Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools

Prizmah Podcasts Live: Cultivating Your Lay Leadership

How do you help your school's lay leaders become knowledgeable about your school, obtain the skills they need, and gain inspiration to step up their game? Avery Joel of the Fuchs Mizrachi School describes a cohort program they developed to accomplish precisely that. This Podcast Live episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Prizmah Conference in Boston on February 3, 2025.

 

Rabbi Dr. Avery Joel is the head of school at the Fuchs Mizrachi School in Beachwood, Ohio, where he has served as a teacher and the principal of the Stark High School. Previously, he was a teacher and grade coordinator in Ramaz Upper School. Avery has an EdD in educational administration and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, as well as an MPA from NYU. He serves as a mentor in DSLTI.

Research Encounter: Playing in the Classroom, Not Just on the Playground

What would happen if schools thought of play as not just some fun release that takes place outside of the "serious" work, but as integral to the task of education? Learn what play is and why it's so important, and explore the different ways that our schools incorporate play into different aspects of the student day. The conversation is inspired by the recent book A Moral Case for Play in K-12 Schools: The Urgency of Advancing Moral Ecologies of Play by Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, PhD.

Prizmah Podcast Live: How AI Can Help Jewish Education

AI may be the greatest thing to happen to Jewish education since unicode. And it may even be bigger than that. AI is still in its infancy, and it's already allowing teachers to do so much. Join this podcast to dive into how AI can help with note-taking, studying, essay writing, and more – and why that's a good thing. We talk about how it can help teachers present information in more exciting ways. And how it can help personalize education for every student. And the best is yet to come.

Special guest presenter: Rabbi Binyomin Segal has been involved in technology and education for many years. In the 80s, he was responsible for Davka’s first educational software for the Apple Macintosh. He began teaching at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in 1993. While there he earned an Ed.D. from Loyola University Chicago. In 2015, he became the Instructional Technology Coordinator for Ida Crown. He continues to teach Tanakh courses as well as coding and computer science.

Research Encounter: Teaching Israel

This podcast, based on the volume Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field, edited by Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold, focuses on Israel teachers in the classroom. Who teaches our students about Israel, and in what contexts? How do Israel educators think about their role--as an "explorer" or "exemplar"? What happens when a "micromoment" arises, when a student struggles to understand or is deeply troubled by something they've learned? And how are Israel classrooms adapting to the reality of our post-October 7 world? What has changed, and what hasn't, in this work? (Recorded on 9/27)

Special guests

Sivan Zakai is the Sara S. Lee Associate Professor of Jewish Education at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a Senior Editor of the Journal of Jewish Education.

Matt Reingold is a Jewish educator with over 16 years of in-class experience teaching Jewish and Israeli history in Toronto Jewish day schools. In addition to co-editing Teaching Israel, with Sivan Zakai, he is the author of four books about Jewish and Israeli comics and graphic novels.

Lisa Exler is Director of Jewish Studies and Ivrit at Beit Rabban Day School in Manhattan.

Rebecca Boim Wolf serves as Coordinator for Israel Education and teaches history at SAR High School in the Bronx, NY, a modern Orthodox Jewish day school.

Jeremy Toren is the ECC-12 Director of Jewish Education at San Diego Jewish Academy.

Community Collaboration: Raising All Boats

Often, Jewish schools operate in isolation; "teamwork" may mean partnership among the team of administrators, or the head of school with the board. A new initiative in Boston, Stronger Together, aims to foster a culture of collaboration among the city's 14 day schools and yeshivas to explore opportunities for shared success. Explore how the project came about, how it functions, what it has accomplished so far and where it might develop moving forward. Hear from Sheri Gurock, Ari Sussman and Aimee Close. 

 

 

Sheri Gurock is the executive director of The Beker Foundation and is also a facilitator, consultant, and executive coach.

Ari Sussman is a day school consultant to Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Boston's

Federation, where he has served as Boston day school's network lead for the past 3 years.
Aimee Close is the director of Stronger Together, a Boston-based initiative of Prizmah.

 

Prizmah Podcast Live | Addressing the Pipeline Problem: Maimonides Fellows Program

ADDRESSING THE PIPELINE PROBLEM: MAIMONIDES FELLOWS PROGRAM

Explore an initiative that aims to address the national issue of fewer and fewer talented and inspiring adults choosing to become teachers or stay in the field of education.

This podcast dives into how the Maimonides School, a Modern Orthodox school in Brookline, Massachusetts, decided to invest in young talent, even before these talented students made the decision to work in education. Featuring Rabbi Yaakov Green, Head of school at Maimonides School. Learn about the initial results of this innovative initiative and the promises they see for the future of the field.

Research Encounter: Educating About Israel Since October 7

How have our educators been impacted by, and adapted to, the horrific attacks against Israel that took place on October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza? The starting point for this conversation is the study "Responding to This Historical Moment: Jewish Educators, Clergy, Engagement Professionals and the War in Israel." Hear about the emotional challenges that these educators have faced, and the educational dilemmas that continue to shadow their work in the classroom, during these traumatic times featuring guests Clare Goldwater, Dr. Ezra Kopelowitz, Dr. Alexandria Fanjoy Silver, and Rabbi WIll Keller.

 

Clare Goldwater is chief strategy officer at M²:The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. She is based in Jerusalem.
Ezra Kopelowitz is the CEO of ReST: Research, Success, Technologies and a fellow at the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education.
Dr. Alexandria Fanjoy Silver is a Jewish history teacher at TanenbaumCHAT, a Jewish high school in Toronto.
Rabbi Will Keller is the head of school at the Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor in Ann, Arbor, Michigan.

Prizmah Podcast Live: Building Schools From Scratch | Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

What does it take to build a school from scratch? Especially a school as sophisticated as a Jewish day school. In this podcast, we sit down with Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl, who throughout his career has taken three schools from concept to reality. Most recently, in August 2023, he helped open the Jewish Leadership Academy in Miami, Florida.

The Jewish Leadership Academy is a highly selective Jewish middle and high school dedicated to developing the skills, curiosity, and potential of Miami’s most ambitious students for a life of purpose, commitment, and service. Hear lessons learned from Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl, and stories shared from each of his successful schools.

Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl is the CEO of the Ades Family Foundation and the founding head of school of the Jewish Leadership Academy in Miami. A nationally sought after speaker and award-winning teacher, Rabbi Perl earned his bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard, and rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University. He is the author of the book The Pillar of Volozhin: Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin and the World of Nineteenth-Century Lithuanian Torah Scholarship, as well as numerous articles on the history of Modern Jewry, contemporary Jewish education, and Modern Orthodoxy.

Bearing Witness

Four heads of school from the Bay Area talk about a mission they took together to Israel during the current war. They depict what it's like in their schools during this time, with heightened antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the region. Their schools are serving as places of refuge, as centers of Jewish pride where people organize opposition to pro-Hamas political proposals. The heads describe the conversations and images in Israel that are seared in their memories, the people they met who are "the traumatized serving the traumatized." They share what they have been communicating with their school since their return.

Prizmah Podcast Live - The Milken Way

Learn about the The Milken Way, a unique set of ideas and values that guides how Milken Community School, one of the largest Jewish day schools in North America, operates and thinks about customer service.

As Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Customer service has become the most important factor in consumer decisions. In fact, recent studies have shown that 73% of people point to customer service as a key factor in significant decisions. Yet rarely do schools invest in customer service as a primary function of their recruitment and retention strategies. Learn about the customer service model of the Milken Community School in Los Angeles, and how it’s implemented across campus, in everything they do.