Hey Teach, THANK YOU!

My name is Rabbi Jodi Gordon, and I'm pumped to be joined by Rabbi Jen Gubitz as we welcome you to the OMFG podcast, Jewish wisdom for unprecedented times. Hey, Jen.

Hey, Jodi. OMFG, what a fabulous 4-letter word. Those 4 letters really do the trick. From OMFG, we moved houses in the rain, to "OMFG, is it weird if I'm asking you your vaccination status?" to "OMFG, I just finished figuring out what to have for dinner yesterday and it's already dinner again today!" As rabbis, we've come to know that when the stories of our lives meet the stories of Jewish tradition, transformation, growth, something awesome occurs.

Jen and I are experts in the letters J and G, Shabbat naps, seltzer flavors for every Jewish holiday, and attending conferences on Zoom. And we want to bring you to our conversations that express our love for Judaism and make it relevant in the world as we mine Jewish wisdom for strength and resilience in these unprecedented times. With a dose of humor, because as the Yiddish proverb reminds us, "As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul." Let's just say for a second, though, that also assumes a lot of showering, and I do laugh perhaps more often than I shower, but I love the idea.

As we get ready for summer, how could we end this bananas, omfg year without talking about teachers? So this week we're celebrating the end of the school year and celebrating teachers, educators, school administrators, support staff who are among the unsung heroes of this past year. We'll talk about what Judaism has to say about the role of teachers in our lives, hear from our guest educator, Jenny Rittberg, who will talk about her experiences from this past year, and offer a hearty message of thanks to all who have passed on their wisdom to our young people and adults alike with so much love and care. So to warm us up, a little game storm. Jody, who was your favorite teacher and 2 sentences about why?

Oh my God, so easy. Her name was Goldie Seiderman. She taught me in 11th grade in a class called Theory of Knowledge. Which was part of the IB curriculum. And my one thing about her that I will never forget is that when she wanted to find out if you had done the reading or if you had something to say, she would sort of swoop in on you and she would say, "Well, Jody, are you a scholar or are you a masquerader?" And I hear that sentence in my mind all the time. Are you a scholar or are you a masquerader? So I will admit she is somebody I Googled during the pandemic just to make sure she's still doing okay. She's in her late 80s but alive and well. So shout out to the wonderful Goldie Seiderman. What about you, Jen?

Did you name your child after her?

No, it was definitely like, oh, if I'm gonna give my daughter this name that I love, how awesome that this teacher who I loved had that name. And my high school friends made a onesie for my daughter Goldie. When she was born that said Goldie on the front and on the back it said, "Are you a scholar or are you a masquerader?" Love it.

So I think I'm gonna go classic and say my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mary Johnson. She was wonderful. Kindergarten was a really difficult time for me because my parents made the decision to add a third kid to our family. And so eventually she supported my decision to bring my baby sister for show and tell. Mrs. Johnson has been part of the Gubitz family for many generations. And so I want to say shout out to Mrs. Johnson from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Weiser Park Elementary School, who is also, I pray, alive and well. Yeah. What was your favorite subject in school?

I— it's so hard to— I, I loved, I loved anything that had to do with writing. So, you know, I loved learning how to like actually write as a very little kid. I loved when they called it language arts in middle school, and I loved English in high school. What about you?

Same. I think at one point I was in language arts enrichment, but I really loved all my English classes, so much so that I became an English major in college. Oh wow, if you were a teacher, what grade would you teach?

Okay, unpopular opinion, I would totally teach middle school. I really have a sweet spot for like 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I think they can use all the help they can get, and so I would gladly volunteer as tribute and go teach 7th grade. What about you?

I think I would be a drama teacher so that I can have a taste of—

I didn't know that was an option—

age range. I know I changed the question. I answered what I wanted to because arts and music were really significant in my youth because I went to fine and performing arts schools. And so I would definitely teach drama or show choir or band or something like that.

Okay, well, if I get to like amend my answer, then yes, I would totally have been the theater teacher and life would be a musical theater like show forever and always. But otherwise I will go to middle school.

Have I hurt you? Don't be silly. Acting! Brilliant!

Thank you!

Thank you!

So basically, we both wanted to be in Glee.

I mean, kinda.

So teachers are iconic in the Jewish tradition, not only because the Jewish people are the people of the book, but truly because the Jewish people are a people of teaching and learning. We talk about in the V'ahavta how we should teach our children diligently, passing along traditions from generation to generation. And that's really so deeply at the core of what it means to be Jewish, which is to constantly be learning, constantly be asking questions so that you can learn even more. And so we're going to focus for a moment on our favorite texts about teachers. Jodi, do you want to go first? What's your favorite text about teaching or learning?

There are so many, and I actually, if we have the chance, I learned another new one just this past weekend that I love. But, um, if I really had to choose, my favorite text is a classic. Out of Pirkei Avot, we learn, "Aselucha rav u'kanelecha chaver," which means make for yourself a rabbi or a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend. And I love this teaching because even though the Hebrew makes it sound like it only works in one direction, right, it makes it sound like, you know, first find yourself a teacher and then maybe you acquire for yourself a friend. I actually think in real life, like in my own lived experience, it goes both ways. You know how many of my teachers have become my friends, and how many of my friends have been my greatest teachers. And so Totally a classic and absolutely one of my favorites. What about you?

So that's also one of my favorites, but since you told me you chose it first, so I'm gonna again not really follow the rules of the question. So I'm not gonna fully follow the question, which is to say that I found a quote from Parker Palmer that I really liked, um, and he says this in The Courage to Teach. "Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse. As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together." What Parker Palmer says reminds me of a quote by Abraham Joshua Heschel when he says, "What we need more than anything else is not text books, but text people." All of which is to say that the soul of teachers so deeply impacts Their students sharing who they are and how they live in the world is far more significant than passing standardized tests. So basically we chose the same idea, I think, Jody, but with different texts to sort of express it.

Totally. I mean, if I can add one short reflection, I actually had this amazing experience just this past weekend. A beloved former member of our community died, and he held a role at our synagogue that I don't think had existed before and has never existed since, and that was basically He was the Hebrew school zadi. That was sort of what we jokingly called him. And he volunteered as a retiree in the religion— in the Hebrew school after school on Wednesdays. And he would meet the kids when they got off the bus, and he would like help put out the snack, and he would help sort of keep the chaos to a minimum in the sort of the after-school room before Hebrew school started. And he died this week, and I had the honor to bury him. And, you know, he really had this reputation and this sort of like beloved status in our community is like he wasn't a classroom teacher. He would tutor the kids, you know, he would sit with them and work with them on the ve'ahafta if they needed a little one-on-one attention. But in thinking about getting ready for his funeral, I found this amazing midrash which imagines that King David goes to God and says like, of all the righteous people in the world, of all the tzadikim, like, who do you love the most? So first, like, let's name for a second how funny it is to imagine King David wanting to be like, "Who do you like the best? Who's your favorite of all the righteous people?" But then God says to King David, "Teachers who teach with sincerity to children sit at my right hand." And so this idea that, like, in our tradition, teachers are so esteemed and so beloved and so respected that of all the different types of righteous people in the world and all of the righteous paths that there are to take with your life, The people who specifically teach children do have this sort of elevated status in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the Jewish tradition. So I love that. I just learned it this weekend and, um, sort of— and I love to teach it in memory of Fred Roeh, the Hebrew school zadi of Chavera.

I love that. That's so beautiful. So slight transition, what is the worst thing you ever did in a class?

Okay, I was maybe 4 years old. I might have still been 3. It was 1984 at the B'nai Shalom Nursery School, where the one rule that was like so clear is that you weren't supposed to do that thing that I feel like all kids love to do where you like hoist yourself up on like desks or tables and like swing. Like, we weren't allowed to do that, and I did that. I hoisted myself up on the, like, door, the door of a play kitchen and a table, and I went flying through the air and I landed on the ground and I cut my chin open and they had to, like, take me to the emergency room and I had to get stitches. Like, I remember this whole thing very, very vividly. Um, the reason it's the worst thing I ever did in class is that, and I, I regret this to this day, is that I lied. I have this, like, I was 3 and a half or 4 years old and I knew I didn't want to get in trouble.

And I lied.

And I like made up this story that I tripped on a toy radio. And that's how I fell and, and cut my chin open and wound up having to get stitches. And so Mrs. Birnbaum and Mrs. Peskin had to like, you know, call my parents to take me to the hospital. And so I still feel fairly guilty about that experience. And that's not to say that I was, you know, perfect and blameless from the age of 4 on, but that really does stand out as a particularly low moment in my, uh, in my classroom experience.

Well, I hope, I really hope that you, this Yom Kippur, you really absolve yourself of that, of that guilt, because it's time. And that scar on your chin, that scar on your chin is, it's going to be there forever, but I think it's okay to free yourself, Jodi, of this guilt. You know, I shared on a previous episode about my first memory of misbehaving in class when In first grade, the teacher said, "Do I need to turn the lights off?" And everyone else said no, and of course Jen Gubitz said yes, and I got a frowny face on my behavior report for that week. But I wouldn't say that I've ever done anything particularly bad in class, but I've definitely been mischievous. So now would be a good time, for example, to tell all of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion faculty and staff that most of the time I spent in class, I was likely G-chatting with my classmates.

So Jen, one of the reasons we wanted to talk about teachers on this episode is certainly in some ways self-evident. As people across the country look forward to the end of school, as graduations are happening, as school years are wrapping up, and as we anticipate summer, I think that there's like a— there's an entire population of people that you and I have been aware of and sort of what have they just been through. And we sort of, we hope and pray, what are they about to sort of receive in the way of time to recover and to renew and to refresh? And so we wanted to talk not only about teachers on this episode, but to talk with teachers, to speak with an educator. And so we are really excited to have an OMFG guest on our podcast this week, um, a good friend. Her name is Jen Ritberg, and we're, uh, we're really excited to welcome Jen. Welcome, Jenny Ritberg! I am so excited to have you, my friend, on our podcast today and for us to have the chance to learn from you. So I guess like a couple of starting questions is one, like, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you are so that our listeners can get to know you a bit. And then if you want, we can dive right in because we would love to hear about your year, sort of the highlights, the lowlights. As you reach the end of the school year with your cold, what stands out to you?

Sure.

Hi, I'm Jenny, and I am— I work at a Jewish day school outside of Washington, D.C., and I work— I'm a a couple things at the school. I'm a teacher there. I'm a math teacher, but I'm also an administrator. I'm the lower school math coordinator. I'm also a parent at that same school. So, I've gotten to see it from all the different perspectives. And this year there's been— everyone has an opinion about something always, but this year even more so. I have a cold. We have 2 days left in the school year for students and then a little bit more than that for teachers. And everyone's so surprised that everyone is coming down with colds. But of course it's the most obvious thing in the world to happen because people are starting to take their masks off and go out with friends and stuff like that. And the COVID numbers are really low right now where we are, and it's a totally safe thing to happen, but our immune systems are all totally shot. No one's been exposed to a germ in, in like 15 or 16 months. So as soon as everyone started getting near each other, it started to pass. And it's important to remember, someone had to remind me this, because I'm still in the classroom with students with masks on and the kids are all, they all have the same cold. And we're all like, oh no, the masks were a fake. They were a facade. Because once someone gets sick, they all got it. But it's important to remember that cold viruses actually travel differently between people. Than COVID. At first we were very worried that it would be on surfaces and things, but it turns out that wasn't something to worry about, but colds totally do stay on, on the doorknobs that we stopped wiping down and things like that. But this isn't a medical podcast.

So it could be. I mean, that was actually, I feel like Jen and I both are very informed.

So where, where should I begin? What do you want to hear about?

Tell us about your year. So like, did you start remote? Did you start in person? Has it been back and forth? What's been awesome? What's been hard?

So the year has been— it's just been constantly changing. That's the biggest thing that's been— that stood out about this year is that we've had to make and modify our plans so many times throughout the year that it just makes your head spin. We started the year fully in person for our pre-K and our kindergarten students, as well as our ESOL students. So they have been live in the building 5 days a week since August, since the beginning of the school year. And then from there, we have gradually increased the amount of time that all the different grades and categories of students are live in the building with teachers. Probably, I'm gonna say 6 to 8 times we've changed our schedule and our rotation up until now. Where we now have first and second— still pre-K and kindergarten are live every day. First and second graders are live in the building 4 days a week and virtual 1 day. Third, fourth, and fifth graders are live in the building 3 days a week and virtual 2 days. So that's what we got to as our last point. We probably could have upped that a little bit more in the last 1 to 2 months of the school year, but at that point We understand that there's— every time you change the schedule and the routines, there's a new learning period of teachers figuring out their schedules, students figuring out their schedules, everyone relearning the norms of whatever the new setup is. And at that point in the year, it wasn't worth learning that new routine in terms of what we expected to get back from the extra time in the classroom. Some parents might argue that we should have had more time at any cost, but that is how we ended up.

So it kind of sounds like it was a math problem. You're a math teacher, but it sounds like it was the arithmetic of the year, just figuring out, following what you just described, and that you're just one school, right? And so I'm wondering though, when you have all of this change and you talked about, you know, how the learning curve really, what it is to adjust. How did you get through the year? Did you have a spiritual practice or something that you did daily, maybe a primal scream that helped you get through everything?

So it's true that the constant change has been really exhausting, not just for me. That's been something that's been so hard on the teachers and students. I jumped into the role of doing a lot of this schedule-making work. As the math person. I think a lot of people this year, like, jobs started appearing that didn't exist in the past, and no one had— they didn't have names, they weren't like part of anyone's job description, so people just filled in to do things that needed to be done. So I ended up, I think because of my math brain, I ended up taking on a lot of the schedule-making work. And because I sort of self-selected into that role, I have to say I liked I enjoy that work and I really liked spreadsheets and I sort of lived in those schedule spreadsheets for a lot of the school year. So while that was work and it was stressful, it was doing— it felt good for me to do because I knew I could do it. I understood what the needs were. I felt productive. I thought— I felt like I was helping the bigger picture by doing that work.

Wait, so spreadsheets were your spiritual practice?

I don't think so. Oh, gosh. In some ways, maybe. I don't tend to be a very spiritual practice kind of person. I don't do a lot of things with routine. There is something sort of spiritual and practice that we did start doing in my personal life, which is that we started to get together weekly with some friends on a Zoom on Friday night. And that's probably the closest thing. And I think that actually, it's not even the closest thing. That's, that's a real thing. It became a routine that we did every single week. We even, it had a Jewish name. It took on the name Planet Shabbos. And that was really valuable. It sort of started almost accidentally and then it just became something that we didn't miss a Friday. For like over, it's been over a year now and it's been wonderful. It's connected us with friends who we hadn't, we've grown, started to grow a little bit apart because of distance and just busyness of all of our lives. It marked the week. It marked the end of the week in a really tangible way. And it gave perspective because everyone was living through the week in their, through their own lens. So I was the only teacher on that, that Zoom every week. And so everything that I thought was the whole world turned out to not be part of anyone else's whole world. And I got to hear what their whole worlds were. So having perspective has also been really important in this past year of everyone. Everyone has had moments where they're angry or frustrated and being able to recognize that people are living through all kinds of unimaginable and different things. Has really been helpful.

So this might be like the big question, and in some ways you touched on this just now, but I guess if we were to push the question further, you took on all these new roles, you took on these new practices, not to mention having your own two children, both at home and at school, which maybe brings its own interesting complexities. So what did you learn about yourself this year?

So that's a great question. And I don't know if I speak on behalf of all teachers, are all very busy people, but I feel like different people have lived through this pandemic in very different ways. And some people have had this newfound time and space to like, when, you know, plans got canceled, some people I know were forced to be alone a lot and that wasn't healthy, but I know some people had time to be alone and be reflective and make choices, um, for themselves. And this might just be my personality and it might be the circumstances of the year, but I feel like I haven't had 10 seconds to sit down and think about myself. And that— I don't mean that in like a, I'm such a hero kind of way. I've been working around the clock because of the taking on more scheduling stuff and other things at work. I'm also still doing the rest of my other job. So I'm bringing a lot more work home with me than I typically would. I have 2 kids who I care for. I mean, the workday has been ending earlier because there isn't afterschool stuff, but then I bring the kids home and then I'm making dinner. I'm helping them with their schoolwork that they— all their loose ends from their Zoom school or their in-person. And then they go to bed and then I take out my computer and I start responding to emails because it's been 4 hours since I was on email. And then I crash and then I wake up and I do the same thing all over again. And I sleep in on Saturday morning if possible, let the kids watch TV. And, and that's just been it for, for a year and a half now. So I'm really looking forward to this summer when I think I might have some time to reflect. But in the meantime, it's just, it's really been survival mode for an exceptionally long time.

Well, we hope you get summer. We hope that it feels like Planet Shabbos, an extended Planet Shabbos for you. So what have you learned about education in America this past year, given that you haven't had a chance to breathe, to reflect, and that you're working around the clock?

It may be that you're still figuring it out, but what have you learned about how the role of education in America, the role of teachers, the role of administrators I work at a private school, and I think one of the biggest things that we sort of have seen this year is the divide between private school and public school and kids who have access to a lot of resources and kids who don't have that access, who aren't that lucky. Even kids in public school who, who weren't in person nearly as much for as long, but who had working internet access at home or a parent who could stay with them who could work from home during the day. I don't think we can— I don't think we have time here and I don't think we can solve any of those problems, but just I worry a lot about when things go back to normal that the learning gap between kids coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds that is already embarrassingly large is just going to be so great that I hope it's big enough that the country starts to sort of look in the mirror and try to come up with something big to address it. But I worry that it's a really big problem and it's not going to be easy to solve.

So, Jenny, keeping in mind that it's— this is your evening, so I would like to hope that you're going to get to go relax on the couch. And I'm going to guess that you're actually going to probably have to go back on email and do some work. So we want to be mindful of your time. So in the way of a last question, I'm thinking about where we were a year ago at this point, right? That as we reached the end of like the first pandemic school year, sort of all the memes that were like, "Teachers deserve a million dollars," and like, "I'll buy like my kid's teacher like a limo and a mansion if they'll just take these kids back." And then, you know, we think about where we've been now in this pandemic year. As we move toward the end of the school year, when many of us are thinking about how to say thank you and how to wrap up a school year for for some of us as parents of children who have had teachers, for some of us who have friends who we care about a lot who have made it through the school year, for some of us who have sisters who are teachers. If you got to sort of daydream what sort of a reckoning of appreciation and real gratitude would look like for educators after this year, beyond the Starbucks gift cards and the amazing coffee mugs, what do you think it would really look like?

So first of all, Teachers do love Starbucks gift cards. Teachers drink so much coffee, can't go wrong with that. But you're right, there was this, like, last spring when school kids were sent home, there was this moment where people were like, parents deeply respected the work that teachers had been doing in the classrooms. And it was like, for a brief moment, teachers were in the spotlight and really respected and appreciated. And then this fall, it wasn't, it like wasn't cute anymore. It was like, oh, the kids are still home. And the respect, it really, it really got turned on its head. There were these moments where it felt like there was this expectation that teachers would just show up back in the classrooms and there wasn't a vaccine and there weren't rules in place to make sure that things were kept safe. And there was still like a lot that wasn't known about COVID and teachers that I knew were really hurt by that because teachers are people too who have their own kids at home and their own immunocompromised parents maybe that they live with or that they go visit. And it— I don't think— I think a lot of people either lost sight of that or that teachers felt like that was happening. Over the course of the year, as things have gotten, you know, changed and and moved back into the classroom more and more, at least for our school, teachers, and then certainly when teachers got vaccinated, which around here, our school, we were all able to get that as early as it was available. We had access to it, which was really nice. And it was important to the school. Our school nurse was like a monstrous superhero in making that happen, helping get connected. Teachers agree, like teachers want what's best for the students and for the kids. So, teachers were thrilled to have the kids kids back in the classroom and to be back in the classroom once they felt like it was a safe thing to do. Right now, what means a lot to me is hearing from parents to say, like, this has been not just a year that our kids have survived, but where they have actually learned a great deal, and where they have felt safe, and where they have felt happy to be in school, and where they've, they've learned content and they've grown. And, you know, appreciation towards teachers that, that teachers helped make that happen for their kids. Noting that this year has been problematic and traumatic for kids, like for all kinds of people, but certainly for young kids who are every single year that they're in school from elementary through high school is an important developmental year where they need socializing. And we know that, that everyone has had a loss in that area, but that through all of that, the teachers have supported kids and helped them grow and gain and move forward really goes a long way. It sounds cheesy, but just hearing genuine gratitude and appreciation from parents and from the kids too, that's— teachers love getting a note from a kid that's, I mean, even if their parent forces them to write it and it says like, You know, "Thank you for being my teacher. I liked when we blank." Whatever that one blank thing is, is useful for the teacher to know that's the thing the kid remembered and wrote in the card. We go crazy for that kind of stuff.

I would get all the teachers in the world a gift card with multiples of 18, like $18, $36, and so on and so forth. And I'm wondering, what is the highest multiple of 18 math that you can get us to?

Oh, so here's a funny thing. I'm a big— I'm a math person by all counts. I'm not that good at arithmetic. I bet just based on your work experience compared to my work experience, you could multiply 18 better and faster and higher than I could.

Okay, so $1.8 million is the kind— that's the Starbucks gift card I'm gonna get you.

That would be great. Teachers around the world would really appreciate that.

We're on it.

Jenny, thank you so much. We hope you do get a $1.8 million Starbucks gift card. And also, thanks for the great idea. I'm going to make sure my kid writes a thank you note to her teacher before the end of school next week. So what is it? Each one teach one? You have done that for us tonight.

Thank you so much.

So we thought that a really beautiful way to conclude this episode would be to offer a prayer of gratitude to all of our educators who have sustained us this year. There's a beautiful prayer called Kaddish Derabanan, which is often recited upon the conclusion of learning, upon the conclusion of someone's tenure as an educator, and in particular, there's a beautiful setting of it that was written by Debbie Friedman. I happen to have learned all of Kaddish Derabanan in its Aramaic because we recited it at the end of every Torah study in my first job, which is 52 Torah studies times 4. Anyway, so we want to offer this blessing for teachers and administrators as penned by our beloved Debbie Friedman. For our teachers and our students and for the students of our students, we ask for peace and loving kindness, and let us say amen. And for those who study Torah here and everywhere, may they be blessed with all they need. And let us say amen.

May there be peace and loving kindness. And let us say amen.

Amen. Happy summer to all of our teachers and educators. We are grateful for you, and we promise to send you Starbucks gift cards in increments of 18 to show you our love. This episode of the OMFG podcast was brought to you by Rabbis Jodi Gordon and Jen Gubitz and produced by our awesome podcast editor, Jessie Ulrich.