At the end of last week our Moriah College students, teachers and guests entered Shabbat filled with optimism and an inner joy. This joy emanated from two key sources.
One source was the welcoming of our very own Children’s Sefer Torah into the Moriah Family. As this priceless gift came to its final completion with the word Yisrael, it commenced its journey through the College to meet all its recipients. Surrounded by our children, the Sofer, Rabbonim, Foundation Directors, College Board members, College Leaders and esteemed guests, the Torah wove a pathway from the Early Learning Centre into the Primary School and through to the High School. Each phase of the journey unfolded with the anticipation and unbridled joy of opening a long-awaited gift; repeatedly both young through to older approached their beloved new Torah with eager anticipation, careful attention to the Torah readings and joyous dance to celebrate this newest addition to our College. Finally, and with great satisfaction, the Torah came to rest in the Hugo Lowy Synagogue’s Aron Ha Kodesh. It was surrounded by the beautiful singing of the Primary School Choir.
The second source was our Primary School Assembly, which was dedicated to celebrating our 80th anniversary as a robust and thriving Jewish educational institution and College. Wise and strong, all aspects of the College are well positioned for a promising future.
Reflecting on the day with our students in that Primary School Assembly, the below four key ideas were flagged.
The Founding Vision Persists
The vision of our founder Abraham Rabinovitch, and those who embraced his dream to establish a Jewish Day School following the tragedy of the Shoah, is even more significant today than ever before. It continues today through our College Board, Foundation, College Leadership and through the tireless efforts of each team, both academic and operational that ensures that Moriah College thrives and grows from strength to strength. The initial vision of teaching children about their Jewish heritage inclusive of ritual, tradition and practice that would anchor them in their identity and provide them a safe place to grow as Jewish children, was seen as a vibrant reality in every corner of the Campus on Friday. What is even more evident is that instead of time causing a dwindling of passion and focus associated with this vision, it has intensified. It is heart-warming is that no member of this Moriah Family, both young and old, from ELC students to members of the Grandparents Club, takes any aspect of the environment for granted. Gratitude is evident and an appreciation for this critical institution is palpable.
The College anchors the Community
Our Primary School students completed an art installation in honour of our 80th Anniversary, which included a self-portrait of each child from Year K to 6. This collective Installation was unveiled in Friday’s assembly and every child looked adoringly at the place they secured in this visual. The inherent story in this installation is that no school can be complete until every child feels like they belong. Proudly it can be stated that every educator, without fail, ensures that their students know how valued and important they are as a member of our community; when one soul hurts, the collective hurts and so, through purposeful practice and careful attention to keeping students well and healthy, each child understands that this is the place that they belong. It is safe, trustworthy, and reliable through pandemics, economic failure, or war. No matter what, it provides the best of education, it always holds students accountable, it loves, and it secures. Children are connected to their parents, and the parent body also benefits from school-based mechanisms.
The Torah that our precious students received last Friday belongs to them because it is them. Our students understand from early on how their mezuzot protect their households, bringing safety, blessings, and security to their inhabitants. The Torah protects their hearts, their emotional and moral centre. The moment of welcoming their own Torah was the moment that they understood that the words in this “life guide” were especially for them and would help them to know how to do the right things when responding to others, those moments when faced with choosing fair or kind over selfish and right.
This generation of students is all too aware of the cocoon of physical safety that is offered inside the walls of our school. They are aware of the increased physical security around the College, which is reinforced with a reassuring narrative that ensures their psychological safety. Of late they have observed the increased traffic of students from Israel joining their classes instead of continuing in their own schools due to safety concerns. Without instruction they enact the Torah and the code of conduct of their school as they welcome these new peers with sophisticated care and gentle warmth, and they do the same to the many local students who are cued to join their Year levels in the new year.
Parents as partners are the cornerstone of educating children into teenagerhood. Generally, they have the greatest influence in their child’s life and their wellbeing and security is linked to parent sentiment and parent narrative. Parent trust and positive, supportive connection over the current challenging time has been admirable and appreciated, and gratitude is extended to them for steadying their nerves and doing what is right, measured, and courageous when our emotions might tell us something different. Our students are indeed blessed.
A “Mini Iron Dome” is not enough as we move into the future
Our student body lives within a mini “Iron Dome”. This Iron Dome is made up of three major components anchoring students in a nurturing cocoon. The rituals and practices of Jewish life anchor students in a sense of belonging. The evident security and reassuring narratives underpinned by authentic safe practices reassure them that they are not in danger. The team of educators and well-being specialists who maintain the highest standards of education and self-care despite the challenging context remains unwavering. This Iron Dome anticipates challenge, identifies harm, and ensures that all our students can go freely about their formal and informal learning unhampered and uninterrupted.
This however is not enough to ensure a guaranteed future. Future-ready students need to have a well-developed understanding of the world of social media, and how to leverage technology and artificial intelligence. They need a high level of capability to advocate for Israel and Jewish existence because we now clearly understand that we have seen the rise of antisemitism with manifestations in cataclysmic events. This happens gradually and then suddenly a terrible event occurs, so our students need a keen awareness of history as well as world trends, and higher order thinking skills, to pivot with agility, creativity, and resilience as the various tides of change impact their Jewish community. And finally, they need to understand how to steady themselves by regulating their emotions so that they can do what they need to do during tough times. Our current offerings across the College ensure this preparation because as we have seen, we cannot simply trust that something is protecting us, rather our collective intelligence needs to shape what is around us.
The rights of the child will always be prioritised
Every day each student that enters the gates of the College brings a range of their own strengths and needs and simply wants to live their best life in the best way. No matter what, the educators throughout the College prioritise their students. The challenges of today’s world are acknowledged respectfully, with compassion and solidarity at an age-appropriate level. Inside of the College gates these challenges are suspended temporarily to ensure that every child accesses their full rights to learn, to play, to connect with their peers and to feel safe. Our future leaders deserve this right and their environment gifts it to them without missing a beat.
On Friday, we watched our students dancing hopefully and excitedly around the Torah, injecting energy and goodness into the world and hard the comment, “This lifts the spirit and makes a dark time feel lighter for a while”. The uplifting experience went a long way to comfort the communal hurt that is ubiquitous. It reminds us that to keep ourselves renewed, recharged and in good shape to manage the next hurdle, we need to grant ourselves permission to consciously establish moments of respite and do what it takes to lift the spirit. Our celebration of Moriah and our Children’s Sefer Torah, our connection to our core values and purpose, provided this respite. We say happy anniversary to our institution of hope, Moriah College, with more earnestness and significance that ever before, as it grows the minds and spirits capable of ensuring our very survival. We also say thank you to our Moriah Foundation, the donors and the many who purchased a letter, word or parsha, for a gift that matches the gift of our College, our Children’s Sefer Torah.
Am Yisrael Chai – we will go from strength to strength, without question.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lynda Fisher is the Head of Primary School at Moriah College in Queens Park, NSW.
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