Teddy Bears Transform Jewish Education

Illustration: Michael LoSardo

In a White Plains congregation, they’ve found a new tool in their efforts to transform Jewish education: teddy bears.

Last fall, Temple Israel Center gave bears to 26 kindergarten-age religious school students, and gave scrapbooks to their parents. Nancy Parkes, the educational director, says the children were encouraged to take the bears to Jewish settings for pictures of them in the scrapbook. Family scrapbooks included many holiday scenes and events, such as collecting for a food drive.

Many families went even further, documenting their broader Jewish experiences and adding all sorts of elements to their scrapbooks, including recipes. “We wanted to change the culture, and to empower parents to be our partners in Jewish education,” Parkes says. “It energized us.”

Temple Israel Center is one of 37 synagogues participating in LOMED, making them members of the Coalition of Innovating Congregations, organized by BJENY-SAJES, a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York.

21st - Century Learning
“It’s creating 21st-century learning,” says Cyd Weissman, director of Innovation in Congregational Learning at BJENY-SAJES. “LOMED supports congregations that have created new models — such as family or Shabbat-oriented home-based learning, or learning that happens within the community. It speaks to the whole of the person, not just the mind.”

Through the program, synagogues have access to extensive training programs and other resources from a wide variety of educators and nonprofits. Weissman says many involved congregations have incorporated more experiential learning and have made parents a greater part of the process. “We’re trying to be the tipping point for Jewish education. The drop-off model is not enough to support young people to construct their Jewish journeys.”

The project, which began in 2009 and is expanding this year, is put together along with the Experiment in Congregational Education and the Leadership Institute for Congregational School Educators, which are also funded by UJA-Federation. The Leadership Institute is a joint program of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Jewish Theological Seminary.