For the Sake of Argument (Thursday Afternoon Sessions)

For the Sake of Argument is a new educational project aimed at harnessing the energy and interactivity of live disagreement for the health of the Jewish People in general and Israel engagement in particular. The Jewish Education Project, together with the For the Sake of Argument creators, Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras, is excited to launch a series of For the Sake of Argument trainings centered around the pedagogy of argument.

Jewish educators from across North America are invited to join this training series, where you'll have the chance to connect with colleagues, gain new skills, and explore how to work with arguments in your practice of Israel + Jewish education. The sessions will include:

1. Engaging Through Argument or Consensus? | Through an in-depth exploration of healthy and unhealthy arguments, we will begin to lay the groundwork for a new model for engaging with Israel.

2. Stories for the Sake of Argument | We will introduce specially-written stories, and begin to learn how to use these stories to engage with the complexity of Israel.

3. Stories for the Sake of Argument, part 2 |We will introduce a few new stories, and workshop different kinds of arguments that arise. Participants will be invited to practice what they’ve learned by presenting an argument story at home or at work before the final session.

4. Reflecting on Stories for the Sake of Argument | Participants will have the  opportunity to share how their teaching went and will be given an opportunity to workshop and troubleshoot this new pedagogy together, developing a community-of-practice.  

All participants will receive a complimentary copy of the newly released book, For the Sake of Argument. 

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Abi Dauber Sterne | Abi Dauber Sterne has worked in the United States and in Israel as an educator and organizational leader for more than 20twenty years. Throughout her career, her focus has been on deepening people’s Jewish experiences, while also promoting a deep pluralism among those who live in community together. Through her roles in senior management at two international organizations—Hillel International and The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom—she has relationships that span the globe. She has worked with rabbis, students, educators, and organizational leaders around the world.

A recipient of several fellowships in the Jewish communal world, including the Muehlstein Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership, the Tikvah Fellowship, the Schusterman Fellowship, and as a rabbinical student at the Shalom Hartman Institute/HaMidrasha at Oranim, she has relationships with a wide network of leaders. She has spoken at many international conferences, and contributes opinion pieces to several online and print publications.

Abi currently lives in Jerusalem, with her spouse and four children. Her family dinner table is always a raucous mixture of laughter and disagreement.

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Robbie Gringras | Robbie Gringras has been an internationally renowned storyteller for the past thirty years, and a global Israel educator for twenty, during which time he coined the “hugging and wrestling” approach to Israel engagement around the world. Graduating from Oxford University in English Language and Literature, he swiftly moved into professional theater. His work—both as a playwright and actor—has been performed on London’s West End, and in theaters throughout Europe, North America, Mexico, Hong Kong, Australasia, and Israel, in English, Spanish, and Hebrew. His unique style that combines storytelling, physicality, and theater has been behind eleven original theater productions that have performed in front of some 100,000 people.

Robbie also has a parallel career in international education, having spent two decades working with global Jewish education organizations including The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom, URJ, Hillel, and Jewish Education Project. His innovations, teaching, op-ed writing, public speaking, and training have touched tens of thousands of Jews throughout the world. Robbie currently lives in the Galilee area of Israel with his wife and two kids. 

Robbie views himself as terrible at arguments, but being in Israel has helped his education!