Israel Education
We believe that a comprehensive and integrated approach to Israel Education is a critical component for a holistic Jewish education. For decades, educators have looked to Jewish LearningWorks for knowledge, skills and tools to support their work in the classroom.
Exploring Israel with learners of any age has perhaps never been more difficult. When we teach about Israel, each of us in the room — whether teacher or learner — comes with our own knowledge, experiences, and assumptions. It is in this context that Jewish LearningWorks develops its Israel education offerings.
We acknowledge that no teacher, and no topic can be value neutral, and we choose partners that we believe will create a safe, learning environment for participants. We embrace an approach Rabbi Laura Novak Winer termed Yedidat Yisrael/Knowing Israel as we work together to sharpen our content knowledge, and develop the tools required to reach learners with divergent ideas, experiences and positions. Rabbi Novak Winer writes: “Yediat Yisrael more accurately reflects the type of knowledge, understandings, and connections our learners need. Yes, it may lead to ahavat Yisrael, but that is not the primary objective. Yediat Yisrael aims for learners to find and navigate their own meanings and connections with Israel, as the historic homeland, as a global, diverse Jewish community, and as the modern State. Yediat Yisrael aims to build understanding.”
Ultimately, meaningful Israel education (in fact all education) depends on educators bringing themselves to the work. We are committed to taking an intentional, and learner-centered approach to this topic, and remain open to your feedback.
Israel Curricula & Guides
We are proud to partner with The iCenter for Israel Education to offer three of our most acclaimed resources to educators across the country. These resources were developed by longtime Jewish LearningWorks educator, Vavi Toran.
On The Map
Money Talks
Money Talks provides a new lens through which the complicated history, politics and culture of Israel can be explored.
Poster Tales
Poster Tales / Krazot Mesaprot offers analysis, dialogue and more as expressed through posters — offering a year over year snapshot of Israel from a bird’s eye view. This acclaimed resource ended with Israel@60.
Navigating Israel in Crisis
For Jewish educators working with children of all ages
As an organization that nurtures and trains Jewish educators, our primary goal is to support teachers in all settings, who we know have varying levels of knowledge about Israel, and are feeling grief, anger, confusion and fear. We are also committed to allowing our learners’ questions to serve as our starting point. To support you in this work, we invite you to consult often our curated resources to discuss Israel’s current challenges, and foster empathy and resilience in Jewish learning spaces.
Israel Learning Lab Community of Practice
For participants of the 2024–25 Israel LearningLab
The Israel LearningLab was created as a collaborative platform for Bay Area educators to explore the how and why of Israel education following October 7, 2023. As teachers of values, history, and identity, we are continuing to work collaboratively to respond to the evolving needs of learners.
For more information, please contact Dana Sheanin, CEO, at dana@jewishlearning.works.