Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools

After receiving a grant for professional development, Sulam teachers were able to deepen their learning and create Presentations of Learning (POL). Learn how the teachers started to take pride in their own learning, while teaching their team new and innovative strategies, encouraging others to deepen their own professional development. 

Presenters

Lisa Houben is the upper school director at Sulam, a program that fosters and provides inclusive, high quality special education support for diverse learners in grades K-12 within Jewish day schools across the Greater Washington area. Having recently completed Prizmah’s YouLead program, she is now entering her fourth year at Sulam.

Lianne Heller is in her eleventh year as executive director at Sulam, a program that fosters and provides inclusive, high quality, special education support for diverse learners in grades K-12 within Jewish day schools across the Greater Washington area. She is deeply committed to providing her faculty and staff opportunities to grow as professionals.

Part of our Research into Practice series, this episode draws on a qualitative study conducted in six classrooms during the first two and a half months following the attack, explore how educators navigated the tension between preserving childhood innocence and fostering resilience, while also questioning traditional understandings of developmentally appropriate practice. Learn how teachers use developmentally sensitive yet courageous approaches, including guided conversations, creative play, Jewish ritual, and cultural identity, to help children feel emotionally safe while making meaning of difficult realities. This conversation highlights the predictable routines, strong relationships, and Jewish values that teachers draw upon to support both student well-being and their own, offering enduring strategies for educators facing crises in today’s classrooms. Special guests Dr. Lyndall Miller, Dr. Meir Muller and Alan Rifkin Gelnick. 

Special guest bios

Lyndall Miller

Dr. Miller is a researcher and consultant in Jewish early childhood education, with a focus on inquiry and leadership development, currently working with the Masor School for Jewish Education and Leadership at American Jewish University. She was previously the developer and director of the Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute (JECELI).

 

Meir Muller

Dr. Muller is the Associate Dean of Community Empowerment at the University of South Carolina, specializing in early childhood education and promoting justice through a lens informed by Jewish tradition. Learn more about him here.

Alana Rifkin Gelnick

Alana is the founder and CEO of Dreamearly, dedicated to empowering educators and leaders with innovative strategies in early childhood education. Previously, Alana served as the associate principal of SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, for a decade.

Part of Prizmah's Research Into Practice in Israel Education Series, this episode focuses on new research on the gender confidence gap in Israel education.  While Jewish day schools have succeeded in fostering emotional connections to Israel among their students, new research reveals a troubling pattern: girls are significantly less confident than boys when discussing Israeli politics and history. Drawing from survey data of over 3,700 students across 96 Jewish day schools, Ilana Horwitz explores the gender confidence gap—present in 4 out of 5 schools—and its implications for Israel education. The data shows that 12th-grade girls report confidence levels similar to or lower than 7th-grade boys, a gap that persists across all denominations and grade levels. Moving beyond affective goals alone, this research challenges educators to build both heart connections AND intellectual confidence in their students. In partnership with Brandeis University Press.

Research into Practice in Israel Education Series

Learners undergo a series of developmental stages as they move through childhood and early adolescence, in their attempt to make sense of political systems and political issues in Israel and about Israel (in global politics). In this recorded webinar, gain insight into facilitating developmentally sensitive conversations about tricky political questions with day school students at the elementary and middle school levels with special guest Sivan Zakai and host Matt Reingold.

Explore how Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School in Skokie, Illinois, reimagined teacher compensation—from identifying the challenges, to engaging faculty voices, to building a transparent and sustainable system. Hear the lessons learned, the questions asked, and the insights generated. This story can help guide other schools on a similar path. With special guests Rabbi Menachem Linzer, Dov Shandalov, and Rabbi Dr. Barry Kislowicz.

School heads need to manage, decide upon and negotiate difficult challenges every day. This episode gives listeners a window upon the ways that three heads would think about and handle challenges that may arise with various stakeholders. Hear them discuss and probe several cases drawn up by Rabbi Dr. Barry Kislowicz, who moderated the conversation with special guests Ginny Galili, Stephanie Ives, and Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin. 

Special guests

Ginny Galili is the head of school at Gross Schechter in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Stephanie Ives is the head of school at Beit Rabban in New York City.
Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin is the head of school at North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, New York.
Rabbi Dr. Barry Kislowicz is the former HOS at Fuchs Mizrachi School in Cleveland and now head of Kislowicz Consulting. A recipient of the Covenant Foundation's Pomegranate Prize, Barry is now the author of a Substack and podcast called Leadership Lenses.

With a "Culture of Belonging" microgrant from Prizmah, the Seattle Jewish Community School launched a Seattle Sephardic Heritage Initiative in the fall of 2023, in partnership with the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle.  At its inception, this program aimed to introduce 5th graders from both schools to the distinctive Sephardic roots of Seattle's Jewish community and to the ongoing influence of the Jewish culture of Rhodes and Turkey on their hometown. From the start, this initiative inspired an enthusiastic response from the Sephardic community, opening an array of opportunities, exceeding all initial aspirations. Discover the origins of the initiative and how it has flourished. Presentation followed by a Q&A session with host Josh Gold. Special guests Gabrielle Azose and David Zimand.

Gabrielle Azose is the director of curriculum & pedagogy at Seattle Jewish Community School, where she has worked in a variety of roles, including general studies and Jewish studies teacher.

David Zimand serves as head of school at the Seattle Jewish Community School, having previously worked in administrative roles at community day schools in Washington, DC, and Palo Alto, CA.

Rabbi Dena Glasgow is the Director of Jewish Education at Gann Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she is responsible for both the Jewish Studies Department and the Hebrew Department. She is also part of the instructional leadership team.

Sheri Gross is the Director of Arts, Culture, and Creative Programming at Gross Schechter Day School in Cleveland, and the director of Testimony Theater--a program where teens interview Holocaust survivors and turn their stories into a performance along with personal reflections. She is also the arts critic for the Cleveland Jewish News, and the former director of the Mandel JCC Playmakers Youth Theatre and Performing Arts Camp for 21 years.

Why is creativity such an important factor in education? What are the key modes by which creativity manifests itself in Jewish culture? What place does creativity hold in helping Jews and Israelis stay resilient in a post-October 7 world? This conversation explores these questions and more, as participants reflect upon the innumerable ways that teachers and schools foster student creativity. The starting point is Miriam Heller Stern's recent study "Jewish Creativity: An Essential Aspiration for Jewish Education."

Dr. Miriam Heller Stern, an expert on creativity and Jewish education, directs the School of Education at Hebrew Union College and is the Incoming CEO of Builders of Jewish Education, Los Angeles.

Hadas Wolff Yitzhak, Director of English Educational Programs at Beit Avi Chai and former head of its Hebrew Educational Programs department, previously taught Jewish Studies in Jerusalem’s public high schools and now designs initiatives that foster meaningful connections through music and Jewish Israeli culture. She Lives in Jerusalem.

Prizmah's Director of Knowledge, Research, and Data Odelia Epstein discusses three timely studies transforming how we understand Jewish day school education today:

• An early preview of findings from the first full census of Jewish day schools since 2018-19, revealing Prizmah network schools trends in enrollment.
• A study showing that new families post-October 7 are turning to Jewish day schools.
• A new look at day school alumni: How they engage with Jewish life and Israel on campus.

Tune in to this Prizmah Podcast Live with The Epstein School in Atlanta's Idit Bendavid and David Welsher to hear how the school built its own Hebrew program—one that puts students at the heart of the learning process. Explore the shift from a rigid curriculum to a student-centered, proficiency-based approach that prioritizes real-world communication. From the perspectives of students, teachers, parents, and school leadership, we will explore the obstacles in language acquisition and how a focus on authentic learning experiences is transforming Hebrew education.

 

Idit Bendavid teaches at The Epstein School in Atlanta, where she embraced the Proficiency approach and ACTFL guidelines, transforming her instructional practices and becoming a data-driven decision-maker. Since 2021, she has served as the Director of Judaic Studies and Hebrew for grades K-8, leading the development of the Hebrew curriculum using the Proficiency approach and the Judaic Studies curriculum based on the Standards and Benchmarks framework for grades K-4. A graduate of the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute, Idit is committed to driving meaningful change through innovative professional development.

 

David Welsher is the current associate head of school and elementary school principal at The Epstein School in Atlanta. In partnership with his fellow educators, David is passionate about fostering a vibrant school culture where students and teachers thrive. Under his leadership, The Epstein School has seen improved student performance and increased teacher satisfaction. David's collaborative approach has led to the implementation of innovative programs such as the STEAM initiative and many unique programs to support diverse learners.