ANU – Museum of the Jewish People is thrilled to invite you to a series of zoom-webinars for Jewish educators all over the world.
Free admission. Kindly register in advance HERE
Tuesdays, once a month at 7:00pm Israel time, Noon EST
Program:
Tuesday, September 16 2025
Where To Begin: Unpacking the Purpose of Jewish Education.
Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow
As we get ready to start off the Jewish New Year in just a few days it is interesting to consider the topic of beginnings in general. What does our tradition say about where we begin when it comes to Jewish education? Together we will explore these beginnings and discuss their ramifications for the purposes and practices of teaching Jews.
Rabbi Avi Orlow is an educator with a love of irreverent, relevant, and revealing Torah. Avi is the Scholar-in-Residence at Foundation for Jewish Camp. He has held numerous positions as a camp educator and a Hillel Rabbi, and spent an unforgettable stint running youth programming in Minsk, Belarus. Avi has a BA in religious studies from Columbia University and was ordained in the charter class of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the open Orthodox rabbinical school.
Tuesday, October 21 2025
My Jewish Story and How I Tell It – a game.
Rachel Dratch
(Please prepare 5 index cards, 1 pen and 5 choices).
Together we will play the game “Tell me your Jewish Story” based on ANU’s My Family Story project. Participants will learn how to play the game with their adult learners and receive all they need to use this engaging approach to design a meaningful, fun and connecting experience for adults of all ages.
Rachel Dratch is Director of Global Education at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. Previously, Rachel was Director of Educational Innovation at Prizmah, the Center for Jewish Day Schools in North America, and has served as administrator and teacher in Jewish day schools and communities across North America. Rachel is a sought after scholar in residence and is currently studying for her PhD at Gratz college and is a Matan Eshkolot Fellow.
Tuesday, November 18 2025
Beyond Assumptions: Bridging Research and Practice for Inclusive Learning.
Dr. Esther S. Friedman
How can data from students spark real change in teaching practice? Drawing on her research and examples of data collected by educators, Dr. Esther S. Friedman will demonstrate how looking closely at student voice can break down common barriers to teacher transformation. Together, we’ll explore practical ways research can be adapted for educators to create more inclusive and meaningful learning experiences.
Dr. Esther S. Friedman is a scholar-practitioner in Jewish education whose work focuses on how research rooted in student voice and teacher change can directly inform and strengthen classroom practice. She taught Tanakh for many years in Jewish day schools, chairing the department at TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto, where she mentored teachers and developed curriculum. She earned her PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examining how teachers navigate and transform their core beliefs. She recently completed a research fellowship at the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) at George Washington University.
Tuesday, December 23 2025
The Torah in the Tarot: Revealing a Secret Jewish Educational Curriculum in Antique Tarot Cards.
Stav Appel
In the Noblet Tarot of 1650 Paris one can find a concealed guide to Judaism: 22 Hebrew letters, 10 Jewish holy days of observance, every significant Judaic ritual object and the foundational Torah stories of Judaism, which suggests the Tarot originally served as a secret tool for Jewish education.
Stav Appel is a data scientist and a lifelong student of Torah. After a chance encounter with an old deck of Tarot cards, Stav began to explore the origins and meaning of the biblical references he recognized in its images. He is now a frequent speaker and popular writer on the Torah in the Tarot, the lost and forgotten Judaic origins of the mysterious Tarot de Marseille.
Tuesday, January 13 2026
Teaching 20th-Century Jewish History Through Personal Stories: Centropa’s Mission and Methodology.
Maria Lieberman
Centropa’s mission is to preserve Jewish memory in the countries where the Holocaust took place by collecting Jewish family stories and photographs from Central and Eastern Europe, and disseminating them to the widest possible audience. These stories and photographs serve to bring people closer to 20th-century Jewish history and the lessons of the Holocaust. While many oral history projects have asked elderly Jews to describe the horrors of the Holocaust, Centropa went further—seeking out more than a thousand elderly Jews still living in Europe and inviting them to share their entire life stories. In this way, Centropa provides a comprehensive portrait of Jewish life in the 20th century—before, during, and after the Holocaust. In addition, Centropa organizes transnational educational and cultural programs, building a community of dedicated educators.
Dr. Maria Lieberman holds a PhD in Russian Art and Literature, as well as two master’s degrees in Art History and Russian, each with teacher training certification. She has extensive expertise in informal education and Jewish heritage, and one of her core values is preserving Jewish communities and heritage for future generations. She joined Centropa in 2022 as Director of the Budapest office, where she oversees Hungarian and Jewish school programs.
Tuesday, February 24 2026
Thinking Jews: How Jewish History Studies Cultivate Engaged Jewish Minds.
Laura Shaw Frank
Jewish history education often takes a back seat to other subjects in Jewish educational frameworks. However, in many ways, it is the subject that our students need most in our fraught world. This webinar explores how studying Jewish history nurtures our students’ connection to the Jewish people, offering them the ability to thoughtfully examine the Jewish past, actively participate in present-day Jewish conversations, and envision meaningful futures for Jewish life.
Laura Shaw Frank serves as the Vice President for the Center for Education Advocacy at American Jewish Committee (AJC). A passionate and award-winning educator with extensive experience in both Jewish and broader educational landscapes, Laura leads AJC’s efforts to shape K-12 and higher education institutions that reject antisemitism in all forms and foster communities of belonging for all students. She also oversees all of AJC’s Jewish educational initiatives, including the acclaimed Leaders for Tomorrow high school program, Empowered Parents, and many other adult education programs. Laura holds a PhD in Jewish history and, before working at AJC, taught high school Jewish and general history including as chair of the Jewish history department at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. Her article on Jewish history education, “The Jewel in the Crown of Jewish Education: The Power of History to Shape Our Kids’ Identity,” was published in Jewish Priorities: Sixty-Five Proposals for the Future of Our People (David Hazony, ed) in 2023.
Tuesday, March 17 2026
Rethinking Importance in an Age of Jewish Significance.
Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris
There is an unacknowledged consensus that pervades across Jewish denominational boundaries that Judaism either is, or ideally should be, of world-historical significance and a means of changing the world for the better. Such visions of Judaism coincide with both philosemitic and antisemitic perceptions of the importance of Jews in the world. This consensus may not always be ‘good for the Jews’. What would it be like then, to experiment with a vision of Judaism as a site of deliberate insignificance?
Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris is a Senior Lecturer at Leo Baeck College and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, both in London. He is project director of the European Jewish Research Archive. His latest book is Everyday Jews: Why the Jewish people are not who you think they are (Icon Books, 2025). He has also published eight further books and dozens of articles for academic and general readerships, including two important studies of the UK Jewish community: Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today (Continuum, 2010) and Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community (David Paul, 2014).
Tuesday, April 28 2026
How Shabbat Dinner Builds Social Connection: findings from a 3-year study.
Dr. Arielle Levites and Julia Logan
Join Dr. Arielle Levites and Julia Logan Labow as they share new research, funded by the John Templeton World Charity Foundation as part of their Science of Religious and Spiritual Exercises portfolio, on how Shabbat dinner helps young adults feel more connected to each other, to Jewish tradition, and to humanity. Explore what this means for Jewish educators working to strengthen peoplehood and community today.
Dr. Arielle Levites, is the managing director at CASJE (the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education). Her research focuses on contemporary American Jewish education. She holds a BA from Brown University in Religious Studies, a MSEd in Religious Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from NYU in Education and Jewish Studies.
Julia Logan Labow is the Senior Director, Impact + Learning at OneTable. OneTable invites you to hold Jewish tradition in one hand and your beliefs, experiences, and passions in the other. Every week, Shabbat dinner and ritual offers a chance to be present and connect with yourself and others. Julia graduated Phi Beta Kappa from St. Lawrence University and has her M.S.Ed in Educational Leadership with a focus in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University. She worked in college admissions and workforce development before joining OneTable in 2019. Utilizing design thinking, she has a passion for leveraging data to craft strategy and evaluate impact.
Tuesday, May 12 2026
Jewish Pride in a Time of Jewish Vulnerability.
Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath
This session explores what it means to center Jewish Pride as an intentional goal of Jewish education. Centered on the Jewish Pride outcomes, educators will absorb both a Jewish pride theory of change, and practical adaptable tips for applying it in their learning environments.
Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath is the Senior Director of Knowledge, Ideas and Learning at The Jewish Education Project. As a recognized expert in Israel education, Jewish peoplehood, teens, and antisemitism, Samantha is a sought-after speaker and thought leader. Samantha is an alumna of the University of Pittsburgh (BA), the Jewish Theological Seminary (MA), and Gratz College (EdD). Her 2022 book, #antisemitism: Coming of Age During the Resurgence of Hate, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Identity + Jewish Education. An award-winning educator, Samantha has lived and taught in New York, Israel, Cleveland, and Washington DC. She is currently at work on her next book.
A look at the ways in which a connection to the Jewish people and Jewish culture can be cultivated from the moment of birth and why it is so important to foster these connections iin early childhood.
Shira Ackerman Simchovitch is a senior advisor at the TALI Education Fund and oversees projects for young children. Prior to this position, she was the director of educational content and community outreach for the Shalom Sesame project and the Israeli Rechov Sumsum. For almost two decades Shira was the director of early childhood services at JAFI’s education dept overseeing professional development initiatives, curriculum creation and Israel experiences for Jewish early childhood educators. She has taught in the Israeli school system, developed curricula at the Hebrew University and was the founding director of the Reform movement’s flagship preschool in Jerusalem. Shira is a graduate of the David Yellin Teachers College, the Bank Street College of Education and the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Program for Leadership in Jewish Education and has authored numerous articles on Jewish early childhood education and Israel education in the early years.
