Early Childhood Education

Many Jewish early childhood centers have long struggled with how to approach Israel education. October 7th exacerbated this reality. Schools are reexamining what Israel education looks like for young children and their families—revisiting their goals, navigating a wide range of perspectives from staff and families, and onboarding new educators into an increasingly complex topic, all while processing the ongoing realities of war and uncertainty in the Middle East. How might we expand our notion of Israel to include both the beauty and messiness of the people, the land, and the modern state of Israel? 

An important piece of this conversation has to begin with developmentally appropriate practice. Young children are capable of grappling with nuance and complexity.

Through their research on Israel education in early childhood, Drs. Lauren Applebaum, Anna Hartman and Sivan Zakai, write that early childhood students are engaging in meaning-making around Israel through baseline knowledge of Israel as a country with its own customs and culture. Schools must consider how to bring nuanced content of that country to their students and examine ways to expand how Israel is represented in our classrooms. Teaching Israel with nuance means cultivating awareness of and sensitivity to the diverse perspectives held by Israelis (and non-Israelis) across cultural contexts. 

Building on this moment of reflection, preschool leaders and educators are invited to begin by clarifying their vision: what should Israel education look like for young children and their families, in ways that honor both the joy and complexity of Israel and its many perspectives? With a clear vision in place, schools can then engage in honest reflection about what may be getting in the way—leadership hesitancy, parent community dynamics, teacher confidence, lack of resources, or fear of conflict. Naming these barriers allows schools to move forward with intention: strengthening leadership alignment, supporting teacher learning, clarifying educational focus, and engaging parents as partners— while bringing Israel into the classroom in authentic ways that lay the foundation for children to hold nuance and engage with increasing complexity over time. 

Two practical ways one might begin this work in their early childhood center are:

1. Use David Cards as a conversational prompt to explore your staff’s existing relationship with and feelings about Israel.
2. Analyze the books and other Israeli related objects in your classroom through a curriculum investigation as a staff.

Each of these tools is intended to spark conversations with teachers, fostering their sense of ownership of the curriculum and supporting their ability to shape the learning through their own perspectives. Turning a critical lens to the Israel education content in our classrooms encourages educators to question their usual assumptions of what Israel education "is" and pushes them to think about the why of what they teach. For example, what might a child understand about Israel if the books in their classroom about Israel mainly feature a trip through Israel with a focus on cities?

We recognize that reexamining ones’ approach to Israel education is complex. These two examples are just a starting point in your schools’ journey. We invite you to join us in conversation with colleagues as we learn from and support one another along the way. 

Ellen Lefkowitz, Senior Educator
Jewish Learning Works
San Francisco, CA

Amy Martin, Director of Early Childhood Education & Family Engagement
The Jewish Education Project
NY, NY 

Yafit Shriki Megidish, Chief Jewish Education Officer
JCC East Bay
Berkley, CA
 

A Story About Values, About Israel, and Israeli Early Childhood Centers During the War

This week I went to help create early learning centers for displaced families in Israel with an incredible volunteer organization called Brothers and Sisters for Israel. While there, I shared a Zoom link and went live every hour for several minutes to provide educators from the United States and Canada with a sneak peek to see in real-time what has been happening these days in Israel, and how pop-up schools are being created.
 

The connection between Israel and our nation in the diaspora is very important to me and I feel privileged that my role in Remini continues to enable me to further these connections, as well as to create bridges. It adds a lot of value to what I do, and I feel it is a shlihoot (mission) of mine.
 

Stacey Gabriel, from Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, Massachusetts, joined one of the live sessions I did while creating the pop-up schools. I am honored to be asked to share about it in the ECE-RJ newsletter. I have so many stories to share related to what is happening with preschools in Israel during this time.
 

Before I begin, I want to highlight what I believe is at the core of what is happening in Israel right now, which is centered around the values of accountability, responsibility for one another, solidarity, taking initiative, creativity, and taking control of our destiny (one of the fundamental principles in a democratic culture). As I am writing this, I feel the tears starting to fall.
 

These values are being reflected throughout the country in so many ways. Here are just a few examples:

• I recently had a conversation with Hagit, a preschool teacher in one of the pop-up preschools for displaced families in Tel Aviv. Hagit shared with me that she left her job as a university education professor to be a preschool teacher at the pop-up school. I did not ask, but I am assuming she chose this path without a salary. 
• On the way to the funeral of a soldier who died, I observed residents of the city lined up from the house of the family to the cemetery, with Israeli flags to show solidarity, honor, and respect. 
• I spoke with Reut, a volunteer responsible for a certain area in Israel, where she is taking care of all the displaced families' needs in this area (each area has its own designated volunteer). One of her recent projects was to provide refrigerators and washing machines to them.
• Omri, a person of strength and someone close to me, left his wife and small child to fight in the reserves, after losing his brother only several weeks ago.
• Attending the Shiva of a family that lost a loved one with the understanding that it is a very small family, and they need to feel the love and support all around them.

As you can imagine I can go on and on and on and on….

Those values are also reflected strongly in the early childhood community through the creation of pop-up preschools for displaced families. These pop-up preschools would not be possible without the organization Brothers and Sisters for Israel, established on October 7th, 2023. They are an amazing group of volunteers who support and work to fill all the needs and gaps related to the war. Right now, displaced families face many challenges, one of which is the ability to receive early childhood services. Brothers and Sisters for Israel have created a division under their umbrella whose sole purpose is to create high-quality early childhood services for the displaced communities. This group includes incredible leaders (all volunteers), who have been working from the beginning of the war, to accomplish this goal. This group continues to receive many requests for needed pop-up preschools. I have been honored to join this group as a volunteer to help create these preschools. 
 

The following is a window into what it is like to create one of these pop-up preschools. Before establishing a new preschool, a lot of preparation work is done. This begins with understanding the space inside the hotels that the hotels can offer, and how to make them suitable for the children’s needs. For example, one hotel allocated several regular rooms. In each room, a different learning center was created, and the children would rotate between the different rooms. The next steps include designing what each classroom will look like (volunteer architects and pedagogists are doing this), and understanding what equipment must be ordered for each classroom, age group, etc.
 

Once this is all done, it is time to start doing the physical work of putting the preschools together. These creation days begin with sorting the equipment each preschool location will get and driving in the volunteers by minibus. Volunteers include people of all ages, ranging in age from early 20s through 80s. After the volunteers were assembled, we split up into different locations. Usually, multiple preschools are created at the same time. In each location, the architect who created the design is the head manager, and in each classroom, there is a “manager.” My job includes doing whatever is needed, e.g. carrying equipment, transferring equipment, organizing equipment, or putting together classroom equipment like desks and strollers for the dolls.
 

While volunteering, I get a better understanding of the situation. I have the opportunity to speak with the displaced families and understand where they are from, and where they are currently living. In many cases, an entire family gets one room, which is not easy. Some were moved as a community, and some as individuals. The most rewarding part is seeing their faces when the work is completed! This makes all the difference.

I want to conclude with a children's song that is taught here in early childhood centers and reflects exactly what I wrote about. We are all building Israel together.

My land of Israel is beautiful and flourishing.

Who built and who planted it?

We all did it together!

The song on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2cjj9IRfqg

Raz Wasserstein

Owner of Remini
 

In the world of early childhood education, this year felt very much like a new chapter for our schools. It has been a time for rebuilding, for establishing new norms and for coming together after two long COVID years kept us apart. This year, in-person meetings and conferences provided us with ways to make meaningful connections once again with other Jewish educators, to learn from one another, to ask questions and to seek answers together.

As we near the end of the school year, we wanted to highlight some of the “best of” professional development workshops and trainings. As a community of lifelong learners, one of our goals as an organization has always been to share our collective knowledge with one another, and to provide a system of support for Jewish early childhood educators to continue honing their craft.

Without further ado, here are a few highlights from this year:

• ECE-RJ Meet Up: Using Materials to Grow New Ideas with Children and Adults: Another Look with Matt Karlsen and Susan Harris MacKay
• Nan Sumner’s in-person workshop, “Loose Parts for Newbies” Nan Sumner, Director, Barnert Temple Preschool, Franklin Lakes, NJ
• Dr. Betsy Stone’s talk: Dealing with the Trauma Caused by COVID: https://www.betsystonephd.com/
• Meri Cherry’s mobile workshop talking about process art: https://mericherryshop.com/products/mobile-art-teacher-workshop
• Susan Remick Topek visited Jewish preschools on Long Island sharing her workshop, “Intentional Jewish Experiences – Something New & Something Old”
• Tom Copeland – “The Business of Family Child Care Video Series” https://www.tomcopelandblog.com/blog/the-business-of-family-child-care-video-series
• “Newish to Jewish” series offered by The Paradigm Project – recordings can be found HERE
• Missy Brown - Incorporating Mindfulness in Your Classrooms and Your Lives: https://youtu.be/R7T1LqAIkcM
• Nancy Parkes: Social, Emotional & Spiritual Learning: https://www.nancyparkesconsulting.com/

We are looking forward to the joint ECE-RJ/ARJE Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, which is scheduled for January 22-24, 2024. Conferences are one of the most meaningful ways in which to not only learn together as a community of Jewish educators, but also provide a landscape for us to connect with one another. We hope you will save the date for what we know will be an amazing experience for all who are lucky enough to attend.

Jen Schiffer

Director, The Community Synagogue L’Dor V’Dor Early Childhood Center