National Australian Jewish Educators Conference, July 21 –22 2002

The conference took place at the Early Learning Centre of the Bialik School in Melbourne Australia. The Early Learning Centre is a Reggio inspired program for children aged two through eight. Conference participants were able to learn not only from the instructors and sessions being offered at the conference, but from the setting as well! In the framework of the conference an Early Childhood track was offered and sessions were scheduled in all the time slots. Sixty EC educators from schools all over Australia attended the conference, most of them from Melbourne. A team of three specialists from Israel were sent by the Jewish Agency to teach at the conference and to consult to the EC programs in Melbourne and Sydney afterwards.

In Australia, Early Childhood programs are usually referred to as “Kinder”. Most programs are within large day schools. Young Jewish children (aged five and up) who attend state schools receive an hour and a half a week of Hebrew and Judaic studies as part of the curriculum. Across Australia, one can find Jewish schools of all affiliations. In Melbourne there is also a Yiddish school which has an early childhood program.

In a message to the educators attending the conference, Alan D. Hoffmann, Director general of the Department for Jewish Zionist Education at JAFI wrote:
“in an open world of seemingly endless possibilities and opportunities , of multiple allegiances and identification and of complexity and ambiguity , the job of the Jewish educator is to connect young Jews to their heritage , tradition and people. Jewish educators seek to transmit the essence of our history and culture in a way, which is inspiring, relevant and enduring. This is not an easy task. "

During the two days, the issue of how to connect very young Jews to their heritage was at the core of the discussions, lectures and study groups that comprised the EC track.

Session topics included :

• Ivrit Be Kef - Hebrew Language Instruction in Kinder.
• Flowing in Jewish Time - Creating Connections Between and Within the Holidays: An
• Integrated Year Long Model for Teaching the Jewish Year Cycle.
• Introducing Judaism to Young Jews.
• Bible Stories and Beyond – Creating Learning Environments for Teaching Torah.
• Olim L’ Yerushalyim - Going Up to Jerusalem (so that you can bring it back to the children)
• Torat Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael – Using Bible Stories to Teach about Israel.
• Mitzvot and Arachim – Developing Jewish Identity
• Parents as Partners - Ideas for Involving and Educating Parents
• Looking at Reggio Emilia with Jewish Glasses

In addition to the sessions, there were two videoconferences with Israel, which enabled long distance interactive communication between Melbourne and Jerusalem. In each conference a lecture relating to the current situation in Israel was given (from Jerusalem) and the audience in Melbourne was invited to ask questions and interact with the lecturer. The experience opened up the idea of using this medium for professional development programs, interactive lectures and even cross-classroom teaching between Israel and Australia.

As always, in conferences of this kind, the most interesting experience was to see educators from different denominations sit together and talk about Jewish education in the 21st century.