Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Uruguay are all countries known for their soccer excellence – they all fielded teams in this year’s World Cup competition – but did you know that they all have vibrant Jewish communities with Jewish schools?
Have you heard, for example, of the Jews of Bahía Blanca in Argentina? It is one of the closest Jewish communities to the South Pole and it was established by the French philanthropist Baron Moritz de Hirsch to resettle Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Did you know that there was a Jewish school in Quito, Ecuador? What about Melilla? Even Jewish geography experts would be hard-pressed to find this Spanish community on the map because it is actually a Spanish enclave on the North African coast near Morocco.
Jewish teachers from these diverse communities arrived in Israel on December 19 to join a teacher training seminar in Jerusalem organized by Rabbi Shmuel Kornblit. They have been studying online for the past year on the Herzog College “Rimonim” professional development course. This project was created through a partnership between Israeli’s Ministry of Education and Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, together with the Herzog-UnitEd initiative. The final stage of their course is a two-week educational seminar taught by leading Jewish educators in Israel and visits to places of historical interest, such as the Donna Gracia Mendez Museum in Tiberius and Ir David in Jerusalem. They have also enjoyed workshops on digital pedagogy tools, developing Jewish identity, and making the study of Tanach relevant to today’s teenagers.
“There is a huge thirst for Tanach (Bible) studies throughout Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Jewish world,” explains Rabbi Kornblit. He recently visited Panama and Venezuela to meet with Jewish community leaders and school principals, to discuss what Spanish-language resources would be helpful to their Judaic Studies teachers. Thanks to the internet, even teachers from these remote countries can log onto Herzog College’s online professional development courses. Says Kornblit: “We hope that by next year we will be able to bring Jewish teachers from more countries to complete their teacher training in Israel.”
