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Author David Grossman Joins Latin American Jewish Educators in Virtual Roundtable |
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 The Jewish Agency’s eAcademy recently conducted a virtual roundtable for 100 Jewish educators, hailing from 16 schools in 6 different countries of Latin America. The roundtable was transmitted in
real-time from Jerusalem via a Web Conference system, which allows the participation of anyone with an internet-connected computer. Thus, participants located in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia were able to converse for 90 minutes with noted Israeli author David Grossman.
Among the topics covered were his writings – in particular his 2001 novel Someone to Run With – and the role of authors and thinkers in current Israeli society. Some of the questions posed to Mr. Grossman were submitted in advance, while others were asked during the live discussion.
Among the participants was Rachel Eichenberg, principal of the Ariel School in Uruguay. "We loved David's unique style of addressing us, as if he were speaking to each one individually…the chance to hear an author describe how he 'builds' each of his characters was a source of astonishment and delight...it is not usual for a master of the written word to be equally skilled as a speaker - but this
time it happened!" she writes. Another educator, Nitza, of the Jewish school in Tucuman, Argentina, described the event as “an hour and a half of intellectual and emotional enjoyment in the presence of a noted author and a great man…we can only wish you much success as we look forward to more events of this type."
The virtual roundtable was the culminating event of the eAcademy distance-learning course on "Democracy and Jewish Values as Reflected in Israeli Children's Literature". The month-long course for Latin American students, taught by Dr. Rachel Korazim, included lectures, readings, and interactive discussions among the participants, guided by a moderator, all of which were facilitated by internet-based distance-learning technology. This was the second course run under the auspices of "Reshet.il", a network of Jewish schools organized by Gabi Kleiman of the Jewish Agency's Education Dept. The goals of the network are to strengthen the educators' Israeli connections and to help them develop
innovative methods of teaching their students about Israel.
eAcademy offers a wide variety of courses related to Israel, which can be taken anywhere in the world. For further information about eAcademy, click here, http://www.jacontact.org/eAcademy.htm or email directly to eAcademy@jafi.org
05.12.05
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