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Seven years ago, when two members of The Epstein Schools’ senior leadership team participated in the Mandel Teacher Education Institute (MTEI), the school embarked on a journey that would transform its approach to education. Inspired by the ancient Jewish practice of havruta text study, David Welsher, Associate Head of School, and Idit Bendavid, Director of Jewish Studies & Hebrew, both graduates of MTEI, realized their entire community – including students, teachers and support staff at the independent Jewish Day school – could benefit from the active and reflective listening, wondering, and curiosity of havruta’s partner-based learning model.

Travel with me. Imagine, for a moment, we are standing on the Tayelet – the Haas Promenade – at the south end of Jerusalem. Look north toward the walls of the Old City, with the shimmering views of the structures on the Temple Mount, replete with thousands of years of history.

How can supplemental schools revitalize learning while staying spiritually rooted and connected to the community? In 2023, this was the challenge faced by the leadership team at Temple Beth Torah (TBT) a Reform synagogue of 300 families in Ventura, CA.

The Mishnah tells a story about Rabbi Nehunyah ben HaKanah. It shares that he offered a brief prayer when he entered the Beit Midrash (House of Study) and again when he left. When he entered, he prayed that no mishap would happen because of him, and when he left, he offered thanksgiving (Mishnah Berakhot 4:2).

For more than two decades, the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI) has been at the forefront of developing exceptional educational leaders within the Jewish community. While the program’s core mission has remained steadfast, MTEI continuously evolves to better align with its foundational values and respond to the needs of an ever-changing world. To accomplish this, the program’s faculty and leadership center both teaching and learning rooted in eight core principles that were formalized in 2016 as the MTEI Principles for Professional Development.

Herzlia teacher Shimpa (Chaim) Moch recently completed the two-year programme offered by the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI) in the United States. Not only is he the first South African to graduate from this course, he was also the only foreign student in his cohort.

The Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI) is pleased to announce its eleventh Cohort of Jewish educational leaders who have been selected to participate in the two-year, intensive professional development program designed to transform how we think about teaching and learning. These exceptional “teachers of teachers,” as the program describes its participants, will come together for the first of six, four-day seminars March 3-6 in Chicago. 

As I write this, I am heading into my final seminar for the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute (MTEI, 2023). It has been a two-year journey of professional development with Jewish educators from around the world (rabbis, heads of schools, administrators, department heads, and more), all of whom share a passion for growing the capacity of their faculty.

As another school year comes to a close, many of us take stock of which teachers are returning for the following year. As Jewish education leaders, consultants, and coaches, we begin to ask ourselves: How do we retain teachers? How do we recruit teachers?

During a chevrutah study at a virtual MTEI learning session, a colleague posed, “If we aren’t changed by Torah are we doing it ‘right’?” This was an “ah-ha” moment for me, because I assumed we are somehow changed by Torah each time we study it, but until then I hadn’t considered what that idea really means.