“When you’re a Jewish educator,” says Rabbi Aharoni Carmel, “You’re not just delivering educational material. You’re trying to nurture a soul.” Carmel, a master educator in Israel and the US, has been building Jewish character in students for more than two decades. Today, he heads TalentEducators, a global initiative that aims to address the growing challenge of recruiting and retaining quality Jewish educators in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Scotland.
TalentEducators was established as a joint program between Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and The Jewish Agency and represents the broad vision of both organizations in assisting Jewish communities around the world. “For more than 70 years,” explains Carmel, “the State of Israel received support – money, resources, manpower, lobbying – from Diaspora Jews. It’s now time for the State of Israel to give back.”
In most Western countries, Carmel explains, being an educator is not perceived as a prestigious occupation, nor does it pay well. “Smart, talented, and successful people do not, for the most part, go into the field of education,” he says. While Carmel hastens to add that there are many dedicated and talented Jewish educators working today, there is a personnel shortage that must be addressed. “Our end goal,” he says, “is getting talented people who inspire.”
TalentEducators maps the demand in Jewish formal and informal education, profiles those who can deliver, and matches them successfully while providing them with a support network. The organization’s long-term goal is to discover untapped talent so that those who receive proper training, mentoring, and support can become excellent Jewish educators. Most every community, he explains, has within it a group of potential Jewish educators. “We have found that in every community, there are people that have not been fully utilized and can really grow into a role of educator.”
First, Carmel and his team build a database of teaching vacancies to assess the demand for educators in a particular location, creating relationships with these different educational institutions to truly understand their mission. Next, they match the database with a list of recruited educators based on various criteria and recommend several candidates to the local schools. Finally, TalentEducators provides a support system for would-be educators, providing training that enables new educators – in both formal and informal Jewish education – to hit the ground running, with a personalized plan tailored to the strengths of each individual, offering mentoring sessions and a cohort with other new educators that will meet monthly to discuss and analyze their experiences.
TalentEducators began this past year, and as a result, most of the planned mentoring and cohort sessions had to be conducted online. As the effects of Covid lessen, Carmel expects that face-to-face mentoring and meetings of cohorts will resume. Last year, TalentEducators placed 38 educators in positions worldwide, and this year, Carmel plans to increase the number to 65.
Rabbi Aharoni Carmel is on the lookout for prospective Jewish educators to teach Hebrew language, Zionism, Israel, and classic Jewish studies, in both formal and informal settings and says that the events of the past year, he says, have changed people’s priorities.
“I think that Covid shook the world and caused people to rethink their lives and their careers.” Few professions in life, says Carmel, are as satisfying or as fulfilling as Jewish education. “Even if it is not your long-term career goal, come for three years. Give three years to the Jewish people, and we will support you. We will give you the tools, and you will never regret that experience.” Click here to learn more about training to become a Jewish educator. If you have the personality and the passion, you can change lives.