When Aryeh Laufer was a young student, he was successful but found school unexciting. He recalls that he could take in a lot of information, would clandestinely read on his own during class with no interruption, and found, even in college, that teachers would often read parts of textbooks out loud to the class.

“I was not engaged,” he says. “It was so frustrating.” He adds, “I love learning and was able to find other ways to serve my thirst for knowledge. I attribute that to my family and my natural disposition.”

In his career as an educator, he has been particularly interested in engaging young people in innovative ways, helping students to be truly present in their classes — “to make schools truly about learning.”

When he was awarded the Pomegranate Prize in 2021, Laufer was working at the Idea School in New Jersey, a Jewish day school based in project-based learning. He describes it as “full-centered human education. We found ways to engage students who may have had different emotional blocks. It changed many students and teachers as well, including myself.”

When the Idea School closed in 2023, he was serving as head of STEM and Maker space, leading project-based hands-on learning and creative technology. While there, he refined his ability to understand children’s minds and meet people of any age at their level. Laufer says that much of what he experienced at the Idea School animates his work today as well as his outlook on education. He praises and credits as mentors Tikvah Wiener, the founder and head of school, and Tavi Koslowe, the school’s Judaic Studies principal, “two of the most amazing educators and people I know.”

Laufer is now based at the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE), a network of more than 200 Jewish schools. As a STEM mentor, he works with about 20 schools, where he has relationships with teachers and administrators, and works on robotics and AI as well as entrepreneurship and electrical engineering, along with events in schools like Hackathons and large-scale projects involving design and fabrication. He also does a lot of mentoring, including a high school engineering Capstone process and professional development.

“AI is an exciting, powerful tool that is definitely going to shifting the way the world works. Starting now,” Laufer says.

While he is based in Brooklyn, he works in schools across the country, whether by zoom, email or in-person. CIJE is unusual in that it serves schools across the denominations.

“Our goal is never for a teacher to have a textbook and talk. We help teachers create projects and lessons that are inquiry driven.”

Laufer grew up in Lawrence, Long Island, went to yeshivahs and spent a year and a half studying in Israel before attending Yeshiva University. There are many rabbis in his family – and he learns from all of them but he is not headed in that direction.

He has appreciated being part of the network of Pomegranate winners, and has found the conferences and networking gatherings to be “always mind-opening, inspiring and really thoughtful. This has connected me to a network of Jewish educators that is so broad and creative.”

With the funds from the Pomegranate Prize, Laufer traveled to Japan, where he learned about the Jewish community, visited schools, studied entrepreneurship and do-it-yourself maker space communities. He enjoyed participating in a project sponsored by an international organization, renovating Japanese homes to become centers for learning. He loved all of it.

These days, he is thinking a lot about ideas of democratic education, which increasingly animates his understanding of how the world works. He explains that in a democratic education model, students and staff members are part of self-governing community, making decisions together about rules, curriculum and the atmosphere of learning. He feels strongly that children should not be forced to learn things that they don’t want to learn – and that there’s a need in society for people to do all different kinds of work.

“Our students learn better when they are motivated by passion and desire,” he says.

He understands that more parents want their children to have opportunities for success, “and that usually means they want them to study well and get into good colleges and get high-paying jobs. That makes sense. That’s how society works.”

Laufer points to the idea of the beit midrash – where students learn on their own in a structured setting – as a form of democratic education. He explains that debate is inherent; finding agreement and disagreement is all there. It’s a chaotic learning experience, with people walking around and discussing, finding books to dig deeper. In a sense, he says, the conservative yeshivahs that practice this are more liberal than anyone realizes.

He says that these models haven’t gone mainstream, but he has high hopes for the future.

“I think we will see some rapid shifts in society overall, and I think education will reflect that.”

Now, he doesn’t work directly with students as much as he used to – and might like to. He dreams of someday being part of some sort of democratic school that would be a “holistic-growth centered experience.” He says, “There are so many different ways to do that, I’ve learned. I’m trying now to cultivate experience of mind and communal growth with myself and friends in Brooklyn.”

“You have to start with changes you want to make within yourself. I’m starting with my own community, my own age group,” he says.

“I believe in starting at the grassroots,” he says. “For now I’m trying to grow my own ability to learn to hold community, to hold space and keep it all in balance.”

“I’m very Jewish. I’m rooted in Jewish ideas, Jewish ways of thinking. I’ve always thought about whether Jewish education is about educating people Jewishly or educating Jews. Like everything else in my journey, I’m personally passionate about Judaism. I’m open to all sort of different ways to be helpful and valuable in the community.”