Learning Goes Both Ways...

Last week, Baltimore was hot.  Hot like August hot.  It was so hot in Baltimore, that public schools without air conditioning,  had to finish at half a day.   I left school during my lunch break, ran over and picked up my three littles (10, 8, and just about 7) and brought them back to school with me. 

In the car we had the following discussion.  "You might see things in my school that you have not seen before or seem unusual to you.  Ask me quietly or better wait till we leave the building.  We are all going to go to Chapel at the end of the day.  You sit when everyone else sits, and stand when everyone else stands, but you do not answer Amen to any prayers or blessings. " 

It was great.  My kids were so psyched to see the school I keep talking about.  My students were funny and gracious, chatting with the kids and asking them for help - even if that was help taking a quiz.   My 10 you old blew Shofar (much more successfully than I had been) and all three kids took great pride in sharing there favorite Israeli's children's songs and videos with my Hebrew 2 students. 

When we finally left school, my 7 year old asked "How come there are so many statues of Jesus?  Why do they make statues showing how he died?  Why not statues showing how he lived?" 

So my mouth dropped a little.  I was proud he did not ask the question out loud in chapel, and I was even more proud about how without realizing it, he hit on a major theological and pragmatic difference between Jewish and Catholic traditions.  I tried to explain to him that the narrative of Jesus dying in a very important story because Catholics believe Jesus to be God's son, and that he died to help humanity. ( Not bad for a rabbi explaining to a 7 year old.) My 7 year old answered "He was Jewish right? I want to know more about that..."   

Fast forward a few days:   I have two lovely young women who arrive at school around the same time I do.  Often they hang out in my classroom.  On Friday, one of these students had a test on the Hail Mary and Prayer for Peace by St. Francis of Assisi.  She was totally freaked out.  She had done math homework, English homework and science homework the night before and ran out of time to memorize these prayers.  I checked the time on my phone and said "Well we have 45 minutes now, we will learn them." 

She looked a bit surprised, and I needed to look at the words.  We spent 45 minutes before school working on Hail Mary and the Prayer for Peace.  I taught her to look for the cadence in the words and recite them with a rhythm, after all Jewish people pray with a nusach, a melody, that helps us learn and remember words.  Soon the Hail Mary was being recited with a distinct rhythm related to rap and memorized.  We then took on the Prayer for Peace which has a number of juxtapositions.  I showed her how to see the formula within the prayer, and how that knowing the formula meant that as long as she knew the first half of each line she automatically knew how the line ended. 

I have spent 25 years or so teaching prayer.  Preschool students, day school students, adults, religious school students and students who have learning differences.  Never once did I imagine the day that I would be taking all of my teaching techniques that I developed over so many years and apply them to Hail Mary and St. Francis of Assisi's Prayer for Peace. 

You know what?   It worked. 

In one week my own children got to share their Judaism with my students.  My children were able to ask questions and compare two faith traditions, and finally I was able to teach the Hail Mary.

It was a good week!

Time Flies By When....

It is the start of the school year and you are celebrating your son's Bar Mitzvah at the end of the second week of school.  Not so sure if my life was more hectic in school or at home.

The school year is off to a great start.  I am teaching three sections of Jewish Studies and two sections of Hebrew.  I am also teaching all day long Judaism 101.   I love the questions and they do not stop.  Here are some samples:

• What foods to Jews eat?  
• It depends on where in the world their community is or from where you Jewish family came.  There are Jews in Europe, North Africa, Central Africa, Asia and the Americas.  I make really good chicken soup. 
• Do all Jews make Chicken Soup?   
• Ummm not sure, but mine is the best!
• Why do you wear kipot?
• Can a Black person be Jewish?   
• Great question - yes.  This has been asked and answered several time already in the past two weeks and I am fascinated by the question.  We have been discussing race, ethnicity, religion, culture and nationality. We have looked at how all of these pieces interconnect and overlap and my students still seem unsure about a Black Jewish person.  This is even after we have talked about Jewish communities in Africa. 

• I know the answer, I am going to invite a friend to come to school and talk share his story with my students.  I tell them the plan and their response was "Great. you are going to bring in a friend to class- are they really Jewish.?"   I have to schedule this pretty soon.

• Did you say you don't believe in Jesus?   
• Yes, I did say that.   
• You don't answer Amen when we pray because we pray to Jesus?
• Yes, It would not be authentic to Jewish tradition if I was agreeing with prayers directed to Jesus.
• Did you say you don't believe in Jesus?
• I have to go back ... 
• Do all Jewish people not believe in Jesus?
• I have to go back again...
• Who do you pray to?
• I pray to God.
• And God is not Jesus?
• In Catholic tradition yes... but this is not a Jewish belief. 
• If you don't believe in Jesus what are you doing in a Catholic School?

I told you they ask great questions!  What am I taking away from these particular questions?  My students are curious, really curious.  They bring with them their own experiences. Honestly they have had little or no contact with Jewish people or the Jewish community. They are working really hard to make sense of me,  Me - their Jewish White, Female Rabbi who is new to the Catholic school.  

I think the year is off to a great great start.  

Next week 5 full days of teaching before Rosh Hashanah!

Should A Rabbi Say She'he'chiyanu For Her First Mass?

Really, that was my first thought as I left Mass last Wednesday for the first time.  My colleagues and I had spent a day at The Shrine of St. Anthony.  While I was expecting a "professional development" day, because with Jewish educator ears, that is how we use the word retreat, I was surprised that the entire day was filled with reflection and prayer.

Don't get me wrong.  Being a part of the Jewish community, I pray regularly.  Jewish prayer takes place three times a day, and on Shabbat and holidays the service is extended.  At a retreat of Jewish educators there might be a morning service...maybe, and for sure a blessing before a meal.  But my retreat at St. Anthony's was something all together different.

I learned many things on our retreat.  I learned the difference between a Shrine and a Parish Church. (Shrines are more insular, dedicated to a Saint, and often like this one, have a relic.)  I learned about the deep history of my school and how for generations the Sisters of Oblate not only focussed on formally educating children of color in school, but in a way that was holistic, working with their families and the larger neighborhood community.  We talked about the challenges facing our students.  We talked about the greater challenges facing Baltimore and how our students are being most affected.  I learned the word Sankofa, an African word from Akan tribe in Ghana which is the idea that "we cannot truly move forward without first going back to the past, understanding it and embodying all of it as seeds of wisdom for the future." And all of this learning was blanketed in ritual and prayer.  I had no idea what to expect, and I certainly did not know how to fully participate.  I know that my experience exposed me to different expressions of holiness and the Divine.

Mass was another new experience. I love ritual, I love ritual items and ritual clothes. Mass is filled with it all.   I was amazed that nobody was using a "siddur" prayerbook. Everybody knew the liturgy. Everybody knew the responses, when to bow, and the words of the hymns.  here was a spectacular choreography to it all. The priests entering the sanctuary, the Eucharist, the recessional.  I was there as a spectator, and that is the role I will continue to play, but being a spectator in somebody else's sacred space means that you have to be open to realizing that the space is truly sacred.

What stuck with me the most is Sankofa. The idea of Sankofa is sacred in Judaism. We use our past to inform our present, and hope for the future.  For 2000 years we have allowed our past to teach us, shape us, and bind us together as a Jewish community spread throughout the world.

I feel blessed to have now an Akan word, taught to me by nuns, in a sacred space that was not my own, to describe our Jewish existence. 

August 19th: It Will Begin... How did I prepare to get there?

New teacher orientation begins on August 19th.  

It is then I will find out all sorts of details; schedules, calendars, grading systems - all the nitty gritty that both new and returning teachers need to know to begin organizing for the semester.  I could not wait. 

I have spent the better part of Spring and and most of this Summer trying to get wrap my head around the things I will be teaching.   I am quite familiar with all three subjects.  In fact, I have been teaching these classes with variations for years and years; different ages, differing abilities, young children, high school students and adults. 

What makes planning different for the start of this semester?   I have never taught these classes to non-Jewish students.  I have also, never taught anything to students of color, who live in inner-city Baltimore. 

Everyone has shared their insights.  One Baltimore City High School teacher, told me that I am overthinking everything.  I should not see my new students any different than all the students I have taught in the past.  A second Baltimore High School teacher recommended that I read the book, "For All You White Folks Teaching In The Hood, and Everyone Else."  I read the book and found it helpful in understanding the context of my new school and students.  I have asked Jewish educators for advice.  I have asked colleagues who are deeply embedded in interfaith work how I should approach my classes.  And yes, as suggested by my husband, I have over thought everything, time and time again. 

• Why is a year of Hebrew language going to be meaningful for my students? 
• How can I teach Israel with nuance, so when my students arrive on their college campuses they are ready and willing to be allies? 
• How can introduce Israeli culture, music, and films as well as spoken language? 
• Is teaching the Holocaust different when you are teaching non-Jewish high schoolers? 
• What lessons from the Holocaust do I want my students to internalize and apply to their own lives?
• What Jewish texts are going to be interesting and how will we study them in a uniquely Jewish way?  
• Which texts are not a part of the Catholic Lectionary so I can teach unfamiliar stories?  
• How do I teach the essence of Jewish holidays and lifecycles, including customs and perhaps most important food? 

This list goes on and on...and on.  

I certainly do not have all the answers, but I have many units planned, many variations of those plans, and then there are variations of the variations, because it makes me feel better to know I am extra prepared.  

Next week, I will be able to share more details... but I anticipate, I will be adding to this list of questions long before having all the answers!

In the Beginning:

Last Spring, it was suggested that I inquire about a job at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore City.  St. Frances Academy was founded in 1828.  I soon came to learn that the founders, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, established the school to teach Scripture to African American children, before it was legal in Maryland to teach these same children and their parents how to read. 

I inquired some more and found out that for the last twenty-five years, St. Frances Academy has had a Jewish Studies program which includes, Hebrew Language, Holocaust Studies, and Reading Scripture through a Jewish lens.  These classes are not electives, they are requirements to graduate.  The school had decided that in order to really understand Jesus and his teachings, one needed to understand the world from which he came.  There was also a commitment to to foster a greater understanding of Judaism in light of the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jewish communities throughout past centuries.

I was offered the job.  How could I say no? 

So today is August 6th.
New teacher orientation is August 19th.
And on the Tuesday after Labor Day, I begin my first teaching job in a Baltimore Inner City Catholic High School.   It is going to be great! 

Something you should know about me is when it comes to teaching, I plan, plan, plan and plan some more.  But more about that in my next post.