The edition is published
by Pedagogical Club "New Jewish School"
with the help and support of the Jewish Community Development
Fund in Russia and Ukraine (New York)
and UJA - Federation of New York.

Nachum, the prophet of peace. Compiler – Arie Rotman

The Book of Nahum, one of the "Small Prophets" begins with the words: "prophecy of Ninvey". The author of the article together with the readers reflects why Tanakh pays so much attention to the capital of the pagan Ashur kingdom and a prophecy book is dedicated to it. Comparing prophecies by Nahum and Iona it is possible to find out the reason of the death of this powerful kingdom. Analyzing the words of the prophecy, the author comes to the conclusion that it regards more to Jerusalem than to the pagan city. It is because Jerusalem allows pagans to rule and accepts their sins and papacy; it can be subjected to the same fate.

Twelve gates of Midrash. Gates 3: Cain and Hevel. Dmitry Bargman, Igor Vdovenko, Alexander Lvov, Boris Ostrer, Arie Rotman, Hana Rotman, Moshe Treskunov

The Midrash, selected by the group of authors, tells about the most ancient argument. What is hidden under the simple, to the first sight, phrases? What served the subject of that tragic argument? Each notion in the Midrash is polysemantic and hides a deep sense invisible for surface outlook. Comparing the Midrash and comments, authors point out the three main aspects of the argument: the topic of property, the topic of the Temple and the female topic. The arguing between Cain and Hevel is presented as the archetype of conflict with all possible reasons.

Collage at art lessons in elementary school. Irina Pilosyan

Irina Pilosyan, art teacher from Moscow, shares her rich experience in teaching children the technique of collage. One can think that such a technique is too hard for young children to study. But Irina Pilosyan shows the secrets of his know-how in step-by-step teaching young children this complicated technique. Also the author tells about the more complicated stage – plot collage and how it can be used in preparation of Jewish holidays, for instance, Purim, for celebration at school in a merry and non-standard way.

Exercises on oral comprehension at Hebrew lessons. Natalia Bakulina

Each teacher of foreign language tries to use the method oral comprehension, important for oral speech practice. The author tells the colleagues how to help pupils to overcome the possible difficulties in preparing for listening audio materials. She also presents the speech exercises, which can be done when auditing at Hebrew lessons.

Fathers and children in changing Russia. Vadim Zitzer

The problem of "fathers and children" is actual at any stage of historical development of a state but it is extremely severe in the epoch of global changes like the ones, which are now taking place in Russia. The author monitors the changes in the institute of family since 1980-ies up to the present. The outside factors couldn't pass by Jewish family, to which the author pays a special attention, and leave it unchanged. He presents rather interesting data of children's questionings taken in 1998 and 2003, which say about children's ideas about family: their attitude towards their parents, estimation of their relationship, family functions, etc, The aim of this research was to attract teachers' attention to modern Jewish family. The author tries to convince his reader that it is necessary to regard children's ideas, to plan educational programs considering the real needs of real pupils.

Study and methodological complex of Jewish schools of CIS and Baltic states. Zakhar Rokhlin

The article is written on the base of the results of the research undertaken in 2002 by the sociological bureau of Pedagogical club "The New Jewish School". The author notes the recent changes in the situation, presents the general survey of the present system of Jewish education. The author stresses the necessity of researches of study and methodological complex and underlines the problems, actual for the moment of questioning. Making conclusions of the current situation in Jewish education, the author proposes the two most expedient concepts for the further development.

The school "Hatikva" in Gomel. Leonid Smilovitzky

The author tells about the history of creation of Gomel school "Hatikva", about its staff and school's everyday life. Opened in 1990, it was one of the first Jewish schools, which has accumulated rather a rich teachers' experience. What should be done for this valuable experience to become the common property of not only one school staff but of all the interested teachers? What does the vague future of Jewish school depend on? All these uneasy questions are proposed for a reader to think over.

Classes labeled with E. The interview with T.V. Nedoseka, principal of Minsk school №132. Anna Molchanova

In this interview the principal tells about the history of creation of Jewish classes in an ordinary school and the difficulties the staff and the pupils have faced with. She also thinks over the sharp problem of outflow of the highschoolers into more prestigious schools and tries to find a way to solve this urgent problem. Mrs. Nedoseka suggests constructive decisions, such as to introduce professional orientation in high school, to create integrative course, to provide profound studying of particular subjects thus making Jewish school more competitive.

Talented children in Jewish school. Grigory Shoikhet

In his article the author touches rather a painful matter, not only for Israel but also for the Diaspora: why Israeli pupils take last places in world Olympics in different subjects? It is nobody’s secret that many Jews from Diaspora do not want their children to receive Israeli education. What is the reason for such a low quotation of Israeli schools? Why are these children unable to compete with their peers from other countries? The author points the readers’ attention to the possible reasons and suggests the ways to solve this aching problem.

Without horses at the crossing. Hana Rotman

2003/2004 academic year hasn’t come for many children, pupils of Sunday schools. These schools were the source of enlightenment for Jewish children in the first perestroika years, when Jewish communities just started to emerge. In 2003 Jewish Sunday schools, supervised by Lishka, were submitted to JAFI-Russia. After the change of sponsoring organizations many schools have to work on the mere enthusiasm of teachers and parents; some have also closed up. The author of the article pays attention to the disastrous state of ever-prosperous Sunday schools and thinks how to retain the remained schools.

Our pupils are our children. Natalia Barteneva

The teacher tells about Novokuznetzk Jewish Sunday school, the history of its creation and the results of its work. But last year everything changed due to external reasons beyond the control of the staff. The author tries to attract attention to this school and together with the colleagues to find the way-out.

Jewish Sunday school in Yerevan. G. Faivush

It is another story about Sunday school, which unites pupils and parents interested in Jewish culture. During 12 years this school had been presenting pupils with the joy of creativity and community interaction. But in 2003/04 the accumulated experience and the results of 12-years’ work proved to be not needed by upper organizations. How can the school prolong its work and overcome the despotism of the bureaucrats?

Cold autumn of 2003. Zakhar Rokhlin

Such a dramatic title of the article was chosen on purpose. The author touches the most aching problem of this academic year – the state of Jewish Sunday schools. The article lists the data on schools and pupils as in 2001/2002 and 2003/2004. According to this sad statistics, Jewish schools have lost almost a thousand pupils! And it is not due to the growth of aliah or fall of interest towards Jewish culture. The reason is the changes in umbrella organizations and as the consequence – in curricula which do not regard the pupils’ interests. The author suggests principals of Sunday schools to change the policy of fund-raising thus making the schools less dependent and more financially savvy.

Is small school destined for soon disappearance? Vladimir Kritzman

At the time of giant study complexes there is a danger that small school may appear not required by modern education. The author invites readers to think about the future of so-called “small school”, reveals its urgent problems and asks the question about pupils’ and their parents’ requirements for a Jewish school.

Small schools: pro and contra. Mikhail Epstein

In prolongation of discussion of the future of “small school”, the author proposes his vision of their role in modern teaching process. Of course, such schools have many everyday problems, but there are small schools, which are able to give pupils what is absent in big ones, where the number of pupils exceeds one thousand. Among such valuable advantages there are the possibility to reveal oneself, to establish friendly relations with peers as well as with parents and teachers. Besides “small” school facilitates uneasy process of socialization.

The school of hypocrisy. Arye Rotman

Like any other teaching establishment, Jewish school also sets its educational and upbringing aims and tasks. But unfortunately often high aims get replaced by a simple set of formal rules of behaviour. What is even sadder is that it is just a masque, a guise to be put on in certain situations. The author reflects what it means “to be a Jew” in the modern world, how to teach it and how to help children to find their way to the God.

Educational establishments of Nizhny Novgorod Jewish community. Elena Kratzer

The article tells about the history of Nizhny Novgorod Jewish community and the history of creation of the first Jewish schools. As well as in many other cities during the Soviet times the community couldn’t organize educational establishment. Now after a long break Jewish education is been revived in Nizhny, new schools are got open.

Year tav-shin-samekh-gimel or talks with a donkey. Ioseph El’yakumovich

The presented series was written by a young author, a 10-grader of Almaata Jewish school. His lyric hero has a strange interlocutor– a speaking Donkey-long liver, an evident of many events of Jewish history. The donkey shares with the hero his own impressions on each holiday of Jewish calendar.

Choral and lamentation. Nina Stepanskaya

Readers are presented with interesting research of genres of Jewish traditional music, the specifics of Jewish liturgics, its formation, the specifics of melody and performing. The tradition of khazanut and Jewish secular music was been forming in ages but all the variety of genres are united by several features. Author also compares Jewish and classical European musical tradition.

Song on Ninevia. Konstantin Mikheev

The verse is based on the motives of prophecy Book of Iona.

Three verses. Vladimir Kaganov

These three lyrical verses are united by the motives of autumn melancholy and thoughts about transience of the time.

Nosolomov. Anna Fain

The story reveals the atmosphere of Jewish life in the Russia’s turning point – at the beginning of the perestroika. The iron curtain was just open and Soviet Jews got the possibility of learning their forefathers’ culture without being afraid of arrests. But at that time there were no ulpans and people gathered at somebody’s flats. It was the lessons of Hebrew that brought together such different people as Itamar, a teacher, son of Kibbutz woman who came from Israel, and Vera, quiet intelligent Moscovite.

A pig in oranges. The cup of Eliahu. The guard of the grave. Yakov Shekhter

A pig in oranges

This novel shows a fantastic intertwining of fates. Shloime, a boy from Kaunas, who survived from concentration camp by miracle, having lost all his family, has made aliah and become a pious Chassid. Little girl, Sonya, who got into orphan house as a daughter of "an enemy of the nation" after her father was arrested, became a teacher in a far-off Siberian village and got married. When her husband got seriously ill and the Soviet medicine turned out to be unable to cure him, they left for Israel to their granddaughter. These people, residing different worlds, prove to be connected by a thread, which saves their lives.

The cup of Eliahu

The story is narrated by a young man, who witnesses the miracle at seder – the visit by Eliahu the Prophet, and this seder will be a memorable event for all his life.

The guard of the grave

The young man accepts an uneasy commitment to be the guard of the legendary Vilno Gaon. The story tells how this "position" changed not only his life but also lives of people surrounding him. Mystical, immaterial phenomena are presented as real as our everyday life.

Seminar "Art and tradition". Gallit Yakubman

The seminar "Art and tradition" is the first in the cycle of seminars to be held within the new project of "The New Jewish school". (started in September 2002) The seminar was held in St. Petersburg in January 2003. Many teachers feel aching necessity of creation of new integral courses. This was the topic of discussion of the participants of the seminar, who were not only studying proposed courses but also exchanging experience and working out new ideas.

The seminar for professional growth of kindergarten teachers. Gallit Yakubman

The seminar for professional growth of kindergarten teachers took place in Moscow in May 2003. All the teachers invited to the seminar could participate in its preparation – that is to answer the questionnaire. By the results of the questionnaire the organizers arranged the work in three directions: studying of Jewish classical texts; methodology of teaching; exchange of experience. The common difficulties and the ways out of this or that everyday professional work problems were discussed at the seminar.

What was spoken about in the “lobby”? Zakhar Rokhlin

On December 21-23 in Moscow there was a meeting of the leaders of methodological centers. As there were more workers of non-formal education the meeting itself was rather informal and had a “speaking” title. As a rule, the most sincere talks are held in lobby of seminars – so the organizers accepted the “the lobby interview” principle as the essence of the seminar by constructing three thematic blocks: analysis of the problems; study block and discussion.

Korchak meetings in St. Petersburg. Zakhar Rokhlin

Korchak meetings in St. Petersburg unite not only teachers but all those who wish to talk about modern education. It is not an ordinary «teachers’ council» or an official "meeting" but meetings of creative people ready for dialogue and searching for new. Usually the meeting consists of two parts: the first is a classical "round table", the second is training in free game manner. Such a non-standard approach to discussion of the aching problems enables not only to get more comfortable for further communication but also to receive creative impulse for further work.

Jewish methodological centers in the territory of the former USSR. Gallit Yakubman

This article consists of the magazine edition of the reference book on Jewish methodological centers in the territory of the FSU. The reference book includes several chapters made according the geographical principle. Each methodological center is described according to several parameters: aims, tasks, directions of work, activities, site characteristics and coordinates of the center for anyone to send questions, wishes and proposals of cooperation.

Teaching activities of the Ukrainian center of studying the history of Holocaust. Anatoly Podolsky

The Ukrainian center of studying the history of Holocaust has been active since 2002 in Kiev. The author tells about the first results of informational and research work.

Regional center for modeling of the activities of establishments with Jewish ethnocultural component. Tatiana Feldblum

What does the notion of "modeling of the activities of establishments" mean? What factors influence this process, what is specific in modeling the activities of Jewish educational establishments? The author tells about the work of the organization, about its tasks and the results of their fulfillment and what should be considered in the structure of Jewish school. She also touches aching problems of Jewish education, pays much attention to the problem of teachers' professional growth: for instance, the "School for teachers" for teachers of the whole FSU to gather, change the experience and study, which has been created. Such a School, as well as other successful pedagogical activities can be realized only in case of cooperation of all educational centers and other Jewish organizations.

The project "Jewish teachers’ council on-line" Anna Fein

«Teachers’ council», so familiar to any teacher, is now presented in a new way: as an Internet-forum. The site of Lookstein center opens doors only for of its virtual «teachers’ council» for discussion and solving of many actual problems and also of the methodological cabinet to find necessary material and leave your own one; to exchange experience with the colleagues. It also has a library with a great number of books on Jewish history and tradition.

International association of Jewish educators and cultural workers "Echo”. Ariel Borshevsky, Moshe Navon.

The international association "Echo" is, first of all, "creative laboratory", which seeks to unite Jewish educators and workers of Jewish culture in the Internet space. The authors describe the tasks and aims of the Association, tell about the results of the first year of work and invite all interested to their site to chat and cooperate.

«Public editorial board-2003 »: the results of questioning the readers. Zakhar Rokhlin

Before this issue was passed to the typography, the editorial board of "The New Jewish school" had sent to all the subscribers the questionnaire in order to learn what topics are the most actual and what materials are most needed. The new issue was compiled with consideration of the data received by this questioning, thus the readers have made a kind of "public editorial board".

Forums of “The New Jewish school”. Zakhar Rokhlin

Many of the almanac readers meet also in the virtual space: at the site of the Pedagogical Club “The New Jewish school”. The site has several active forums, which raise different topics and discuss various matters. The article presents the short survey of the content of the forums.

Holocaust of Soviet Jews: the truth to be learnt. Leonid Smilovitzky

The article presents a review of the book by Ilya Altman “Victims of Hatred. Holocaust in the USSR, 1941-1945.” – Fund Kovcheg. M., 2002

The author of the review stresses the extreme importance of appearing of the books about Holocaust for young Russian-speaking reader as well as for historians and Holocaust researchers.

The myth embodied. Alexander Lvov

The review of the book by A. Yu. Militaryov The myth embodied: the Jewish idea in civilization. M., Natalis, 2003.

The reviewer polemizes with the author of the book, critically processes his concept and presents his own point of view.

The author of the survey – Marina Galaktionova