Elana Sztokman

When Professor Ada Yonath, the bubbly, animated scientist with Einstein-like hair as well as intelligence, received the phone call several days ago informing her that she was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she thought someone was playing a joke on her. “I said, ‘Yeah, right, so should I make an appointment for the hairdresser now?’” she recalled at the press conference this week. “As you can all see, I did not make that appointment,” she laughed, with a wonderful gleam in her eye. Prof. Yonath’s prize for discoveries about ribosomes is cause for celebration, especially for Jewish women. It gives her a place not just in the annals of human history, but also in the hearts and diaries of countless girls. I can just picture all those science-loving girls. They are the ones who, like Prof. Yonath, prefer to be in a lab rather than at the hairdresser, who may be quiet in class or walk with their noses in a book, who are perhaps irreverent and independent-minded, girls who love a good experiment and would rather read science fiction than go to the mall, girls whose idea of a perfect birthday gift is a microscope or telescope rather than a Barbie, girls who wonder why they don’t fit in. READ THE REST AT THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG Read the rest of this entry →

As a parent, I love the holiday of Sukkot, which begins Friday night. It’s a great family time – lots of al fresco dining, sleeping outdoors, enjoying fresh air, singing, cooking favorite foods, and experiencing a welcome escape from the weightiness of an excessively material life. There’s nothing like spending eight days inside four walls of canvas to remind us of the value of simplicity. As a woman, though, I find Sukkot to be one of the most difficult holidays we’ve got. It is laden with messages about gender differences and where women truly belong, and these messages seem to intensify each year. READ THE REST ON THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG Read the rest of this entry →

In today's YnetTomorrow morning, as my youngest child starts first grade, I am doing what perhaps I should have done long ago: I’m taking my child to the farm. She will be spending her school days at the Ecological Farm in Modi’in, the first class in a fledgling experimental school called “Ma’ayan,” literally, “spring.” There, in a house made of clay and recycled materials in which the toilets do not flush but their contents are re-entered into the ground, where a goat my daughter fell in love with named Maya gave birth last year to twins “Rami” and “Levi”, where the surrounding sounds are not of cars honking and teachers yelling but of mules, chickens and dogs communicating, where young adults come from all over Israel to work as organic farmers – this is where my five year old child is beginning her formal schooling. Read the rest of this entry →

I've been spending the past week with a very special group of American Jewish educators. These teachers, here for a week-long program on Jewish peoplehood at the Beth Hatefutsoth School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies, come from all over North America and have in common one things -- that they are all implementing the curriculum, Facing History and Ourselves. This is one of the most remarkable pieces of educational work I have ever encountered, a Holocaust curriculum that is so much more. It's about teaching kids to take responsibility and create a different world, one in which hatred and bigotry cannot flourish. "By teaching students to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility - and the responsibility - to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens," is what the FHAO Facebook page says. Read the rest of this entry →

The following article, published in the current issue of The Journal of Jewish Education, explores the difference between education for Orthodox religiousness and education for spirituality. The article, based on bits of my doctoral research, argues that the dogmatic, linear, "you're either in or out" approach that characterizes much of Orthodox education, does not leave much room for spirituality. So often, religiousness is instilled as an end product, a monolithic corpus of ideas to be singularly transmitted and subsequently owned by youth. In reality, though, youth are thirsting for opportunities to grapple, question, and wrestle with profound theological and philosophical issues—a process that ultimately leads to a richer religious identity. Spirituality amid dogma? Some approaches to educating for religious belief within in a State-Religious school in Israel :

I like being religious. But sometimes, I hate the way the rabbis preach things. I like to see what’s written, the Mishna, the Gemara, the Torah…and to do what they tell me. But I hate that the rabbis philosophize all the time. I don’t go to any rabbis or anything, I don’t like all that rubbish…. but I am religious the way I think I should be. (Tamar, 14).

I'm on my way to New York, my first trip there in three years. I'm going for the second conference of the Global Task Force on Jewish Peoplehood Education of the School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beth Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish People. What is "Peoplehood"? It's a way of conceptualizing Jewish identity beyond the liberal-minded individualistic search for self. It revolves around connectivity and mutual responsibility, and implies that one cannot be Jewish in a vacuum, the Judaism is inherently different from, say, Christianity, in that there is a necessarily communal element to it. One cannot be a "Good Jew" alone -- a Passover seder of One is not a seder. Connection is key. For me, it's not just connection but mutual responsibilty: this is about reminding Jews that caring for the well-being of the person sitting across the table, ocean, screen, or partition is a vital aspect of our tradition and heritage. Below is the press release about the conference. I'll try and send a blog from there, otherwise, reporting when I get back. L'hitraot! Read the rest of this entry →