Apparently, the cheery badge I’ve just been handed is telling me to ‘say please’ in Turkish – although I only know that thanks to Sami and Rakela.
Although their setting is quite unique, the challenges they face are achingly familiar. Sami discloses that some parents worry their school in Turkey isn’t ‘Jewish’ enough, while others complain that there is too much Jewish content on the curriculum. Appreciative chuckles ripple around the room.
Sami and Rakela work at a Jewish school in Istanbul, and I join their engaging session on embedding Jewish values at the heart of a school at the LSJS Primary Jewish Studies Teachers’ Conference. Other badges are passed around, enjoining me to smile, say thank you, and play together in Turkish, while Rakela explains to the audience the techniques they used to make their school ‘feel’ more Jewish.
Sami and Rakela used to feel understandably isolated in their mission to run a thriving Jewish school in Istanbul, with declining enrolment and no formal training in Jewish Education. Yet, Sami explains, Rakela feels convinced that she came into the world to be a Jewish Studies teacher. When they signed up for the LSJS MA in Jewish Studies, they were the first from their country to do so and had high hopes of the curriculum empowering them to turn their school around.
“For our MA research subjects, we chose different problem areas within our school,” explains Sami.
“In each case, it has helped us to understand the way of thinking of our staff more deeply, and to discuss the challenges we have more openly.”
Starting with the school’s written mission statement, they worked with the board of the school to write Judaism into it with clarity. It was vital that their 90% Muslim staff would be able to get fully on board, so they wisely chose universal values, opting to enhance the Jewish values of responsibility, respect and tradition.
Working together with Sami and Rakela, the elementary school principal and teachers designed a system that would embed responsibility and respect within the youngest children. (Tradition, it turned out, was strong in the school already.)
Groups of children would be given badges encouraging that group to enact a Jewish value that was within their reach, involving either respect or responsibility, such as smiling at others, saying please and thank you, and inviting someone to play with you. When teachers noticed the children displaying the value-action on their badge, they would award the child a bead on a special bracelet. The beads were given in a regular ceremony, demonstrating the value of respect and responsibility to all the children.
In a very short time, Sami and Rakela saw that the atmosphere had changed in the youngest classes, and respect and responsibility became more natural to the children. Winning over the older children with systems adapted for their ages has been harder, and they hope that as these youngest children grow up through the school, the values will become truly embedded.
Talking about the impact it has had on her personally and the school in general, Rakela tells us how much LSJS has opened her up to new ideas and people.
“In Turkey we are in a very small community. But to be here at LSJS, surrounded by Jewish Studies teachers, I feel that I am a member of a vibrant, worldwide community.”
The LSJS MA Jewish Education is open for applications. Could it be your next step? Find out more at lsjs.ac.uk/ma.
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