“As I connected with Jewish educators throughout North America and Israel this summer, one question recurred in our conversations: How should we choose to remember Oct. 7 with our school communities? The question speaks to the heart of the mission of a school and its relationship to Israel and the Jewish people. As a new fellow at The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, my thinking has been deeply informed by conversations with other fellows there.

I want to share the wisdom that I have gleaned and offered as a guide to those charged not only with designing the tekes (communal ceremony) for Oct. 7 but also with framing the implications of Oct. 7 for the broader educational program in their school.

Perhaps fittingly, I drafted these thoughts in the early hours of Tisha B’Av, a day meant to mark and feel the collective tragedy and pain of seminal moments in Jewish history. In writing these words, I felt transported back to the first 48 hours after Oct. 7, wrestling sleeplessly with how best to support fellow educators in my work. On Oct. 9, I shared with colleagues the “Heart-Head-Hand” model that I had used for years in my teaching at Gann Academy as a way to process the trauma and feelings, pose important questions and identify action that flows naturally from the feelings and questions. The paradigm seemed resonant in the field and I return to the Heart-Head-Hand model as a guide for Oct. 7 and the new school year.

In the post-Oct.7 context, when many teachers and students are experiencing anxiety and asking hard questions of themselves and others, a ceremony is an opportunity to experience that which draws us together as Jews in a moment for community, areivut (mutual support) and deepening consciousness that each one of us is part of the global Jewish experience. My reflections below represent a synthesis of ideas from my personal and professional reflections that I hope will help foster the collaboration and sensitivity needed to facilitate these moments for our communities.”

Read the full piece on EJP here.