The idea of Jewish peoplehood is an ancient one. At the same time, for more than 2,000 years, Jews have dispersed around the globe — willingly and unwillingly — leading to the formation of communities replete with differing languages, customs and more. In the modern or postmodern age, we ask the question: Is the idea of us being one people still strong, or is it outdated? 

As educators and mentors, our task is to bring together Jewish students and foster the idea of Jewish peoplehood. It is our mission to nurture a sense of mutual responsibility and shared purpose, especially in an era of increasing diversity, even if our students are thousands of kilometers away, living in different time zones and speaking different languages. 

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For Jews around the world, the events of Oct. 7, 2023, together with the ensuing wars against Hamas and Hezbollah and the ever-expanding explosion of antisemitism that erupted in their wake, shook the ground on which the Jewish people in Israel and worldwide stand. Together, these interrelated events have served to heighten the sense of our shared destiny as a people.

In response, we at the TALI Education Center for Jewish Pluralism decided to update “Friends Across the Sea,” our peoplehood program linking Jewish students in schools around the world. This program aims to strengthen our sense of sharing a covenant of purpose, thereby contributing to making Jewish peoplehood a living, dynamic framework. Today, more than ever, we need to feel and be together and show support for one another. 

Immediately following the tragedies of October 2023, we created an online platform and invited students from across the Jewish world to share their hopes and prayers. We sought to illustrate a growing sense of solidarity and mutual responsibility between Jewish children in Israel and the Diaspora. Within weeks, we expanded activities to build bridges and foster familiarity between students — and their educators — throughout communities around the world.

Our primary mission is to counter the perception that oceans of space and time, as well as vocabulary and language, stand between us and prevent connections among the Jewish people. Though long-distance communication tools have made it easier to generate bonds between Jews of the world, actual programs in bridge-building need a richer educational  “why,” “who” and “how” element. 

The program’s objectives break down the ideas behind peoplehood, particularly our status as Jewish People, into units. This program seeks and generates common ground no matter a school or child’s background by leveraging the following ideas: 

• Kol Yisrael arevin zeh bazeh: Cultivating connections between groups to strengthen the sense of responsibility between different parts of the Jewish people.
• Exploring and expanding participant knowledge of the Jewish calendar and values; emphasizing the richness and diversity within the Jewish people and showing how customs might differ between Jewish communities while we all share a common set of values and roots.
• Promoting skills of independent and collaborative learning via the sharing of and presenting insights and findings to peers using different digital tools.
• Highlighting the Hebrew language as a unifying living language as well as a key cultural value.

The program features a series of four synchronous, experiential educational meetings that utilize long-distance learning platforms between pairs of schools in Israel and the Diaspora. As educators, we see these experiences as providing students and educators with the opportunity to meet peers from different Jewish communities around the world while conducting value-based learning that strengthens their own Jewish culture and identity. 

Infusing the core idea of Jewish peoplehood is not a “cut-and-paste” endeavor, and to facilitate the program teachers first need to experience the power of building these bridges on their own. For true, deeper educational experiences to succeed, the teachers themselves need to engage in mutual learning: They answer detailed questionnaires and engage in virtual meetings during which they work together on various projects.

In-school class activities also precede the cross-communal meeting experience. To prepare for the initial meeting between the classes, each school learns about the cultural background of the other school, gathering information and learning about the city, country and local culture of the other’s community. With this background in place, and having prepared questions they would like to ask their new friends to get to know them, students are set for an interesting and successful first encounter.

The first encounter focuses on the students themselves — their hobbies, school life and so on — and the second meeting delves deep into Jewish identity and Jewish peoplehood. Together, the groups explore the traditions and history of Jewish holidays like Hanukkah and focus on activities to build peoplehood as expressed in the texts and traditions of that holiday. 

The third encounter explores Jewish ideas relating to the environment and sustainability, an international concern. The unit Leovda U’leshomra requires students and their teachers to study and engage in activities relating to the value of sustainability and protecting the Earth. By relating this value to Jewish texts, specifically surrounding the Jewish Holiday of Tu B’Shevat, we tie together Judaism with the entire world. 

The final encounter celebrates Israel during the month when we celebrate Israel’s Independence Day. This gets students more excited about the State of Israel, the Jewish People’s homeland. Using age-appropriate content, we also explore some of the complexities Israel represents. Highlighting our commonalities and accepting that there are different visions and relationships with the Jewish state, the unit “What Israel Means to Me” is the culmination of this program. 

In the coming year, TALI is working to reach some 10 school pairs and is making an effort toward expanding in Europe and North America, but the program is already reaching Jewish children around the world: a school in Berlin is paired with one in Moshav Amikam; a school in Hong Kong is paired with Sla’it’s community school; and an Argentinian school is paired with one in Ashkelon. 

The Jewish People are an interconnected group with a shared destiny and purpose. Maintaining and educating for peoplehood is an ongoing and never-ending endeavor filled with exciting challenges, and chief among them are our mutual responsibilities in a world occupied by different types of Jews. 

We Jews are all related to one another. We are an organism created by our shared history, a common lingua (Hebrew) and an eternal connection to the Land of Israel. Educating for this is not only a privilege but also necessary for the present and the future of the Jewish People.

Peri Sinclair is the Susan and Scott Shay Director General of the TALI Education Center for Jewish Pluralism. TALI provides pedagogic content and professional development for teachers in Israel and abroad and programs that inspire students to reach a greater understanding of their own personal identity within the worlds in which they live.