Today I had the privilege of teaching 20 of the Lauder-Javne school’s 9th graders. What a great class! Many of the students were interested and engaged as we explored the conflict between following a dream or passion and between being bound to or comfortable in your setting. We had a discussion around this question and then read the poem “My Heart is in the East” by Middle-Ages scholar, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi. We spoke of how the poem reflects 
Halevi’s life — his connections to Spain, which was comfortable and familiar, and his longing to make Aliya, which would involve much hardship. Through the analysis of a beautiful Hebrew text written by a most influential Jewish scholar, the students were pushed out of their comfort zone and asked to consider how it reflects their personal experiences. I was not surprised that many of them could connect to the text. They all have dreams and goals. They all felt conflicted, more than once, about being challenged to achieve/go after their passion. So we poured the interesting discussion comment, the feelings that arose, and the personal connections to the text into creating original poems. Many students used the model of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s poem, while some created original structures. A handful of students were brave enough to share their poems with the class. I was particularly impressed with a few students who opened up and
revealed something real through their writing. For example, Dani was inspired by Halevi’s conflict between east and west, and described his passion for western knowledge while being bound by the chains of Eastern education. How fantastic is that?! This boy, who doesn’t even consider himself Jewish, made authentic personal connections to a thousand-year-old Jewish text about Zionist aspirations. He claimed ownership of the text by making it relevant to his modern Hungarian life. I believe that is the essence of Secular Jewish education — encouraging students to make Judaism “theirs”, despite not being religious or practicing Judaism at all.
