Israel
How former Gray Academy instructor Avi Posen came to take a central role in offering online education for Jewish schools
By BERNIE BELLAN
Elsewhere on this website we have a story about an interesting new partner-school program developed by an organization called OpenDor Media. The name of the program is “Unpacked for Educators”. To review what was in that story – in case you didn’t see it, the aim of the program “is to strengthen Israel education in Jewish schools around the world.
“This international community will be at the forefront of digital education, working together to create a shared language for how to teach about Israel. If you’re not familiar, Unpacked for Educators, a division of OpenDor Media, is a leader in digital education and innovation for Israel and Jewish content. The educators in the program will receive complete access to OpenDor Media’s powerful and unique video content to professional development, networking and expert support.”
At the time we ran the story, however, we had no idea that one of the key individuals behind Unpacked for Educators is none other than Avi Posen, formerly an educator at Gray Academy who is now living in Israel, which is where he and his wife, Illana (Minuk), made aliyah last year.
The day after the story appeared I received a phone call from Avi, who explained his connection to Unpacked for Educators. We had run a story by Myron Love about Avi and Illana last November, in which Myron wrote that Avi was about to begin a new position as “assistant director of Education for Jerusalem U, a Jewish/Israel education digital media company based out of the old city of Jerusalem.”
During our phone call Avi asked me whether I’d be interested in finding out more about Unpacked for Educators and his role in that organization. That led to our having a lengthy Zoom call on Wednesday, August 12, in which Avi gave me a much more complete overview of what Unpacked for Educators is all about.
The Unpacked for Educators website gives this description of Avi’s background: Avi Posen is the Assistant Director of Education at OpenDor Media. His focus is on content creation and exposing Jewish educators around the world to our Unpacked for Educators materials. Avi has worked as a Judaic Studies teacher, Hillel Director and Jewish camp director. He holds a Masters in Jewish Education from Yeshiva University in New York.
We began our conversation by clarifying just who it is for whom Avi is working. As Myron noted in his story, Avi began working for something called “Jerusalem U”. In January, however, “we rebranded to ‘Open Dor Media,’” Avi explained.
“Within Open Dor Media we have different brands,” he continued. “We have our ‘Unpacked’ Youtube page, we have ‘Imagination Productions’ films, and we have ‘Unpacked for Educators’, and I’m the assistant director of education working with Unpacked for Educators.
“What we essentially do,” Avi explained, “is we take all the videos and films about the Jewish people that we produce on a weekly basis, and we create educational resources for them, and we get them out to the Jewish world.
“On a monthly basis we have thousands of Jewish educators from all over the world that utilize our resources, and we send out a weekly email breaking down Jewish current events, why it matters – from different perspectives, and how to teach about it.
“We have 2300 Jewish educators subscribing to that (service). Rabbi (Jonathan) Sacks was our 2,000th subscriber about a month ago.
“All the work that we do is free. We’re not selling it.”
Avi went on to say that it’s very easy to persuade educators to subscribe to what Unpacked for Educators offers because “not only is it free, it’s a high quality, nuanced resource how to teach about Israel…in a way that’s asking really tough and interesting questions.”
Avi referred to my own article in the August 5 issue, noting that I had written that 50 different schools were now subscribing to the Unpacked for Educators program in seven different countries. He said that one of the goals of the program is “to get feedback from both teachers and students about our content, how they feel about it, how it impacts them – so we give them surveys twice a year.
“We provide them with monthly webinars, we bring in experts in the field, we create programs for them so that we can have a teacher from New York, a teacher from Winnipeg, and a teacher from somewhere in Israel. It’s very cool – we have all these educators from all around the world – and they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. They don’t have to debate with their colleagues or their students how to present controversial subject matter.”
I asked Avi how exactly the material is presented on the Unpacked for Educators website – thinking that one would need to have permission to access the materials about which he was speaking. But, it turns out, anyone can look at anything on the Unpacked for Educators website. ().
Avi invited me to browse through some of the materials on the site, which I did following our conversation. He mentioned that the materials include a five-part series about “settlements” and he invited me to watch any of the segments following our conversation.
I decided to watch a segment titled “Palestinians of the West Bank | Settlements Part 4” (available at https://unpacked.education/video/palestinians-of-the-west-bank-settlements-part-4/
Underneath the title of the video was the following caption:
“Episode IV of this miniseries focuses on the Palestinian perspective on settlements. It’s based on articles and first-hand accounts that paint a picture of what life is like for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, exploring both the history of the conflict and modern-day issues. The video expresses one of our core goals, which is to cultivate a passion for Zionism and Israel without sacrificing empathy for the other. Use this video and the prompts below to help your students develop empathy for people on every side of this challenging conflict.”
(I watched the 12-minute video and was very impressed by how balanced the material presented in the video was. While I wouldn’t say it was sympathetic to the Palestinian perspective, it certainly didn’t shy away from delving into the underlying causes of Palestinian resistance toward Israel. The video even went into some detail about different interpretations of the term “occupation” as it applies to Israeli control of the West Bank. This is hardly the kind of propagandistic approach that one might expect from an organization whose ostensible purpose is to “develop Israel education curricula” – and I say kudos to “Unpacked for Educators” for daring to provide a balanced approach when it comes to providing educational materials about Israel.)
In addition to videos the program provides suggestions for discussion. As Avi explained, the program has “been developed by educators for educators”. It’s meant to save educators the trouble of having to prepare lessons on their own, which can be time consuming and quite difficult to do when it comes to teaching about Israel in a way that can grab modern students’ attention.
Avi noted that coming up was going to be the first “webinar for over 50 educators from schools all over the world. As far as we know it’s going to be the first time that an international cohort of Jewish schools and educational institutions are getting together in one place – collaborating and sharing resources, going through professional development together, creating this network and shrinking the world of Jewish education.”
I asked Avi whether the program “is aimed at high school students specifically?”
He answered that “it’s a good fit for middle school, high school…there’s Hillels that use it, there are adults that use it.”
He also explained that the website is divided into categories indicating which materials are designed to be used by specific age groups.
I asked how Unpacked for Educators is funded?
Avi said: “We’re entirely funded by donors. There are Jewish federations, different foundations, private donors…from all over the political spectrum.” He added that anyone wanting to donate could go to opendormedia.org, which describes itself as a “a non-profit foundation that reaches out to unaffiliated and marginally active Jews, as well as to non-Jews who are part of the Jewish family through marriage to a Jew or through Jewish ancestry, aiming to increase their participation in Jewish learning and culture.”
Speaking of someone who is married to a Jew, I mentioned the similarity between Kamala Harris, the newly selected Democrat Vice-Presidential candidate in the U.S., and Annamie Paul, who is vying to become leader of the Green Party in Canada. I told Ami that here we have two Black women, both lawyers, both married to Jews (and in Annamie Paul’s case, also someone who has converted to Judaism).
Avi immediately responded to my referring to Kamala Harris and said that Unpacked for Educators has already created a video focusing on her and the notion that she is “pro Israel”. He said that, rather than taking a position on Kamala Harris – and whether she is pro-Israel or not, the video provides footage of Harris speaking on the subject of Israel – without being an “op-ed” about her.
“What does ‘pro-Israel’ even mean?” Avi wondered. “Kamala Harris supports AIPAC, yet she was for the Iran deal. Do you interpret those positions as being pro-Israel? How do they fit within your categorizations of what it means to be pro-Israel?”
“The plan eventually is not just to cover Israel,” but to expand to examine Judaism as a whole, Avi noted.
I told Avi that the reason I wanted to do a story about what he’s doing with Unpacked for Educators is because so much of how schools are going to be functioning come September is still so uncertain.
Will students be continuing to rely on online educational tools to a much greater extent, for instance? If so, I said to Avi, what he and others with whom he works at Open Dor might find that what they are doing in terms of providing relevant and interesting educational material about Israel that can be accessed online will be in far more demand than what might otherwise have been the case.
“I’m speaking to teachers all the time who are all over the place,” Avi agreed. “Yet, compared to four months ago when everyone was scrambling – all over the world” to come up with new ways of teaching, “definitely there are now plans in place.”
“I’ve been speaking with educators in South Africa and Australia” – where school has been ongoing, “and it’s complicated – where half the time students are in class in school and half the time they’re learning online.”
“When corona started our website blew up,” he says. “Before corona there were still thousands of educators accessing the website and using the resources – and loving it, but once corona started, they realized not only would they use us when they wanted to – they needed us because having to switch all your teaching to online, especially when some of your teachers are not tech-savvy, makes your job a lot easier.”
So, with a creative and open-minded team turning out a steady stream of content about Israel that Jewish educators around the world will be able to access, Unpacked for Educators couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time – especially when the entire process of education is evolving so rapidly. And Winnipeg’s own Avi Posen is right at the forefront of what has become a hugely popular tool for educators in Jewish schools around the world.
Israel
Israel report by former Winnipegger Bruce Brown
10 minutes
(Posted Dec. 24, 2024)
02:11 AM: Sound asleep.
2.11.01 AM: Wide awake. Awoken by a blaring missile alarm. Incoming. Took me no time to react. Ivan Pavlov would be proud. I quickly scooped up my dog. Grabbed my glasses. An inhaler. My phone and power cord. And sprinted to the safe room. Right across the hall. My wife overseas on vacation. So did this one alone. Er with my dog. We have 90 seconds to reach safety so no real panic, relatively speaking.
2.11.09 AM: In my safe room. Slid shut the heavy steel slabs across the window. You can hear this happening throughout the building. Kinda like a horror movie. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Then mine. Screech. Slam. Next I jumped across the room and slammed shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. It also makes a slamming sound, a really loud one. Then slumped down on the couch with my dog. With some level of relief. Where is this missile coming from. Can’t be from Gaza, they don’t have the capability anymore…I hope. Nor Lebanon, living too far south…I hope. Yemen? Possible. Those dang Houthis?
2. 14 AM: Oh oh. Need to pee. Like really bad. Once in the safe room, you should stay there for ten minutes. Unless there is another siren. Each siren requires a ten minute respite. Respite? Odd choice of words as you are not really resting. Way too tense. Especially as you can occasionally hear the booms of intercepted missiles up above. Kind of unnerving. Back to my need to pee. Its quite dangerous leaving the room during this period. Should your place be hit by the missile or falling debris from the sky. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, literally, hovering over your toilet. And condos have been hit in Rehovot with some death and much destruction. Hmmm. To pee or not to pee. That is the question. Whether tis better to suffer the pangs of having to pee or the missiles of outrageous fortune. You get the point.
2.14.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.14.40 AM: Back in the safe room. With my dog. Sitting on the couch. Fiddling with the remote control. I work in hi tech. The semiconductor world which can be pretty complex. But I simply have not mastered the remote. Really want to see what’s going on. Where is the missile from. Are there more attacks elsewhere in the country. Pushing this button and that button But the TV still off. Okay. Will check my cell. Although the connection sometimes comes and goes when shuttered in the heavily reinforced concrete and steel safe room. Works! Ya! Showing three bars. Sometimes four. Checking my feeds. But no news yet.
2.17 AM: Seriously. I need to pee again. Like really bad. Dang prostate! To pee or not to pee. That is the question…. You get the point. I chose to pee. This time I don’t actually slam shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. And my dog follows me out. This could get complicated. But first things first.
2.17.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.17.40 AM: Chasing after my dog around the condo. Poncho!!! There he is. In the living room. Like master. Like pet. He too is relieving himself. Probably the tension. Dogs can sense these things. “Faster Poncho!. Faster!” I encourage him.
2,18.02 AM: We’re back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut. And then I start worrying. What if I have to pee again. Its really dangerous out there. Idea! I’ll bring a cleaning pail in here. And if worse comes to worse. Well, I am alone. Sans my dog.
2.18.22 AM: I dart for the cleaning cabinet in the bathroom to grab the pail. Making sure the heavy, reinforced, steel door is shut less my dog run out again. Wait! As it dawns on me at 02.18.22 AM. This is not the smartest thing to do. At least I could have combined grabbing the pail with actually having to pee again. Like maybe I could hold out for the next three minutes or so in the safe room. No urgent need for the pail. But I am already there….
2.18.25 AM: Grab the red cleaning pail
2.18.28 AM: Back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut again. Siting on the couch with my dog again. Red pail glaring at me from the side of the room…daring me. But my bladder is relaxed. I try the remote again. I feel like my 85 year old mother who often complains about getting her remote to work. I console myself thinking that it must be the batteries. Hmmm. Maybe a mad rush for the utility room to get some new batteries. But that would be mad. I’ll take care of it in the morning. Only a few more minutes and I can safely leave the safe room and go back to bed.
2.19.45 AM: I pour myself a glass of mineral water. This I store in the safe room per Homefront commands. Fresh batteries not, hrmph. As I down the water I realize this is probably not the best idea. Less it creates the urge to pee…. Alas no. Start surfing my feed again. The intercontinental missile was fired by those crazy, dang Houthis from Yemen. All of central Israel sent to their safe rooms. Dang Houthis! The next couple minutes go by pretty smoothly. Although seems like an eternity.
2.21 AM: Back in bed. Albeit sleep comes slowly as my adrenaline starts to reside.
As it were. Israel bombed the dang Houthis that night. For the third time since the outbreak of the war. In retaliation for them firing over 200 ballistic missiles and 170 drones at Israel, which fortunately had not resulted in much damage. We struck them with over 60 bombs in two air raid sorties. Destroying mainly military targets as well as ports and energy infrastructure. Maybe that will teach them for waking me -and a million other Israelis- in the middle of the night.
As it were. Falling debris from the dang Houthi attack landed on a school in central Israel, forcing its collapse. Fortunately and thank G-d it was the middle of the night. Sometime between 2:11 AM and 2.21 AM. So no casualties. Can’t even imagine the tragedy had this strike occurred mid-day.
As it were. I changed the batteries in the remote. It works just fine now. And I left the red cleaning pail in the safe room….just in case. But I hope the dang Houthis finally learned their lesson. Although probably not.
As it were. Two nights later. Another 2:00AM missile from the dang Houthis. . They just wont let me sleep….
As it is. Please continue donating to the Israeli war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier. But give again. The financial costs to Israel are and will be billions. Billions! Sderot and Metulla and Tel Avi and Haifa are Israel’s front lines. Israel is the diaspora’s front line.
Bruce Brown. A Canadian. And an Israeli. Bruce made Aliyah…a long time ago. He works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Bruce is the winner of the 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in writing. And wrote the 1998 satire, An Israeli is…. Bruce’s reflects on life in Israel – political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight
Israel
Join the Masa Canadian Professionals Volunteers Program!
You are invited on a 4-week volunteer program in Israel from October 14th to November 10th. Help rebuild Israeli society post-October 7th over Canadian Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. Spend three weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
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