Rabbi Daniel Lapin is known world-wide as a noted rabbinic scholar, best-selling author and host of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast where he shares his knowledge of how the world really works. He is one of America’s most eloquent speakers and he has helped many people around the world grow in their five F’s: Faith, Family, Finances, Friendship, and Fitness through ancient Jewish wisdom. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, later studied in yeshivas in Gateshead, London, and in Israel. He emigrated to the United States and founded The Pacific Jewish Center. His more recent projects, along with his wife Susan, include online courses, a community called The We Happy Warriors, and has written many best-selling books, including their most recent book, The Holistic You: Integrating your Family, Faith, Finances, Friendships, and Fitness. Rabbi Lapin is an avid boater and sailed his family from Los Angeles to Honolulu in the summer on their own 44 foot sailing cutter. As the family grew, the Lapins switched to calmer waters, boating in the San Juan and Gulf Islands in Washington State and British Columbia. He and his wife Susan homeschooled their seven children on Mercer Island, Washington and now live in Baltimore, MD.

Gems:

Our primary obligation is to teach ourselves, not just our children.

We are responsible for our own growth and progress; nobody else is responsible.

Parents must be on the same page.

Create an authentic connection with G-d rather than a formalistic one.

Teach children to build a relationship where they can talk to G-d.

Judaism is more than just a ritualistic way of life.

Try to get out of your comfort zone.

We pass down principles that are relevant at all times.

Think through what you’re going to tell your children.

Be open to freshness.

How we teach needs to be linked to each child as an individual.

Raise children that we would really like.

We can’t expect things to be easy.

Homeschooling is more viable than people think.

Our job is to acculturate the next generation.

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Michael Feldstein has been a direct marketing professional for more than 40 years. He graduated with an MBA in marketing from New York University and has lived in Stamford since 1982. Feldstein is a member of both the Young Israel of Stamford and Congregation Agudath Sholom and has served on the adult education committees at both synagogues. He chaired the Center for Community Education at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford, an education initiative that brought various Jewish educators to speak to members of the Stamford Jewish community. He also chairs the annual Challenges in Jewish Education panel program, which has brought various Jewish educators to participate in a panel to discuss critical issues in the world of Jewish education. It has run consecutively for more than 20 years. He is the author of MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE, a collection of essays on contemporary Jewish topics. For the last three years, he has been publishing a weekly column in The Jewish Link. His works have also appeared in The Jewish Week and The Forward. In 2023, he won the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Journalism, which is given each year by the American Jewish Press Association.

Gems:

Be a life-long learner.

Though technology is very useful, we must still value the actual Torah texts.

Being Jewish is not something we can hide.

Be flexible.

Learning in Hebrew gives our students the ability to read and connect with our texts.

We learn through experiences.

Teach critical thinking skills along with moral character.

There’s value in teaching our students a trade.

Focus on each individual child.

https://amzn.to/414F4MR

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Yossi Berktin is lovingly known by Jewish kids across the world as Rabbi B. Born and raised in Toronto Canada, Rabbi B is best known for his widely popular YouTube show Come Along with Rabbi B. He prides himself in his ability to teach and reach children of all ages and backgrounds. He is a published author, recording artist and has just pushed the pause button on a successful fifteen year teaching career. He has a Masters in education, has helped establish three homeschool endeavors, and has a wonderful, supportive family.

Gems:

• Help how to make Jewish learning more fun, engaging, and entertaining.
• It’s amazing how Hashem works!
• Share your love of learning.
• Your joy is contagious.
• Learn to see the positive in everyone.
• Bring out what Hashem created within each student.
• Focus on the task at hand.
• Keep moving forward and keep doing better.
• Recognize and share with others that Hashem is the creator of the world.
• Hashem doesn’t make mistakes.
• Be the best you, you can be and bring out the best in others.
• Bring Hashem into the equation and let him be a partner in your decisions.
• Try to be more childlike.
• Our job as educators is to know how to play properly, in a holy and focused way.
• Learn how to use the Condordant.
• Ask what the students/kids are going to need in their own personal lives?
• Arm them with simcha.
• Give the kids the tools they will need.
• Give children experiences.
• Hashem gave us interests and talents for us to use.
• Give children options for showcasing their creativity.
• Provide children the space to engage with content the way they want to.
• How can we empower our children?
• We each have our derech (our path).
• Remember what engaged you as a child.
• Fall in love with what you’re teaching.
• Be yourself.
• If you find yourself drawn to Chinuch, it’s because Hashem needs you there.
• There is something magic and beautiful to be taught.
• You don’t have to meet someone else’s expectations.
• Help students realize that they can be themselves and that they are here for a holy purpose.

www.RabbiB.org

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Assaf is the Director of Education at UnitEd. He works in the fields of Jewish Education, Museum Education and Comics and Graphic Novels. Prior to joining UnitEd, Assaf served as the first director of the Jewish renewal Division at the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. He was Director of Education at Anu-Museum of the Jewish People (Tel Aviv). He served as curator of the Israeli Cartoon Museum, where he curated international and local exhibitions on editorial cartoons, comics and graphic novels. He teaches courses on Jewish Education, Museum Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education at Tel-Aviv University, Shenkar College of Design and Seminar HaKybutsim Teachers' College. His co-edited book "Comics & Sacred Texts” (with Prof. Ken Koltun-Fromm), has won the 2018 Best Edited Volume Award from the American Popular Culture Association (APA/PCA).

Gems:

• Help students appreciate our Torah, history, and culture on a more meaningful and profound level.
• Instill curiosity within your students.
• Ask students the big questions to help them figure out who they are.
• Create an environment in the classroom of acceptance of where each student is.
• Inspire students to connect with who we are as a nation and where we came from.
• Build a foundation of trust.
• It’s Ok to bring humor to education.
• Hebrew is a central pillar of Jewish education.
• Engage with Hebrew and don’t be afraid to make mistakes; have no shame.
• What are the most urgent needs of other educators and students?
• Talk with children about what’s going on in Israel.
• Prepare students for what they may face on university campuses by talking with them and giving them the resources they will need to thrive.
• Show our students that Jews around the world are linked to Israel.
• Teach children our history and its relevance in their everyday lives.
• Education is about knowledge, but also about having a deep connection to our history, faith, and culture, and establishing relevance to our lives.
• Chinuch should be learner centered.
• Don’t think that the entire fate of the Jewish world rests on your shoulders.
• Focus on what you can do!
• Remember why you became an educator in the first place.

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Rabbi Dovi Nadel has been the coordinator of the Dr. Shimshon Isseroff USA Chidon Ha’Tanach since 2015. Dovi is on the faculty of SAR High School and currently serves as the grade dean for the senior class. Dovi is a proud alum of Farber Hebrew Day School, Yeshivat Har Etzion, and Yeshiva University. He has a Master’s degree in Bible from YU-Revel and received his Semikha from YU-RIETS. For three consecutive summers he served as the Rosh Chinuch (Head of EducationalStaff) at Camp Stone in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. Dovi credits his parents and two unique Middle/High School educators for inspiring his love of Tanach – Rabbi Eliezer Cohen Z”L and Rabbi Pinchas Amior.

Gems:

• Inspire your students to learn Pesukim of the Torah well.
• Make time for your students.
• The key to textual fluency is when the student decides that they really want to learn it on their own.
• Encourage students to take ownership of their learning.
• The real reward is when students work hard.
• Push the students more than they push themselves.
• The short route ends up being the long route, the long route ends up being the short route.- Talmud
• Be a steward through which to connect students to Torah and Hashem.
• Generate a love of Torah and make it part of every day conversation.
• Chinuch is about planting seeds, helping cultivate students in whatever way you can, and knowing you might not see the end result, however, we have an impact.
• Ask your students what they find meaningful.
• Be inspired by your students.
• Stay fresh and creative.
• Truly love your students and what you’re teaching.
• Each of us has a duty to teach others.

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Jessie Rothstein is a new olah and a high school Tanach and Jewish History teacher in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, where she lives with her family. She received her BA in Jewish Studies and Anthropology at Emory University, in Atlanta, GA, focusing her undergraduate thesis on Holocaust survivor testimony from Argentina. She received her MS in Jewish Education from YU Azrieli and has been teaching in Modern Orthodox high schools for the past 8 years. Jessie is extremely grateful to Hashem that she has the privilege of teaching Tanach in Eretz Yisrael!

Gems:

• Point out what is important to Hashem within Tanach.
• Hashem loves us.
• The Torah shows us what Hashem cares about.
• Hashem cares about vulnerable people, and we ought to also.
• It’s our job to have empathy for people who are less fortunate than us.
• Show students the little moments that reveal Hashem’s presence.
• Help students learn to have gratitude.
• Kids must feel safe.
• Learn how to disagree with people, while still being a loving person.
• Help students recognize their potential and actualize it by giving them the tools they’ll need.
• Create a sense of belonging amongst your students.
• Each student has his/her own path.
• We have to acknowledge and accept who the child is.
• See each child not just as an individual, but as someone who is also part of a family.
• Parents and educators are on the same team.
• Put yourself in their shoes.
• Keep the big picture in mind.
• Learning how to be a teacher is done on the job.
• Every difficult experience makes you a better teacher.
• The Torah is our guide to life.

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Rebecca Masinter is the founder of Toras Imecha and Mother's Guidance which provide Torah based inspiration and practical guidance to parents. She has been involved in Jewish education for twenty-five years as a teacher, administrator, ACT tutor, and homeschool mother. Rebecca lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband and six children, where she is active in the homeschool community and as an educator at Bnos Yisroel of Baltimore. Rebecca is passionate about sharing Torah wisdom with parents around the world and has created several video presentations and authored many articles which provide deep insights combined with down-to-earth tools for today's parents. https://www.torasimecha.com/ and https://www.mothersguidance.com/

Gems:

• Do your best to approach things from a positive perspective.
• For families: make time for family togetherness.
• Decide what you want to give your students and how you want to impact them.
• Take it one year at a time.
• Decide what is best for each child at each given time.
• Parents all have the same mission to train their children.
• Parents are facilitators in their children’s education.
• Allow children to become full partners in their education.
• The early childhood years are critical years for the influence of the family.
• The early years are the basis for the child’s whole life.
• Children need their mother to be their primary influence during the early years.
• Think about how we can help our children become their best selves.
• Help students understand that they have a purpose in this world.
• Continue growing yourself through reading, and taking classes.
• Life is not meant to be easy.
• Start children off on the path that they will go on for their whole life.
• Think long-term.
• Figure out what your goals are.
• Think about what does Hashem want from you right in this moment?
• When a student or child is struggling, it’s not personal.
• You are not a failure when a student or child has challenges.
• It’s not about the product in our roles as educators, it’s what are we putting into them.
• In order to teach, you have to love your children/students.
• Find your mentors.

Book Recommendations: Steven Covey- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families
Gordon Neufeld
Leonard Sax
Linda and Richard Eyre-3 Steps to a Strong Family
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T’helah Ben-Dan is the founder of The Kefar, which provides virtual content, instruction, and coaching for Hebrew language learners and teachers. She also serves as Deputy Director of TALMA, overseeing recruitment and onboarding for the organization's teaching fellowships in Israel. T'helah has several years of classroom and online teaching experience, and loves all things Hebrew and Torah-related. T'helah holds an MA in Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language, an MS in Early Childhood Services, and a BA in African & African-American Studies. When she's not working, you can find her reading, baking, or traveling.

Gems:

• Join with other educators and learn as much as you can from them.
• Developing an understanding of the Hebrew language will aid in connecting with our fellow Jews and Israel.
• Learn as much Hebrew as possible.
• Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of the fire.
• Lead our students to the information and help inspire them to learn deeper.
• Build the excitement and spark the curiousity.
• How can we impart the knowledge given to us to the next generation?
• Make the time to commit to your own learning.
• Your time is valuable.
• You can do anything, but not everything.
• Love the work that you do!
• Find a community of other educators.
• Have fun!

https://www.youtube.com/thelahbendan

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