The new crop of Melamdim students training at Shalom Hartman Institute and Tel Aviv University for masters’ degrees designed to enhance the skills of Jewish studies teachers at North American Jewish day schools opened the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
The students are a diverse group of young and middle-aged, male and female, religious (of varying backgrounds) and secular, Israeli and North American. Their two-year program will include intensive training in education, Jewish history, thought, philosophy and more. Their teachers will include Shalom Hartman Institute scholars, and professors from the faculty of Tel Aviv University.
They come to the program with varying educational backgrounds and life experiences, yet all are burning with a desire to teach young North American Jews about their history, their heritage, their faith and their future.
On their opening day orientation, the program participants heard from Rabbi Prof. David Hartman , and Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman , as well as other Institute scholars.
Their orientation continued with a two-day excursion to Israel’s Negev desert to help the students get to know one another better and to bond as a group. Their formal classes and programs begin after the Sukkot holiday in mid-October.
New Melamdim student David Jay Steiner is writing about his experiences at Hartman – and other philosophical matters – on his blog, "The Radish – On The Beet With David Steiner. Click here to read a recent entry regarding the opening of his year at Hartman, where he quotes David Hartman.
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