Itan Tennenbaum, seated, shows area educators how to use his new interactive education material about Israel. They are, in front, Hindy Krinsky, and behind, from left, Josh Greenbaum, Betty Golub, and Dana Brenner. Photo by Elaine Durbach
May 22, 2008
Six local teen education programs are to receive an up-to-the-minute way to help their students learn more about Israel.
The Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey has purchased newly released interactive software that allows educators to pull up film clips, check maps, read or hear text, examine alternative scenarios to political dramas, and explore related background.
Sharing in the new tool are six institutions: Chabad Jewish Center of Basking Ridge, Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, Temple Emanu-El in Westfield, Temple Har Shalom in Warren, Temple Sholom in Fanwood, and the Jewish Community Center of Central NJ in Scotch Plains.
Educators from those institutions gathered at the federation on May 19 for a learning session with software developer Itan Tennenbaum.
Tennenbaum said it would take two years of weekly Hebrew school classes to use all of the material on the two-disc set.
Yet the idea is to dip into the enormous menu whenever a teacher chooses to augment a class discussion. The educators present said they hope to start using the software in the next school year.
Tennenbaum demonstrated a segment about the process by which Israel’s founders decided what form the state should take. An exhausted David Ben-Gurion is shown wiping the sweat from his forehead. One of his fellow negotiators describes how they all succumbed to his passionate certainty. By clicking here or there, arguments for and against different scenarios could be explored, with their possible consequences.
In another chapter, delving into the background of the Six-Day War, the software offers an interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He related how the Soviet foreign minister lied to Arab leaders, saying Israel was massing troops on the Syrian border in the hopes of triggering a conflict and supposedly futile American intervention.
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Tennenbaum, an Israeli who spent his teen years in the United States, explained that he returned to this country with his wife to serve as an emissary in Minneapolis. Frustrated by the lack of good material to use in teaching about Israel, he came up with the idea of creating an interactive tool that could be adapted to all kinds of uses.
It took him two years to pull together this first phase — finding the financial backers; working with teachers, video designers, and editors; and finally doing outreach to his potential users. He is currently visiting the United States to follow up with 20 organizations that have already purchased the software. “I’m hoping to reach 100,” he said.
He is also planning to expand the Israel Interactive lineup to include material for much younger children — but that is still in the planning stage.
“We’re excited by the chance to complement the fine work of educators in our community and provide an additional opportunity for our children to learn more about Israel,” said federation executive vice president Stanley Stone. “This software is something that can be shared by synagogues and day schools, creating an economy of scale. Most important, we believe it will help foster a broader intellectual and emotional connection with Israel.”
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