HaYidion, RAVSAK's highly-acclaimed journal of Jewish education, explores topics of critical interest to day school leaders, advocates, families and supporters. [New to HaYidion? Click here to read more]
Each quarterly issue focuses on an aspect of Jewish day school life, unpacking it from a wide variety of perspectives, offering both theoretical frameworks and pragmatic approaches.
HaYidion is read by heads of schools, Judaic directors, division principals, admissions and finance directors, development professionals, Federation and JCC directors, and lay leaders across North America and beyond. Members of RAVSAK receive a number of copies of each issue each quarter. Past issues are archived here at ravsak.org on a one-quarter delay.
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ParentsThe headline in the Forward reads: “The Jewish Mother Revisited: Goodbye, Mrs. Portnoy, Hello, Bad Mommy.” A forthcoming book is entitled Hell is Other Parents and Other Tales of Maternal Combustion. An article in the New Jersey Jewish Standard promotes “Helping Kids Thrive With the Coach Approach to Parenting.” On the parenting shelf of the public library sits Straight Talk About Your Child’s Mental Health: What to Do When Something Seems Wrong. Parenting in the Age of Anxiety is extremely stressful....[more]
Nurturing LeadershipIsrael was founded on hope. Hope was the theme of our recent presidential election. Hope and a belief in a brighter future sustain us all in our educational enterprises. This issue of HaYidion will help reinforce your optimism and your commitment to Israel, to our people and to our future as surely as spring follows winter...[more]
Israel & Zionism EducationIsrael was founded on hope. Hope was the theme of our recent presidential election. Hope and a belief in a brighter future sustain us all in our educational enterprises. This issue of HaYidion will help reinforce your optimism and your commitment to Israel, to our people and to our future as surely as spring follows winter...[more]
Teacher Retention and Development"U.S. chooses ‘change’” is the headline on my Internet homepage as I begin to write the introduction to this issue of HaYidion on the day after Election Day. Yet as we all know, change is scary. Nonetheless, change is the fundamental feature of education. The Latin root of the word “education” is “e-ducare” which means “to lead out.” Education always involves change, as we lead our learners out from the known to the unknown, from security to insecurity...[more]
Religious PurposefulnessThis issue represents something of a departure for us from our normal examination of the basics of Jewish education—the structures, challenges and curricular issues with which we all must deal. Instead, it presents us with a philosophical framework for our work, an examination of the day school movement in the context of the state of Judaism in the 21st century in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in the Jewish communities of Canada, Europe, and around the globe...[more]
The Arts in Jewish EducationJudaism and the arts have always had a complicated relationship. Whether it be an avoidance of drama because of ecclesiastical connotations, a rejection of vocal music if it included kol isha, the voice of a woman, or the absence of figurative representations in art due to the prohibition of graven images, the arts have historically received shorter shrift in Jewish pedagogy than other subjects.
As Jewish culture has evolved, however, the arts have increasingly come into play as vital expressions of Jewish thought and spirituality. In our schools also, there has been a renaissance of creative Jewish exploration of the visual and performing arts, as well as new media, as a means of increasing students' understanding of the roots of our faith and the many ways in which this faith can be expressed...[more]
This Passover issue of HaYidion addresses the questions of school choice. It provides a variety of articles on the topic of "making the case" for a Jewish community day school. When Jewish parents select an institution to provide the formative educational experiences of their children's lives, they are in fact confronting the issue of whether to make Judaism a priority in their lives. While all of us engaged in Jewish community day school education know that the "product" we offer is of superior quality, proven excellence, and demonstrated effectiveness and is one of the major factors in determining whether there will be a Jewish future, how do we communicate this to our "customers"?..[more]
The topic of Jewish communal leadership reveals even more challenges. As Hal Lewis, author of From Sanctuary to Boardroom: A Jewish Approach to Leadership, writes "Mirroring trends that reach across America, today's Jews are far more comfortable with episodic and intermittent linkages than with traditional forms of affiliation...Today, Judaism has become a leisure time activity, one of the many things American Jews do if they have the time and are so inclined. And even then, only on occasions that suit their needs, temperaments and value systems."
While this issue of HaYidion cannot address all of the multiple facets of the governance discussion, it clearly touches on many of the hot-button topics which are relevant to Jewish education today...[more]
[Full-time] Head of School at Trocki Jewish Community Day School
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