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JULY 27, 2017 | The Jewish Home
Around the Community
The Jewish Education Project and Yeshiva Har Torah Host Responsive Classroom Training
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ore than 20 Jewish educators from half a dozen Jewish day schools came together for an intensive four-day course on the Responsive Classroom approach to elementary school education. The program, hosted at Yeshiva Har Torah, was facilitated by The Jewish Education Project (formerly the Board of Jewish Education). “Our school was privileged to host this important workshop, which fully supports our school’s mission of creating a respectful learning environment for every child,” said Rabbi Menchel, principal of Yeshiva Har Torah. The Responsive Classroom is a research-based social-emotional approach to classroom teaching. It emphasizes that learning critical social skills – cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control – is as important as learning academic skills, and that social development
goes hand-in-hand with academic achievement. This is accomplished through specific classroom strategies, including building a positive climate for learning through the use of routine, giving students options in their learning to create invested learners, using morning meetings and end of day “closing circles,” and setting up
classrooms to maximize independent learning. Since conceived by six classroom teachers in 1981, the Responsive Classroom has been implemented in classrooms across the country. Independent longitudinal studies have found a correlation between the approach and improved long-term academic performance.
The Jewish Education Project provided schools with the opportunity to participate in professional development that promotes students emotional and social investment in learning. Funding for the program was made possible through Title IIA funding, federal funds provided to the New York City Department of Education for teacher professional development. “The program was an important opportunity for participants because demand for Responsive Classroom training, provided by the Northeast Foundation for Children (NEFC), far exceeds the NEFC’s capacity to provide it,” explained Sara Seligson, Director of Day Schools and Yeshivot for The Jewish Education Project. “Being able to have ten of our own educators participate in a program of this caliber will maximize our school’s capacity in this vital area,” added Menchel.
“Emunah for Life” Reveals How Emunah Builds Relationships CCHF World-Wide Tisha B’Av Event to Unite 50,000 Jews Across the Globe By C. Nestlebaum
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ne answer? Does that really exist? Yes! There’s a lifeline that helps us pull through all situations. And that’s faith. Emunah enables us to face huge challenges: the pain of death, disease, difficult children, the situations that rend our heart. Emunah is just as necessary for the daily struggles that cloud our vision: the petty jealousies, the demanding days, the things that just don’t seem to go right. This Tisha B’Av, grab onto this lifeline. This year’s presentation, “Emunah for Life: How to Master Life’s Challenges,” provides a deeper understanding of the cornerstone of Jewish belief: emunah. We live in times of terrible hardship and distress. There are so many overwhelming challenges that beat us down and take away our ability to function. And then there are so many smaller difficulties, things that seem unfair, or make our lives stressful and don’t allow us to experience happiness. We need this lifeline as never be-
fore! Bringing together 50,000 Jews in 700 in locations in 16 countries around the world, this event has played a major role in making Tisha B’Av a day of awakening, awareness and renewed commitment for Jews from every walk of life. From cities and towns to summer camps to bungalow colonies, the World-Wide Event’s message reaches far and wide. The more a person really believes that Hashem runs the world, the stronger his relationships with others will be. This is the golden link between emunah and the mitzvos bein adam lachaveiro that will be explored this year. Join us! Take the first step. Listen to the words that will open your heart and mind to emunah. Hear to the timeless messages of the Torah’s wisdom, the lifeblood of our survival. Realize the everyday hashgachah pratis before our very eyes. Emunah allows us to live each day with purpose and meaning, to live in harmony with those around us, and to walk through the dark shadows when they confuse our path. This Tisha B’Av, the Chofetz Chaim Heritage
Foundation presents the largest-ever worldwide Torah event. “Emunah for Life: How to Master Life’s Challenges” is set to signal a surge of connection to Hashem, and bring serenity and simchah into our lives. Presenting these thought-provoking topics will be a stellar array of speakers. Program A features HaRav Elimelech Biderman, a word-renowned mashpia from Bnei Brak whose penetrating weekly lectures inspire thousands worldwide; Dayan Ahron Dovid Dunner, senior dayan in the London Kedassia Beth Din and the rav of Bais Medrash Tottenham Adass in London, who is sought out by communities around the world to share his vast Torah knowledge; and Rabbi Ephraim Eliyahu Shapiro, the rav of Congregation Shaaray Tefilah of North Miami Beach and an internationally-acclaimed speaker who inspires thousands daily with his Shmiras Haloshon Yomi shiurim. Program B features Rabbi Eli J. Mansour, rabbi of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue and a sought-after speaker within the Syrian community and beyond; Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein, founder and director of Ohr
Naava, Ateres Naava, and Bnot Chaya Academy for girls, and a dynamic speaker who inspires audiences world-wide; and Rabbi David Ashear whose “Daily Chizuk” messages of emunah and acclaimed book, Living Emunah, reach tens of thousands. All of these speakers will bring to audiences around the world a new clarity regarding what emunah means in a Jew’s daily interactions with others. They will reveal how a person’s connection with Hashem neutralizes such traits as anger, jealousy and flattery and enables relationships to flourish. As the Jewish people mark another year in galus, the message of emunah offers hope and comfort. By grasping this message, over 50,000 Jews around the world will strengthen their loving connection with Hashem and with their fellow Jews, thereby setting the stage for the end of the Jewish people’s mourning and the beginning of Geulah. Please see the Tisha B’av location ad in this paper for a complete showing listing.