Teaching Israel through Disagreement, NYC
Teaching Israel through Disagreement
Professional Development Intensive with For the Sake of Argument
Part of the Reimagining Israel Education initiative
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Scroll down for information on generous travel and accommodation reimbursements for educators based outside of the New York City metro area.
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Everybody’s arguing about Israel… and that includes your learners! Whether it's in group chats, on the school bus, or at the dinner table, children and teenagers are already engaging in challenging conversations. But what if we took the courageous step of bringing those arguments into the classroom?
Educators across settings working with learners 4th grade and up are invited to join The Jewish Education Project and For the Sake of Argument in New York City for a two-day intensive on turning the heat of disagreement into learning and connection. We’ll take on contested questions about Israel, Zionism and belonging, and the complicated emotions that come with them. You'll build the confidence, skills, and tools for:
- Designing and facilitating structured arguments around hard questions,
- Responding when an argument erupts unplanned, and
- Identifying where arguments belong in your curriculum, and what’s standing in your way.
The intensive will feature a session with Lama Yassin, a Task Force Speaker Fellow, who will share her personal narrative and invite us to explore the dilemmas and disagreements she encounters as an Arab-Palestinian citizen of Israel and shared society advocate.
We are grateful to the Jim Joseph Foundation and Crown Family Philanthropies for their generous support of the Reimagining Israel Education initiative.
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Participants living and working outside of New York City metro area are eligible to receive reimbursement:
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For economy class domestic flights up to $500 total or interstate train tickets (excluding NJ Transit) up to $250 total.
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For hotel accommodation up to $400/night for the nights of Monday, December 14 and Tuesday, December 15.
- After School and Beyond
- Charter/ Independent School
- Educator Training
- Camp
- Congregational Learning
- Day Schools and Yeshivas
- Family Engagement
- Teen Engagement
- Belonging
- Communication
- Israel - Contemporary
- Israel - State
- Israel - The Land
- Zionism
Robbie is a British-born Israeli writer, educator, and performer living on a hill in the Galilee.
He is co-author of “Stories for the Sake of Argument” with Abi Dauber Sterne, and co-director of For the Sake of Argument - encouraging meaningful learning by harnessing the energy and passion of healthy arguments. We develop and distribute the materials, the tools, and the training to enable healthy arguments in the home, workplace, school and campus in North America and in Israel.
Previously Robbie spent 10 years in Makom, the Israel Education unit of the Jewish Agency. He coined the phrase “Hugging and Wrestling with Israel”, created and continues to drive the 4HQ System of Israel Education, and consults and teaches internationally on Israel Education.
Robbie has also worked in professional theater for over 30 years. In 1991 he co-founded his own physical story theater company called Besht Tellers – performing on London’s West End and throughout the world. Since making aliya, he has taught at Israel’s main theater schools, directed several plays, and his self-written solo shows perform throughout the world in English, Hebrew, and Spanish.
He’s married to Dorit, a magical stained-glass artist, and they have two kids.
Ariel Stein is the Program and Partnerships Manager at For the Sake of Argument. She specializes in building, managing, and expanding systems for productive dialogue about Israel. She has facilitated such dialogue on three continents. Ariel has created and implemented systems for productive dialogue at organizations including The Brown Jewish Journal, Debate for Peace, and Hillel International, and she has also led dual-narrative dialogue programming at the United States embassy of Jerusalem. Ariel holds a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution and Mediation from Tel Aviv University, as well as a BS in Cognitive Neuroscience and a BA in Linguistics from Brown University. She lives in the Bay Area of California, and in her free time Ariel enjoys trivia, cooking, and learning about national cuisines from around the world. Born to a New York Israeli-American family, she is always discovering new things to argue about.
Mikhael Kesher is a curator of educational experiences and resources, whose professional passion is supporting Jewish educators and learners in building informed, constructive, and committed relationships with am yisrael (the Jewish people) and medinat yisrael (the Jewish state). As a British-born Israeli-by-choice and new American, he cares deeply about strengthening each Jew’s connection to global Jewry. Before joining The Jewish Education Project as Director, Israel Education, Mikhael worked at Harvard Hillel, MIT Hillel, and Hebrew College. He holds Master’s degrees in Philosophy (University of Cambridge), Near Eastern & Judaic Studies (Brandeis University), and Jewish professional leadership (Brandeis University). At home, Mikhael is an avid reader, ḥevruta enthusiast, and devoted abba to two young children.
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