Where are young Jewish students? Primarily on their phone, sure — and that is why the vast majority of our content at Unpacked is “direct to consumer” on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Spotify — but they are also in schools. We have a division called Unpacked for Educators, which takes the best Israel and Jewish education videos and podcasts from the Unpacked world, and provides lesson plans and curricula for schools. 

In the past eight months, our team at Unpacked for Educators (UED), led by Avi Posen and Sarah Gordon, wrapped up our third Israel education conference in three major cities, Toronto, Miami and New York. It was our first time running conferences, and we learned a lot. 

Noam Weissman (center), executive vice president of OpenDor Media, speaks at a recent Israel education conference in Toronto organized by Unpacked for Educators in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Courtesy

The conferences, supported by the Maimonides Fund, brought together leaders, educators and expert practitioners to both celebrate the successes of Israel education and to explore the path forward to next stages of Israel education for this generation of educators. As we look back at these regional conferences (the first in partnership with the Ades Foundation in Miami, the second in partnership with Machon Siach and SAR High School in N.Y., and the third in partnership with with the UJA of Greater Toronto), I’d like to reflect on some of the successes of the field of Israel education over the past decade and identify new opportunities for growth. 

Progress in the field 

In 2014, while studying educational psychology at USC, I struggled to choose a dissertation topic. It was my professor, Kim Hirabayashi (not a Jewish woman), who helped me solve this challenge.

“What is the No. 1 educational challenge or problem in the Jewish world?” she asked. Without hesitation, I responded, “The state of Israel education.” 

She nodded. “Then you have your topic,” she said. And with that, a two-year journey began. 

Now, just over a decade later, in 2025, I’m actually quite happy to say that I believe the field of Israel education is alive and well, flourishing in ways that seemed improbable just a decade ago. When I wrote my dissertation, it was difficult to identify a distinct field of Israel education. What we had was a vision for Israel education, one that, in the words of Hanan Alexander, would hopefully yield “a mature Zionist perspective.” Alexander, whose research and wisdom have guided me, my colleagues and countless of other educators these past 10 years, writes:

“This perspective maintains the legitimacy of a Jewish and democratic state according to multiple interpretations of the Zionist idea, provided they appreciate Israel’s complexities, based on a critical engagement with concrete realities, grounded in a fair assessment of the relevant scholarship.” 

To put it more directly, this is what people might call a “nuanced” approach to Israel education. 

Although this approach to Israel education may have been a source of debate in the past, today almost every Jewish school we have engaged with has shifted their Israel education to incorporate both celebration and exploration, or what I call “goosebumps with complexity.” For example, a recent study by Rachel Fish and Aviva Klompas of Boundless Israel found that over 50% of American Jews surveyed (aged 18-40) considered the way they learned about Israel to be “fair and balanced.” Of these respondents, 84% claim they are connected to Israel and 81% claim Israel is important to their Jewish identity. 

Additionally, 27% responded that they only received one perspective on Israel and of those, only 68% claim they are connected to Israel and that Israel is important to their Jewish identity. In other words, the majority of young Jewish people feel like they have received a “fair and balanced” Israel education. Furthermore, having a transparent and complex Israel education is correlated with a 15% jump in connection to Israel and integration of Israel into Jewish identity. 

Where once “tough questions” and “difficult moments” in Israel’s history were ignored, avoided, or presented in a simplistic “myths and facts” format, they are now central to a more mature and sophisticated approach to Israel and Zionism. The motivations behind this shift vary across institutions but generally fall into two categories: pragmatic and principled. 

The first school of thought argues that the main reason to introduce these challenging topics is to “inoculate” students against the numerous criticisms they will encounter as they explore social media and venture out to college, university or the professional world. The logic goes that it is better to explore these “tough questions” in a supportive environment first rather than being blindsided by them after (or even before) graduation from university. 

The second school of thought holds that Israel education should be no different than other fields in its approach to critical thinking. As scholar and educator Bethamie Horowitz describes, “Good Israel education… involves multi-dimensional engagement with Israel in its many facets and dimensions.” If we believe in the inherent value of exploring different perspectives and critically evaluating historical moments, the history of Israel and Zionism should be no exception. 

Whether for pragmatic or principled reasons, or perhaps both, today’s students are saying loud and clear that what they demand is a balanced, nuanced and complex exploration of Israel. Referring back to the Boundless study, students who were not satisfied with their Israel education list the following as top reasons for their dissatisfaction: they were not taught much/enough; they were not told everything/some things were left out; their education was pro-Israel/non-critical; and “What I was taught isn’t true/lies/propaganda.” Furthermore, 78% of respondents said it is important to “connect directly with Palestinians to learn about their experiences,” and the result was similar to connecting with Israelis at 81%. 

Thankfully, this need is being met by many different institutions. At the opening panel of our November Israel education conference in partnership with Machon Siach, we asked the 80 participating Jewish educators from 41 different Jewish day and supplementary schools whether “it is important to teach ‘tough questions’ to our students” and a full 100% of them were in agreement. When I asked that question a decade ago, the answer was often an indignant “No way!” or, “But I don’t feel qualified to engage in this.” Of course, there were early adopters of this approach, but this change in perspective is now consistent across the board in schools. And to be sure, every school has its own Overton window of legitimate perspectives to share. But the exciting thing is that now, there are diverse perspectives when teaching about Israel and Israel is not being taught as a simple binary. Educators (and more importantly, students) are insisting on the importance of understanding multiple perspectives rather than to understand the story exclusively through one prism. They are not asking to agree with the argument of the other sides, but to listen to the other sides and to allow students to form their own opinions in an informed way. 

Another important development that should be celebrated is the integration of Israel education throughout the curriculum both horizontally across subjects and vertically across grades. Schools in which Israel education is relegated to the “Yoms” (Hazikaron, Haatzmaut, Yerushalayim), or the Hebrew classroom, are no longer the norm. Instead, as the field of Israel education has matured, and as the centrality of Israel in the news has grown, Israel education has become a robust field of its own and there has been a concerted effort to integrate it into social studies, art, Tanach and current events classes. Additionally, educators are starting Israel education earlier rather than backloading it to 11th or 12th grade. 

In order to help develop best practices for this integration, at our last two conferences, we ran an activity titled “Creating a Canon for Israel Education.” The session was based on an article by my dear friend and colleague David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project. We asked educators to consider the most important topics, concepts or themes related to Israel that their students should know about upon graduation (e.g. Land of Israel in Tanach/Historical connection of Jews to the land of Israel, Druze community, Abraham Accords). Then, we asked educators to intentionally decide: 

1.) When will this be taught (in what grade)? 

2.) Why is this being taught now? 

3.) Where will this be taught (in what setting, courses, etc.)? 

If we want our students to graduate with true Israel literacy, we must be intentional about how and when this education happens. If we want our young people to represent Zionism, they must understand and feel what Zionism represents. 

While many schools take Israel education seriously, it often occurs in a fragmented way, with topics scattered across history, Ivrit (Hebrew language), Zionism and co-curricular activities. Schools need to shift intentionally toward a more holistic model — one that allows us to clearly and authentically identify where and when Israel education is happening for our students. Institutions should invest in creating multigrade scopes and sequences to ensure our literacy goals for Israel education for our students are being met.

Processes like these may not be the norm yet, but we hope to play our part in ushering the field in that direction. The receptivity in Miami, New York and Toronto to this approach is indicative of the strong desire amongst educators. 

Where to build 

Four years ago, Brandeis University professor Jon Levisohn wrote about the goal of Israel education, emphasizing the need to move beyond Israel-immaturity or Israel-sentimentality toward what he called a “mature love of Israel.” He explained, “When we think about the desired outcomes of Israel education, then, we ought to focus, among other things, on overcoming Israel-immaturity or Israel-sentimentality and on achieving mature love of Israel.” 

Mature love is the kind of love shared between family members or longtime friends — rooted in trust and mutual respect, strong enough to withstand disagreement, disappointment and even moments of disillusionment. Applied to Israel, it means fostering a relationship with Israel, Zionism and Israelis that neither “idealizes” nor “sentimentalizes” the real challenges the country faces today. An immature relationship with Israel is not only unsustainable; it also falls short of the responsibility each individual has toward the Jewish and Zionist vision of Israel. 

Over the past decade, we have made great strides toward making this “mature love” the norm. We are asking tough questions. We are encouraging students to explore multiple perspectives. We are integrating Israel education throughout our institutions. In short, there is much to celebrate. 

And yet, there is still much more to do. A persistent knowledge gap still exists, with some students graduating without mastery over foundational key moments in Israeli history. Educators must continue to invest in building out a scope and sequence for Israel education at their institutions that is integrated across grades and subjects, moving from a siloed approach to a more holistic one. In addition to feeling like they are part of the Jewish story, with a thick Jewish identity, each institution can and should decide what they want students to know about Zionism and Israeli history. 

But if there is one takeaway from our time with these 250-plus incredible educators from these three conferences, it is that the field is alive and well, with an immense desire for continuous transformation. Together, we are ensuring that students receive the rich and meaningful Israel education they deserve. There is much work to be done.

CORRECTIONS (4.1.25): This article originally misidentified Jon Levisohn as a professor at Harvard University. He is a professor at Brandeis University. Additionally, Rachel Fish of Boundless Israel was originally misidentified as Karen Fish. The author apologizes for both errors.

Noam Weissman is the executive vice president of OpenDor Media.