Over last Sunday and Monday our Jewish Studies, Jewish life, Hebrew and ELC educators all had the enormous privilege of attending the biennial Zionist Federation of Australia Educators’ Conference. This was a fantastic opportunity to hear from leading educators in the Jewish world, including a number from among the King David staff, who brought key ideas around curricular and pedagogical developments that can improve Jewish engagement literacy and enhance the learning experiences of students.

The Conference was structured to offer a range of sessions relating to Jewish text, Israel and Zionism, Jewish history and Holocaust, Hebrew, early learning, Chagim and Tefillah, Jewish Studies, pedagogy and networking opportunities.

The Conference opened with an address from ZFA President Jeremy Leibler who framed the forthcoming experience as such an important one at what he characterised as a turning point in Jewish life when “the world we are preparing our students for has changed.”  He referenced competing priorities, antisemitism and the misrepresentation of Israel as challenges to sustaining Jewish continuity.

Leibler explained that while advocacy and security remain important to preserving our safety, there is a more vital form of defence for our people which comes through the embracing of Jewish identity. He encouraged us to think about how we create students who are connected, curious and confident in their sense of Jewish identity. He challenged participants to embrace the opportunities for learning and connection throughout the conference as a way of developing our capacities to provide rich and engaging learning for our students.

Another wonderful keynote address was delivered by Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum who is Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies. He took us through some text study based around the imperative to “pass the flame, do not worship the ashes.” Rabbi Zarum looked at the origins of this reference in various cultural and biblical sources. For instance, the commandment to remove ash residue from the altar area so that new sacrifices could burn. He then extended the metaphor to reference an eternal flame which he analogised as passing on the mission of Jewish learning. Interestingly, at the Magid Campus, we symbolically adopt a custom of lighting the Lamp of Learning at the start of each term.

Rabbi Zarum posed the question of “what are the ashes that are holding back the educational mission?”

He suggested that we should focus our curriculum design and implementation on the following principles:

1. Refresh regularly to contemporaries our approaches.
2. We must not obsess too much on memorialisation. This was a way of encouraging us to ensure that the framing is positive and optimistic. He reminded us that in Jewish practice it is a mitzvah to mourn the ‘appropriate’ amount when someone dies, but mourning ‘too much’ is not permitted.
3. We should make an effort to translate the learning experience to make it relevant for all learners.

Finally, Rabbi Zarum challenged us to clarify the mission of Jewish education. He said: “You don’t just work for your school. You don’t just work for Australian Jewry. You work for Am Yisrael - Jewish peoplehood.”The summary of these two sessions provides just a taste of the rich learning experiences that participants enjoyed over the two days. I am very grateful to the ZFA, and our hosts at Mount Scopus Memorial College, for making this such a powerful opportunity for our educators.