Halleli Educators Seminar Visits New York City Jewish Communities

TALI’s ‘Halleli’ intensive six-month course for leading educators culminated in a recently held weeklong educational trip to New York City. There the group of 20 educators from Israel visited a plethora of New York Jewish institutions including schools, synagogues, community centers, the Jewish Federation, as well as holding a vigil at Ground Zero. The group exchanged ideas with dozens of educational, lay, and religious leaders throughout the kaleidoscope that is the Jewish community.

This year, the 10th year of ‘Halleli’, TALI collaborated with Derech Kfar (Village Way), an organization focused on creating connections between educators and youth in at-risk situations such as those in boarding schools and those coming from Israel’s peripheral geographic regions.

TALI’s staff engaged the educators on a ‘journey,’ a series of discussions where at each stop they connected their experience in New York to educational theories and practices relating to Identity formation.

According to Rivka Greenfeld, TALI’s director of pedagogy research and development, “The journey is both real, emotional and very personal. We embark, every day, every hour on this journey. When we align our thoughts with our hearts, our actions can reflect our innermost needs. We can embody the essence of freedom, to light our way everywhere.”

The October 7th massacre and subsequent war, however, put the trip in danger of being canceled.

Dr. Peri Sinclair, TALI’s Susan and Scott Shay Director General notes that the planning was put in motion prior to October 7th. However, it became, “A big question mark,” because of the uncertainty throughout all of Israel. Some participants were abruptly called to miluim (reserve) duty while many others had this thrust upon their families. Due to Israel’s volatile situation, flights to and from Israel were canceled including those booked for this group.

But TALI made it work, and it did.

Dotan Levi, head of education at Derech Kfar states, “We left family and friends in a bloody Israeli reality and set out to discover our people and, to a large extent, to meet ourselves with questions of identity, belonging, and meaning.”

During the six months of study together, participants investigated questions regarding general and their personal Jewish and Israeli identities, discussing their readings of early Zionist literature, current Israeli culture, and Judaic texts in light of the past two years’ events. The group sought out affinities and differences within themselves to improve their understanding of pluralism and identity while exploring methodologies of how to teach these values.

The visit to New York enabled them to experience, first-hand, the vibrancy of the city’s Jewish culture and community, providing an opportunity to compare and contrast the Jewish contexts in which we live.

Morit Agmor-Avraham, Derech Kfar’s head of professional development, reports, “American Jewry provides us with a hall of mirrors for ourselves, reflecting who we are as individuals, as family members, and as a nation.”

Halleli members in NY synagogue, (Photo Meirav Katz)

The group’s visit to Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial was a highlight.

TALI’s Sinclair notes this aspect of the visit was planned after Oct. 7th. “Memorialization is a central element of life in Israel, and memory is central to Jewish culture. Feeling and needing an outlet for their grief, Israelis find meaning in creating memorials for Oct. 7th. We believe that seeing and experiencing the choices made to memorialize the atrocities of the 9/11 attack can help us find a path for working through our catastrophe.”

Halleli Group at Ground Zero (photo Kobi Cohen)

Levi from Derech Kfar notes, “When we arrived at Ground Zero, the intensity of the memory of the terrible deaths came to life. Wearing yellow pins to remember that 186 days had passed and the hostages are still in Gaza and a white bracelet for the memory of those who perished in the Twin Towers disaster, we wonder about the relationship between the Jewish people, the world, and what is the correct act? Are we charged to continue to increase the light in the world, or is it right to fight the darkness and remember that there is evil in the world and we need to fight it?”

Halleli met leaders of the New York Federation, fellow educators at the Jewish Education Project, SAR, the Heschel and Hanna Senesh Day Schools. They discussed Jewish identity with rabbis from Conservative, Orthodox and Reform congregations and with rabbinical students at Yeshivat Maharat, and experienced a walking tour of the Lower East Side. Outside of traditional organized Jewish life, the group sat with young Jews to learn about their initiatives and with leaders from groups associated with Jews of Color.

Halleli group meeting and discussing Judaism and identity (photo Koby Cohen)

TALI’s Greenfeld, “After each full day, the participants held a group processing discussion to share experiences and work through what was weighing on their hearts; how what they experienced fit together and whether they could recognize themselves in the variety of identities they met throughout the day. It was amazing to be a part of this process connecting Jewish identities.”