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School “twinning” programs that pair schools in Israel with Jewish day schools in the United States have a long history in the Bay Area. At a time when research shows many American Jews feel, at best, a tenuous connection to the Jewish state, common logic goes that such programs help Jews establish a personal, positive relationship with Israel early on.

According to Israeli educator Micha Balf, that logic is missing half the equation — the relationship young Israelis develop to their American peers once they learn about Jewish life in the diaspora.

“Israelis gain so much from these partnerships, maybe more than American students realize,” said Balf, who was in the Bay Area this week representing Israel’s Oranim teachers’ college. His visit was hosted by the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education.

“Israeli students who come [to the U.S.] may have been brought up thinking that Jews who live here are on the verge of disappearing,” he said. “And they come and see Jewish students actively involved in prayer, parents choosing to send their kids to Jewish day schools. It’s a really powerful statement.”

Balf met with faculty at each of the five Bay Area day schools paired with Israeli schools through the BJE’s BASIS (Bay Area Schools Israel Synergy) program: Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, Contra Costa Jewish Day School in Lafayette, and Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco and San Rafael. Before the trip’s end, Balf planned to visit other schools that had expressed interest in twinning.

Each school’s Israel education curriculum is unique. BASIS (which grew out of the Israel Education Initiative, a joint program between BJE, the Jewish Community Federation’s Israel Center and the Jewish Agency’s Makom) provides a framework, faculty training and a part-time program coordinator for each school. Funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, BASIS in turn funds trips to Israeli partner schools for American students and faculty, and brings Israeli educators and students here.

Israel education is integrated into every aspect of the curriculum at participating Bay Area schools. The point, explains Balf, is to help students think of Israel not just as part of their Jewish studies, but as an interesting and complex country in and of itself.

Balf, who made aliyah in 1978 and lives on Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, said the central aim of his trip was to develop a Jewish peoplehood curriculum that could be used as a model in other regions of the U.S. A key part of that process, he said, is recognizing the “mutuality” of twinning programs: the value to both American and Israeli students.

“We hear kids in Israel talk about how [the program] has opened their eyes to expressing their Judaism differently,” he said. Whether “it’s meeting kids who see prayer as part of their identity, which the average Israeli doesn’t,” or visiting “a synagogue in the United States, where men and women pray together,” the children learn that there are “other options for Jewish identity besides secular and Orthodox,” he said.

The benefits are unmistakable for American students and faculty as well, said Barbara Gereboff, head of school at Wornick. Last year, as news of Israel’s Carmel fire spread, a first-grader approached her about wanting to donate his allowance to help provide aid, and asked if he could talk to other students about doing the same. The school wound up raising more than $5,000.

“That was driven by children,” Gereboff said. “That was one time when we realized, this is working.”

David Waksberg, CEO of the BJE, said he hoped the program could spearhead a shift within Israel education from a focus on advocacy to a stronger emphasis on Jewish peoplehood and identity.

“Advocacy around Israel is an important, laudable goal,” he said. “But as educators, we need to look at learning outcomes. We know that kids respond well to being informed and being empowered to draw their own conclusions based on the facts. We want them to know that there are a variety of ways to connect with Israel.”

He added that BASIS was  a pilot program, and that a New York–based foundation has contracted scholars from Hebrew University to visit the Bay Area to study what’s happening in day schools here, for adaptation elsewhere.

“This is about establishing relationships that kids can carry with them as they grow,” he said. “And the Bay Area is actually leading the way for the rest of the country on this. For a region that hasn’t had the reputation of being a leader around Israel, that’s part of the beauty. I’ve heard people say, ‘If it can happen here, it can certainly happen  other places.’”

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