A Highlights Video: Take the T.I.M.E. Watch the talks. Be Inspired.

Robert Beiser

Howard Blas

Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Karina Zilberman

ENGINEERS!

“At Genesis, I took the course Innovation and Revolution: Making, Breaking and Hacking 21st Century Technology. I wanted to modernize a virtually un-modernized ritual-- the mezuzah. We have electric menorahs, electronic prayer books, and more. But never has technology been applied to a mezuzah. In my project, the traditional task of the mezuzah (to remind one of God’s unity and the Commandments as well as place a sign on our doorposts) is connected to a buzzer, an LED light and an Ethernet cable, which links to a touch sensor that is placed in the mezuzah. When the touch sensor is activated, the LED lights up, the buzzer is sounded and the user receives a text message with the Shema prayer.”

-Avidan R., 17, Scarsdale, NY

"In the Technology course at Genesis, each member of the class chose a Jewish ritual and modified it by integrating technological components. For my project, I adapted the Menorah. The base of my Menorah is entirely 3D printed. Using CAD software, I combined different coral and aquatic life components to create the translucent structure of the Menorah. Due to the intricacy of the design, this print took approximately 30 hours. I replaced the candles of the Menorah with LED lights, each wired 6hto a microcontroller, Arduino, that uses a light and motion detector to activate the lights. When it is dark or someone enters the room, the Menorah lights up and plays “Chanukah Chanukah” on a little piezo buzzer."

- Ella H., Dallas, TX 

CULINARY ARTISTS!

In my course, Culinary Connections: Discovering the Art and Anthropology of Jewish Food, we chose a dish that has significant personal meaning, and created a recipe card for it. My great-great-grandmother Baba's rugelach recipe makes me feel connected to my family from generations ago. This recipe allows me to learn more about old Jewish food culture, which I didn't know much about. I love to bake, so I used this opportunity to improve my baking skills and work on something that I'm very passionate about.

-Simone L., 17, Santa Rosa, CA

Click here to download the recipe card.

SOCIAL SCIENTISTS!

“In the Genesis Program at Brandeis University this past summer, I asked someone, ‘Do you love yourself?’” The response that I got from this person really intrigued me; I could see that it was a sensitive topic.

For my course, Investigating Gender, Sexuality and Society, I worked on a project based on this concept of self-love, and why [sometimes] people don’t love themselves. I went around campus and interviewed 10 people. I also took 2-3 pictures of each person, 1 before I asked the question, one during their response, and one after.”

-Rachel P. 16, Scottsdale, AZ

View a presentation of Rachel’s investigation, here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CFBMihXvx9YR4ezVUmN-HR2_dCbs_wl7sC_UcDWUB4U/edit?usp=sharing

MORE ABOUT THE GENESIS PROGRAM AT BRANDEIS: http://www.brandeis.edu/highschool/genesis/index.html

BLOGGERS!

“Before I started blogging for the Jewish Women's Archive, I hadn't thought much about what it meant to be a Jewish feminist, but each month's prompt led me to examine my own beliefs and values. While this wasn't always easy, it forced me to confront and grapple with important issues. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to learn from the inspiring leaders at JWA and form a special connection with the other teens in the program.”

-Eliana M., 16, Los Angeles, CA

Read one of Eliana’s blog posts, The Rebel Women of Passover, here: http://jwa.org/blog/risingvoices/rebel-women-of-passover

“Through the Rising Voices Fellowship, I learned just how powerful a single voice can be: capable of making the world listen and change, and inspiring others to discover and use their voices as well. I grew into my identity as a young Jewish feminist, as writing for the blog allowed me to connect those two significant parts of me in a way I had never thought possible before. I am so excited to develop my Jewish feminist identity more as I get older, and to discover what those labels mean to me.”

-Ellie K., 16, Needham, MA

Read one of Ellie’s blog posts, Finding Sisterhood at Services, here:

http://jwa.org/blog/risingvoices/finding-sisterhood-at-services

MORE ABOUT THE RISING VOICES FELLOWSHIP: http://jwa.org/blog/risingvoices

Torah Scholars!

“…It’s fitting that a man named Isaiah cracked the code of the NBA to win a championship. Isaiah, like the prophet Yishayahu, embodied hope. For the seven weeks from Tisha B’Av to Rosh Hashanah we read haftarot from the Book of Yishayahu. Containing messages of consolation and closeness, Yishayahu seeks to direct the focus of the Jewish nation onto God. Similarly, Isaiah Thomas battled through years of disappointment after failing to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of Larry Bird and win an NBA title…”

-Dylan P., 18, New York, NY

Read more of Dylan’s D’var Torah, here.

MORE ABOUT CAMP RAMAH, NYACK: http://www.ramahnyack.org/

Poets!

“Four summers. Four summers bursting with the harmony of cycles. Every year, the drive up, and up, and up. That in itself is enough to break some spirits. But there it is: the homecoming. The cheering, the screaming of names. If you are a returning camper, you are passed around, admired, and soon bear the mark of a hundred dirt-encrusted hugs. Newbies are taken in, enveloped in a new universe that welcomes you with every ventricle of its beating heart.”

-Kaspar W.,14, Portland, ME

Read more of Kaspar’s reflection on a summer at Ramah Outdoor Adventure camp, here: http://ramahoutdoors.org/kaspar/

At first blush, we might assume that the sponge, the person who has no difficulty remembering anything would make the ideal student. With their flawless memory and their capacity to recall any information at a moments notice, one justifiably could imagine that they would be particularly suited to excelling in the world -- and certainly in the classroom. And yet, our Mishnah (and future commentators) reject this view. For them, knowledge isn't merely a series of trivial factoids to be memorized, but instead is a dynamic, ever-changing view of the world in which we live. It follows then that the ideal learner isn't one who simply 'soaks up' the learning that a teacher pours into them, but rather one who is actively involved in the process of collecting, seeking out and sifting that knowledge. By extension, the ideal learning experience is one that facilitates this process.

This has always been how I've understood the "Covenant Classroom." 

On the surface, there might not seem any obvious connection between a geolocational augmented reality game, a community gardening program or a teacher training program focusing on creating Hebrew proficiency. Yet, all of these initiatives are grounded in a belief that it's essential to create Jewish experiences that are full of meaning, relevant to the complicated realities that learners inhabit, and that at their core are centered on students and give them the resources to make meaning of their Jewish identity and the world around them. In the "Covenant Classroom" the act of "studying" is inextricably linked to actual problems, meaningful tasks and real life actions. It embodies the dictum in the Gemara in Kedushin that the learning of Torah should be for the sake of action. This constructivist bent is not only a major unifying theme underlying the initiatives below, but has in recent years reemerged as an answer to the question of how do we engage in education as learning happens anywhere and everywhere and can be authored by anyone.

In a video that's been seen by nearly 8-million viewers, 13-year old Logan LaPlante describes it this way:

"I’m not tied to one particular curriculum, and I’m not dedicated to one particular approach. I hack my education. I take advantages of opportunities in my community and through a network of my friends and family. I take advantage of opportunities to experience what I’m learning, and I’m not afraid to look for shortcuts or hacks to get a better, faster result. And here’s the cool part: because it’s a mindset, not a system, [it] can be used by anyone, even traditional schools."

The "Covenant Classroom" too is not a single curriculum or single approach. It too is a mindset. A mindset that as evidenced by our Mishnah, and apparent to anyone familiar with the teachings of Dewey, Montessori, Piaget and others, is not really that new. However, it's a mindset that often require more resources and forethought than alternative educational approaches. The Covenant Foundation's support of these initiatives and individuals over the years however has helped to demonstrate to educators burdened by limited time, limited finances and limited support that it is possible to create and sustain high quality Jewish experiences that are meaningful, replicable and that strengthen and perpetuate the identity, continuity and heritage of the Jewish people. And because it's a mindset, anyone can use it too.

By Russel Neiss, for The Covenant Foundation

I think [creating new Jewish texts] is a really good description of what we’re trying to do. These days we’re increasingly creating products that are intended to be shared on the web. We’ve felt and continue to feel that this medium, and virtual communication as a whole, is being under-tapped for its possibilities for making art.

And that’s one of the main things we’ve tried to accomplish in working with young people—try and figure out how they are using online tools to communicate and try and harness those tools to create coherent artistic expressions in a form that feels authentic and native to the maker. This is supported by all kinds of data showing that most people who view and consume media on the internet also create, and that’s most true for this age group of 18-29. So it has been really exciting to see what kinds of forms people in this age group can come up with. Obviously, Jews are not unique to this phenomenon. However, one of the things that we’ve been interested in doing lately is collaborating with scholars to ask, “What can be Jewish about the way these tools are used?”.

One scholar shared a theory with me that the printing press created all of these revolutions in Jewish thought and the way that Jews looked at textual analysis. And what’s happening now is analogous in some ways. The technology is forcing people to look at questions of ownership and questions of cultural transmission; to think of ways that we look at texts and share texts and learn from texts. And texts can be brought into multimedia through video and photo stills and images. Increasingly, we’ve got these phenomenal archival resources available to us to organize and remix and communicate with. And that’s very exciting in the Jewish world, and also underutilized. There’s been a lot of expenditure of money and energy in digitizing the Jewish record from genealogy to literature to photos, and increasingly film. Now, we’re at this moment when we can unlock all of that and remix it and make it relevant.

On the NJFP.org website, we have a project called “Half-Remembered Stories.” One is a “choose your own adventure” story, like what we read as kids. The maker of the project researched her own family story, so visitors navigate through history as her great-grandmother. But only one thread is what actually happened, and there’s a video at the end that shows the factual history. The other threads are ones that the filmmaker researched about decisions Jews were faced with during the 20th century and how they responded to those decisions. So it’s an amazing combination of deep historical research and personal expression. And the third benefit is that it’s very sharable: it’s a game you can play, so this is an example of documentary gaming, which is a completely new form.

Instead of thinking about filmmaking as one person communicating with many people, it really becomes a joint community endeavor. You’re constantly thinking about questions of collaboration and questions of education, such as, “How do I research and what’s my responsibility as a researcher in terms of factual accuracy?” You think about all of these questions of individual roles vs. community responsibility and community sharing. Covenant has been uniquely forward thinking in embracing art as a way to explore these kinds of questions, and I’m very grateful for that.

By Sam Ball, for The Covenant Foundation