By Jacob Kamaras
SAN DIEGO — Israeli representatives from the Sha’ar HaNegev region got a firsthand look at the American Jewish day school landscape last Wednesday as part of their six-day visit to San Diego.
During a tour of the San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA), Sha’ar HaNegev delegation member Tzachi Levy said he was struck by “the way that everything is integrated together.”
“From the preschool all the way up, you can see the line go through all classes — whether it is Hebrew, the connection to Israel, or inspiring people. Everything is connected. For me, it’s inspiring,” Levy said.
The Israeli group met with leaders of local Jewish agencies and organizations as part of the longstanding partnership between San Diego and Sha’ar HaNegev, which is run by the Jewish Federation of San Diego County’s Gesher program.
While multiple SDJA students told the visiting Israelis that their school is a “home away from home,” student government president Alex Wellman took that sentiment a step further.
“For me it’s really my first home. I’m here more than I’m at my own house,” she said, addressing delegation members while they participated in an art project. “There are 51 kids in my grade. I know every single one by name, what they do, where they come from.”
Wellman added, “SDJA gives us each the opportunity to be Jewish in the way that we want to be Jewish. It really is about how you choose to take those opportunities.”
Head of SDJA’s Upper School Mike Quigley noted the relatively small class sizes of 16-18 students, and that students have a significant amount of choice in how they design their academic program.
“We have really built it and we change it every year,” he said of SDJA’s student-centric approach.
One innovative class that the Israeli delegation witnessed was “Ideas to Products,” in which students prioritize the “why” over the “what” in the design thinking process, and eventually present projects to industry professionals. In this class, SDJA students are designing a hydroponic for Sha’ar HaNegev, while students from both sides of the partnership are learning about the environmental conditions in each other’s regions.
“It was incredibly meaningful for our students, faculty, and teachers to welcome the Sha’ar HaNegev delegation to campus,” said SDJA Head of School Zvi Weiss. “We want our students to develop personal, meaningful relationships with Israelis. They took great pride in showing off their projects and performing for all of our guests. Thanks to the Jewish Federation’s Gesher program we are building relationships between administrators, educators, and students that will encourage a deeper understanding of Israel on a more personal level to create long-lasting ties between our people.”
SDJA’s Chief Jewish Officer Rabbi David Frank, former senior rabbi at Temple Solel in Cardiff, was experiencing the partnership for the first time in his new position after previously leading several San Diego delegations visiting Sha’ar HaNegev in his capacity as a pulpit rabbi.
“At its peak, this has really been a wonderful incubator for great ideas and building our mutual communities,” Frank said of the Gesher partnership. “The visits that we’ve made from San Diego to Sha’ar HaNegev have been really enriching. They have a really dynamic community there. And the visits that they’ve made here as well have been illuminating. They don’t have significant insight into what American Judaism is really like and what our institutions are all about, and every time they come and visit our institutions and synagogues, their eyes are just really opened up to different possibilities.”
While the partnership’s level of activity had waned to some degree in recent years — likely as a result of COVID-19 as well as instability in Sha’ar HaNegev due to violence emanating from the nearby Gaza Strip — Frank described the Israelis’ visit to San Diego as part of a broader effort to restore the partnership to its previous vibrancy.
“I think people are now very happy to see it coming back to life,” he said.
*
Jacob Kamaras is editor and publisher of San Diego Jewish World.