Morasha

‘Morasha’ – Kol Israel Haverim is a school intervention program that cultivates a unifying Israeli Judaism in secular government schools, focusing on the socio-geographic periphery. The program guides school management, educational teams, and pupil leadership to develop a values-based discourse on Jewish-Israeli identity that leads to social action. This discourse gives expression to a wide variety of identities in Israeli society, while strengthening the skills and sense of capability of the participants through Beit Midrash dialogic learning.

Morasha guides the school’s management by creating school routines and educational opportunities, influencing the entire school sphere; trains school coordinators to foster the field of Jewish Israeli Culture in the school; coaches teaching teams to implement a learning process that focuses on clarifying Jewish-Israeli identity; and establishes leadership groups of pupils in the schools, who learn and facilitate Havruta dialogue with other pupils, in their classrooms and at school events.

This process of clarifying Jewish-Israeli identity offers a space for a wide-variety of voices and traditions in Israeli society to be heard, especially the Masorti perspective, while creating connections to the traditions of Sephardic Jews. Training pupils and teachers in dialogic pedagogy, and learning in small Havruta groups, enables the expression and empowerment of pupils, who are not often represented in the classroom setting.

Morasha works in partnership with: the Posen Foundation, the Jewish Federations of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Metrowest, and with the support of the Department for Jewish Culture, and the partnership of the Ministry of Education – Heritage Department.

Each year, Morasha guides 1,200 teachers and approximately 14,000 pupils in 30 secular government schools.