Head of School Blog

In a presidential election year and with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, I have been giving renewed thought to how schools can foster a culture of civil discourse and student engagement on the most pressing matters of our times. Outside of school, we see daily reminders of the poor example political leaders are setting for our students about how to have respectful, productive conversations. Education thought leader Grant Lichtman’s new taxonomy for 21st century learning suggests that, in today’s world, civility is the foundational skill upon which much deep learning rests. So what might be possible inside of schools?

I start with a few principles that have informed my thinking. In their study, The Political Classroom, Hess and McAvoy (2014), share evidence that when young people engage in political discourse in school that they are really learning about the process of deliberation. Students in such classrooms learn how to form arguments and how to weigh evidence. In the practice of political conversation, the skills learned are the skills of living in a democracy and understanding the common good.

A fundamental value of classrooms that engage in political discussion is that teachers must create a culture of fairness for all viewpoints. Teachers in JK-12 schools ought to maintain partisan neutrality even as they open their classrooms to these discussions. When teachers share their partisan preferences it establishes an unfair classroom culture and, despite our best intentions, may influence student thinking. We make a distinction between "political" and "partisan." Political is being involved in politics and political issues. To be partisan is to advance a specific cause or the agenda of a political party.

At CESJDS we have been working for many years to foster a culture of civil discourse that will serve as a counterweight to the toxic, meanspirited approach we see beyond our walls. We begin this work in the entry grades and weave it throughout a student’s educational journey. I want to share three teaching strategies we use to create classroom communities we can be proud of and which foster the essential skills students need to engage in difficult conversations. We have found all three to be effective tools for students and for faculty.

Three years ago, CESJDS enlisted Facing History and Ourselves to facilitate three workshops with our faculty on civil discourse. One protocol we worked on is called “Straight A’s for Effective Facilitation."

1. First, we affirm and appreciate people’s comments and questions (when possible).
2. Second, we acknowledge what people are saying.
3. Last, we ask questions to better understand individuals’ behaviors and perspectives and to help them reflect on their views.

Another framework we have used is termed Heart/Head/Hand. This August, Jonathan Golden, a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute, facilitated two sessions for our faculty on this methodology that he developed while teaching high school students. He shared how he used this protocol after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. This strategy asks students to speak to three different areas:

• Heart (emotional/personal) - How do events in Israel make me feel? How do they relate to my identity and story? The story of the family and those whom I love? What are my hopes? Worries? Concerns? Aspirations?
• Head (analytical/knowledge/understanding) - What do I need to know in order to try and understand events, their history, and what might happen next?
• Hand (doing civil/action) - What are my options to take action to support those in need and ensure that I live out my beliefs and values?

One final example of an approach we use to foster civil discourse is Mahloket l’shem Shamayim/Argument for the sake of Heaven. The concept derives from the Mishnah where we learn: “Every argument that is [for the sake of] heaven’s name, it is destined to endure. But if it is not [for the sake of] heaven’s name, it is not destined to endure.” Our partners at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem have developed the Mahloket Matters methodology that utilizes Jewish wisdom and social psychology to foster civil discourse. There are four pillars to this strategy that student learn:

1. Debate the issue without attacking people
2. Check your motivation - the goal is to solve problems, not win
3. Listen to the other side with an open mind, recognizing that you might be wrong
4. Consider that you might both be right, even when holding opposing views.

Today’s students are growing up in a world in which civility is at an all-time low, live discussion is toxic, and algorithms short-circuit civic literacy. Our schools, particularly independent pluralistic Jewish day schools, are uniquely positioned to be a countercultural force for good.

Class of 2024, you are an extraordinary group. You came of age in turbulent times. And I watched you meet the world’s challenges with compassion, with humor, and with a commitment to serving others. And as we gather today to send you off, some on your senior Capstone trip … to college … and beyond, I offer a simple, parting message:

I hope you will remember to always know who you are. Because when you know who you are, you will be resilient, confident, and grounded as you navigate the future challenges you will invariably face.

When I say know who you are, I don’t mean that you should already know everything about yourselves. In fact, the opposite is true. You are just beginning a phase of life when you will grow and change – more than you can imagine today.

Yet while your futures are unwritten, you already possess a strong sense of self. You hold values and beliefs. You are part of a vibrant Jewish community, and, as part of that community, you have grappled with what it means to aspire to a higher, collective purpose.

You each have an inner voice shaped by your families, your experiences, your study of Jewish tradition and history, and your personal background. And I urge you to always listen to it.

The Ancient Greeks wrote “Know thyself,” on the Temple of Apollo, which was really an instruction, according to Plato, to “know your soul.”

And the Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said that it is not enough to ask questions. He said one must ask the question that “seems to encompass everything [we] face.” One must always ask, “What am I here for?”

Why am I making my point with so much emphasis?

Because the most uncertain times are when it’s most important to seek clarity within yourself. Perhaps more than any other graduating class in recent memory, you have a lot of experience dealing with uncertainty.

I’ll start with the pandemic. Your eighth-grade Capstone trip to Atlanta and Montgomery was cancelled because of COVID. Your freshman year of high school was online for the same reason.

So … after consulting with Dr. Vardi and Mrs. Landy, we’ve decided to cancel this year’s graduation …

As pandemic restrictions eased, antisemitism rose in cities and on campuses across the country. That troubling trend has not abated. And then, this fall, on October 7, war came to Israel. That day forever marked our lives, our families, and our Jewish community.

If the events of recent years and months have made anything clear, Class of 2024, it’s that our world today requires you to know yourselves. In high school, you have thrived and shown your resilience under some of the most difficult learning conditions in recent memory. The fact that you made it to graduation…should teach you something about your inner strength.

Amid rising antisemitism, especially on campuses, we all fear for our recent and soon-to-be-graduates. Yet two instances gave me relief and faith that you too know who you are.

A few months ago, Caryn and I were visiting our son Eitan, who graduated from JDS last year and is now a student at the University of Pennsylvania. The University’s President at the time, Liz Magill could not affirmatively answer questions in a hearing before the United States Congress to say calling for the genocide of Jews violates the University’s anti-bullying and harassment policies. Like any Jewish parents, we were worried and concerned that the climate on his campus was hostile to Jews. Yet Eitan told us that he felt physically safe and mostly comfortable at school. He knows who he is as a Jew, and why he believes in Israel. His self-knowledge gives him agency and strength, no matter what others around him may say or do.

And then, in December, we held a panel of recent alumni to speak with your class about their experiences with antisemitism on campus. Our former students explained that while antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments are real, they each felt personally certain of their Jewish beliefs. Growing threats are not the totality of their daily experience at college. Their point was not to deny that antisemitism is a serious problem – it is. But rather they each conveyed how a strong sense of self and Jewish identity will anchor you, and help you face the world as it is.

Look no further than the days after October 7. Within a week of the massacre and outbreak of war, Israeli families reached out to JDS. We opened our doors to 45 students. We did so because we are part of the Jewish people, and because we care deeply about our brothers and sisters in Israel. We did so because of our school’s core values of Ahavat Yisrael/Love of Israel and V’ahavta L’rei-a’kha/Love you neighbor. We also did so because when people are in need and suffering, we help them. When our 2019 alum Omer Balva was killed while serving in the IDF, we came together to support and comfort the Balvas – and all who knew, and loved Omer.

So the JDS class of 2024 has known uncertainty – and you have met it. Even your very last day of school was upended by a snowstorm!

These challenges have not been easy. But you are resilient, and they have made you who you are. As you go into the world, you will face other challenges, ones we can’t predict. But no matter what happens, your sense of self – of your values, of your worth, of your identity, and of your beliefs – is something no one can take away from you. Your sense of self is your strength.

Many of your parents, like I did, graduated high school in the eighties. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the AIDS epidemic, we often remember those years as being more certain and less complicated. You grew up in a more complicated world. As a result, I believe you have a better handle of who you are today, compared to your parents or me, back when we graduated high school. If at my own graduation you had told me I would become a rabbi, earn a doctorate in Jewish education, and become the head of a Jewish day school…well, I wouldn’t have believed you. When I was in college we didn’t have Netflix but we did have TV shows. LA Law, Ally McBeal, and Matlock were all the rage and glorified practicing the law and I thought about that as a career pathway. In fact, I was close to enrolling in law school after having been accepted to school in Chicago. But the way I found my path was by listening to my inner voice telling me who I am and what I really needed to pursue professionally. I hope you will do the same.

Since October 7 and the start of the war, I have had occasion to study the work of the Eish Kodesh, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shipira, who was the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Eish Kodesh is a collection of sermons on the weekly Torah portion that Rabbi Shapira shared with his followers in the Ghetto. You can imagine how difficult his task was each week…to somehow lift up his fellow Jews, so vulnerable to hatred and persecution.

In recent months, our Jewish community has also felt vulnerable. I have felt vulnerable. And while I don’t equate our present reality to the experience of the wartime Jews of Warsaw’s Ghetto, Rabbi Shapira’s teachings have given me strength at this time of Jewish vulnerability.

He wrote: “We have learned that an angel who is sent down to this world needs seven days of purification before it can return to its previous exalted state. For Jews this is not so. On the contrary, the Jew is actually capable of worshiping and bringing God's dwelling place down into this very world, as was clearly the case with our patriarchs, and again at Mount Sinai, and in the tabernacle, and in Jerusalem's Holy Temple. Indeed, the heart and body of every Jew is the most fitting place for the dwelling of God. This means that while angels are altered by contact with the world, the Jew remains unaffected; they resist change. The Jew who worships God with obstinacy is acting out of the consequence of our connection to God -- of whom the prophet spoke and said (Malachi 3:6), "I am God; I have not changed."

The Eish Kodesh teaches us that despite the suffering of Jews we as individuals can bring God’s presence into the world by remaining true to our values. I read this text universally, so an individual, Rabbi Shapira says, can remain steadfast in the face of suffering unaffected by the world. Despite our vulnerability we can have agency in the world.

Know who you are. Know what you value. As you grow, and go out into the world…your sense of self and values are a deep reservoir of strength. 

Rabbi Shalom Noah Barzofsky, the Slonimer Rebbe explains in his Torah commentary that since human creation began … no two people have been alike. Each comes into the world with a special purpose, a task that is their own. No one can fix what is someone else’s tafkid – their work, their purpose, in the world. God gives each of us the traits we need, but we have to know what our purpose is.

Today, we celebrate your many accomplishments. Tomorrow, you go forth into the world as high school graduates. As each of you seeks your own purpose, your tafkid, I urge you to look within. Trust what your family has taught you, trust what you have learned at JDS. Trust who you are and what you believe. Trust your own instincts about right and wrong. They will carry you where you seek to go.

Mazal tov!