VOICES FROM THE FIELD

Ever since the classroom was invented educators have been using the latest technologies to enhance the learning process and support students in achieving the best academic outcomes. If at first classroom technology consisted of pens and paper and the blackboard, the most recent ed-tech now includes interactive whiteboards, classroom projectors, laptops or tablets and even VR headsets.

And how does one stand in a Memorial Ceremony?
Erect or bent, rigid like a tent or limp as in mourning,
head humbled like the guilty or raised in defiance against death,
eyes wild or frozen like the eyes of the dead,
or shut, to view the stars within?

"Open Closed Open" by Yehudah Amichai

Yariv Bash, a co-founder of SpaceIL, shares a unique connection between him and his grandfather—a German engineer who survived the Holocaust.

^{Originally published in The Culture Trip, September 30, 2016}

The period leading up to the elections in Israel will occur between Chanukkah and shortly after Purim. I cannot help thinking about the symbolism in this juxtaposition. The story of Chanukkah together with the celebratory songs composed in Israel so speak to the story of the creation of the State.

Having lived in the US for four years on Shlichut and then being back in Israel for six years, I had forgotten what it feels like here when “secular” holidays roll around. Christmas and Easter are pretty clear cut, they “don’t belong to us”. Valentine’s Day and Halloween sort of do, but then there is that tension…do we do it? Don’t we? Do we but feel funny about it?

The Old City on Shavu’ot was one of the highlights and the low points of my gap year. It was the late 90’s: I was 18-years-old, studying in a Midrasha (מדרשה), a seminary.