Gila Ogle is the Head of School at The Silver Academy in Harrisburg, PA where she is committed to fostering a thriving, mission-driven learning environment built on strong community partnerships. A social studies teacher at heart, Gila began her career in charter and public schools in New York and Miami before transitioning to Jewish education. She is passionate about empowering students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate an ever-changing world with integrity and purpose. Through her leadership, Gila strives to create a school culture that nurtures curiosity, critical thinking, and a deep sense of responsibility for the future. She is, most importantly, a proud wife and mom of three amazing kids.

Gems:

• Keep your mind open about what you can become and what you can share with the world.
• Think about what we would like our students to get out of what we’re teaching.
• Make efforts to allow students to interact with each other.
• Help children examine the world and find their place in it.
• One of our roles is to examine what we learn from children and find ways to guide them with the knowledge they already have.
• Empower the child to understand what they bring to the world.
• Find the spark in the child.
• Focus on building the relationship with the child first.
• Find colleagues and mentors.

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Rabbi Jonathan Rietti – a descendant of the Sephardic leader the Ben Ish Chai and son of the famous British actor Robert Rietti, known as ‘The Man of a Thousand Voices’ and ‘King of the Dubbers’ – received his rabbinical diploma from Gateshead Talmudical College, England, after which he helped establish the now flourishing Kollel in Gibraltar. Having received a master’s in education, he has practiced for over thirty years as an educational consultant to parents of gifted children and those with ADD. With Montessori training, he has developed a curriculum which dovetails a Torah education with Montessori methodology. He has authored over two hundred lectures on topics including inner growth, health, parenting and Jewish identity, and draws upon his background in the film and advertising industries to entertain the listener while sharing powerful insights on love, happiness and ‘emotional intelligence. Rabbi Rietti founded Breakthrough Chinuch in 2009 with the goal of offering a “hands-on” curriculum to compliment the traditional Chinuch system for teachers, parents, schools, and homeschooling parents. https://www.breakthroughchinuch.com/

Gems:

• It is critical to learn Chumash through the prefixes, suffixes, and shorashim (root) letters.
• Allow ample time for review of what your students are learning.
• If you don’t learn sequentially from beginning to end based on actual skills, then there won’t be a strong chance of covering ground and knowing what you learn.
• The first thing we as educators have to recognize is that we must observe the child first, and then we can educate according to their strengths.
• Once a child masters the shorashim, and prefixes, and suffixes commonly found in Tanach, it makes it much easier to learn.
• Children have the ability to figure things out for themselves.
• We are causing the wisdom that’s already within the child to come out.
• The greatest teachers are ones who facilitate learning.
• A Rebbe has to have a lot of ways to reach his students.
• The Torah is written so that we ask questions, and the answers are in the Torah She’Be’al Peh (Oral Torah).
• When you know the Shorashim, prefixes and suffixes, you gain access to most of Bereishit.
• Find the strengths of the child and use that to teach any subject you want to teach.
• There needs to be constant back and forth in the classroom.
• Provide the skills and the connection to Torah.

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Rabbi Alexander Coleman is the Director of the Institute for Jewish Ethics in Philadelphia, a Jewish educational platform offering seminars and classes on contemporary ethical dilemmas. The Institute features international rabbinic and secular scholars, and its programs are CLE-accredited for attorneys fulfilling their continuing legal education requirements.

In addition, Rabbi Coleman teaches a wide range of classes for both groups and individuals on topics including spirituality, Talmud, Jewish law, Parashah, Mussar, and Tanach. A trained therapist and life coach, he integrates these skills with his teaching to help people grow in both their spiritual lives and personal development. His classes and services are available in person, via Zoom, and on demand across various platforms, including the internationally renowned TorahAnytime.

Rabbi Coleman was born and raised in Liverpool, England. After a brief period at Yeshiva Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem, he spent seven years at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin in New York, where he formed a close bond with its rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Schechter zt״l. After leaving yeshiva, he worked in Jewish outreach with the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Studies in Philadelphia, and later went on to establish the Institute for Jewish Ethics. He resides in Philadelphia with his wife and family.

Gems:

• Engage your students in interesting discussions.
• Bring people back to their self-identity.
• Our learning is made up of a system of Jewish education, inspiration, and enlightenment.
• As educators, we can think of ourselves as spiritual custom tailors for the soul.
• Torah has the power to radiate out.
• Jewish education is not about data.
• The biggest and most impactful form of education is the influence, inspiration, and connection.
• What really changes a person is the connection between the teacher and the student.
• The academic knowledge is essential, but the connection to the teacher is essential for the transmission of Torah.
• Chinuch is launching someone on their path to be self-sufficient.
• Be mindful of the student in front of you.
• Help others understand what life is about and what our purpose is in this world.
• Work on changing ourselves.
• If it’s inside of us, it will organically flow out.
• Admit when you don’t know something.

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Rabbi Daniel Lapin is known world-wide as a noted rabbinic scholar, best-selling author and host of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast where he shares his knowledge of how the world really works. He is one of America’s most eloquent speakers and he has helped many people around the world grow in their five F’s: Faith, Family, Finances, Friendship, and Fitness through ancient Jewish wisdom. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, later studied in yeshivas in Gateshead, London, and in Israel. He emigrated to the United States and founded The Pacific Jewish Center. His more recent projects, along with his wife Susan, include online courses, a community called The We Happy Warriors, and has written many best-selling books, including their most recent book, The Holistic You: Integrating your Family, Faith, Finances, Friendships, and Fitness. Rabbi Lapin is an avid boater and sailed his family from Los Angeles to Honolulu in the summer on their own 44 foot sailing cutter. As the family grew, the Lapins switched to calmer waters, boating in the San Juan and Gulf Islands in Washington State and British Columbia. He and his wife Susan homeschooled their seven children on Mercer Island, Washington and now live in Baltimore, MD.

Gems:

Our primary obligation is to teach ourselves, not just our children.

We are responsible for our own growth and progress; nobody else is responsible.

Parents must be on the same page.

Create an authentic connection with G-d rather than a formalistic one.

Teach children to build a relationship where they can talk to G-d.

Judaism is more than just a ritualistic way of life.

Try to get out of your comfort zone.

We pass down principles that are relevant at all times.

Think through what you’re going to tell your children.

Be open to freshness.

How we teach needs to be linked to each child as an individual.

Raise children that we would really like.

We can’t expect things to be easy.

Homeschooling is more viable than people think.

Our job is to acculturate the next generation.

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Michael Feldstein has been a direct marketing professional for more than 40 years. He graduated with an MBA in marketing from New York University and has lived in Stamford since 1982. Feldstein is a member of both the Young Israel of Stamford and Congregation Agudath Sholom and has served on the adult education committees at both synagogues. He chaired the Center for Community Education at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford, an education initiative that brought various Jewish educators to speak to members of the Stamford Jewish community. He also chairs the annual Challenges in Jewish Education panel program, which has brought various Jewish educators to participate in a panel to discuss critical issues in the world of Jewish education. It has run consecutively for more than 20 years. He is the author of MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE, a collection of essays on contemporary Jewish topics. For the last three years, he has been publishing a weekly column in The Jewish Link. His works have also appeared in The Jewish Week and The Forward. In 2023, he won the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Journalism, which is given each year by the American Jewish Press Association.

Gems:

Be a life-long learner.

Though technology is very useful, we must still value the actual Torah texts.

Being Jewish is not something we can hide.

Be flexible.

Learning in Hebrew gives our students the ability to read and connect with our texts.

We learn through experiences.

Teach critical thinking skills along with moral character.

There’s value in teaching our students a trade.

Focus on each individual child.

https://amzn.to/414F4MR

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Yossi Berktin is lovingly known by Jewish kids across the world as Rabbi B. Born and raised in Toronto Canada, Rabbi B is best known for his widely popular YouTube show Come Along with Rabbi B. He prides himself in his ability to teach and reach children of all ages and backgrounds. He is a published author, recording artist and has just pushed the pause button on a successful fifteen year teaching career. He has a Masters in education, has helped establish three homeschool endeavors, and has a wonderful, supportive family.

Gems:

• Help how to make Jewish learning more fun, engaging, and entertaining.
• It’s amazing how Hashem works!
• Share your love of learning.
• Your joy is contagious.
• Learn to see the positive in everyone.
• Bring out what Hashem created within each student.
• Focus on the task at hand.
• Keep moving forward and keep doing better.
• Recognize and share with others that Hashem is the creator of the world.
• Hashem doesn’t make mistakes.
• Be the best you, you can be and bring out the best in others.
• Bring Hashem into the equation and let him be a partner in your decisions.
• Try to be more childlike.
• Our job as educators is to know how to play properly, in a holy and focused way.
• Learn how to use the Condordant.
• Ask what the students/kids are going to need in their own personal lives?
• Arm them with simcha.
• Give the kids the tools they will need.
• Give children experiences.
• Hashem gave us interests and talents for us to use.
• Give children options for showcasing their creativity.
• Provide children the space to engage with content the way they want to.
• How can we empower our children?
• We each have our derech (our path).
• Remember what engaged you as a child.
• Fall in love with what you’re teaching.
• Be yourself.
• If you find yourself drawn to Chinuch, it’s because Hashem needs you there.
• There is something magic and beautiful to be taught.
• You don’t have to meet someone else’s expectations.
• Help students realize that they can be themselves and that they are here for a holy purpose.

www.RabbiB.org

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Assaf is the Director of Education at UnitEd. He works in the fields of Jewish Education, Museum Education and Comics and Graphic Novels. Prior to joining UnitEd, Assaf served as the first director of the Jewish renewal Division at the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. He was Director of Education at Anu-Museum of the Jewish People (Tel Aviv). He served as curator of the Israeli Cartoon Museum, where he curated international and local exhibitions on editorial cartoons, comics and graphic novels. He teaches courses on Jewish Education, Museum Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education at Tel-Aviv University, Shenkar College of Design and Seminar HaKybutsim Teachers' College. His co-edited book "Comics & Sacred Texts” (with Prof. Ken Koltun-Fromm), has won the 2018 Best Edited Volume Award from the American Popular Culture Association (APA/PCA).

Gems:

• Help students appreciate our Torah, history, and culture on a more meaningful and profound level.
• Instill curiosity within your students.
• Ask students the big questions to help them figure out who they are.
• Create an environment in the classroom of acceptance of where each student is.
• Inspire students to connect with who we are as a nation and where we came from.
• Build a foundation of trust.
• It’s Ok to bring humor to education.
• Hebrew is a central pillar of Jewish education.
• Engage with Hebrew and don’t be afraid to make mistakes; have no shame.
• What are the most urgent needs of other educators and students?
• Talk with children about what’s going on in Israel.
• Prepare students for what they may face on university campuses by talking with them and giving them the resources they will need to thrive.
• Show our students that Jews around the world are linked to Israel.
• Teach children our history and its relevance in their everyday lives.
• Education is about knowledge, but also about having a deep connection to our history, faith, and culture, and establishing relevance to our lives.
• Chinuch should be learner centered.
• Don’t think that the entire fate of the Jewish world rests on your shoulders.
• Focus on what you can do!
• Remember why you became an educator in the first place.

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Rabbi Dovi Nadel has been the coordinator of the Dr. Shimshon Isseroff USA Chidon Ha’Tanach since 2015. Dovi is on the faculty of SAR High School and currently serves as the grade dean for the senior class. Dovi is a proud alum of Farber Hebrew Day School, Yeshivat Har Etzion, and Yeshiva University. He has a Master’s degree in Bible from YU-Revel and received his Semikha from YU-RIETS. For three consecutive summers he served as the Rosh Chinuch (Head of EducationalStaff) at Camp Stone in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. Dovi credits his parents and two unique Middle/High School educators for inspiring his love of Tanach – Rabbi Eliezer Cohen Z”L and Rabbi Pinchas Amior.

Gems:

• Inspire your students to learn Pesukim of the Torah well.
• Make time for your students.
• The key to textual fluency is when the student decides that they really want to learn it on their own.
• Encourage students to take ownership of their learning.
• The real reward is when students work hard.
• Push the students more than they push themselves.
• The short route ends up being the long route, the long route ends up being the short route.- Talmud
• Be a steward through which to connect students to Torah and Hashem.
• Generate a love of Torah and make it part of every day conversation.
• Chinuch is about planting seeds, helping cultivate students in whatever way you can, and knowing you might not see the end result, however, we have an impact.
• Ask your students what they find meaningful.
• Be inspired by your students.
• Stay fresh and creative.
• Truly love your students and what you’re teaching.
• Each of us has a duty to teach others.

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