Rabbis' Voice Articles

Should Kol Rinah be offering classes geared toward adults on Zoom during the pandemic?

 

On the face of it, it’s an absurd question -- of course we should! We’re a synagogue; we do Jewish education, we can’t do anything in person now, so let’s at least have classes on Zoom. And Rabbi Shafrin and I have been teaching Torah Talk on Fridays; Wendy Love Anderson has been coordinating community learning on Sundays at 11:30am. Why would I even ask this question?

 

With all learning now virtual though, so many more options for Jewish learning are available. Live classes taught by Hadar’s Rabbis Shai Held and Elie Kaunfer (who have both taught at Kol Rinah in the past) are available for free. The Shalom Hartman Institute had four weeks of learning for free over the summer, and they’ve used the tagline “grad school for beginners” to indicate the high level of learning that is still accessible to everyone.

 

The various seminaries, including the Ziegler Institute of Jewish Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and many other institutions continue to have terrific free live online learning available to all.

 

Previously, much of this content was only available in person, but it’s now being made available virtually and for free.

 

I know members of our community who have studied with Hadar, who are taking Hebrew with the JCC of San Francisco, and who celebrated Shavuot by studying with Conservative rabbis from around the country. When the pandemic ends and we’re able to be together in person again, many of the learning opportunities that emerged during the pandemic will remain virtual to welcome learners from around the globe in a dramatically more inclusive model of Jewish learning that doesn’t exclude people who are unable to come (and pay to come) to a particular place for a length of time.

 

Virtual learning is more accessible to many kinds of people, including parents (and especially mothers) who have in-person childcare responsibilities, people who can’t afford to travel for learning opportunities, people who for physical or mental health reasons can’t travel, or even leave their homes, and people who live in underserved or remote areas.

 

It’s been suggested that synagogues could in some sense “outsource” Jewish education to experts in pedagogy and scholarship, which can be done virtually, while retaining and sharpening their focus on relationships, pastoral care, chesed and justice work--things that are inherently and essentially local.

 

Organizations should really focus on what they uniquely can do.

 

And yet, I still want to keep teaching Torah. Why? Because I love teaching, and I love the relationships that develop over and through the study of Torah. Because there’s something different about studying Torah with a teacher and other students with whom you are in relationship. Classes that are small (but not too small) allow each learner to participate (although I wouldn’t mind if our classes were a little bigger). So I do intend to keep teaching.

 

However, we can and should do a better job sharing amazing virtual learning with the congregation. My goal is to help Jews find the right Jewish experiences for them, and there are just so many more options. And Jews who are learning make engaged synagogue members.

 

What do you think the balance should be? And if you’re interested in finding some outstanding virtual Jewish learning, let me know and we’ll find something just right for you.