Educating students about modern Israel is not an easy task. It presents numerous challenges, including our personal and political biases, where to devote our energies, and how to help our students truly understand the country’s many complexities. Challenging, however, does not mean impossible. So writes Richard Walter, associate director of the Center for Israel Education at Emory University, in the Foreword to the Israel…It’s Complicated Teacher Resource Guide.
Developed by Behrman House in consultation with the CIE, the resource guide offers a package of materials for teachers of all experience and skill levels. As Walter writes, “Our aim as Israel educators should be to create critical thinkers, not followers, no matter our personal politics.”
Here are three strategies you can focus on for effective Israel education, as excerpted from the Foreword:
Dina Maiben is the Hebrew program director at Gratz College, where she is also a doctoral candidate focusing her research on the second language teacher education of Hebrew teachers. She has written extensively on Hebrew reading and language education and is the author of twenty-one books and more than two dozen journal articles and stories. With lots of conversation happening lately around Hebrew learning in part-time educational settings, we asked her to explain the research.
Many years ago, when I was first learning to read Hebrew, I remember sitting in the sanctuary, prayer book open, and feeling like I was drowning in a sea of Hebrew letters, when suddenly a single word jumped off the page: “שָׁלוֹם.” I knew that word! I not only knew how to sound it out, but I knew what it meant. It was the word that my teacher used to greet us at the start of every class and it was what she wished u
For a limited time, we’re making available for FREE the Mah Nishtanah digital companion for Hebrew practice and reinforcement, plus bonus downloadable reading activities for Passover.