The Melton Center is embarking on a new project: expanding knowledge about Jewish schools. We proceed from the question of how the knowledge acquired with the Master's degree can enrich the work of educators in these institutions; what challenges and opportunities are facing schools in the community; what impact Jewish schools have on the identity and sense of belonging of students in the region; and what the most effective pedagogical strategies and approaches are for transmitting Jewish values and heritage.

Through the stories of different professionals from these institutions, we will seek to highlight the work and impact that individuals and communities have on Jewish education, to learn from their experiences, and to promote quality education that reinforces the students’ Jewish identity and contributes to their growth.

Martin Buber School, Buenos Aires, Argentina
This year, the Martin Buber School is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Born as a kindergarten one year after the foundation of Bet Am Palermo - the non-profit association that laid the foundations for its creation - the school chose the name of the Jewish thinker recognized for his philosophy of dialogue, Martin Buber. With the later addition of primary and secondary levels, the institution was consolidated and managed to grow over six decades as a "bilingual, Jewish, pluralistic, democratic school, with strong roots in our country [Argentina] and committed to the State of Israel."

Erica Herszkowich, general director of the school, maintains that its growth may be attributed to academic excellence, the importance of its values, and the ability to sustain its mission and institutional vision for six decades. “We are a humanist school for children from the age of ten months to 17 years, following Buber’s principles in relation to dialogue, caring for each individual, with the right tension between originality and belonging, with a Jewish atmosphere and with the aspiration to give each student, at each age and evolutionary stage, what he or she needs. (...) These keys to the school are the reason why families choose it,” maintains the director.

Tamara Kullock, a graduate of the Melton Center Master's degree, has been working at Martín Buber as a teacher of Jewish Studies since 2015. She, too, emphasizes that the school's educational endeavor is based not only on academic excellence but also on its pluralistic conception. “It is super demanding, but also super interesting, because it tries to take different perspectives on the same subject, encouraging the students to think critically from different angles; not to present them with a single vision on a particular subject, but rather to bring different dilemmas and real problems.” As a teacher, she also appreciates that the divisions, at the secondary level, are always changing. “It allows the kids to form groups, dissolve them, form others. The conception of the school as a meeting place is sustained,” she adds.
 

English, Hebrew, and adaptations to the present
In the first decades of its life, the school did not place special importance on learning English (today, English is one of its areas of excellence), Erica tells us. In primary school, the afternoon was originally devoted to Jewish studies. This changed over the decades, although the teaching of Hebrew, considered the key to the culture of the Jewish people, was never abandoned. Today, the school is bilingual Spanish-English, since "that is what families demand, because they choose the school fundamentally so that the children are citizens of the world, and the key to the world is English," says the director. In this sense, the school has adapted over the years to the needs of each era, “although I think that it is still the same school, with its same essence, with its same mission and vision,” she adds. “It’s for this reason we have earned our reputation in the community; because it is a school that kept changing and at the same time remains the same.”.

The curriculum stipulates work by levels in English, Hebrew, and some subjects in the realm of Jewish Studies. Sometimes starter levels are also opened in the high school in mathematics or language, so as to integrate students who come from other institutions. These strategies allow the school to address the challenge of diversity posed mainly by the high school level, which brings together students from Jewish traditional, Orthodox, and even non-Jewish primary schools. But the challenge of integrating a diverse student body also requires the presence of tutors, who “take care of people beyond their status as students. We work on personal growth, sex education, the prevention of drugs and alcohol, and social integration,” says Erica.

In relation to the Jewish content, the school calendar is managed around the Hebrew calendar, such that the Jewish festivals and commemoration dates are part of the institutional climate. “The families are Jewish and they want their children to live in a Jewish climate. Judaic Studies are part of the official content and Hebrew is compulsory from kindergarten to third year,” says Erica. In the last two years, Jewish education is conducted through elective workshops, including Jewish identity seminars and study tours. There are also voluntary activities organized by the tzedakah (charity) department, which seeks to get students to commit to what is happening in their broader social context. “We carry out social action activities promoting dialogue, encounters and transformation. It is a realm of which the school can be proud,”, adds Tamara, who coordinates the tzadakah activities.

Buber and the community
Sixty students were registered in 1963, the year Buber was founded. Today there are more than 1,300 students enrolled in its three levels. Especially in the last 15 years, the number of students has increased exponentially. In this sense, the challenges to Martin Buber’s continued growth are related to the integration of students and their families in the institution, and the creation of a containing community framework that reflects on its diversity. “Without a doubt, the creation of a community is one of our main challenges. Since we are not a religious school, of the sort where the community is involved, we are working and trying to focus on that aim, because it must be cultivated,” says Erica.

Tamara says that in the course of studying towards the Melton Master's degree, she found materials to educate herself and her students in many perspectives and issues that are of special interest today, such as feminism in relation to Judaism. “The Master's degree gives you tools to rethink education with a more global vision. Reading Tamar Ross, Judith Plaskow, and Ethel Barylka allowed me to think about how to build a feminist Judaism,” she says. In addition, during her time on the program she was able to rethink certain stereotypes about Orthodoxy and understand Israel from new perspectives. "There is an Israel that I got to know from my degree, and it allowed me to generate dialogues and problematize what we were not problematizing," she adds.

Thanks to
Erica Herszkowich, General Director of the Martin Buber School. Master in Management of Educational Projects, UCAECE. Professor in Political Science, USAL. Degree in Political Science, UBA. Certification as Hebrew teacher by the Higher School of Pedagogy and Jewish Studies, Michlelet Shazar.
Tamara Kullock, teacher at the Martin Buber School, graduated in Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires and in Judaic Studies at the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary. She is a recent graduate of the Master’s of Education from the Melton Center. Recognized with the Dean's award for excellence in her studies, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.