The “Halakhically Curious” Phenomenon

By Sofia Freudenstein May 26, 2021

Jewish law has often problematically been taught as a set of dogmatic rules, but a new generation of Jews and Jewish educators are calling for a more intentional vision of halakha.

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The Jewish Educator’s Distance-Learning Handbook

By Rena Yehuda Newman April 9, 2021

Best-practices gleaned from a new generation of Jewish Educators, making the Zoom makom meaningful.

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Diaspora English: Saying Goodbye to Students in Tel Aviv

By Daniel Crasnow February 23, 2021

“I’ll never forget seeing the kids light up as they are given the chance to work with me. I’ll never forget hearing them repeat new words under their breaths in order to memorize them. And I’ll never forget having to say ‘hello’ to twenty kids between the time I walked into school, and the moment I reached my classroom.”

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Diaspora English: Growing Roots After Quarantine

By Daniel Crasnow October 8, 2020

“By doing our work here…and by recognizing that we are not as strong or as stable as we thought we were, we are building our roots.” Daniel Crasnow reports on his experiences as an English teacher in Israel during a year of pandemic in a series entitled, “Diaspora English”.

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On Dress Codes and the Abdication of Privilege

By Amram Altzman November 10, 2014

In middle school (thankfully not high school), “tzitzit checks” were a common feature of my morning. The boys in first period Judaics were required to prove to our teacher and anyone who might ask over the course of the day that that we were following the dress code by wearing tzitzit. Failure to do so…

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A Lesson in Dancing, and Driving, with Palestinians: A Review of the Other Israel Film Festival

By Catie Damon November 26, 2013

The Other Israel Film Festival, featuring films by and about Arab populations living in Israel, just finished running for its seventh season at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center. I was lucky enough to stream a few of the festival’s documentaries and dramas this week from my little corner of the West Coast. Two films impressed…

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