Mifgash Means Encounter, Part 1

By Ira Wise

Six months ago, some of us thought holding a day long conference with the Fellows and Mentors of the Leadership Institute and a group of Israel public school principals was not a good idea. We are bringing people thousands of miles for a mere 9 days of traveling and learning in the land. How could we devote more than 10% of that time in classrooms? We were certain there would be a revolt.

Still, the plans progressed. Evie Rotstein - our fearless leader - along with Roberta Bell-Kligler and David Mittelberg and the rest of their staff at Oranim framed the conference around the idea of Jewish Peoplehood.  Mittelberg described the idea of Jewish Peoplehood as emerging from a dialogic discourse. It describes both process and content. He invited the combined American/Israeli group of educators to explore and model what Jewish People can emerge to be. 

Doctor David Mittelberg

He cited two studies (NJPS 2000 and Avi Chai/Guttman 2012) that indicate that both American and Israeli Jews have between an 80 - 93% sense of connection to the Jewish people. So what is the problem with that? Why a conference and a whole department of Jewish Peoplehood at Oranim? Mittelberg says that both Israeli and Diaspora Jewries are partial and incomplete. Neither can do it on their own. Both communities see imparting a sense of connectedness to our children as real challenge.

In Israel, he said, being Jewish is a matter of fact. In the United States, it is a matter of choice. The problem is both in variety of degree and in type. In Israel being Jewish is taken for granted. In the U.S. being Jewish cannot be taken for granted. And being born Jewish in either place is no guarantee anymore that you will stay Jewish. He suggested that only in our mifgash (encounter) with each other can we make up for each of our deficiencies.

He said quite a bit more, and I refer you to the resources at the bottom of this posting for more detail. It was an amazing mifgash. So much so that this is coming in three posts, as I sit at Ben Gurion waiting to go home a week later. I was skeptical about having this conference. It was the highlight of an amazing trip with a wonderful group of educators. Evie, I was wrong. You, Roberta and David were right. Now we need to have more of these mifgashim between American and Israeli educators or it will just have been a great day. It needs to be the beginning of a long and truly essential conversation.


Resources on Peoplehood:
Convergent and Divergent Dimensions of Jewish Peoplehood - David Mittelberg (pdf)
Jewish Peoplehood Education: Framing the Field - Shlomi Ravid & Varda Rafaeli
Towards Jewish Peoplehood - David Mittelberg (pdf)
Jewish Educational Leadership - A Guide to Jewish Peoplehood

Crossposted to Welcome to the Next Level

Mifgash means "Encounter"

During our time in Israel, the Fellows and Mentors of the Leadership Institute will be having a Mifgash with a group of Israeli educators in the form of a conference.

The title of the conference is: "Changing the Mindscape and Landscape of Jewish Peoplehood: New Paradigms for Educational Leaders."  It will take place at Oranim Academic College of Education on February 13, 2012.

The purpose of the conference is to engage Jewish educational leaders from different parts of the world in a meaningful discussion around topics of mutual interest to educational leaders.  We hope that the dialogue, the sharing and the thinking will afford all participants the opportunity both to teach and to learn from one another.

Both in small groups and as a community we will address the following questions:

• How do we understand Jewish peoplehood in theory and practice? 
  
• What commonalities and differences do we experience? 
  
• What leadership dilemmas do we face in our work?
  
• What we learn from each other to address these dilemmas?
  
• How might we continue the conversation by creating initiatives that foster partnerships and joint learning for our students and faculty?

At the present we have about 100 participants including: 42 Leadership Institute directors of educational institutions from the United States, and 40 Israeli educators including principals of Israeli schools (some of whom are enrolled in an academic program at Oranim). In addition there will be 15 faculty members from Oranim College, and a number of Israeli rabbis and practitioners from neighboring communities, who are working to change the landscape of Israel Engagement and Jewish Peoplehood.

The day after the conference, many of the Israeli principals who participate in the conference will host small groups of American educators in their schools, to observe examples of educational innovation. We will have a chance to see Israeli schools in action and to engage in further dialogue about Jewish Peoplehood education, change and leadership.