I am 66 years old and I have been involved in some aspect of Jewish education, formal or informal, for over 40 years, including more than 25 years in the classroom and 15 years in administration.
I got into Jewish education completely by accident. My undergraduate degree is in nursing, and I was happily -- well, at least meaningfully -- toiling away in pediatric intensive care as a staff nurse, as a charge nurse and finally as a head nurse. On the side, I was working at Yeshiva University in their Department of Youth Services, leading Jewish retreats for high school students from both public schools and Jewish day schools, and having the incredible opportunity to join a talented team to teach Jewish day school students in Australia.
By the time I moved to the Greater Washington DC area in 1989, I was a rebbetzin with a toddler and a baby on the way, and within less than two years, I was a mother of three. I realized that there was no way I could balance a schedule of working as a nurse manager, being mother to three small children and taking care of a beloved community. As part of that care, I was giving classes on Tanakh, Jewish thought, and contemporary issues to my local community and the broader community.
Serendipitously, when my daughter turned two, I was offered a long term substitute teaching job at what is now Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, MD. They had heard about my community classes and thought I would fit the bill of a Judaic studies teacher. I stepped into the classroom and fell in love with transforming children’s minds and souls, rather than healing their bodies, which I had done in my previous chosen profession.
And I was hooked. Jewish education became a calling and I subsequently earned a Masters degree in Jewish education. I worked at Berman for 12 years, followed by a one-year stint in Beth Tfiloh in Baltimore while I worked on my graduate courses and then moved to what is now Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital, where I was the Director of Jewish Life and a classroom teacher for 12 years.
Three years ago, I left the classrooms and hallways of the Jewish day school and entered philanthropic work with the idea that I could perhaps make an impact on the world of Jewish day schools beyond the walls of the school in which I was working.
And let me tell you; it has been a challenge. The entrepreneurial world does not function like the educational world. Things take much longer to achieve, projects go through many more iterations and levels of approval than school programs, and there are no children to give you hugs and tell you what’s happening in their young lives “that is SO EXCITING, G’veret Freundel.”
Even though each and every day I miss seeing and interacting with the children as much as I did three years ago, I still jump out of bed in the morning, excited to begin my work. And here is why: I am blessed to be doing not only holy work, but the holiest work I can imagine. I believe with every fiber of my being that education is the key to a strong, thriving Jewish people and that one of the major portals of access is the immersive spiritual, emotional, social, and intellectual milieu of the Jewish day school. This is not to say that Jewish camps, youth movements, and supplemental programs do not create stronger young Jews. They, too, have their place in the world of Jewish education. But having a young person for eight hours per day, five days per week, 40 weeks per year in a Jewish environment can’t be beat.
That’s why we need to continue to improve our Jewish day schools, whether by broadening the pipeline of young talented educators who want to be in a Judaic Studies classroom, continuing embedded professional development with teachers already in those classrooms, helping teachers become more comfortable with personalizing tefillah and Judaic studies, or developing teachers who can have open and non-judgmental conversations with students about approaching God in one’s own way.
I am blessed to work for a Foundation that considers Jewish day school education a priority and that values innovation in Judaic classes and Jewish school life. I invite you to join me on this holy, never-ending quest to catalyze radical improvement in Jewish day schools so that our next generation of Jews is educated, engaged, and connected to what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. Now, more than ever, we need them to survive as a people.