The morning began with a lecture by Dr. Alex Pomson. His topic was Israel and Hebrew Studies in Jewish Schools. He provided a statistical analysis of the pre and post effects upon teens who visit Israel. He also correlated visits to Israel with the positive and/or negative impact upon teens interest in speaking Hebrew.
Following his presentation, there were back to back roundtable discussions. The first roundtable was devoted to reflections and applications. The second was a brainstorming session about Next Steps.
Once the roundtable discussions were complete, there was a NGO Fair. Each NGO representing their respective educational supplies and material were displayed on tables throughout a large ballroom.
This was followed by three more speakers whose topic was Unit-Ed. The speakers were Josh Spinner, Dvora Serrao and Rabbi Tzvi Allon.
The next lecture was about Jewish Ed-Tech Entrepreneurs ship which was primarily a brainstorming session.
For the next 30 minutes the Chairman Elect of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Isaac Herzog spoke. This was followed by about 60 minutes of Q & A and ideas, suggestions and recommendations for the Chairman Elect.
The last lecture was presented by Dr. Micah Goodman. He is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is also Rosh Midrasha at Ein Prat.
Alan Reinitz
