How has Jewish education in the Diaspora been affected since October 7?

“My heart is in the East, and I in the uttermost West,” reads the famous poem by Judah Halevi, the 12th-century poet, physician, and philosopher. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish education in the Diaspora has grappled with the issue of educating students about the importance and place of Israel in modern Jewish life, of the study of modern Hebrew, of visiting the land and ensuring that Israel remains in the hearts of those Jews who live in the “uttermost” areas of the world, far from the Holy Land.

In recent months, the role that Israel plays in Jewish life in the Diaspora has taken on a new significance, with the Hamas attacks and the Swords of Iron War, coupled with the rapid spread of global antisemitism. How have the attacks of October 7 and the ongoing war influenced Jewish education in the Diaspora, both pedagogically and emotionally? How are parents, teachers, and children coping with the stresses of a war that, though it is taking place thousands of miles from their schools and homes, occupies a significant place in their hearts?

Educators in Israel and the Diaspora have been closely tracking these issues for most of this past school year. In late May, Jerusalem-based Herzog College, together with the Melton Center for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, hosted a two-day conference titled “Navigating Challenges in Jewish Values Education,” which focused on challenges facing Jewish educators in Israel and the Diaspora following October 7.

Looking at the challenges of Jewish education following October 7

The conference opened with an online Zoom session in which educators from Israel and the US discussed how American Jewish children are reacting to the events of October 7 and its aftermath. The in-person sessions held at the Melton Center featured educators from Israel discussing how to teach ethics and values in Jewish schools in Israel and around the world, and the numerous challenges that these schools are facing because of the war and the wave of antisemitism.

Sivan Zakai and Lauren Applebaum from the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles opened the online conference by presenting their research project, Learning and Teaching about What Matters. 

Zakai and Applebaum explained that their research was part of a larger project in which they are seeking to better understand how American Jewish students and their educators think about “what matters” and the educational implications of those ideas. Their research was conducted with students aged nine through 11 and their teachers at five non-Orthodox synagogues, each of which contains a day school and a religious school. 

Not surprisingly, given the pervasive reach of the media, the research indicated that American Jewish children know about the atrocities of October 7, are concerned about the fate of the hostages, and are especially concerned about the fate of the children who have been kidnapped. 

Some children, they explained, felt that they were personal witnesses to the faraway events. Said one student, “I watched it on October 7. It was super emotional.” Zakai and Applebaum coined the term “remote trauma” in describing the children’s accounts of watching the events. The term means that the children watching the events are far away from the actual events taking place around the world and are themselves physically protected. Additionally, by using a remote control device to access events as they unfold, they themselves become personal witnesses to the violence shown on their screens.

Interestingly, the research showed that the children in the schools surveyed were divided in their beliefs about Israel’s conduct of the war. Some of the children felt that since Hamas started the war, Israel’s actions were proper and necessary. Others expressed concern about Israel’s conduct in the war and were especially concerned about the safety of civilians in Gaza. While the children were aware of a sense of growing antisemitism in the US, the issue of climate change was of greater concern to them. 

Prof. Rona Novick, dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University, the second speaker at the Zoom conference, said that she was surprised by the high degree of close connection between Jews in the Diaspora and in Israel. Novick, who surveyed parents and teachers in primarily Orthodox day schools in the US and Canada in January and February, said, “When over 20% of the parents say, ‘I either have parents or children living in Israel,’ that means that over 20% of day school students in the US have either their grandparents or their siblings living in a country at war. This is not an esoteric, ‘how-do-we-build-it’ connection to what is happening in Israel. They are living it in real time.” 

Novick said that schools face the challenge of finding a balance between promoting resilience through prayer, discussions, acts of hessed (loving-kindness), and regular school activities. Some schools, she noted, have reported “compassion fatigue,” where reciting special prayers daily has lost much of its meaning for some students. On the other hand, she said, a subset of students became retraumatized whenever one of these activities on behalf of hostages or the soldiers was being held. “Students are not uniform and do not speak with one voice or have one experience. In a class of 20 students, what is really good for one might be really difficult or challenging for another.” 

In her research, one teacher commented, “In general, we tend to focus on Israel and the situation only at certain times. We try to emphasize normalcy and control over our surroundings. We do not want to traumatize the students. That said, if the topic of Israel does come up, the conversation can be loud and difficult to end. There are a lot of pent-up thoughts and feelings, and the students are holding them inside.”

Novick was also surprised that children were less likely to share their fears about the situation with teachers in schools than when speaking with their parents. “A child who is now afraid to go to Israel or afraid to wear their Jewish star out on the street is less likely to say it at school but will share it with their parents. Parents are seeing things that schools are not seeing.”

Amihai Bannett is the CEO of Herzog Global, the international department of Herzog College that is charged with enhancing the teaching of Tanach and Jewish values in Jewish schools around the world, providing Jewish studies teachers with online professional development courses, digital teaching tools, and curriculum consultancy. He said that when the Herzog Global staff met on October 8, they needed to help teachers in the Diaspora find a voice to speak to their students about the outbreak of the war.

“Most teachers need information and need help with what they need to say, said Bannett. “We asked a former professor at Herzog, a psychologist, who recorded a five-minute video on what to say about the war that had just broken out and how to speak to students about it.”

Herzog College is well known for its expertise in Bible studies. Following the outbreak of the war, the Herzog Global team prepared a lesson plan for teachers, bringing the relevance of the biblical tale of King David to modern-day events. As recounted in the Book of Samuel, David had made Ziklag his base of operations. While he was encamped with the Philistine army to attack his rival King Saul, the town was raided by Amalekites, who burned the town and captured its population. The similarities between the kidnapping, the sadness expressed in that story, and the plight of the current hostages in Gaza made the biblical text that much more relevant, which is part of Herzog’s mission.

One of the most important educational components of Jewish education, said Bannett, lies in strengthening Jewish identity. “It’s easier to combat antisemitism when you know and when you understand where we are coming from,” he noted. “One of the main sources of Jewish identity comes from the Tanach.” One of the programs that Herzog launched even before October 7 is a school curriculum called Tanach Is Our Story, in which Herzog scholars make the text of famous biblical stories more applicable and relevant to modern life. 

Bannett cited data that showed how the recent surge in antisemitism has led to increased interest in Jewish education. A Jewish Federation study found that 38% of parents of Jewish children in secular private schools are considering making the move to Jewish day schools. In addition, the Prizmah Center for Jewish Day schools reported that over 1,000 temporary Israeli students in the US enrolled in Jewish day schools since October 7. Furthermore, 39% of Jewish day schools and yeshivot experienced an increase in inquiries for mid-year transfer from public school, and 20% of schools reported an increase in inquiries for mid-year transfer from independent school students. Bannett said that the increased interest in attending Jewish schools is due to antisemitism in the community or in the school that they were attending.

Because of the increased interest in Jewish schools, said Bannett, schools are experiencing a teacher shortage. Moreover, due to the influx of students with minimal Judaic studies backgrounds, teachers must provide differentiated instruction and tailor their teaching to all students’ learning needs. 

Dealing with the Gaza war and local antisemitism may be difficult for younger children, but it presents even thornier problems for high school students. Rabbi Leonard A. Matanky, dean of the Ida Crown Jewish Academy, a Modern Orthodox coeducational high school in Skokie, Illinois, provided background. 

Speaking of the past year and the experiences of his students, Matanky said, “This generation of students had an epiphany that the world is more complicated than they’d ever seen before. To be a Jew didn’t mean that you were just one of everyone else. You had to take stands. We immediately had to make the difference. You had to be different, and you had to stand up.”

One of the first moments that Ida Crown students were forced to take a stand, Matanky recounted, was when Chicago Alderman Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the Chicago City Council, introduced a resolution to the council in early October condemning the Hamas attack in Israel. Matanky brought a group of Ida Crown students to the City Council to witness the proceedings. After two hours of acrimonious debate, the resolution passed, but Matanky said that the Ida Crown students “were called every name in the book, including baby killers,” by pro-Palestinians in attendance at the meeting. The students had to be escorted through the underground area of the City Council to get out safely. “It was the first time that these kids had ever experienced something like this in their lives,” he said. 

Matanky said that the antisemitism that has been spreading throughout the US has altered the college admissions process for juniors and seniors. “We have seniors who would have been going to certain Ivy League schools who opted out because they couldn’t feel assured that if they made a commitment today that the school would be safe.”

This year, he added, the school administration prepared a workshop for graduating seniors on what to do if they experience antisemitism on campus, teaching whom they should contact, how the episode should be documented, and what additional steps they need to take. 

How has Ida Crown handled the trauma of the events of October 7 and antisemitism? Matanky said that the key lies in empowering students. “I think that one of the great lessons that we’ve learned, whether it’s this trauma or, unfortunately, other scenarios where students experience loss, whether it was the loss of their beloved teacher or a classmate, is the opportunity to speak about it, and most important, the opportunity to take action. The fact that we empowered students to do things made a difference. As a school, we made the determination that if there was a gathering or a rally, we would appear there as an entire school, that there were going to be projects and there was going to be the educational side, and there was going to be the activity side.”

Ida Crown has offered a wealth of educational activities within the school on Israel, Matanky said, such as partnerships with StandWithUS and AIPAC. One of the largest clubs in the school is the Israel Advocacy Club, which has assumed various projects throughout the year, ranging from contacting legislators to developing fund-raising projects. The school also added a Hot Topics in Israel course in addition to the regular modern history and Jewish history courses. 

Ida Crown brought the reality of the situation in Israel to current students by arranging a Zoom meeting with a recent graduate in the IDF, who spoke to students from his base near the front. Relatives of hostages have spoken with the students as well.

The strength of the students’ convictions is also presented to the outside world. Ida Crown has a project where students visit non-Jewish schools to discuss Judaism and the State of Israel. The project continued this year, and the students stood up and spoke about their connection with Israel. 

One of the most powerful expressions of connectedness with Israel and Ida Crown occurred when the school sent members of the senior class to Israel in late December 2023 for several weeks. Matanky explained that he did not send the students to view the sites where the massacres occurred. The students volunteered throughout the country, made a shiva call to a parent who had lost a child, and visited the parents of a child who was thought to be a hostage, but it later became known that he had been killed on October 7. “We gave them opportunities to connect,” he said.

Matanky expects that Israel advocacy will continue in the next school year and said that the school administration has become expert at adapting quickly to new realities and making changes as needed. 

How can Jewish students in the Diaspora remain resilient in the face of Swords of Iron and the waves of antisemitism that they face? “Resilience comes from empowerment,” he replied. “The idea that they [the students] can make a difference in this world. They feel that they’re doing something. They’re actors and not being acted upon. They’re actors in this drama. They’re actors in this tragedy in one way or another.”■