What Our Alumni Are Saying...

Mark Wiseman is a Jewish Studies teacher at Akiva Hebrew Day School in Detroit, Michigan

The JTTP MA program gave me an opportunity to turn my commitment to Judaism into a career. My professors in the JTTP were an impressive group of scholars who have opened my eyes to information that has profoundly impacted me. As a graduate of the program, I was extremely well prepared to succeed in my new career.
On a daily basis, I get to be the direct link between a group of kids sitting in a classroom and a Jewish heritage, several thousand years old; both an honor and great responsibility. After two years of full-time studies at McGill, I have my choice of jobs at excellent day schools across North America.

 

Rabbi Rachel Schoenfeld is the rabbi of Shirat Hayam, a congregation in Duxbury, MA, and also teaches Judaic Studies to grades 7 and 8 at The Jewish Community Day School of Boston.

During the JTTP program at McGill, my lifelong thoughts on becoming a rabbi transformed into a reachable goal. After the JTTP, I enrolled in The Reconstructionist Rabbinical School. During my time there, I continued my love for Jewish education. Upon graduation, I taught Judaic Studies at The Shoshana S. Cardin School in Baltimore - a pluralistic Jewish high school. In my current positions, I still rely on details and ways of thinking that I learned during my years in the JTTP program, such as educational philosophy and psychology, and Jewish text skills.

 

 

 

 

 


Lisa Bornstein is the Jewish Student Life Coordinator at Herzliah High School in Montreal, and the Experiential Jewish Program Coordinator for Federation CJA in Montreal.
I enrolled in the JTTP program because of my love for Jewish and Zionist education, as well as the community’s need for informal educators. The JTTP gave me the formal knowledge and tools I needed to be successful, by engaging in-depth concepts of Judaism such as prayer, holidays, and Torah. I learned how to deal with these subjects and the various teaching strategies that make education less structured and more interactive. I also became educated in the different denominations of Judaism, allowing me better insight into who I would be dealing with in a career dedicated to Jewish education. I left JTTP with the confidence needed to win the hearts of Jewish children and make Judaism come alive for them. As the Jewish Student Life Coordinator at a Montreal high school, I empower students with positive feelings about their Jewish identities through informal programs, assemblies, speakers, shabbatonim, etc. In my position at Federation CJA in Montreal, I oversee various informal programs for unaffiliated Jewish youth and act as a resource to supplementary Jewish schools. In both jobs, I am giving youth a sense of belonging and pride in their Judaism, thus playing a role in securing the future of the Jewish people. I am grateful to the JTTP for inspiring me to do what I do, and for giving constant guidance even after my graduation.

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