Torah Educators Plan Expansion in U.s., Canada of Religious Educational Programs

Following a three week tour of religious educational institutions and facilities in the United States and Canada, Moshe Krone of Jerusalem, member of the Jewish Agency Executive and head of its Department of Torah Education and Culture, expressed great satisfaction with the progress being made in Torah education in North America. Reporting to a meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Torah Education Department, of which Dr. Emanuel Rackman, an American member of the Jewish Agency Executive, is chairman, Krone urged further intensification of the efforts of his department. He reported that the 63 Israeli educator-consultants (shlichim) now affiliated with day schools in twenty communities of the United States and Canada have “made a tremendous impact on the schools and communities with which they are affiliated.” He urged that this number be doubled and that more communities be reached, as part of the development of an intensive youth movement thoroughly committed to Jewish identification.

Dr. Rackman, following the reports of Krone and Zvi Assael, director of the Torah Education Department in the U.S., announced that the Department would increase its penetration into midwest, southwest and western communities through its shlichim, and noted the effectiveness of the teacher exchange and enrichment (hishtalmut) programs in raising the standards of Jewish education in America. He said that proposals made at the meeting would be given consideration. They included suggestions that the tour of duty of Israeli consultant-teachers in the U.S. be extended to 4-5 years instead of only two years; the Department underwrite the comprehensive cataloguing of Jewish educational resource material and make it available to schools in America; the senior high school program of the Department be widened so that all Yeshiva High School students will be required to spend their senior year in an Israel Yeshiva; and additional Educator Workshops and demonstration sessions be sponsored in various regions of the U.S.