The Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry launched on Monday a digital platform with educational content for teachers and educators in the Diaspora. The UnitEd initiative, led by the Ministry, launched a new platform, which will be a common digital space for all educators in Jewish schools around the world, in which they will be able to receive and share, knowledge, ideas, and educational content in three languages: English, Spanish, and French.
The launch event on Monday was attended by Amichai Chikli, Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism minister; as well as by Avi Cohen-Scali, director-general of the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism ministry; Hana Dorsman, CEO of the UnitEd project; Rabbi Prof. Yehuda Brandes, president of the Herzog Academic College, which manages the project and Jordana Cutler, public policy director, Israel & the Jewish Diaspora at Meta.
“UnitEd is a worldwide initiative, established with the aim of organizing, developing, professionalizing, and empowering Jewish schools and educators around the world, thus strengthening the Jewish identity of their students, the connection to the local communities and the affinity to the State of Israel,” Chikli said.
Ecosystem of Jewish educators
Cohen-Scali added that this digital platform “is great news to the ecosystem of global Jewish education.” He explained that “any teacher around the world will be able to take an active part in consulting with their peers and be exposed to up-to-date pedagogical materials for subjects such as of the Hebrew language, the connection to Israel and the strengthening of Jewish identity,” Cohen-Scali said. He added that “this digital platform is a game-changer in the world of Jewish education and brings significant capabilities with it.” The director-general asked for all teachers in Jewish day schools around the world “to enter and connect.”
Hana Dorsman, CEO of UnitEd said that “education builds identity and is the secret of the connection of the Jewish people over the years.” She explained that “Jewish education is the thread that connects us all, whether here in Israel, or in the Diaspora.”
The new digital platform, according to Dorsman, will now be available to every teacher and administrator around the world and will include hundreds of quality educational materials, a digital campus for teacher training and enrichment, and a community space for Jewish educators for brainstorming and sharing ideas.
The platform's online material
The platform doesn’t yet have a lot of materials online, even though it was launched this week but the UnitEd management said that in the next few months there will be plenty of content online.
Dorsman told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the site is meant to be a “tool for creating online seminars for educators.” She added that there will also be a designated area for the Jewish school headmasters and principals, with content geared towards them. “We did research on what the needs of Jewish educators are around the world and have reached three conclusions of what they are lacking, to which we addressed the new platform.”
The first element is the library of content and Dorsman explained that it is difficult to find digital pedagogical content for teachers in Jewish, Hebrew, and Israel studies, especially in languages other than English. “We will offer the educators in the Diaspora, videos, podcasts, and pedagogical strategies. The classes will be very accessible, some of which are being developed, others are waiting to be uploaded to date.”
The second element will be the “digital campus,” which will offer educational courses for teachers and educators on a variety of topics, such as teaching Judaism, Israel studies, and even tools to help with school management. The third element will be the communities of educators around the world, some of them already exist and connect between educators in Spanish-speaking countries or between teachers of the same subjects – no matter where they are based.
Dorsman concluded that “even though the platform isn’t yet complete, “we want educators to feel as if they are not alone,” and therefore will constantly be creating and uploading more content.