How Do We Develop Jewish Identity?
a guide for ḥeider
Why such a guide?Why Do We Need a Guide for Ḥeider?
❋ For teachersIt provides a common direction and a pedagogical framework, so that everyone who teaches in ḥeider knows what we are aiming for, regardless of subject or grade level.
❋ For studentsIt gives motivation for why they learn what they learn, and how they themselves are moving upward through the lighthouse—toward a confident, reflective, and proud Jewish identity.
❋ For parentsIt creates transparency about what the children encounter in ḥeider and shows that teaching is about more than knowledge—it is also about skills and identity, and about building a safe and vibrant core Jewish identity.
“The guide is therefore both a steering document and a source of inspiration. It helps us stay on course and reminds us why we in DMT are passionately committed to Jewish education.”
Dorit Grant Kohn
Ḥeider Coordinator
Michael Kohn
Pedagogical Leader
How do we develop Jewish identity?
In ḥeider we work to lead the students through a lighthouse toward a secure Jewish identity. At the foot of the lighthouse, children begin first grade with the basics: Alef, Bet, Gimel, what we eat on Rosh Hashana, and what we say to one another in the synagogue on Shabbat. As they spiral upward, their knowledge becomes deeper, their understanding more nuanced, and their reflections more personal. Themes such as Hebrew, Rosh Hashana, Shabbat, DMT, charity, visiting the sick, and kashrut repeat again and again.
The Lighthouse Analogy
It builds on Jerome Bruner’s (1960) spiral principle: students encounter the same themes several times through the years but at increasingly higher levels. Each round of the spiral gives deeper understanding and more advanced skills, gradually moving them upward.
Janet Kolodner has researched identity in general and Jewish identity in particular. In her article Fostering Identity and Disposition Development in Jewish Education (2019), she describes how we can design teaching that helps develop strong Jewish identities.
What is identity?
She defines identity as the experience of being a certain type of person, and of adopting the attitudes, values, practices, and skills associated with that type of person.
With a secure Jewish identity, she explains, many will describe their attitudes, values, practices, and skills as expressions of their Jewishness.
Identity vs. Core Identity
A person may have many different identities in life, and some may be temporary or situational—such as “the football team’s goalkeeper” or “camp counselor.” These are fleeting senses of self.
Core Identity
A core identity, by contrast, is the part of the self that we carry with us across various situations and contexts, shaping how we think, act, and make decisions.
James Paul Gee (2000) explains that a core identity is a set of values, attitudes, knowledge, and practices that we bring from one environment to another. When our core identity is Jewish, we try to think with Jewish frames of reference and act in Jewish ways—in the synagogue, in ḥeider, in the classroom, and even while playing football.
What is the aim and how do we reach our aim?
Our goal is for part of the children’s core identity to become Jewish. Following Gee, this means they should develop a Jewish self-understanding that applies not only in Jewish settings, but also follows them naturally into everyday life and the various environments they are part of.
In ḥeider, knowledge, skill, and identity go hand in hand at every grade level. It is not that we first learn facts, then skills, and finally identity—all three dimensions are present throughout. The difference is that both the questions we ask and the answers the students give become deeper and more advanced over the years.
Knowledge, skills, and reflection thus move together through the entire spiral, always at a level appropriate to the children’s age and maturity.
Example:
rosh hashana
First Grade
In first grade, a theme might be apples and honey for Rosh Hashana—what we eat, and how we say “Shana Tova” to one another. We start with concrete, recognizable activities that children can easily connect with: simple words and expressions, familiar rituals and holidays, basic prayer and song. These early activities build curiosity and lay the foundation for later learning.
food
In fellowship
For this to succeed, ḥeider teaching must be supplemented with authentic communal experiences. This is part of DMT’s model, giving children chances to form genuine Jewish experiences.
communal
experiencesAuthentic
Learning happens in authentic contexts where children see, hear, and experience what it means to be part of the Jewish community.
IntrospectionReflections
Whether in Yachad, when carrying Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah, singing Adon Olam on the bimah, attending communal Shabbat dinners, or joining holiday services.
What do you like best about eating apples and honey?
What does it mean to start fresh when a new year begins?
How can Rosh Hashana become an important part of my Jewish identity as a teenager?
What do I want to carry forward from my family’s Rosh Hashana traditions?
We want the reflections about why this is valuable to me to mature over time. In first grade the answers may be simple and concrete, while in the upper grades the answers should ideally be more thoughtful, personal, and grounded in both Jewish knowledge and life experience.
Reflections on identity
One of the cornerstones of our guide is that reflection should not begin only in the higher grades, but as early as possible.
It is crucial because it is important practice to reflect on one’s own participation in ḥeider, and partly because we do not see that knowledge on its own will lead to a Jewish core identity (Kolodner, p. 32).
Example
One example from DMT is the bat mitzvah assignment in Oslo, where girls are asked to describe what they imagine their family life will look like at age 25. One reflection described Friday night in her own adult home—freshly baked challot, Kiddush, and Shabbat dinner—as a natural and cherished part of each week. This ability to imagine a future life where Jewish traditions are alive shows how identity reflection can grow from the concrete to the visionary.
PRAKSIS-FELLESKAP
Learning from each other
We build on the theories of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, who show that learning happens best when people participate in communities of practice—groups that share experiences, work on tasks together, and learn from one another. In ḥeider we are such a community of practice. New students begin with the simplest forms of participation. They observe, try things out, and take part in tasks at their own level. Over time, they move from being new members to becoming central participants who can guide and serve as role models for the younger children—for example, a student who in first grade could only sing along on the refrain of Adon Olam, but who in sixth grade leads the entire song for the younger children at Kabbalat Shabbat; students who first take part in Kiddush and later organize Kiddush with their class; a student who learns Alef-Bet in first grade and a few years later sings Anim Zemirot in the synagogue; or a student who eventually becomes a ḥeider teacher as a teenager.
Our Direction—The Lighthouse That Guides the Way
Starting from the bottom
As a lighthouse, we send out a strong light of Jewish values, rituals, and community. Students begin at the base and spiral upward, year by year, toward the top—a secure, reflective, and personal Jewish identity.
Goals
At the same time, we must be mindful that strong teaching depends on clear learning goals, consistent follow-up, and good understanding of the students’ experiences. Inspiration from camp life—community, joy, and engagement—is valuable, but only when paired with clear goals and assessment of how those goals are met.
Role Model
Those who reach the upper levels of the lighthouse can see farther—they gain broader insight, richer experience, and a deeper understanding. They can emerge as role models in Jewish tradition and culture for others who know less.
Our Direction—The Lighthouse That Guides the Way
Starting from the bottom
As a lighthouse, we send out a strong light of Jewish values, rituals, and community. Students begin at the base and spiral upward, year by year, toward the top—a secure, reflective, and personal Jewish identity.
Goals
At the same time, we must be mindful that strong teaching depends on clear learning goals, consistent follow-up, and good understanding of the students’ experiences. Inspiration from camp life—community, joy, and engagement—is valuable, but only when paired with clear goals and assessment of how those goals are met.
Role Model
Those who reach the upper levels of the lighthouse can see farther—they gain broader insight, richer experience, and a deeper understanding. They can emerge as role models in Jewish tradition and culture for others who know less.
Our Direction—The Lighthouse That Guides the Way
Starting from the bottom
As a lighthouse, we send out a strong light of Jewish values, rituals, and community. Students begin at the base and spiral upward, year by year, toward the top—a secure, reflective, and personal Jewish identity.
Goals
At the same time, we must be mindful that strong teaching depends on clear learning goals, consistent follow-up, and good understanding of the students’ experiences. Inspiration from camp life—community, joy, and engagement—is valuable, but only when paired with clear goals and assessment of how those goals are met.
Role Model
Those who reach the upper levels of the lighthouse can see farther—they gain broader insight, richer experience, and a deeper understanding. They can emerge as role models in Jewish tradition and culture for others who know less.
“An important part of the lighthouse analogy is that those who make their way up the lighthouse can see farther and more broadly—they gain a wider perspective, experience more, and become more enlightened and insightful.”
Knowledge+skills+identity
Research shows that identity develops when
1. The learning environment helps students value what they learn and practice.
2. Students connect knowledge and skills with identity (Brown, 2006).
3. Students engage in the authentic activities of those they are meant to identify with, in ways that foster advanced skills and understanding.
4. We help them value what they practice and learn—and then help them imagine more than they have yet experienced, feeling part of a group they come to cherish.
Thus we do not just build knowledge and skills—we help young people carry their Jewishness confidently and proudly, as a light in their own lives and for those around them.
What Does This Mean for Teaching in Ḥeider?
Bottom
Knowledge, skills, and identity must all appear clearly over the course of the year—not necessarily in every lesson, but in the whole of the teaching cycle.
A theme may focus on knowledge in one lesson, skills in another, and reflection in a third.
Example
One lesson may teach the words Shana Tova and that we use a machzor on holidays instead of a siddur (knowledge).
Another may involve learning a Rosh Hashana prayer and practicing saying Shana Tova (skill).
A third may guide reflection on the personal value of prayer (identity).
Core Identity
Those who reach the upper levels of the lighthouse can see farther—they gain broader insight, richer experience, and a deeper understanding. They can emerge as role models in Jewish tradition and culture for others who know less.
Hebrew
We teach Hebrew alphabet and reading practice to all children in ḥeider every week for 30 minutes.
Why
Hebrew
When Hebrew reading has a central place in teaching, we give the children not only a skill but an entryway into community, prayer, and identity. This reflects the guide’s emphasis that knowledge, skills, and reflection must go hand in hand from first grade upward.
Jerome Bruner (1993) writes that storytelling is a fundamental way of thinking: we understand ourselves, others, and our place in the world through the stories we tell—and those stories depend on the language we have.