The past year has been a very productive one for the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education and we’d love to share some of the highlights from the past 12 months:
- Two new editions of the Peoplehood Papers: #13 on Jewish Peoplehood: What does it mean? Why is it important? How do we Nurture It?; #14, inspired by the Shmitta Year and focused on Peoplehood and Sustainability;
- Significant expansion into Israeli society and Hebrew: the Peoplehood Papers #15 in Hebrew; the Hebrew version of the Education Toolkit and the Conference on the Israelis and the Jewish People – the Challenges of Peoplehood in Israeli Society
- The recruitment of a new team for the New York Peoplehood Education Engagement Project led by Professor Benjamin Jacobs and Ph.D student Daniel Olson
- Lots of new resources in the Peoplehood Toolkit, which include:
- A series of short videos, created with G-dcast, which frame the six core themes, conversations and challenges of Jewish Peoplehood in the 21st century
- New activities, texts and media links in the Education Toolkit, focused on each of our six core themes, to assist the educator in teaching and engaging with Peoplehood (we have increased their total number from about 30 to over 120!)
These impressive achievements position us in a promising place for engaging the Jewish educational system in integrating Peoplehood themes into the existing program and curriculum. We have no illusions as to the complexity of this challenge, but believe that the creation of concrete tools and programs can assist in opening doors. In the process we also hope to turn Peoplehood education from an abstract conceptual field into a practical and concrete discipline.
Our plans for the coming years is to shift from the development of the tools to their dissemination into the Jewish educational system. We will develop tailor-made training units and modules that can help spread the spirit and message of Peoplehood. And we intend to engage and mobilize the many believers in Jewish Peoplehood to capitalize on the resources and take the message to the educational sphere.
This is a good opportunity to thank our dedicated and creative staff, our committed lay leaders, our thoughtful and creative Fellows, our partners at the Commission on the Jewish People of the UJA-Federation of New York and our many friends and partners in the Jewish world. Without them and their support none of this would have been possible. And maybe it is just fitting that a collective project of this nature will be carried out by such a collective group of caring and committed people.
Shana Tova to you and yours, to our People and to all humankind.
Shlomi Ravid
