Walls be gone: Jewish day school educators use Shabbatons for meaningful instruction
Didactic tool is reminder that 'everything about our people is lived in community'
Community Day School students headed to Cleveland for a weekend retreat. Boarding seventh and eighth graders on a bus for a school trip wasn’t unusual. Sending students to spend Shabbat in another city, though, was a first, Ronit Pasternak said.
Before becoming an administrator at the Jewish day school, Pasternak spent nearly 26 years teaching Hebrew at CDS. Excluding last weekend’s Shabbaton (an educational event occurring over Shabbat), she can’t recall a similar off-site experience.
Pasternak and colleagues planned the gathering. Upon reaching Cleveland, students headed to the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School. Students deposited sleeping bags, met kids from Mandel and spent the weekend together.
Along with a basketball tournament and multiple meals, nearly 75 students enjoyed Shabbat together. The gathering was intended to foster a “sense of shared Jewish heritage and community,” Casey Weiss, CDS’ head of school, said. “As Jews, we live in community. There’s a reason we have a minyan (requisite 10-member quorum for prayer); there’s a reason that when we have a Shabbat meal we try to invite guests. Everything about our people is lived in community.”
Creating a sense of peoplehood is one reason for a Shabbaton. Reinforcing classroom material is another.
“From an experiential standpoint, nothing matches teaching about Shabbat more than living it together,” Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh principal Rabbi Sam Weinberg said. “Between the ruach (spirit) and environment created, it’s been integral to the educational package we deliver. I’m so happy to have given Casey the idea for this.”
Shabbatons are didactic tools. During the past year, Hillel Academy took students to Cleveland, Philadelphia and Rochester, New York. Traveling as a school, and joining the company of similar-aged children and young adults enables Hillel Academy students to recognize “our role in the greater Jewish community,” Weinberg said. Whether it’s reciting blessings aloud, leading prayers or speaking publicly, Shabbatons provide leadership and character-building opportunities aiding students “wherever they go throughout their lives.”
Though data on Shabbat experiences is scant, researchers tout the educational value of excursions.
According to the Journal of Human Resources, students who participate in culturally enriching field trips have “fewer behavioral infractions, attend school more frequently, score higher on end-of-grade exams and receive higher course grades.”
Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum, principal of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, said Shabbatons buttress the Jewish day school’s mission.
“In general, when you’re in a school setting it feels like you’re studying something in school — because it’s school. The minute you remove students from that setting, it’s more relaxed,” he said.
On retreats, ideas are freely conveyed by teachers and guest speakers. Students engage in robust conversation and glean lessons in real time, he continued.
It’s exciting for participants to see a new school or site, but the value of Shabbatons is not only in traveling to a new community. Shabbatons also allow hosts to see spaces with fresh eyes.
Next week, Yeshiva Schools will host an “in-town” retreat for fathers and sons. Participants will study together, pray together, eat together and play basketball together. The experience, Rosenblum said, builds camaraderie and enables out-of-town parents, who travel to Pittsburgh for the retreat, to better understand and experience their children’s educational endeavors.
Both Rosenblum and Weinberg said their schools have welcomed students from schools outside of Pittsburgh for Shabbatons in years past.
The experiences, Weinberg said, allow students to appreciate a “larger Jewish community.”
Rosenblum said Shabbatons, both in-town and off-site, “further our mission, which is to educate students to be independent learners, and to be committed to Torah, and to mitzvahs and to God.”
Weiss hopes to build on CDS’ experience in Cleveland by reiterating to students the “importance of community.” Along with exploring future collaborations with Mandel, Weiss said she’s eager to identify new opportunities between CDS, Hillel Academy and Yeshiva Schools.
Shabbatons can be springboards for everyone, she continued: “I can’t wait to see what we can cook up.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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