Convocation Remarks - November 9, 2023
With our brothers and sisters in Israel and our captives in Gaza on our minds, I am honored to speak on behalf of this distinguished baker’s dozen, the recipients of today’s honorary doctorates. While it's true that three of us live and work within the same zip code, as a group we represent the breadth and depth of the Jewish education landscape.
We are fortunate that our daily liturgy reminds us of our job description each morning:
לְהָבִין וּלְהַשְׂכִּיל. לִשְׁמֹֽעַ לִלְמֹד וּלְ֒לַמֵּד, לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת וּלְקַיֵּם אֶת־כָּל־דִּבְרֵי תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָתֶֽךָ בְּאַהֲבָה: -
To understand and enlighten, to listen to learn and to teach; to protect and to do - to fulfill all of your words of instruction with love.
As a group we have nearly four centuries of service to the North American Jewish community. We have worked in synagogue schools, day schools, residential and day camps, youth groups, campus Hillels, central agencies and adult education institutions. Before standing here today we have held degrees from universities on three continents, in fields including mental health and psychology, dental science and law, literature, child and human development and of course, education. We hold advanced certificates in family education and Israel education, national licenses and several degrees from this very institution. Among the members of my family, if my count is correct, mine is the seventh diploma from JTS in two generations.
Our skill sets, in serving our communities as Jewish educators, are diverse as well. We are wizards of shul cloud and excel, Canva and CampMinder. We survived USY’s Reg Pac, the demise of Davka, WordPerfect, Publisher and Temple Tracker, the 16 mm film projector, film strips with synchronized audio cassettes, the ditto and mimeograph machines, Beta and VHS. We work magic with Chromebooks and projectors, smart TVs, portable sound systems and Google Workspace. We regularly rearrange the furniture and accommodate diverse dietary needs. Most of us carry at least one state sales-tax exempt card. We know everyone on our staff’s Amazon logins and given 3 tries, we can disable active building alarms in almost any Jewish-owned facility in North America.
We administer first aid for the body, the mind and the neshamah. We are amateur meteorologists, often predicting the weather more accurately than the second string professionals on the late Saturday evening television news. We are resource librarians, internet gatekeepers and gaga referees. All of this in an environment where the only constant is change.
We share motivations as well. We believe that living a Jewish life is a worthwhile pursuit and that modeling one for others and teaching them to do so will immeasurably improve the quality of their lives and the depth of their relationships. We see our history and heritage as a gift to be shared and transmitted. We have the foresight and intuition to know that today’s uncooperative classroom citizen is possibly tomorrow’s rabbi, professor, philanthropist or lay leader, so we find a strategy to make it work and have them stay in school. We counsel in times of crisis, grief and joy.
Often, before we move on, we train our own replacements, whether it's been a student we’ve taught or a teacher we’ve hired and invested in. Taking a moment of personal privilege, I’ve helped raise from infancy two day school professionals who run elementary and middle school programs. Very awesome dividends on the investment.
We have a lot of facility with text, whether it be Torah, John Dewey, lyrics by Taylor Swift and Naomi Shemer, or Rabbi Hanina. While it’s true that I learned from Taylor that I’m the problem, it’s me, and as a CIT at camp from Haim Ginot, by way of my counselor Stan Beiner that I as a teacher make the weather in the classroom, it was Rabbi Hanina, by way of my teacher Avi West, of blessed memory, that I learned to be ready to learn from everyone:
וְהַיְינוּ דְּאָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא: הַרְבֵּה לָמַדְתִּי מֵרַבּוֹתַי, וּמֵחֲבֵירַי יוֹתֵר מֵרַבּוֹתַי, וּמִתַּלְמִידַי יוֹתֵר מִכּוּלָּן.
And this is what Rabbi Ḥanina said: I have learned much from my teachers and even more from my colleagues, but from my students I have learned more than from them all.
So we express our gratitude to the Jewish Theological Seminary as the representative of our teachers, and to our colleagues constituting the Jewish Educators Assembly for your many gifts of teaching, supporting, and advancing our work and to our many students for molding us into the educators we’ve all become. Thank you with all our hearts.
