New Religious School Director Given Mandate for Change

To Deborah Ayala Srabstein, Temple Micah looked like the ideal place to put into practice her ideas for improving Jewish education.

"I was looking for a place where I could really innovate and build a better and more authentic way of educating Jewish children and creating lifelong Jewish learners in the process."

One luncheon meeting convinced Rabbi Zemel that this young educator was a perfect fit for Micah.

"Deborah was way ahead of us in terms of organizing and starting," he said. He recalled giving her his long-felt assessment that throughout Judaism "the synagogue `and it's not a system worth fixing.' And I totally agree with that."

This summer, Srabstein became religious school director with a mandate for change and the desire and experience to implement it. "I am passionate about Jewish education," she wrote in her application for the Micah post.

Rabbi Zemel summed up his goals as bringing "Jewish education to Jewish time, learning by the experience of doing and creating meaningful family involvement."

At the temple annual meeting in June, the rabbi discussed his strong feeling that Jewish education today lacks a connection to--one of his favorite phrases--a Jewish narrative.

"Learning Torah, studying Genesis, without the associations of something-- and the more the merrier--challah, menorah, Israel, Yiddishisms, Portnoy, sour pickles, klezmer, Chagall, how do you do that?" he asked.

A year ago, the rabbi formed an education task force to examine the religious school and ways it might change. Mary Beth Schiffman, the task force chair, said a principal goal is to enable "Jewish children to grow up and go to a synagogue anywhere and follow the service and be comfortable."

The panel brought in Joel Hoffman, an authority on Jewish education. He told them that "some of the things we've been doing and trying to accomplish just aren't working and he said they won't work, they're doomed to failure," Schiffman said.

One of the impossible goals he cited was trying to teach children Hebrew sitting in a classroom one afternoon a week, a conclusion that led to the decision to halt the midweek Hebrew classes for fourth and fifth graders.

Central to Hoffman's recommendations was "if it isn't fun, don't do it."

"Listening to someone read Hebrew slowly is painfully boring and does nothing but create agitation in the classroom," said Rabbi Zemel, who added that he was impressed when Srabstein echoed the view that "the experience of learning has to be a positive experience."

The rabbi defined "Jewish time" as making Shabbat services a setting for the learning experience. To that end he is urging parents to commit to attend 12 services a year with their religious school children.

He and Srabstein advocate introducing computer technology that uses gaming scenarios to help children learn Hebrew. Each family will receive a CD-Rom as a Hebrew learning tool that students can use five to seven minutes a day. To monitor their progress during the school year, the students will have scheduled, twice-weekly telephone sessions with Hebrew tutors.

Rabbi Zemel hopes that the computer program will be an opportunity for parents to work with their children "and maybe that will lead to other family experiences like Shabbat."

Srabstein was reluctant to talk about specific changes she would bring to the religious school. But even before officially assuming her new post she reached out to the congregation in a series of sessions during which she talked about her background and broad beliefs about Jewish education.

Susan Bandler, who has two children in the religious school, came away impressed by Srabstein's ideas and enthusiasm. "She seemed to have some interesting ideas" and a willingness "to think outside of the box," said Bandler.

Bandler said she would like to see more emphasis on teacher recruitment, training and mentoring.

A Hebrew speaker, Bandler wondered how many Micah parents have enough background in Hebrew to help their children learn the language.

Srabstein grew up in Montgomery County and attended Washington Hebrew Congregation. The 34-year-old educator graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in religion and received a master's degree from Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

She taught at several religious schools in the Boston area and at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C. For the past four years she has served as director of education at Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg.

Rabbi Zemel said many of the details of the proposed changes still need to be worked out.

"Deborah's word for revolution is rapid evolution," he said. "She'll spend this year kind of testing the waters for us, seeing where we are. We'll spend this year getting to know her and then we'll figure out how to take the next step."

He sat in his office surrounded by boxes, signs of the construction now underway. How that project progresses is one of the unknown impacts on the current religious school year.

Rabbi Zemel, the grandson of an eminent rabbi, grew up with the kind of Jewish experience he would like to make more common among Micah families.

"If my primary Jewish experience growing up was sitting in a classroom three, four, five hours a week," he said, "I'd have probably ended up as a Buddhist, a Hindu or something else."