As I connected with Jewish educators throughout North America and Israel this summer, one question recurred in our conversations: How should we choose to remember Oct. 7 with our school communities? The question speaks to the heart of the mission of a school and its relationship to Israel and the Jewish people. As a new fellow at The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, my thinking has been deeply informed by conversations with other fellows there. 

I want to share the wisdom that I have gleaned and offered as a guide to those charged not only with designing the tekes (communal ceremony) for Oct. 7 but also with framing the implications of Oct. 7 for the broader educational program in their school.

Perhaps fittingly, I drafted these thoughts in the early hours of Tisha B’Av, a day meant to mark and feel the collective tragedy and pain of seminal moments in Jewish history. In writing these words, I felt transported back to the first 48 hours after Oct. 7, wrestling sleeplessly with how best to support fellow educators in my work. On Oct. 9, I shared with colleagues the “Heart-Head-Hand” model that I had used for years in my teaching at Gann Academy as a way to process the trauma and feelings, pose important questions and identify action that flows naturally from the feelings and questions. The paradigm seemed resonant in the field and I return to the Heart-Head-Hand model as a guide for Oct. 7 and the new school year.  

In the post-Oct.7 context, when many teachers and students are experiencing anxiety and asking hard questions of themselves and others, a ceremony is an opportunity to experience that which draws us together as Jews in a moment for community, areivut (mutual support) and deepening consciousness that each one of us is part of the global Jewish experience. My reflections below represent a synthesis of ideas from my personal and professional reflections that I hope will help foster the collaboration and sensitivity needed to facilitate these moments for our communities.

Heart: How do I feel and connect to the story?

The Jewish people have a plethora of ways to help a community navigate the process of commemoration.  I anticipate that many communities will draw upon a combination of prayer, story and song. 

For prayer, a school might opt for traditional practices such as reciting Psalms or memorial prayers such as El Malei Rachamim. In terms of storytelling, some communities will want to remember individuals with direct connections to their community, while others may want to share moments that have become part of the collective memory of the Jewish people. 

Over the past 11 months, I have seen the power of music as a vehicle for connection and processing. There are Israeli songs written before Oct. 7 that took on new meaning after the tragic day, and there are also Israeli songs written after Oct. 7 that will be a part of communal memory moving forward. Music can play an important role not only in communal commemoration ceremonies but also in opening discussion with students in the classroom. 

Head: What do I want to know?

As someone who helped to coordinate Sept. 11 commemorations at Gann Academy, it seemed like the ceremonies moved from the heart of direct memory to the head of collective memory in the blink of an eye. It is not too soon to think about how we want to wrestle our understanding of Oct. 7 at this moment and imagine what an Oct. 7 commemoration will look like for future students who will have no direct memory of the day. What are the starting points and turning points of the story that we will tell? What implications will those starting points and turning points have for the ways in which we teach about Israel, its people, its history and its current and future opportunities and challenges? 

I have been inspired to notice how the past 11 months have encouraged educational institutions to take the important first step of simply articulating their Israel-education mission. I know that this deep work will continue in the coming year.  It is essential for this process that educators and school leaders facilitate user-designed conversations (i.e. ones where participants — in this case, students and colleagues — can identify the questions they want to pursue, and the educational experience is created in response to those questions).

Thankfully, 2024 has been a year of important research shared with the field of Israel education, and we should learn from the insights of those who have meticulously documented their observations.

Hand: What do I want to do?

The months since Oct. 7 have produced incredible moments of collective action. Educator missions to Israel provided the opportunity to witness the aftermath of Oct. 7 and forge new professional learning communities to explore their meaning for Israel education. Schools hosted Israeli families, initiated charity drives and engaged in activism in their communities. 

When identifying what makes the most sense for the action of one’s hand in terms of a school community, it should flow naturally from the heart and learning of that community.  As a longtime civics teacher, I know that students form their civic stances between the ages of 15 to 25, which aligns with both brain science and the key milestones of high school, gap-year experiences, college and young adulthood.  

This is a moment to revisit a school’s place in the Israel education ecosystem. What role does our institution play in the work of Heart-Head-Hand?  What are our strengths and where might we need support?

Let’s take the time to share how we plan to remember Oct. 7 and use those moments to bring shape to the field of Israel education. While the needs of our individual communities may differ, we need one another as a Jewish people now more than ever. Just as Rabbi Akiva consoled the community at a moment of despair two millennia ago, may we find the right words to comfort and inspire each other.

Jonathan Golden is the founder of HeartStance Education Consulting. He teaches courses at Hebrew College and the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.