The coronavirus crisis has led to an unlikely twist in Jewish education: people in some of the world’s smallest communities have found themselves best equipped for the disruption.
Often lacking in homegrown Jewish studies teachers, for years they have been turning to online academies.
“Even in the crisis, our students around the world are with the same teacher, and nothing has changed in terms of their lessons,” says Dee Mack, director of operations at the Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy.
The academy, based at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, pioneers e-learning for schools. They can add to their range of Jewish studies courses, and introduce new learning methods, by assigning part of the study time to Lookstein. So far some 2,500 students have been enrolled from day schools and synagogues in five countries.
The schools that have appointed Lookstein are finding that it provides a semblance of stability in this turbulent time, Ms Mack said: “It’s proving really helpful for schools that are already doing this because there’s one fewer thing they need to worry about.”
just like at any other time, her colleagues pop up on student’s screens during this crisis at the scheduled time and guide them through the courses.
While it has taken Lookstein years to build up its current following, it is now expanding capacity to welcome another 1,000 students after Passover as schools across the diaspora look for new solutions to lockdown.
Almost overnight, Lookstein has also been transformed into a major player in teacher training.
Naomi Schrager, the academy’s director of education, said: “Our team is setting up training sessions as well as other ways to continue to support teachers and schools.
“We are putting out short videos with tips and tools to use in online classroom, and we are making ourselves available for consultations with schools. Our team offered a free session for educators about the basics of online teaching and engaging students in the virtual classroom. The session drew close to 100 teachers from around the world.”
Bar Ilan is home to distance learning programmes for adults, and these are also experiencing an increase in demand during the crisis. It recently rolled out a new range of massive open online courses (MOOCs) — shorthand for the courses that universities offer to everyone via open access on the web.
While initiatives like Lookstein and Bar Ilan’s MOOCs are thriving, the Israeli Education Ministry’s distance learning programme for Israeli students has become something of a political football, with the government and teachers wrangling over when it runs and which days they are paid for.
At the start of the school closure teachers taught students over the internet, but the arrangement paused last week due to a dispute with the Finance Ministry over whether remote teaching days are fully paid.
Studies are running again this week with an agreement reportedly reached to cover teaching until the Passover holiday.
Teachers and students had widely been assuming they would head back to school after Passover but arguments over e-learning are likely to resurface as, according to the latest predictions, a reopening is not on the cards.
Health Ministry director general Moshe Bar Siman-Tov said on Monday that “according to my assessment, the school year won’t resume after Passover.” He added: “I don’t know when it will.”
