In and out of the box: Rambam and Shalhevet connect with Sderot schools

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The young men eagerly shuffle into the room, sit in their desks, open books and attentively face a blank television screen. Clicking a remote, one of the group initiates a video call and the screen springs to life. Ms. Batel Dahan appears on the screen and calls out “Shalom” to the 10th and 11th graders. That day’s Honors Hebrew class taught via remote learning by a teacher in Sderot, Israel has begun.

This pioneering step, known as distance learning in other venues, is already in its second year in Rambam Mesivta. With this out of the box approach with a teacher “in the box,” students not only learn and improve their Hebrew language and reading skills but connect on a cultural level, discussing current issues and life in Israel in real time.

Rambam has been videoconferencing (VC) for three years now with a group of students from Rambam having what Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal of Rambam, calls a cultural exchange session for half an hour once a week with a group of students in the AMIT high school in Sderot. Last year they began having a Hebrew language class via VC with Dahan; this year the program has expanded to three classes.

In Midreshset Shalhevet, Rambam’s sister school, the top Hebrew speaking students in the school, four seniors and three juniors, gather excitedly and similarly face the blank screen in the office of Mrs. Esther Eisenman, Shalhevet’s principal. They speak Hebrew to a class of girls at the AMIT High School in Sderot who in turn respond in English. “Because of the existing success of the program at Rambam,” explained Eisenman, “we wanted to do it as well. They love it, they love talking to them; you can see how anxious they are to do it again. The conversation flows, they enjoy it.”

The program is the brainchild of Arthur Carp, Vice President of Operations at Quantalytics Inc., a Network VAR and Systems Integration Company based in the Five Towns. Dahan recalls it started at “the time of the kassamim” (the rockets fired from Gaza into Sderot). Carp’s idea for the concept germinated, he recalled, when 33 students from Sderot were brought over to HAFTR and spent a week at a campsite about four years ago. “I heard about it after the fact and thought it was a terrible idea, a mistake,” said Carp. He felt that as “impressionable teenagers” confronted with the luxurious lifestyle of the Five Towns as compared with water restrictions and the necessity of running for their lives after a 15 second warning of incoming rockets, the students would want to leave their situation there. Carp decided to “fix this” by ”bringing the world to Sderot, to make it a focal point.”

Quantalytics, founded in 1990, donated the Polycom video conferencing equipment to HAFTR and the AMIT schools in Sderot, also hooking up the AMIT offices here and in Israel as well. But we were “concerned with the kids not the grownups,” stressed Carp and offered the forward thinking technology to “every yeshiva here” but was turned down. “We handle equipment installation, support, and training here and in Israel” voluntarily, explained Carp, “it’s a gift from Quantalytics. Anything that involves computer networking is very interesting and important to us. We do a lot of video conferencing because it continues to grow.”

When Rabbi Eliach asked if he could have the system for Rambam as well, Carp said, “This is your lucky day.” He pointed out that he had one string attached—that the students have “cultural exchange sessions of at least a half hour weekly with students in Sderot” with the Americans speaking in Hebrew and the Israelis in English. This, he stressed, “is to develop friendships through the common struggle of learning another language.”

Two large television sets sit in the front of the classroom with a black triangular camera unit on top of one. The lens of the camera is manipulated remotely by the Israeli teacher to view the class in New York and the system can be manipulated with a remote in New York as well. “It’s H.323,” explained Carp, “the Internet standard for video conferencing, live, two-way TV. Skype is a little web cam, a closed garden; here you can see a vivid difference. We’re providing the equivalent of Rolls Royces for video conferencing. It’s the same equipment used in government, Fortune 500 companies and law firms.” He noted that he has clients the world over, from Tasmania to Shanghai, who use video conferencing to manage their businesses, for face-to-face meetings and conferences without having to fly. He said that it’s an “established technology” but new to the yeshiva world. Some yeshivot have the equipment already, but it’s just “gathering dust.” Aside from donating the equipment, “I personally gave lessons,” said Carp.

“Arthur sent the unit,” said Dahan, “and the computer guy plugged it in and showed my how to use it. This system is much better. We used to do Skype but it’s not the same connection. You can zoom in and out and can move the camera to the sides.”

Dahan spoke easily with the boys at Rambam; she discussed Israel’s Memorial Day and the “very sharp” change over to Yom Haatzmaut. They in turn spoke easily in Hebrew. She called on the boys by name; they sat, paid attention and responded and asked questions respectfully and thoughtfully, many asking pointed and incisive questions, all in Hebrew with an occasional vocabulary question. Her image on the screen was crystal clear and her presence, although in a “box,” was actually felt in the room.

Some of the students in Rambam have entered their second year on this program. In Sderot they have rotated the classes, “so each will have a chance,” said Batel Dahan, an English and education teacher in the AMIT High School in Sderot. Rambam currently has two honors classes and an ulpan class learning with Ms. Dahan.

“It brings religious Zionist culture in to the building and current Israeli events,” said Rabbi Eliach. “It is very real and very connected to Israel.” The students take tests that are scanned, sent to her, she grades, scans and sends them back and they go over them with her in class. If a student has a question, they can stay after class and go over the material via VC. In the cultural exchanges, the students converse and realize that they observe the holidays similarly, “even twice,” laughed Dahan, and enjoy the same sports and music. “My goal,” said Dahan, “is to keep the connection on a daily basis, to become good friends so they could visit each other. That will happen bezrat Hashem.”

One of the students started in the ulpan class and only spoke English, noted Dahan, and now speaks just Hebrew in the class. Dahan noted that the classes are on a higher level and it preserves the link among Jews the world over. Boys in the class said that it was a good learning experience and they enjoy the class.

“I like it,” said Ruthie Besalel, an 11th grader in Shalhevet. “It’s a way to interact with people in Israel and practice our Hebrew.” “It helps us improve our Hebrew skills by actually speaking,” concurred Julie Harush, a 12th grader in Shalhevet.

Eliach notes that Dahan is “a great teacher” and sees the program as a step to “undo the damage going on with Hebrew.” That this is the “second generation of Orthodox American Jews who predominantly don’t speak Hebrew,” Eliach decried, “how hard is it to be a literate Jew if you can’t speak or read Hebrew on your own.” He noted the growing division in the golah between the religious and secular, that in Israel at least the secular can still read and understand the Tanach and Siddur, that the best Hebrew teachers are now in their 60s and 70s and we can’t find such teachers in the U.S. but “perhaps we can find one in Israel. Thanks to technology we can hire religious Zionist teachers from Israel.” He also bemoaned the reliance on translations of Hebrew texts, since “by definition everything is lost in translation.”

One of the Rambam ninth graders visited his video friends in Sderot during a trip to Israel this past Chanukah. “We brought sufganiyot (jelly donuts),” said Ephraim Fruchter, smiling. “It was very interesting, it’s better in person. It’s good to see the community in person.” Fruchter participates in the Honors Hebrew as well as the cultural exchange and said that it “helped. I knew words from before, so it helped.”

“It’s the first step in an institutional change, putting a virtual teacher in front of the classroom,” noted Carp. “It’s a radical departure, we have to be a little out-of-the-box.”

He said he began this project because he “was alarmed by the rise of J Street, alarmed that they are creating divisions among Jews,” and the best solution is “conversation, to get to know them, through cultural exchange sessions, meeting and becoming friends. If we can make it more widespread, it will have a profound effect on Israel-Diaspora relations. Each side will better understand the other.” He noted that when they would “go on Aliyah they would have friends waiting for them when they get off the plane.” He also said that it could bring down the cost of instruction here by having a highly qualified teacher in Israel paid a good wage but not an American wage.

Arthur Carp was widely commended for his persistence and efforts, his donations of equipment, time, set-up and training, by Dahan, Eliach and Eisenman. “We always wanted to do it,” stressed Eisenman, “we had the opportunity, thanks to him.” Said Eliach, “I can’t say enough about him; he’s really devoted to this idea. He’s been wonderful with us.”

Rabbi Eliach noted that other schools have come to see the equipment. “At the end of the day we all have the same goals: to educate Orthodox Jewish kids to be bnei and bnot Torah, to be connected to Am Yisrael, Torat Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael. They thought it was pretty cool and interesting.”

Eliach pointed out that, “It’s a lot of work. You have to get the right technology to work, the right teacher, the right kids and the right content. Thank G-d it’s coming together.”