Continued Collaboration with The Teacher Institute for the Arts program (TIA)

Weber’s Director of Interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Linda Parmet continues her collaboration with The Teacher Institute for the Arts program (TIA), which provides Jewish Studies and Art educators with innovative Toolkits to explore Jewish texts and values through the visual arts. The toolkits provide a stimulating resource to cultivate creativity and kindle intimate connections to Judaism. The founders of this venture are world-renowned artist David Moss, Rabbi Matt Berkowitz, and Elyssa Moss Robinowitz. 

Last school year, Ms. Parmet’s Honors Jewish Studies Comparative Literature class studied Jewish texts, researched modern writings, and designed a toolkit around Jewish topics relating to moral and ethical dilemmas. The class had regular lessons with Rabbi Berkowitz via Zoom in Jerusalem as they studied ancient Jewish text in the context of today’s ethical dilemmas. “It was an incredible way to provide these students with the opportunity for deeper text study and how they relate to us today.” shared Ms. Parmet.

The goal for the students was to create a toolkit that other Jewish Day Schools would ultimately use in their studies. The TIA staff evaluated the toolkit based on set criteria, including that they should be fresh, original, reproducible, and downloadable.

A few months ago, this class reconvened in front of the current cohort and the Teacher’s Institute for the Arts staff to present their toolkit and show the participating teachers from around the country how to use it with their students. “These students demonstrated complex analytical thinking to create an educational toolkit that provokes and engages participants in a deep discussion about a moral dilemma,” shared Ms. Parmet. “The high caliber of people who came to hear and learn about what these students created were incredibly impressed by the students’ poise, intelligence, and thoughtfulness.” One of the schools shared that they have already used the toolkit created by our Weber students in their classroom in Los Angeles.

We are so proud of our students (pictured L to R with Ms. Parmet), Liana Bernstein, Amelia Heller, Miriam Nadler, and Dov Karlin for creating this toolkit and presenting it so beautifully.