United Synagogue Begins Pilot Program For Experienced Hebrew School Directors

AUGUST 2005 - Twenty-five directors of after-school Hebrew schools met in Manhattan for a four-day pilot program, Lilmod U'Lilamed, in late July. The conference was run by the education department at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

The program is geared for Hebrew school directors who have had at least a few years' experience; many of them have graduated from United Synagogue's New Directors' Institute. The program's emphasis "is on pedagogic leadership as opposed to administrative issues and the relationship with lay leaders, which the New Directors' Institute examines in depth," Rabbi Robert Abramson says. Rabbi Abramson, United Synagogue's educational director, adds that "people who have gone through three, four, five years as education directors are in a very different place than they were when they started."

Serene Victor, United Synagogue's consultant for synagogue education, says that the pilot program "focuses on what's happening in the classroom in the relationship between the teacher, the student, and the content - what we call the instructional triangle. The directors who participated in this program all believe in the power of Hebrew school to reveal the beauty of our sacred texts."

The staff included Ms. Victor, Rabbi Stuart Seltzer, director of education at Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Baltimore, Md., and Wendy Light, United Synagogue's education consultant.