By , Special to JTNews
The theme for this year’s Pacific Northwest Mini-CAJE on Feb. 17 and 18, is “The Jewish Bookshelf” reflecting the vast array of scholars who make up the faculty of the Jewish learning conference sponsored by the Jewish Education Council and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
This year’s conference, although structured for teachers, welcomes participation from non-teachers as well. Participants will gather on Sunday and Monday of President’s Weekend at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Bellevue to learn everything from “Empathy, Moral Choice and Teaching the Holocaust” to “Jewish Philosophy 101.”
Rivy Kletenik, director of Jewish Education Services for the JEC, says particularly exciting elements of this year’s conference include top-notch scholars visiting from outside the area. Professor Everett Fox, the Allen M. Glick chair in Judaic and biblical studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., is the author of numerous translations and commentaries of the Bible, including, The Five books of Moses: The Schocken Bible, and the translation of the book of Samuel, Give Us a King! He will be teaching all day Sunday and on Monday morning. His sessions include “King David: Saint or Sinner?”; “Retranslating the Bible: Inside the Mind of the Translator”; “Decoding Leviticus”; “The Samson Saga”; and “Reading the Bible Anew: A Deeper Exploration of the Biblical Text Through the Eyes of the Translator.” Fox also will address audiences over the weekend prior to Mini-CAJE at Temple De Hirsch Sinai and Herzl Ner-Tamid Conservative Congregation.
Local students of Dr. Avigdor Shinan led the Jewish Education Council to invite him to visit from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is chairman of the Hebrew Literature Department and dean of students. His study sessions reflect his expertise in midrash and siddurim. Sunday he will be leading a class on the Kaddish, exploring the structure of the prayerbook and asking the question, “Could King David, Rabbi Akiva and Maimonides have prayed together?” His third session of the day will explore the rabbinic approach to Islam. Dr. Shinan will also be serving as scholar in residence on the Shabbat before the conference at Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath Congregation.
Rabbi Cherie Koller Fox, a nationally known family education specialist and one of the original founders of CAJE, will be participating as well. She will lead two sessions on the text of the Haggadah, how to study it and how to lead a seder. Additionally she will be addressing issues of a critical nature for educators and those active in Jewish education when she examines the question: “What should be taught in Hebrew school?”
Other sessions led by faculty from the Pacific Northwest include; “Movies and Midrash” with Rabbi Daniel Weiner; “Making Sense of the Siddur” with Ruz Gulko; “What To Do When Life Throws Your Curriculum a Curve Ball?” with Beth Huppin; “Rabbis ‘Round the Table” with Rabbis Paul, Rice and Light; “Preserving our Environment: A Path Toward Tikkun Olam” with Barak Gale; “Jewish Life in the Diaspora” with Chaya Blaut; “What’s Happening Now and Why in Israel”with Charlie Schiffman; “Tracing the Development of Halachah” with Rabbi Moshe Kletenik; “How to Teach When You Don’t Believe?” with Rabbi Elana Zaman; and “The Binding of Isaac” with Rabbi Rob Toren. Two morning intensives, sessions that go from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., include one specially designed for early childhood educators, “Lilmod Ulelamed — To Learn and to Teach: When Preschool Meets Pesach,” led by Rabbi Yechezkel Kornfeld, Baylah Friedman Treiger, Laurel Abrams and Terri Schuster. The other session, “All of Torah on One Foot,” taught by Rivy Poupko Kletenik, will lead participants through the 24 books of the Bible with outlines, sketches of authors and timelines.
Other sessions of a particular interest to teachers include: “The Nexus Between Rabbinics and Relevance, a Curriculum for Teenagers” with Rabbi Stuart Light; “Hearing Voices: The Power of Personal Stories” with Hillary Bernstein; “It Starts with a Book” with Carol Oseran Starin; “One at a Time and Together: The Jewish Pre-school Classroom” with Devora Galor; “Understanding by Design” with Alexdria Shuval Weiner; “Reaching and Teaching Highly Capable and Gifted Students in Jewish Classrooms” with Dr. Stephanie Bravmann; and “A Picture’s Worth a 1,000 Words: Exploring Jewish Texts through Collage,” with Leah Jacobson.
The conference continues through Monday morning with intensives offered by Dr. Everett Fox, Rabbi Cherie Koller Fox and Jerry Kaye, director of the Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute and head of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations Youth Department.
Participants of the conference include teachers from the United States and Canada who teach in day and supplementary schools, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstuc-tionist, Renewal, Meditational and Secular Judaism. They come from Vancouver, B.C., Victoria, Alaska and Oregon, as well as from the Seattle area. For more information, call the JEC at 206-448-1202 or find conference information on the federation Web site, www.jewishinseattle.org, under “up and coming events.” Participants can also register online at the same Web site, from the Mini-CAJE information page.