God Expansion

a daughter’s story

A JEIC collaboration with Hollywood filmmaker Saul Blinkoff, A Daughter’s Story follows the journey of Naomi and her father through her Jewish day school years, showing how stressors in the school experience subvert her spiritual growth. Although this is a modern day fable, the messages should resonate loud and clear with all Jewish day school stakeholders.

Would you like to start a God Expansion conversation in the classroom and community using A Daughter’s Story? Click the sidebar link to request the videos.

The Making of A Daughter’s Story

Watch our behind-the-scenes look at the production, ideas, and reactions to A Daughter’s Story to see why God Expansion is so important to the Jewish people’s enduring connection to the Divine.

Yes, I Want to Start a God Expansion Conversation Using A Daughter's Story!

Learn more

To download complementary resources for use in the classroom and community, please click the the ‘learn more’ button.

PEDAGOGIES FOR TEACHING GOD

Help your students deepen, elevate, and sustain their relationship with the Divine. In Partnership with Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, we have created a podcast series on pedagogies for teaching “God” featuring a diverse set of master teachers. Episodes include interviews with Rabbi David Aaron, Rebbitzen Yehudis Golshevsky, and Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire in dialogue with Rabbi Shmuel Feld, JEIC Founding Director. They each delve into strategies and framing that can guide a teacher’s path for facilitating the God-student relationship. These episodes are found on Prizmah’s podcast platform and their Knowledge Center. Here is a preview:

Rabbi David Aaron, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivat Orayta: “Are your beliefs giving your life greater vitality and meaning or do your beliefs discourage you, dis-empower you?”

Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky, Director, SHIVITI: “Emunah/belief is not about certainty; it is to teach students to live the rest of their lives in a vital and Jewish way.”

Rabbi Michael Shire, Dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education, Hebrew College Boston: “We have to teach children to wonder what is the nature of God’s presence.”

Jewish Stories: Jewish Strength

In both good times and bad, Jews look to the Divine for strength, hope, comfort, or protection. The Jewish Stories: Jewish Strength video series reveals wisdom and perspective from a variety of leaders in the Jewish community.

Speakers in the videos include:

Dr. Erica Brown - Inspirations from Nature
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld -Seeking Silver Linings
Bob Diener - The Ground We Walk on is an Illusion
Dr. Shira D. Epstein - Remembering the Rainbow
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith - Cultivating Emunah/Faith
Rabbi Benji Levy - Why Do We Climb Mountains?
Manette Mayberg - How Bananagrams Reflects Life
Lori Palatnik - With Whom Do You Want to be Shipwrecked?

Inspirational & GOD-centered resources

8 Names of God: Inspiring Divine Explorations

by Rabbi Shmuel Feld

Imagine a portal to open students’ eyes to deeper layers of meaning and new ways of thinking about God. Names and descriptions of God abound in Tanakh and many more were added in Rabbinic writing. God cannot be captured by a single word, but our experience with sacred texts shines a light on the many different paths for our relationship with the Divine.

Click here for a one-page resource on 8 Names of God from the Tanakh.
Click here for an in-depth text-based resource on 8 Names of God from the Tanakh.

Reflecting Our Reciprocal Relationship with God: A Word Cloud Activity

Our modern universal symbol of Judaism, the Magen David, the six-sided equilateral star, brings together two triangles, one facing up and one facing down, reflecting our shared and reciprocal relationship with God. We point our relationship upwards towards the Almighty and the One Above directs Divine attention downwards towards us on earth.

This is a visual representation of what humanity’s relationship with God looks like. Try this word cloud activity with learners of any age to consider deeply Godliness in relationships.

Who Knows? Jewish Leadership in Times of Uncertainty by Dr. Erica Brown
The Roots of Resilience by Sharon Freundel
Finding Hope in Challenging Times from Personal, Professional, and Torah Lessons by Sharon Freundel
A Paradigm Shift for Thinking about God in the Classroom by Rabbi Shmuel Feld
Let’s Follow This Kind of GPS for a Strong Jewish Future by Manette Mayberg
Do We Really Have an El Kana, a Jealous God by Sharon Freundel
Balancing Two Truths Requires Honoring Two Voices by Rabbi Aryeh Ben David

Let's continue to explore ways to inspire students’ relationship with God so they can create enduring meaning from Jewish values, literacy, practice, and belief to sustain the Jewish people.

Click here to read about the latest Jewish day schools receiving Ignition Grants for God Expansion.

Share your thoughts or questions with us about God Expansion in Jewish day schools:

Sharon Freundel, Managing Director, Sharon@JewishChallenge.org

Rabbi Shmuel Feld, Founding Director, RabbiFeld@JewishChallenge.org