Where Retirement Dreams
Become Reality.

New Israel Program
for Teachers
Addresses ‘Remoteness’
in Diaspora
Jewish Education
Deborah Fineblum | JNS.org
While new food venues (think bistro and pub) and
menus are taking our
newly refreshed
dining options to new heights, overall life at
Lions Gate is better than ever! With our recent
$5 million renovation project, residents enjoy:
kosher •
• •
• •
• Modern fitness center
Sunny art studio
Welcoming community spaces
Spacious apartment homes
Well-designed cottages
Engaging programs & cultural outings
There’s something for everyone to love
at Lions Gate – South Jersey’s premier
retirement living community.

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www.lionsgateccrc.org 1110 Laurel Oak Road
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28 THE GUIDE 2017/2018
F or Shani Tauber, it all came together when her group left the house of
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the religious Zionism pioneer known as
“Rav Kook.”
“We were coming back through the streets of Jerusalem when all of a
sudden it hit me: We are walking the land where everything we’ve been
learning happened,” Tauber said. “And I realized it’s not theoretical here.

You can feel how real it is.”
Tauber, who hails from New Jersey, is one of 15 women spending the
year in Jerusalem in a new program that immerses educators in Jewish
texts and history in the very land where the events transpired.

The seeds of the Eshkolot program were planted several years ago
when Malke Bina, founder of the Jewish education organization Matan,
was visiting the U.S. to meet with day school leaders for what she calls
“brainstorming how to revolutionize Jewish education in the diaspora.”
The topic was a natural fit for Bina, who in 1988 opened Jerusa-
lem-based Matan as one of the first schools offering women a challeng-
ing curriculum in Torah, Talmud and Jewish law. During nearly three
decades, thousands of women have learned with Matan in Israel and
around the world.

But when it came to inspiring Jewish educators from the diaspora, the
challenge was how to give educators the skills needed to make this ancient
wisdom come alive for students 6,000 miles away.

After assembling a faculty of scholars, Matan opened registration last
year for Eshkolot (the Hebrew word describing the finest grapes). Fifteen