Shows
Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Into Practice in Israel Education: The Gender Confidence Gap in Israel EducationPart 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...
2025-12-0141 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Into Practice in Israel Education: How Students Understand Politics in and about IsraelResearch 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.
2025-11-2051 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: An Overhaul of Teacher CompensationExplore 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.
2025-11-1351 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Leadership DilemmasSchool 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 Y...
2025-06-0440 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Bimkomenu–Seizing Place-Based Learning Opportunities with the Seattle Sephardic Heritage InitiativeWith 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 a...
2025-05-2257 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Corner: Jewish Creativity and EducationRabbi 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 Ma...
2025-04-0748 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: What the Latest Research Reveals About Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah'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.
2025-03-2515 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Hebrew Education from Curriculum to ProficiencyTune 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...
2025-03-2052 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcasts Live: Cultivating Your Lay LeadershipHow 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. P...
2025-02-0652 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Playing in the Classroom, Not Just on the PlaygroundWhat 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.
2024-11-2553 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: How AI Can Help Jewish EducationAI 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 be...
2024-11-1253 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Teaching IsraelThis 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
2024-10-0155 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsCommunity 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.
...
2024-08-2952 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live | Addressing the Pipeline Problem: Maimonides Fellows ProgramADDRESSING 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...
2024-05-2159 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Educating About Israel Since October 7How 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 ch...
2024-04-0849 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Building Schools From Scratch | Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons LearnedWhat 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...
2024-03-2658 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsBearing WitnessFour 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...
2024-01-2246 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live - The Milken WayLearn 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 c...
2024-01-1056 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: The Tikkun Project - Living Out Our MissionSchool mission statements articulate a hope that through our educational programs, help students gain the knowledge, skills and inclinations needed to make positive change. By putting Tikkun Olam at the core of K-8 programs, Leo Baeck Day School in Toronto has learned how to help students learn to connect their actions to Jewish values. Learn how and why the Tikkun Project at Toronto’s Leo Baeck Day School came to be and hear examples of the powerful learning that emerges when students think critically about themselves and their responsibilities to the world around them.
2023-11-2756 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter _ Power Tools, Paper Weaving, Tightrope Walking: Purposes and Methods of Jewish Arts EducationListen to a far-ranging podcast and expand your understanding of what Jewish arts education is and can be. Explore how one teacher sets up an artists beit midrash, and how students go about creating art from tefillah. Hear how students at another school pass through a collaborative, multilayered iterative process from study to the creation of objects. Explore the way that a rabbinical school teaches Biblical narrative texts and Talmudic Halakhic passages through the embodied learning of circus arts experiences. Discover how these programs conceive of the relationship between the social and individual aspects of creativity.
Presenters
Dr. Ora Horn P...
2023-07-311h 02Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Foundation for Life-Excellence in Jewish Early Childhood EducationLearn about the vital, sophisticated work of Reggio-inspired Jewish early childhood educators from two day school administrators and a field leader who is also the author of a recent dissertation. The conversation ranges from the ways that educators understand the minds of young students to the development of Jewish identity and creativity, with a glimpse into the state of the field as well.
Dr. Anna Hartman is the Director of Early Childhood Excellence at the Jewish United Fund in Chicago and the Director of the Paradigm Project.
Carla Goldberg is the Director of Early Childhood and Admissions at Akiba Schechter Jewi...
2023-07-0556 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Jewish History -The Core Element of a Jewish Day School Education ( Whether You Realize It or Not)Where does Jewish history live in your curriculum, culture, and approach to education at your school? Jewish history is central to Jewish education, and can be a locus of meaning, authority, and knowledge for all Jewish day school students. Listen to this interesting discussion with Rachel Bergstein, Director of the Center for Excellence and Engagement in Jewish History and Jewish History Department Faculty Member at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Head of School at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD.
2023-05-0856 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPodcast Live: Organizational Structure as a Driver for Institutional Alignment and ChangeLearn from Rebecca Lurie and Dr. Jonah Hassenfeld how a leadership team structure that is aligned with institutional values has the capacity to effect impactful and sustained change within a school environment. Explore the process by which the organizational structure of Schechter Boston was transformed into a distributed leadership model. This Podcast Live episode was recorded in person at the Prizmah Conference in Denver, January 10, 2023.
Rebecca Lurie is the head of school, and Dr. Jonah Hassenfeld is the director of learning and teaching, at Solomon Schechter Day School of Boston in Newton, Massachusetts.
2023-01-1750 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Teaching Towards an Ethical DemocracyHow can Jewish schools ensure that their graduates go on to be stewards of democracy? And how can Jewish educators teach students to connect Jewish ethics to the practices of citizenship? The Brandeis School of San Francisco has been wrestling with these questions since the 2016 election cycle. Hear from head of school Dr. Dan Glass about how Brandeis has worked to connect Jewish ethics and democratic habits of mind, from daily classroom rituals to annual celebrations. Dr. Glass will share about the school’s ongoing “Mifgash Project,” a collaborative design project seeking to build out a K-8 model of experi...
2022-12-1550 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Embracing the Joys and the ”Muckiness” of Israel EducationDebby Artz-Mor, director of Jewish learning at the Brandeis School in San Francisco, and Rabbi David Stein, Judaics studies principal at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles, join Sivan Zakai to discuss her new longitudinal study of Israel education , My Second Favorite Country. They consider understandings of "age-appropriate" learning that can impede educational engagement and exploration, discuss the relationship between school mission and student influences, and consider pedagogy that opens up student curiosity and discovery.
Presenters
Debby Arzt-Mor is the director of Jewish learning at The Brandeis School of San Francisco. Raised in Jerusalem, Debby has been li...
2022-08-291h 04Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: How Gender Impacts EducationHow do students internalize and act out gender narratives in their relationships to their school, to different subjects, to their teachers and other students? How do teachers sometimes reinforce gender roles in the classroom, in ways that can harm students' confidence and limit their expression? Heads of school Jason Feld (Northwest Yeshiva High School in Mercer Island, WA) and Hannah Bennett (Briskin Elementary School at Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA) join Jason Ablin to discuss these and other issues raised in Ablin's new book, The Gender Equation in Schools: How to Create Equity and Fairness for...
2022-08-0348 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Educating Jewish ProducersWhat are we trying to achieve in Jewish education? What do martial arts have to teach us about pedagogy for Jewish learning? How do we think about community and autonomy, tradition and innovation, in day schools? Brandeis education professor Jon Levisohn is joined by heads of school Stephanie Ives at Beit Rabban in Manhattan and Rafi Cashman at Netivot HaTorah in Toronto to discuss what our schools are and might be.
2022-06-1747 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPodcast Live: Making Diversity A Strength In A Polarized AgeAt the center of the mission of Luria Academy is diversity as a core value. But what happens when you’ve achieved your goal and you have created a uniquely diverse community? What does it mean to be in relationship with people whose religious practice is different from yours? How do our students learn to approach one another from a place of curiosity and respect? How do we navigate political diversity in an increasingly polarized society? And how do we expand the lessons of the classroom into the parent community?
Learn about Luria’s journey of diversity from...
2022-05-2556 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsPrizmah Podcast Live: Creating a Culture of StorytellersWe are the story we tell ourselves. In 2019, parents and school leaders at Brandeis Marin, a K-8 Jewish day school located in San Rafael, CA, began exploring ways to create a storytelling and story-capturing culture to enable deep, authentic and consistent connection within the school community. When the pandemic hit, the Brandeis Marin school community had developed its own version of The Moth (radio storytelling), doubling down on storytelling to deepen the sense of connection and belonging among its parents and in its community. Hear from Dr. Peg Sandel, Head of School and Barbara Cohen, Director of Techonology and...
2022-03-2358 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Corner: What We Learned from Online LearningNow that Covid is waning and classrooms feel close to the old normal, what have we learned from two years of online and hybrid pedagogy? Despite the challenges and drawbacks, are there things that remote learning enabled that we might preserve as we move forward? Hear a university researcher and two day school educators reflect on what was achieved during the pandemic.
Featuring: Michal Bessler has worked at Maimonides School in Boston for 27 years, where she now serves as the elementary school principal. Aviv Matzkin teaches Jewish Studies at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in P...
2022-03-0843 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Behind the Gates. Looking Inside Day Schools.
Alex Pomson and Jack Wertheimer, authors of the recent book Inside Jewish Day Schools: Leadership, Learning and Community, speak with two school leaders featured in the book, Erica Rothblum and Ami Neuman, about the stories that their schools tell as well as larger stories of the field. They reflect upon how to tell our stories, what stories have emerged over the past few years, and which stories we might be reading in the near future.
Dr. Alex Pomson is principal and managing director at Rosov Consulting.
Dr. Jack Wertheimer is the Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish H...
2022-02-1644 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsAn Innovative Model for Teacher Training - The School As A Teaching HospitalFinding great teachers today seems harder than ever. According to a recent survey, 75% of first year teachers report that they were insufficiently prepared to meet the needs of students. At the same time, recruitment and retention challenges are leading to severe teacher shortages in schools across the country. We believe the solution for recruiting, developing, and retaining strong teachers begins inside the classroom.
Prizmah Podcasts Live! Building on the medical residency model, the Shefa Teacher Residency provides aspiring teachers with an alternative pathway that is grounded in deep clinical training and intensive on-site mentoring and support.
2022-01-1258 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Teacher Learning and GrowthWhat are Jewish schools doing to ensure that professional development is excellent and a top school priority? This conversation featuring Tammy Anagnostis, dean of Golda Och Academy's lower school, Rabbi Maccabee Avishur, academic dean and general studies principal at Heichal Hatorah, Dr. Arielle Levites, managing director of CASJE, Suzanne Mishkin, K-6 principal at Sager Solomon Schechter Day School and Flora Musleah, upper school dean of faculty at Golda Och Academy, starts from CASJE's recent study Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators and engages four day school educational leaders in the goals and methods of PD, the impact that it has o...
2021-12-1550 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart Up Day School: What is Institutional Advancement?Two directors of institutional advancement, Mandi Miller of Beth Tfiloh Dahan in Baltimore and Stephanie Bash-Soudry of Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey, delve into the nature of their role. They talk about the kinds of teamwork they perform with the administrative team and the faculty, and they discuss their work in ensuring that their schools' missions are powerful and in alignment with everything that takes place within the school and is communicated about the school.
2021-12-0325 minPrizmah 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 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsJEIC God Interviews Series: Who is God and What is Belief?Rabbi Shmuel Feld interviews Rabbi David Aaron, Dean and Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta in Jerusalem on how to approach conversations about God with Jewish day school students. He asserts that belief should give people’s lives greater vitality and meaning rather than disempowering them.
Produced by the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC).
2021-08-2738 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsJEIC God Interviews Series: Believing That and Believing In - Dynamic Faith in GodRabbi Shmuel Feld interviews Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire, Dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College Boston, on how to approach conversations about God with Jewish day school students. Rabbi Dr. Shire distinguishes between teaching about the essence of God and the experience of God.
Produced by the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC).
2021-08-2733 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsJEIC God Interviews: Sharing Our Vulnerability and Authentic Selves When Talking about GodRabbi Shmuel Feld interviews Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky, Director of SHIVITI in Jerusalem, on how to approach conversations about God with Jewish day school students. She suggests that discussing belief is not necessarily about certainty in God; belief is about helping students find meaning in living in a Jewish way.
Produced by the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC).
2021-08-2644 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Envisioning Jewish EducationBen Jacobs and Barry Chazan of George Washington University are joined by Rebecca Schorsch (Rochelle Zell Jewish High School, Chicago) and Hillel Broder (HALB, Long Island) to discuss "18 x 18," a blueprint for Jewish education that proposes areas of knowledge and experience that Jews should obtain by the age of 18.
2021-06-2340 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart-Up Day School: Leadership CoachingHeads of school C. B. Neugroschl (Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls) and Rabbi Menachem Linzer (Hillel Torah) along with leadership coach Jane Taubenfeld Cohen join Josh Gold in a discussion of leadership coaching: what it is, how it works, why school leaders need it.
2021-06-0237 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart Up Day School: Positive Psychology in Jewish SchoolsTwo psychologists, Dr. Yali Werzberger, director of guidance and pupil personnel services at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR), and Dr. Mordechai Schiffman, assistant professor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, join Josh Gold in a timely discussion of the principles of positive psychology, its importance for teachers and students and its relation to Jewish values and texts.
2021-05-1127 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Gender, Class and Young Jewish WomenHow do we support girls in the transition from middle school to high school? Joni Fishman, middle school dean of students at the Rashi School in Dedham, Massachusetts, speaks with researcher Cheryl Weiner about Rosh Chodesh groups, SEL, and ways that girls think of themselves and their overlapping identities as they enter the cusp of adulthood.
2021-04-0730 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart-Up Day School: Torah, Forest Baths, and Environmental EducationYosef Gillers and Sara Just-Michaels, co-directors of Grow Torah, join Josh Gold to discuss their work leading a team of environmental educators employed in many day schools and camps. They explore their philosophy and pedagogy and the benefits of this learning for students.
2021-02-2423 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Preparations for Success During CovidProfessor Jack Wertheimer of the Jewish Theological Seminary talks with Cheryl Maayan, head of the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis, and Steven Lorch, head of Kadimah Day School in Los Angeles, about how Jewish day schools have fared during the pandemic. Wertheimer proposes trends that have set up many day schools for success in the face of the overwhelming challenges that schools and families have experienced.
2021-02-1740 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools"Driving the Car": Project-Based Learning in Jewish EducationTikvah Wiener, founding head of The Idea School in Tenafly, New Jersey, joins Josh Gold to discuss the goals and impact of project-based learning, the educational philosophy upon which her school is based. They talk about student agency, self-actualization and reaching deeper levels of knowledge.
2021-01-0526 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart-Up Day School: Collaborating with StudentsDr. Eliana Lipsky, middle school principal at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, discusses ways that her team works with students to help strengthen their sense of agency, through collaborative problem-solving and the study and practice of leadership.
2020-11-2025 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsReflecting on and Learning from Jewish Day School BoardsDaniella Pressner and Moshe Werthan, head of school and board member at the Akiva School in Nashville, Tennessee, discuss their experiences of working with board members, the challenges and successes that their board has seen, and the culture that they try to cultivate on the board. They are joined by Alex Pomson, principal and managing director of Rosov Consulting, and host Ilisa Cappell, Prizmah's vice president for leadership development, who draw upon Prizmah's recent study of lay leadership in Jewish day schools to highlight contexts and trends in this field.
2020-10-1945 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: What Do Students Really Think of High School Talmud?Dr. Arielle Levites, managing director of CASJE, Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, and Rabbi Jethro Berkman, dean of Jewish education at Gann Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts, reflect upon the findings of a study into student responses to their Talmud education. They consider the possible shortcomings of Talmud curriculum and pedagogy and discuss other ways that schools might approach the teaching of rabbinics.
2020-08-1442 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsTurning Challenge into Opportunity under COVIDDaniel Weiss, head of the Bornblum Jewish Community School in Memphis, discusses running a school under COVID: adapting to changing needs and conditions of education, new opportunities that may be arising now that will reap benefits later, and holding on to a school's vision and strategic plan.
2020-07-2024 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Teaching the Students, Not Jewish IdentityDr. Tali Zelkowicz, Director of Curriculum and Research at the Wexner Foundation, and Dr. Sarah Shulkind, head of Milken Community Schools in Los Angeles, examine the perils of teaching for Jewish identity. They consider how a focus on identity outcomes can overburden the Jewish studies classroom with unrealistic expectations that go against what we know is good pedagogy, which creates room for student exploration and growth on students’ own terms.
2020-07-1031 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Strengthening Jewish Studies with Insights from Cognitive ScienceDr. Moshe Krakowski, Director of the Graduate Program at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Daniel Alter, head of The Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey, discuss findings from the Science of Learning (cognitive science) and how they can inform Jewish Studies. They look at techniques that can improve student retention and lead to greater student fluency, mastery and enjoyment of Jewish text learning.
2020-06-2230 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsHearing the song beneath the words: Active listening strategies for school leadersBracha Rutner, assistant principal at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls ("Central"), participates in a discussion on active listening and empathy. She and Josh explore the changing paradigm of good teaching, which requires teachers to be good listeners more than good speakers and to foster authentic dialogue between students. They also present ways to generate authentic dialogue with parents and teachers.
2020-06-0327 minPrizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsStart-Up Day School: Want to Effect Positive Behavior Changes in Students? Be their Coach.Rabbi Yaakov Sadigh, the head of school at HANC, the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, joins Josh for a conversation about student behavior and support. They focus on shifting the ways that teachers and administrators work with students, especially regarding behavioral and social-emotional issues, from a punitive approach to one of guidance rooted in moral reflection based on Jewish values.
2020-04-2029 min
Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Putting Creativity at the Heart of Jewish SchoolingDr. Miriam Heller Stern, National Director of the HUC-JIR School of Education in Los Angeles, and Susie Tanchel, head of school at JCDS Boston, talk about creativity as a vital component of a school’s mission and vision. They explore how the school's conception of creativity can be guided by Jewish values, and ways that it can inform school culture, curriculum and pedagogy.
2020-04-0234 min