Shows
Three Steps ForwardMentoring the Next Generation of Jewish Educators with Rabbi Shmuel HainAbout one million years ago, I was a fellow in the Yeshiva University-Sar High School Beit Midrash Program. I learned a ton and had an amazing and impactful experience. Part of what made my time there so special was my direct supervisor: Rabbi Shmuel Hain.Rabbi Hain was a fabulous mentor and boss and he made it look easy. What insight can he give us about being a great mentor, especially to young people who are thinking about choosing Jewish education as a career path and calling?And what does he tell young people in...
2024-07-1005 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 22 - American Jews and Higher Education: Past is Prologue
2024-03-1739 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 21 - What the Numbers Tell Us, And What They Mean
2024-02-1948 min2024-01-1831 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 19 - Translating Talmud Series: Shema, Time and Gender
2024-01-1046 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 18 - Conflict, Crisis, and Communication: A Conversation with Rabbi Dr. Daniel RothThis episode features an eye-opening discussion between Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Rabbi Dr. Daniel Roth- the director of Mosaica, an Israeli NGO focusing on insider religious mediation.What exactly does the work of insider religious mediation look like during a war?Is there ongoing dialogue between religious leaders in Muslim and Jewish communities in the Middle East at this terrible time?What should we as high school educators be teaching our students about the role of religion in this seemingly intractable conflict?
2023-12-0749 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 17 - Our Kids On Campus: Where Are We Now, Where Are We Going?This special episode of the Grand Conversation, recorded at the end of October, is devoted to important, complex, and ongoing issues being discussed in our community in this Post-October 7th world: How can we meaningfully connect with and support our alumni on college campuses, and how are we helping parents and current SAR HS students navigate the college guidance process?Our guest host is Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz, Associate Principal of SAR HS and Director of Research and Program Development at Machon Siach. Our two guests are leaders of SAR High School’s College Counseling te...
2023-11-1734 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 16 - The Heroes of Israel's Volunteer Civil ServiceThis special episode of the Grand Conversation emerged from the meaningful UJA mission to Israel that our Founding Principal Rabbi Tully Harcsztark was fortunate to join. On that mission, Rabbi Harcsztark ran into Effie Shoham- Shteiner in Jerusalem, an historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Shevah. Since October 7th, Effie has not been pursuing his academic interests. Instead, he has been volunteering around-the-clock on behalf of the citizens of Medinat Yisrael, especially those from the south who were most directly impacted by the October 7th attack. We are honored to...
2023-11-1742 minThe Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 15 - Translating Talmud Series: Bridging Scholarship and Students - Episode 1In this first episode of the series, Rabbi Harcsztark and Dr. Elana Stein Hain have a timely discussion on whether and how to teach the talmudic sugya of redeeming captives in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attacks and taking of some 200 Israeli hostages. They also discuss Dr. Stein Hain's research (and soon-to-be-published book Circumventing the Law) on legal loopholes in rabbinic literature and how to teach this subject to high school students and adults.
2023-10-2539 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 14 - Israel @75: Israel Education at SAR HSIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbi Tully Harcsztark Rebecca Wolf, and Yossi Ben-Harush discuss several important questions about Israel Education at S.A.R. High School, including: How has our approach to teaching Modern Israel evolved over the years? How do we navigate critical discussions of Israel current events in our history classrooms? How do we educate our students to participate in difficult discussions about Israel as insiders? What role does advocacy play in Israel education?
2023-05-0438 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 13 - Gemara Education: The High School Classroom and BeyondIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff joins Rabbi Shmuel Hain to discuss the goals of high school gemara education, recent trends in gemara education in post high school yeshivot and midrashot, and how teaching Torah Shebe'al Peh at S.A.R. High School has changed since the school's founding twenty years ago.
2023-03-3138 min
Parsha in MotionVayikra | Dr. Rivka SchwartzDr. Rivka Press Schwartz serves as Associate Principal, General Studies and co-Director of Machon Siach at SAR High School in the Bronx, New York, and as a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She earned her Ph.D. in History of Science from Princeton University. Dr. Schwartz has spent more than twenty years in the field of Jewish secondary and post-secondary education. She writes and lectures widely about issues of contemporary importance in the North American Orthodox community.
2023-03-2753 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 12 - Making Sense of Gemara in the High School ClassroomIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein and Rabbi Tully Harcstark join Rabbi Shmuel Hain to discuss methods and tools which are valuable in teaching gemara to high school students, including both academic and conceptual/lomdus approaches.
2023-01-2637 minParsha in MotionVayishlach | Sofia FreudensteinSofia Freudenstein is a second year student at Yeshivat Maharat and Bernard Revel Graduate School focusing on Jewish Philosophy. She graduated with an Honours Bachelor degree in Jewish Studies and Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and also completed her first basic unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Baycrest Geriatric Hospital at that time.Before university, Sofia competed in the International Chidon HaTanach, and participated in the Drisha High School Program, the Bronfman Youth Fellowship, and the Tikvah High School Program. She spent a gap year at Midreshet Lindenbaum, has been Co-Rosh Beit Midrash at Camp Stone for...
2022-12-091h 08
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 11 - To Thine Own Self Be True: Authenticity & Spirituality in the Modern Orthodox ClassroomIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Ms. Chana Krasnjanski joins Rabbi Shmuel Hain to reflect on the importance of authenticity and spirituality in the classroom. They discuss the distinction between personal and private information as well as the potential differences and parallels between the secular studies classroom and the Judaic studies classroom.
2022-05-2327 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 10 - Spirituality and the Modern Orthodox Yeshiva Part IIIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, S.A.R. High School Principals Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Rabbi Jonathan Kroll join Rabbi Shmuel Hain to reflect on the role spirituality has played in the development of S.A.R. High School. How central was the goal of spiritual growth of students in the original vision of S.A.R. High School and how has that goal evolved over the past twenty years?
2022-02-0930 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 9 - Spirituality and the Modern Orthodox Yeshiva Part IIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff and Dr. Gillian Steinberg share perspectives on spirituality in yeshiva high schools along with personal reflections on the role of spirituality in adolescents and adults. Part one of two.
2022-01-2125 min
Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcasts Live: The School as a Thinking InstituionThe Jewish school is positioned at the nexus of the individual, the family and the community, bringing to light the opportunities and challenges of being a committed Jew in the modern world. The school can become a center for teacher learning and research. This can give teachers a public intellectual voice and ensure a vibrant, dynamic, entrepreneurial learning community able to advance educational initiatives for its own constituents. We will learn about the development of Machon Siach, the research arm of SAR High School, which seeks to shape the high school into a “thinking institution” by cultivating teacher-driven research and...
2021-11-1750 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 8 - Between School & Home: What Covid-19 Taught Us About Policy
2021-07-0128 min
Anatomy of a Jewish LeaderDr. Rivka Press SchwartzDr. Rivka Press Schwartz is an Associate Principal at SAR High School, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and the Co-Director of Machon Siach. She holds her PhD from Princeton and lectures on issues of contemporary importance in the Orthodox community. Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz sits down to discuss her transition from being raised in a more “right-wing” community to Modern Orthodoxy and highlights a fascinating story of perseverance which landed her at Princeton. She then speaks about sex education in the Orthodox community, her balance between being grounded in empathy and having a strong teaching style, and...
2021-05-241h 01
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 7 - Teaching American Zionism Through Civics EducationIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Professor Avi Helfand join Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz to discuss their Enounter trip and the Machon Siach research group formed to explore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a range of disciplines. How do we as American Jewish educators think about and teach the conflict, especially when current events make it even more charged?
2021-05-0438 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 6 - Israel Education: Teaching The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
2021-01-2948 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 5 - Theological Perspectives: Homosexuality in Contemporary Orthodox ThoughtIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbi Nati Helfgot joins Rabbi Shmuel Hain to discuss his paper and to examine pastoral, communal and theological perspectives on Homosexuality in the Orthodox community.
2020-12-1530 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 4 - Citizenship in the Modern Orthodox CommunityIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz discusses a research group Machon Siach convevned after the 2016 elections to take a step back and examine several core questions: What aspects of citizenship should be essential to American Modern Orthodox Jews? How do we educate our students towards broader civic engagement in addition to advocacy for parochial concerns? What impact does our commitment to religious Zionism and Medinat Yisrael have on our obligations as citizens?
2020-11-0131 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 3 - Israel Education at SAR: Teaching of Israeli History at a Modern Orthodox Day SchoolIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Ms. Adina Shoulson and Dr. Laura Shaw Frank join Rabbi Shmuel Hain to explore this question from a number of perspectives.
2020-09-0328 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 2 - Educational Deliberations: On Teaching the Concept of ShevutIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Rabbi Shmuel Hain discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of Gemara education in Modern Orthodox Yeshiva high schools.
2020-07-2830 min
The Grand Conversation: The Machon Siach PodcastEp. 1 - The Use of Metaphors in Discussing HomosexualityIn this episode of The Grand Conversation, Dr. Gillian Steinberg explains her passion for analogical thinking and the use of metaphor in discussions about homosexuality and racism.
2020-06-1637 min