Teaching Rabbinics in Schechter Schools

June 26, 2007

Program Schedule
9:30 a.m. Arrival, registration and coffee and light refreshments
Room 310

10:00 a.m. Keynote by Rabbi Gordon Tucker. "A Challenge to Teach, Beit
Knesset but Perilous to Ignore: Why Talmud and Midrash
Demand our Curricular Attention"
A reflection on the experience of encountering Talmud as a child, and studying and
teaching it as an adult. Why Rabbinic literature is not only a massive source for
Jewish knowledge in its content, but also a critical intellectual model in its form.

11:00 a.m. Short break

11:15 – 12:30 p.m. First session (4 concurrent sessions)

1. Rabbi Elliott Goldberg

Chicagoland Jewish Day School, IL
Room 309

Rabbinics: The Connections between Why We Teach, Whom We Teach and What
We Teach.
Drawing from the Orientations approach of Barry Holtz (“Textual Knowledge”) and from
the pedagogic content knowledge concept of Lee Schulman, we will look at the
assumptions that we make about the purpose of teaching Rabbinics and what we know
about our students. These will serve as building blocks toward formulating a well-
reasoned approach to curriculum development. In this session participants will reflect
upon our own work settings and how the school environment impacts on structuring
curriculum. (It is recommended that those choosing to attend this session read the
chapters by Holtz and Schulman in advance, although it is not mandatory.)

2. Rabbi Scott Bolton

Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School, NY
Rabbi Sheryl Katzman, co-facilitator
SSDS of Metropolitan Chicago, Northbrook, IL
Room 312

Building on "Bonayich" - Adopting the Torah Sheh B'Al Peh Upper Elementary
and Middle School "ready-made" Vishinantam Curriculum - Why This One?
Come hear why our schools are adopting the Bonayich V'Shinantam curricula.
Stretched over three, four or five years (4-8, 5-8, or 6-8), the curriculum stresses both
skill acquisition and content knowledge. A goal of the curriculum, as it stands, is that
students will gain fluency in identifying the layers of rabbinic texts. Committing
certain mishnayot to memory is also an element of the program. As we are adopting the
curriculum, we are exploring ways to make it uniquely fit our schools, while at the same
time taking advantage of the workbooks, teachers' guides and approaches defined by

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the creators. We will show some sample pages, share some of their hopes and
methods, and talk about our own approaches to implementation.

3. Dr. Cathy Lasser

SSDS of Essex & Union, NJ
Room 313

Brit: A Meeting Place for Psychology and Rabbinics. From Halachah to Agadah,
Midrash and liturgy, our M’korot are informed with a profound understanding of
individual consciousness. The role of Brit, mutuality in our relationship with God and
our heritage, is central to our discipline. Dr. Cathy Lasser, with PhD’s in both Jewish
philosophy and psychology, will share her perspective on applying psychology to Jewish
thought. Through drama, discussion, and self-awareness exercises, she aims to help
students find and read the texts of their hearts as well as the texts of our sources.

4. Amanda Pogany
Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, NY
Room 314

How to Make Talmud Accessible to students and how to develop their skills to
become independent Talmud learners. We will explore how to present material that
feels inaccessible to students both because of content as well as complexity. We will
discuss how presentation, key terms and structures can make the text more accessible
to students as well as give them skills to become independent Talmud learners.
Strategies that help students to understand the structure of a sugya will be shared,
including visual representations of Talmudic arguments and identifying key terms to
unpack a text.

12:30 – 1:15 p.m. Working Lunch Room 310-311

Sara Stave will present the new siddur that she has developed. Those interested in
learning more about it will have lunch together in Room 312.

People wishing to share curriculum materials from their school, will have lunch together
in Room 311.

1:15 – 2:30 p.m. Second session (4 concurrent sessions)

1. Benjamin Mann, Facilitator

Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, NY
Rabbi Matthew Bellas, The Brandeis School, NY, will present a dilemma for the
consultancy protocol.
Room 309

Making Talmud Relevant

This session will be conducted as a consultancy protocol and the participants will
grapple with issues raised by a specific case study. All students are required to study

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Talmud and some really take to it. Year after year, however, some students are turned
off by the esoteric content, difficult language, or complicated logic. They do not see the
"opinions" of ancient Rabbis as being relevant to their own lives. Students who find
modern literature or other coursework more compelling are prioritizing those classes
over Talmud. In addition, some parents send their children the message, whether
implicitly or explicitly, that Talmud class is not as important as general studies.

2. Michele Kwitkin-Close,
South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, MA
Room 312

What Is "Oral Torah"? (Curriculum Design)

This session will present a thematic approach to teaching Torah She-B'al Peh
to middle school students. We will sketch a year-long curriculum that includes
seminal texts about the nature and scope of rabbinic authority as well as several
sub-units that trace the development of halakhah from Written Torah to Oral Torah. We
will explore how our choice of essential questions about Rabbinics guides our choice of
texts. The focus of this session will be on the content of the curriculum (i.e., which texts
should we teach?), but some attention will also be paid to presentation of materials,
particularly with a focus on differentiated instruction.

3. Rabbi Shira Johnston,

Solomon Schechter Upper School of Essex & Union, NJ
Room 313

Text Methodology: An issue we all face is journeying with our students from
comprehension to meaning. A Rabbinics teacher must be prepared to equip students to
engage text in many dimensions: from Hebrew grammar and vocabulary to historical,
comparative and literary analysis and finally to a realization that Torah speaks to each
of us. In her teaching, Rabbi Shira Johnston combines rigorous skills development with
connections to the “affective modality” through humor, contemporary and classical
perspectives ranging from Hasidic thought to the New York Times. She will share with
us her personal approach to empowering students to find inspiration in our classical
sources.

4. Moshe Rudin
Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex & Union, NJ
Ed Zinbarg, a lay leader who helped to develop this program, will participate.
Room 314

Tzedek, tzedek tirdof

Taking the Tikkun Olam project to the next level, SSDS of Essex and Union is currently
piloting a Bar/Bat Mitzvah program that encompasses community resources, local shuls
and Rabbis, student empowerment and intensive text study. The Gil Mitzvot program is
a work in progress in Jewish transformation of the middle school. Share your
perspectives on integrating community, federation and formal and informal pedagogy.

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2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Minha and snack Room 310-311

3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Dr. Elaine Cohen, "Chalk Talk"

Wrap-up session (bringing it all together, revisiting the big picture

issues, and planning next steps)
Beit Knesset

Dr. Robert Abramson, USCJ Department of Education

Rabbi Amanda Brodie, Ezra Academy, CT
Dr. Jon Levisohn, Mandel Center, Brandeis University
Rabbi Harry Pell, Solomon Schechter Upper School of Westchester, NY

L’hitraot!

4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Meeting of the SREL Fellows (Rabbis who are Schechter
Residency in Educational Leadership Fellows or alumni)
Room 310