TEDxTelAviv takes place in the Nalaga’at Center on the Jaffa Port. TED is an extremely important conference that takes place in America and revolves around innovation, technology, media and research. This independently organized version of TED for Tel Aviv has impressively decided to not ignore the anomaly that is a country with an abundant amount of innovation as well as conflict. The theme of this years TEDx Tel Aviv is "Thriving on Turmoil" which "reflects the inherent contradictions that characterize Israel: ancient-modern, religious-secular, rich-poor, east-west, devout-irreverent, tradition-innovation." The conference "will demonstrate how this diversity has catalyzed cutting edge technology, world-class research, great works of art and ingenious social entrepreneurship."

While the turmoil doesn't seem to be fading in the least, let's take this day to acknowledge the fact that Israel and the organizers of TEDxTelAviv are using some of the most positive things about the country to try and discuss and deal with the not so pleasant things. More importantly there will be both Israeli and Palestinian experts and entrepreneurs presenting.

Don't forget that even if you couldn't make it to the beautiful port of Tel Aviv-Jaffa you can still watch conference live here and participate in discussions stemming from their Facebook Page, Twitter feed and Twitter #hashtag #TEDxTelAviv. Lastly, check out the guide with the list of phenomenal speakers that will be sharing there experiences.

The first thing you notice upon entering the main hall is the GINORMOUS screen: hundreds of feet long — running the length of the great hall, seamless, bright, multi messaged, multiple video feeds — stunning. As I entered the room with fellow press member David Saranga of the Aspen Center/IDC, both of us stopped in our tracks and were speechless– we immediately began to take pictures. My first thought was of the Vancouver Olympics which before that I had not seen such incredible use of media and projection. In a much tinier setting, AIPAC captivated the audience and drew us into their story… which is the theme of this year's event:

"Israel: Tell the Story"

The many facets of Israel will be told during the conference through videos, stories, experiences and renown speakers.  The clear message is this: Israel —innovator, homeland, light unto the nations.

The first plenary was about Israeli innovation, called "Start-Up Nation," after Dan Senor, the moderator's new book. Led by Senor, this informal chat between Google's Israel Chief, Meir Brand and the Weitzmann Institute's President, Dr. Daniel Zafjman, was a discussion about Israel the Innovator. This sessions was also (unfortunately) the only session I could attend this year at AIPAC.

"Diplomacy through innovation," coined Senor. "Can that be one of the next frontiers in Israel's engagement?"

How can Israel promote itself in the modern world? By showcasing success in business and technology through innovation. I highly recommend "Start-Up Nation," and should get around to reviewing it here at some point soon.

AIPAC has gathered close to ten thousand participants for three days in Washington and  has managed to keep them fully engaged and excited to lobby, advocate, and tell Israel's story.

My friends and I decided to travel to Budapest a few weeks ago for the weekend to see the city and celebrate a birthday. I found an amazing hostel that was really just an apartment, with a common room where we were able to relax and enjoy our downtime from touring. On our way to a restaurant the first night in the city we passed by the enormous Dohany Synagogue, which reminded me that David had mentioned I should get in touch with him.

I shot David an email from my BlackBerry and he quickly responded introducing me to Eszter who works with Marom, a young, non-denominational Jewish organization. Eszter showed my friend and I around the neighborhood she hangs out in and at the café/bar/pub, Siraly where Marom hangs out. Eszter explained that the youth movement is an outlet where young Jews from ages 18 thru 35 hang out and come together for different programs and initiatives. We found out that we have the same things in common. We want to travel, we want to spend more time in Israel (a brand new Israeli Center was just opened in the city by the Jewish Agency). and we want to have fun. Eszter was also nice enough to put me in touch with her friend living in Berlin, the city I was headed to the following weekend.

Having the opportunity to pop into a Hungarian city in Europe and feel connected to a group of locals living there is exactly what I love about attending a global university like NYU. While you can always find a Chabad when getting an urge for some Challah, finding a group like Marom is not always the easiest thing. The NYU Jewish communities’ initiative in connecting with other communities around the world, helped my friends and I understand Budapest better than we had ever thought.

Jewish day schools have a unique challenge. Their students are in fact in two schools simultaneously, secular and Judaic. This means that every one of our students is doing twice the work that their public school counterparts are meant to endure. I have often seen high school students on television or in film (usually played by actors and actresses in their mid to late twenties) who seem to have a tremendous amount of time on their hands. I finally understood how that could be when I visited a friend at Rutgers early in my college days (I was at Yeshiva College at the time). He had barely three hours of class a day – and complained about it. I had trouble not smacking him.

Consider what a dual curriculum means to the students: double the work, double the pressure, double the time. Most yeshiva students begin their day before 8 AM, and many end it well after 5 PM. That is nine long hours (often much more), with nary a recess to be found past elementary school. Couple that with the outdated athletic and gym equipment, let alone art or music, that the budgets of many schools can provide, and students are left without either outlet or expression for their frustrations or difficulties. This is a perfect recipe for creating basket cases out of average students, and nervous breakdowns out of normal emotional reactions.

The problem is that there is just too much to learn. Consider the basic subjects: math, English, history, science. Add to that Talmud, Bible, Jewish history, and Hebrew. This is without even the basic electives or additions that so enrich a school: Jewish philosophy, art, music, drama, Zionism…the list goes on and on. And once that school day, long as it is, is over, then the fun begins: sports teams, college preparatory activities (such as SAT preparation), student newspaper, bar mitzvah lessons. Do we really expect our students to have time for all of this? Look at the list above and notice what hasn’t been done yet in the twenty-eight hours of work I have listed. That’s right – the student has yet to do his homework. Or sleep. Or have a social life.

This is not a small problem, nor is it one I am exaggerating. A friend of mine was hospitalized in college for attempting to consistently keep an eighteen hour day. (He later left the college for one with a less rigorous academic program, and spent several years on a mandatory eight-hour-a-night sleep schedule.) One of the twentieth century’s greatest sages, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Hakohain Kagan, better known as the Chofetz Chaim, spent a year of his life away from Torah study, on doctor’s orders, because he came close to working himself literally to death. We are doing our students no favors by driving them to exhaustion. We are merely exhausting them.

Well, maybe that’s not true.

There is one crucial value that is being communicated through a very full day's work: the value of a full day’s work. It is no mystery to me that so many of my friends accept the frankly insane schedules expected of medical or law students; no mystery that so many businesses are delighted to hire religious graduates in accounting or finance jobs. The work ethic that these students are learning, without even knowing it, is making them accustomed to a degree of effort that is unheard of in most schooling environments. The most important thing I learned in Israel is not any piece of Torah I can repeat or any moral lesson I absorbed. It was the ability to focus on a task, for hours at a time, without distraction or difficulty. There is a reason the term is “sitting,” as in “to sit and learn,” and even the word “yeshiva” itself is derived from the Hebrew term for sitting. What did I learn by going to school for nine hours a day? To put in a nine hour day. At age 12.

The purpose of this is not to suggest that we give up on the strenuous and usually stressful education of our children. We simply need to find a better way to transmit the information, skills, and ideology that our students require in a way that is better able to provide the critical lessons without torturing our young people out of their love for both schooling in general and religion in particular.

There has been a tremendous amount of study regarding the concept of block scheduling. This concept hypothesizes that students (and teachers) will perform better if faced with double the time in one subject half as often (meaning eighty minutes of English twice a week as opposed to forty minutes of English four times a week). The theory is not hard to understand. Homework, classwork, the stress level of anticipating a class, and the attention span of students are all improved by giving them fewer things per day to consider. While this is not a simple solution to integrate into a dual curriculum, it can be considered in other ways. For example, we can double the time dedicated to a given subject in one half of the year, and swap it for another subject in the second half of the year. This also gives students a shorter time span to worry about: a shorter semester for a given subject will make a difficult one seem less intimidating, and an exciting one seem more intense.

This is just one of many ways block scheduling might be integrated into our very crowded classrooms. Hopefully, these methods will draw our students into their learning, and not allow them to treat their studies as merely an exercise in endurance.

Read the other posts in Moshe's Education Series:

Part I – Introduction

Part II – No Literature Created Equal

Part III – Bad Timing

In front of me were booths laden with fine wines and gourmet food which for a foodie like myself is akin to achieving nirvana. Systematically I went from booth to booth sampling their showcase dishes. At Le' Marais I had a fantastic lamb chili with an avocado relish. Colbeh a Persian restaurant in Manhattan was featuring grilled skewers of chicken and beef called Koobideh served with a lentil stew and rice. It was superb. Other booths like Dougie's Bar-B-Q served more simple dishes like sliders and popcorn chicken. Pomegranate Supermarket in Brooklyn had three tables set up with carving stations. At the back of the room Nesher Caterers had set up a smörgåsbord of various foods that they specialized in making. Nesher's food ran the gamut ranging from simple fruit platters to much more complex dishes like chicken marsala. Their fried cauliflower was a particular favorite of mine.

Amongst all these well known restaurants serving the very peak of their culinary abilities it would have been easy for smaller, newer restaurants to simply fade into the background but for Basil, a soon to open dairy restaurant in Crown Heights, it was their opportunity to shine. Basil served a tuna tartare with smoked paprika oil and green olive reduction as well as a chocolate truffle with coco nibs and sweet cream sauce that was meant to be squeezed as you ate it from the stem the desert was served on.

"We took the idea from a French style meat ball. We call it the star burst experiance" Said Restaurant Manager Ouri Ivry. Ouri went on to say that they had told the chefs preparing dishes for the event that "we want to go high end and quality. We don't want to cut any corners with what we are presenting". What was all the more impressive is the fact that these foods were made parve by a restaurant specializing in dairy. Overall the experience of the Kosher Restaurant and Wine Experience was amazing. When all was said and done I had been there for five hours. I was overly full but none the worse for wear. Needless to say I am looking forward to next years event.

In the time since Part I of this series appeared, I have been through yet another round of finals, proctoring, lesson planning, and report cards. Enduring the struggle to construct meaningful and relevant lessons for the coming semester while teaching English Literature and Writing in a right-wing yeshiva high school is never simple, and this round was particularly difficult. To understand why, I will need to take you on a short trip through the world of middle and high school literature, its perils and promise, its pitfalls and possibilities.

There are four essential types of literature that are dealt with at this stage: short stories, novels, plays, and poems. Western literature, in particular, seems to be obsessed with two themes above all others, making their presence felt in the pages of the types of works listed here: sex and death. Religion is a common theme as well, but it is often discussed in terms of these two most prominent of topics. The problem with this is that it often makes students and teachers uncomfortable. Shakespeare is a good example: comedies tend to be filled with sex (or at least lewd jokes), and tragedies are filled with death (and often some sex as well). I tend to find the histories kind of boring, but they also tend to be filled with both.

Consequently, the more religious the school, the less willing they are to shove these themes into their students’ faces on a regular basis. Therefore, teachers must consider works that are either mild enough to avoid harming the sensibilities of the students and parents, or are straddling that middle ground of themes that are neither romantic nor depressing. Personally, I would rather be more careful in my selection of literature, making sure the works I chose did not need any editing, than present expurgated literature to my students. The term I have heard since my entry into the world of right-wing secular education is tzniyat einayim, literally “hiding the eyes.” Metaphorically, it implies that just as one should be careful in dressing and behavior to show modesty, one should be careful that the eyes are not exposed to immodest material.

This is a struggle for me every year. In my drive to ensure that non-objectionable material is presented, I often have to endure literature I would prefer to leave aside because it is less problematic than my preferred text. I have come to understand that the trade-off is not the same as intellectual dishonesty, nor is it an unacceptable form of censorship; rather, it is a professional challenge that requires my attention. The challenge is to find literature that does the job I need it to do while meeting levels of moral rigor that are simply beyond most authors. While some consider this inherently dishonest, I see it as an admission that not every student needs to have the most explicit ideas shoved in their faces to make them understand the point. Sometimes, more subtle presentations will be more effective in communicating the relevant ideas, and baseness for shock’s sake (as many films and literature today seem to glory in) is not a literary or intellectual value. In other words, not every movie needs a nude scene to be considered “art.”

But there is another opportunity that is being missed. When considering literature in general, I always ponder the fact that we are called “the people of the Book.” The book of our title is of course the Bible, the book of books, the greatest story ever told. Milton may have thought he was writing the most epic of epics in his Paradise Lost, but let’s be honest, it was mostly derivative. The Bible is where it’s at. And shockingly, the more religious the school, the less likely the students are to be familiar with it.

There is a tendency to believe that when it comes to the literature of our faith, the legal intricacies of the Talmud deserve all the attention. Certainly, Talmud study is viewed as the ultimate intellectual exercise, requiring a degree of analysis and sophistication that is pursued mightily by men of great learning and tremendous intelligence. But it seems that, once students discover the Talmud, they are driven and pushed to pursue only the Talmud – all the other forms of learning that formerly occupied their time are given shorter and shorter shrift. Consequently, forms of learning like Chumash (Pentateuch), Navi (Prophets), Mishna, and Hashkafa (Jewish Philosophy) are viewed as something for kids, without the intellectual rigor the Talmud provides. My own studies have shown me that these other forms are no less fascinating, no less sophisticated, no less meaningful, and no less important than Talmud study; in fact, they are often more essential and basic to the bedrocks and foundations of our faith. But their abandonment so early in the education of our youth means they are viewed as kids’ topics, unworthy of study by the mature mind which, finally developed in adulthood, could gain so much more now that it has the tools with which to truly analyze and plumb the more ancient texts. Surely, the answers to so many of the essential “life questions” that so torture the developing minds of adolescents are to be found there; it was through my study of Jonah when I was in high school, and not the Talmud, that I began to truly understand the meaning behind my own faith.

It is telling that all of our most important touchstones of faith are texts; that is, even our Oral Torah did not stay oral for very long. The story of our people is bound up in every word, no matter how technical and legal it may seem; even the Talmud is replete with tales and legends, from medical advice and battle statistics to crop-raising techniques and demonology. But it seems like the texts that are more explicitly stories – the books of the Bible, later works of philosophy and thought – are often viewed only from afar. Might these make better fodder for the literature teachers? If the rabbis aren’t teaching Jeremiah’s tales, why can’t I?

The answer is that there is a powerful fear of reductionism when it comes to these works. Essentially, the leaders of the faith are nervous that if we start talking about the Bible the way we talk about Shakespeare or Byron or Twain, the book itself will become no more than another piece of literature. Perhaps that is at the root of the abandonment of these texts once Talmud is introduced: if the students continue to study them, they will just become books, with none of the awe and mystery and reverence they deserve.

While I would never advocate studying the Bible as just another book, one way to read it is clearly as a book. There is much to be learned from God’s writing style, from His techniques and twists. There are moments, especially in the early parts of Exodus, that give me chills when read, especially in the original Hebrew. The drama and awesomeness of God’s writing puts any of today’s action movie director’s to shame; I challenge any reader to go through the story of the Splitting of the Sea unaffected. While there are obviously multiple levels of meaning and significance, perhaps we could benefit from reflecting on the literary meaning of such a book; at the least, our students would gain new appreciation for the words themselves, and perhaps pay more attention to the moral and ethical messages. How can The Brothers Karamazov compare to the tales of Jacob’s sons? How can Candide hold a candle to Job? By ignoring these magnificent works, we do our students a disservice.

Because I mean this series to express not only my own conflicts and frustrations, but my thoughts on solutions and improvements, I leave you with this suggestion: our study of secular literature must become more intertwined with our study of religious literature. This kind of cross-curricular involvement will lead the students to a more sophisticated understanding of both kinds of writing. The secular, because the Bible is the source of more tropes and plotlines than any work in history. The religious, because with the application of tools of real literary analysis, the Bible can become a touchstone and a constant in the everyday thoughts of students. Simply put, the Bible is too good a book not to teach. Perhaps the literature teachers can sit in on religious courses to better understand the impact of the text; perhaps the rabbis can receive training in literary analysis to better present the other side. Whatever direction the education tends, it is critical that we stop avoiding this magnificent resource because we are scared of it.

After all, God gave us the Book. How could He not want us to read it with every tool we have?

Read the other posts in Moshe's Education Series:

Part I – Introduction

Part II – No Literature Created Equal

Part III – Bad Timing

I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the Herzliya Conference. I knew a lot of big names (Tzipi Livni, Bibi Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, James Woolsey and more) were going to be speaking but how could I possibly relate to such speeches. I figured they’d be long and probably a bit boring, but most importantly I didn’t think they would speak to me, a twenty-two year old college student who cares a lot more about when the last season of Lost will begin than when Israeli, American and various politicians repeat the same messages on democracy and peace. Then I got to know the new media team that I'm stationed with for the duration of the conference.

If you stroll into the News Room on the second floor of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at IDC you’ll find rows of high tech computers with dual screens and a group of college students who care about Israel, love playing on the internet and want to show the world that they could capture content from the conference better than anyone else while in short form (Tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube clips). The IDC students are extremely impressive. In addition to producing professional radio segments, editing video content at the speed of light and carefully monitoring and taking notes on each panel for real time posting, they are currently in the middle of final exams. That is unheard of on any other campus in the world. Follow the New Media team here.

The second thing keeping us Millennials on our toes are the amazing interviews taking place right in front of our eyes in the Sammy Ofer School’s professional studios. David Saranga, our Chief Editor has interviewed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer, Former CIA Director James Woolsey and Minister of Enviornmental Protection Gilad Erdan, just to name a few, for short and exciting clips that really portray these important figures in a more real and fun way.

Here’s a behind the scenes clip on the New Media Project.

Read Part 1 of  Jewneric's coverage of the Herzliya Conference:

"New Media at the IDC Herzliya Conference"

Natan Edelsburg is an undergrad studying communications at NYU’s Steinhardt School. He blogs for NYULocal.com and Examiner.com. Natan is currently in Israel helping the new media team upload the content from the 10th Annual IDC Herzliya Conference and amplifying the messages via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  Natan is currently stationed in the New Media room of the Herzliya Conference where he is reporting on behalf of Jewneric and officially as part of the IDC NYU New Media Team. The New Media Team, headed by David Saranga and a team of IDC and NYU students is uploading messages from the conference and amplifying them via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to jumpstart conversations via the social web.

As a Jewish student living in New York City and attending NYU I’m influenced by two main sources when it comes to my media consumption. The first being American popular culture whether it be the endless amount of TV shows I religiously watch or the tech blogs I can’t take my eyes away from and more recently my Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds, which converge them all into one. The second source comes from news about Israel. Will my friends and family be able to go to the beach safely next week? Will they have to engage in another war, will there be peace? These questions are important but only facilitate one conversation about Israel.

When I think about Israel, I see beautiful beaches, a vibrant nightlife, cafes booming with entrepreneurs looking to invent the next iPad and an economy that has thrived off Israel’s democratic principles and entrepreneurial spirit. I look forward to the times when I can focus on Israel’s most important fight: how to add dimensions to Israel in a way that conveys all the amazing things the small state has to offer.  As a “millennial” living in the fast-past world of constant, real-time information, I want to receive these messages on the digital spaces that I live in: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. If they’re not there and if they’re not there consistently, my friends and I just won’t have the opportunity to learn about Israel and more importantly we won’t have a medium to pass along to our friends all the amazing things that are happening.

This week the 10^th Annual IDC Herzliya Conference will begin and will host some of the biggest names in politics from around the globe. The prominent figures include Senator John McCain, and diplomats from Hungary, Japan and Germany just to name a few. They will be speaking about topics that range from education and Israel’s elderly population to sustainability and green living in the 21^st century. Israel is leader in green technology. Most recently Israel was commended by Time for plans to lower the tax rate on electric cars while installing more charging stations across the country. It is no surprise that the conference will host multiple panels on different green topics.  I have the chance to assist David Saranga at this conference, the former Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York.

We met on Twitter and I’ve been lucky enough to have him invite me to collaborate on this groundbreaking project. A few summer’s ago David made the dreams of Zionists around the world come true when he secured a MAXIM shoot for Israeli models in a summer issue. More importantly he showed the entire world that Israel too has beaches, beautiful women and a vibrant city. David, myself and a team of new media specialists plan on bringing each one of our networks of friends and followers and their networks of fans and followers the amazing messages that we know will come out of the conference.

Download the agenda from the conference here (http://bit.ly/conferenceagenda) and stay tuned for more coverage.

Natan Edelsburg is an undergrad studying communications at NYU’s Steinhardt School. He blogs for NYULocal.com and Examiner.com. Natan is currently in Israel helping the new media team upload the content from the 10th Annual IDC Herzliya Conference and amplifying the messages via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  Natan is currently stationed in the New Media room of the Herzliya Conference where he is reporting on behalf of Jewneric and officially as part of the IDC NYU New Media Team. The New Media Team, headed by David Saranga and a team of IDC and NYU students is uploading messages from the conference and amplifying them via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to jumpstart conversations via the social web.