Welcome to another episode of The Jews Next Dor! We have the great pleasure to hear from Professor Shoshana Schechter.
Professor Shoshana is a graduate of Stern College for Women, with a B.S. in both Judaic Studies and English Literature, and holds master’s degrees from Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Columbia University School of Journalism.
Mrs Schechter is the Associate Dean of Torah Studies at Stern College for Women and the director of the Mechina program. The Mechina program, which she founded 17 years ago, accommodates students who did not receive a formal Jewish education prior to their enrollment at Stern College.
She has also taught Tanakh and English at various high schools in the New York area. She's a frequent lecturer on topics in Tanakh and has been involved in Jewish outreach programs on four continents. She lives in New Hampshire, New York, with her husband and five children.
Timestamps:
01:30 Teaching Torah in the USSR at 16
09:33 Taking ownership of your Torah
11:54 Parents as role models and Operation Moses
15:50 USSR programs after the fall of communism
20:04 Getting into formal education
27:28 Should Jewish people attend Jewish College?
30:04 Vision for the foundation of the Mechina program
34:47 Bridging academic with non-academic learning
37:14 Fostering relationships with children through learning
46:30 How to make spiritual teachings applicable?
49:44 Convicting high-school students to have relationship with HaShem
55:01 Preparing women for their parenting role
1:00:09 The flaws of the Jewish school system and how to improve it
1:05:02 Technology, information overload, and the problem of wealth
1:09:16 Balancing relationship with discipline
1:12:01 How to develop a relationship with children?
1:16:48 Developing a relationship with HaShem
1:19:33 Teaching Mechina program students
1:23:30 Wrapping up
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