Day School Israel Education in the Age of Birthright

Abstract

What are North American Jewish day schools doing when they engage in Israel education, what shapes their practices, and to what ends? In this article, we report on a multi-method study inspired by these questions. Our account is organized around an analytical model that helps distinguish between what we call the vehicles, intensifiers, and conditions of day school Israel education. Our discussion explores the possibility that when it comes to Israel education, schools have shifted from a paradigm of instruction to one of enculturation. This shift, we suggest, is indicative of a generalized anxiety about students' commitments to Israel and about their capacity to advocate for Israel when they “come of age” at university.

The research on which this paper is based was funded by the AVI CHAI Foundation and by the Schusterman and Jim Joseph Family Foundations through the iCenter.

Notes

¹We classify religiously liberal schools in this way because our data indicate that there is no observable difference between Community, Conservative, and Reform streams with respect to how they engage in Israel education.

²A searchable catalogue of our findings is accessible at http://virtualmelton.huji.ac.il/course/view.php?id=49

³The much reproduced AVI CHAI Foundation (2005) formulation is: “The creation of the State of Israel is one of the seminal events in Jewish history. Recognizing the significance of the State and its national institutions, we seek to instill in our students an attachment to the State of Israel and its people as well as a sense of responsibility for their welfare” (p. 21).

⁴We debated at length among ourselves and with colleagues whether the communal context should be included in the model. We prefer to omit it because its roots are firmly located beyond the school, as part of a larger environment that also includes the larger national scene and the much discussed place of Israel in American Jewish life.

⁵In designing the survey, we engaged in extensive discussion about how to frame this particular question without cueing respondents to focus on one particular aspect of Israel education's many dimensions. Ultimately, we found through piloting the tool that the term “connection” was seen not only to indicate person-to-person relationships but also engagement with textual/historical material and some appreciation of Israel's place in the Jewish past and present.