Meeting of ‘twinned’ teachers sparks closer connections

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Thursday, February 4, 2010 | return to: supplement, camps and education

by stacey palevsky, staff writer

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Shosha Moradov teaches English and science to Israeli fourth-graders, but she often gets a little help from her colleagues — in California.

This intercontinental relationship began several years ago, thanks to the school twinning program created by the Israel Education Initiative in San Francisco. The pairings blossomed in December when a group of 26 Israeli teachers visited the Bay Area and met their American counterparts — some for the first time.

Ravit Chason

“Interactions between teachers bring something that e-mail can’t,” said Moradov, who teaches at P’sagot School in the Upper Galilee, where all of the “twinned” Israeli schools are located.

Shortly after she arrived in California Dec. 9, she met with her American counterparts, and their chemistry sparked a science lesson. The plan: She will help her Israeli students set up a camera to film nocturnal birds and, because of the time difference, Marin students can watch a live feed of the birds in their classroom.

“We try to make our lessons meaningful and not just stay on the level of a basic pen pal,” Moradov said.

Four Bay Area Jewish day schools are paired with a counterpart school in Israel: Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto and Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco and San Rafael. Teachers at the schools work together to develop parallel curricula: Students correspond with one another, sharing informal e-mails and formal class projects in an effort to personalize the relationship between Israeli and diaspora Jews.

“Projects can be challenging to do when there is such a great distance,” said Debby Arst-Mor, a fifth grade teacher at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco. “We find that when teachers have a chance to meet one on one, there is a strong push to continue collaboration.”

Havit Itshaky

Joint ventures have included recipe exchanges, CD exchanges, letter-writing and cross-cultural art projects. One Brandeis Hillel Day School classroom recorded a CD of Jewish songs and sent it to their Israeli counterparts.

“The first time I played the CD was really moving, to allow the children to hear their friends across the sea, to hear their voices and laughter,” said Hagit Itshaky, a first grade teacher at the Hagome School on Kibbutz Kfar Blum, which is paired with Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco.

“Our connection is so real and so alive because it’s rooted in personal connections,” Itshaky added.

School twinning is a joint project of the Israel Center of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Israel Engagement Network (Makom), founded by the Jewish Agency for Israel. The initiative is supported by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Koret Foundation, the S.F. federation and the BJE.

Shosha Moradov

The Israeli delegation that visited the Bay Area in December included only classroom teachers, which Arzt-Mor said is a first. Previously, only school principals visited their Bay Area colleagues.

During their visit, the Israeli teachers celebrated Shabbat and Chanukah with their California counterparts. They visited Jewish day schools, held workshops with their American counterparts, met with students and toured San Francisco Jewish institutions such as the S.F. federation, Congregation Emanu-El and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

“I finally understand what it means to be a Jew outside of Israel, and how important it is to preserve that,” said Ravit Chason, a middle school teacher at Eynot Yarden, which is paired with both Brandeis Hillel Day School campuses.

“It’s amazing to see how people practice Judaism in such a liberal way … It’s helped me to see there is more than one way of being Jewish.”

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