Jewish Educators Returning from Israel: Reconceiving Israel Education in the Midst of Seismic Events

Between February and June 2024, the Jim Joseph Foundation supported a partnership between The Jewish Education Project and The iCenter, aided by M² and the Jewish Agency for Israel, to bring 324 educators on short trips to Israel as part of 13 different groups. These trips were launched with the goal of helping educators and educational leaders connect with Israelis, see for themselves the ways in which Israel has changed since October 7, 2023, and engage in joint reflection on what these changes mean for their work and for their responsibilities as Jewish educators.

Findings
The findings from this study relate to two broad themes: first, those concerned with the contribution of the trip to the participants’ work as Israel educators and the ways in which they have incorporated their learnings in their educational practice. And second, what Israel education looks like today in the settings from which participants come, what the participants seek to accomplish, what has changed over the last 12 months and whether those changes have been informed by their trip experience. The report weaves back and forth between these two foci, considering what has changed in the field and what contribution these trips have made to the changes that educators note.

Impact of the Trip
A major part of the survey explored the extent to which the educators’ trips have shaped both the participants’ own practices and their organizations’ approaches to Israel education. While a majority (57%) reported having “incorporated what I learned into my practice,” 30% were still in a planning phase (“I have some ideas and am getting clear what it would take to actualize them”), and 13% are still in a contemplation phase (“I am thinking about how best to do this, but I don’t have concrete ideas yet”). This constitutes a marked change from the weeks immediately after the program when close to half of the participants were still in a planning phase and only a quarter had implemented their learning. Even so, these reactions still underline the extent to which educational change is a slow-moving process.

Interviews with camp educators suggest that their work was more immediately shaped by the trip than those in most other sectors. These educators returned to North America ahead of the summer camp season, needing to consider what, if anything, they would do differently during the coming months. Educators in other settings did not face such pressing deadlines. They are only now implementing changes in the early part of a new academic year.

Jewish Educators Returning from Israel. Reconceiving Israel Education in the Midst of Seismic Events, Rosov Consulting, November 2024