What’s in a Name? In Pursuit of Israel Education

Abstract

Naming a discipline is a key component in both the shaping and unpacking of its development. Still, little attention has been devoted to studying the ways in which this process has influenced Israel Education. Based on a long-term ethnographic study, this article presents Israel Education name choices and discusses the manner in which this naming unfolds and affects the development of this field. I claim that this process symbolizes a development beyond the classroom environment; reflects sociocultural and political changes in Israel-Diaspora relations; and exposes conceptual shifts in Israel pedagogy and transforms the place of Israel in Diaspora Jewish education.

Notes

¹ For an extensive list of Israel Education programs, see The iCenter for Israel Education (2011).

² The interview was conducted June 2008. According to this informant, the program is no longer active.

³ The emphasis is in the original.

⁴ A copy of the survey report was given to me by a member of one such organization, interviewed in this study.

⁵ Such as, “In Touch with Israel,” a workshop offered by the Board of Jewish Education in New York in October 2004 as part of its “Israel Education Teachers Training Programs”; and the iconnect program for teachers launched in 2006 by the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education in Philadelphia and the Center for Israel and Overseas of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Based on telephone and email communications with the program coordinator, the year-long course on modern Israel concludes with a trip to Israel. The site was last visited in 2008. Additional information retrieved on September 22, 2013 in (http://www.jesna.org/jerri/newsletter/LateSpring07/IConnect.html).

⁶ It is also found as a job title (http://www.jewishjobs.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=uvj&job_id=21243).

⁷ See, for example, “Israel NOW Solidarity Response Curriculum” written by the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland (http://www.jecc.org/Curriculum/IsraelNow..pdf).

⁸ The observations were described on-site or soon after in a journal and nearly all interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. All names of interviewees and locations are altered to protect identities.

⁹ The Berman Jewish Policy Archive (BJPA) website has been particularly helpful in making relevant Jewish literature easily accessible.

¹⁰ The interview was taped and transcribed in May of 2007.

¹¹ The interview was taped and transcribed in the United States in Spring of 2007.

¹² The interview was taped and transcribed in Israel in May of 2010.

¹³ A search of the title Jewish Peoplehood in the BJPA website yielded a sea of articles published since 2007.

¹⁴ Examples such as, the Koret-Taube Initiative on Jewish Peoplehood (http://koret.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/catalyst_winter_10.pdf) and the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education in Jerusalem (http://jpeoplehood.org/contact-us/).

¹⁵ See, for example, the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland “Israel NOW Solidarity Response Curriculum” following the 9-11 event (http://curriculumjecc.wikispaces.com/file/view/IS.3+-+IsraelNOW+Solidarity+Curriculum.pdf).

¹⁶ Another visit to the AVI CHAI website on August 27, 2014 revealed that these titles were changed again.

¹⁷ The interview was conducted on February 11, 2010, field notes book #1.

¹⁸ Field notes book #2, July 2011 and August 2011.

¹⁹ Sample of these video interviews, last viewed on October 13, 2013, can be found here (http://melton.huji.ac.il/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=146&category_id=55&Itemid=179&lang=en).

²⁰ Australia field notes, September 2011.

²¹ Based on an online list of Australian Jewish day schools, this number represents 50% of Jewish day schools nationwide. See (http://www.jewishaustralia.com/schools.htm#ADEL).

²² Australian field notes, August 2011.

²³ The interview was conducted on August 23, 2011.

²⁴ A teacher, entrusted with the task of creating Israel Studies program, told me she develops her school’s program because “it was cheaper than purchasing the Melton Center one” (Audio interview July 28, 2012).

²⁵ According to some teachers, Makom has been trying to open “a branch” in Australia (Field notes, November 2013.

²⁶ The interview was conducted on March 5, 2008.

²⁷ The telephone conversation occurred on March 2, 2008.

²⁸ The emphasis is in the original.

²⁹ The emphasis is in the original.

³⁰ Zionism was equated with racism for the first time in 1975 by the UN General Assembly (Resolution 3379).

³¹ The emphasis is in the original.

³² The interview was conducted on September 6, 2012.

³³ For example, “The Israel Connection” series published in 1993 by The Teaching of Israel Network in collaboration with the Melton Center; or Israel history books published in Israel but used in some Australian Jewish schools.

³⁴ A video interview presented by the Melton Center in a presentation of its Israel Education study in Australia, August 21, 2012.

³⁵ The interview was conducted on February 1, 2011.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shlomit Attias

Shlomit Attias is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Haifa School of Education. E-mail: [email protected]