Forward contributing editor Jay Michaelson is acutely exercised over President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to serve as the nation’s next Secretary of Education. Writing in these pages, he echoes teachers’ unions by sounding the alarm that DeVos, a school choice advocate, aims to destroy American public schools. Michaelson also asserts that “the agenda…
For generations of American Jews, public education has been the gateway to American life. It was certainly true for my parents, the children of immigrants; public school taught them not just facts and figures, but alao how to be American — and how to be proud of being American. Which is why the nomination of…
— The U.S. Department of Education gave a $4.9 million grant to a New York-based network of Hebrew-language charter schools. The five-year grant, which was awarded last month, will allow Hebrew Public to expand its schools in Harlem and Brooklyn as well as develop new schools in New York City. “We are thrilled to be…
The Obama Administration just approved a $38 billion foreign aid package to the Israeli government. This is the largest aid package to Israel in history, ensuring Israel can maintain the largest and strongest military in the region. And yet, some of Israel’s advocates in Northern California say they’ve been battling for Israel’s very existence. The…
If you’re about to apply for college starting in the fall, will your school of choice still be around to confer a diploma in four years’ time? Students considering applying to Yeshiva University for admission next year may want to think long and hard about that question. Here are a few sample headlines about the…
It’s that time of year again: My Facebook newsfeed is filled with smiling kids in back-to-school photos. This is the first year I’ve seen my friends’ children, who are the same age as my oldest, heading off to school. While many have been sent off to daycare prior, for the first time my daughter’s peers…
Halfway through the 16-day Breathe for Change teacher-training program – on a day called “Breathe for Communication” – 50 teachers sat inside the Speyer School in Manhattan, eager to learn how to “foster deeper relationships.” The teachers assumed crisscross positions, like their own students might do. One woman ate a peanut-butter sandwich from a Ziploc…
The Louisville Jewish Community Center has had a garden for years, but never the staff to make the most of it. For Michael Fraade, a member of the first cohort of Hazon’s JOFEE Fellowship who is spending the year working on the JCC’s environmental programming, that garden has the potential to change the ways in…
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
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