of people killed and disappeared without trace. People who were forced to wear the German-imposed yellow star and betrayed by their non-German neighbours. 2014 Literature Nobel Prize Winner Modiano himself has a complex WWII Jewish history, on his father side. While researching and writing about Dora Bruder, there are episodes from his own life slipping away, as memories or sensations or allusions. 

The I-centered story of Dora Bruder is a story of Paris too. A story of Jewish Paris, of immigration and despair, of a geography of hate and exclusion, but also of everyday life flowing slowly its pace, out of history. It is a history common to many Jews, those hidden in Catholic institutions and maybe never brought back to their families or to their faith. Dora run away from her Catholic school, she was for sure a rebelious girl. 

But fate and what humans made of it, wanted her to die in Auschwitz. She ´disappeared´. There are so many hidden chances and opportunities and failures in a name. Dora Bruder. She never got old. Or had her own children to stroll with alongside the streets of Paris. 

Since 2015, her name was given to a street in the 18th arrondissement. 

I had access to the book in the audiobook format, read by Didier Sandre, an actor that played in J´Accuse too, a film inspired by the tragic fate of Albert Dreyfus. 

Jewish Learning with Jewish Interactive

I am a constant supporter and beneficiary of the extraordinary power of online Jewish learning. Particularly if it happens to live in a non-English, remote community without direct access to diverse source of education, online classes for every age, but especially for children, are a great mitzvah. As an adult, I had the chance to attend various online classes on a big variety of Jewish topics, from the comfort of my home, long before Covid made Zoom calls and online classes fashionable - by default.

The more, the better and therefore I was very excited to get in touch via social media - another blessing on the online connections - by the representatives of Jewish Interactive, a fresh new website offering resources to teachers, school leaders and parents. 

The site is very friendly, both in terms of design - fonts, colours, accessibility - and information. There are games, and books and tutorials about holidays, Israel and the Hebrew alphabet. If you are a parent who haven´t had the chance to attend the Jewish school, you can learn at the pace of your child or refresh your long forgotten memories of Jewish education. Among the topics featured: Hebrew, Parasha, Jewish holidays, Jewish books. 

According to the site´s representatives, the target of the website wants to help any teacher of Hebrew or Jewish studies to create their own content based on the sourecs provided. The content can be accesses in English, but the search can be done in any of the 13 support languages. All descriptions of images, for example, are automatically translated into the 13 languages allowing for searches in those languages.

Jewish Interactive plans to train teachers to become master teachers based on professional courses currently under development. They can create their own lessons and become part of the community. Under the community section of the website, teachers will be able to join and list their bios and expertise, and share their coures. Thus, teachers of Hebrew and Jewish Studies throughout the world will be encouraged not only to contribute but to support and share their experiences. As for now, teaching can be done via Google Classroom. 

Although most of the access to the materials - over 17,000 Jewish and Hebrew games made by teachers - is free, there are also paid options, in case you need a wider access. For instance, for families - up to 5 children - the subscription is of 4.99 USD/month, while for educators - 11.99/month. Especially in the case of educators, the paid option makes possible to use various tools to trace and organise your classes. In both cases, a 7-day full access trial is possible, which is enough time to figure out the advantages and shortcomings, if any. In order to access the resources, either for free or as a paid membership, one needs to set up an account. 

For children and families thinking about making aliyah soon, the section Ivrit Misaviv La´Olam can be used as a good start. Besides language tools, there are also interactive games explaining everyday life in Israel, which can be useful for both children and parents.

Jewish Interactive is browser-based. You can use it from your PC or/and iPad but not phones. All lessons allow the creator to both write and/or voice instructions. Some of the JIGs (Jewish Interactive Games) were created by the specialists from Beit Issie Shapira in order to help the learning process of children with disabilities.

I will definitely continue following the next steps of JI and will clearly encourage my son to improve his Hebrew and Jewish knowledge by using it during the upcoming summer holidays.