Avi Spodek (he/him)
Director of Recruitment for Pardes Center for Jewish Educators
About Speaker
Avi Spodek has been a professional Jewish educator for over twenty years, I regularly taught about the Holocaust. My training at Yad Vashem and use of “Facing History and Ourselves” enabled and encouraged me to engage my students in discussions about the dangers of racial injustice and pitfalls inherent in shunning diversity and excluding voices in a community. I applied a similar approach to teaching Jewish Texts and have discovered the wisdom they contain and the guidance they provide in grappling with contemporary issues in our society. As a student at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (disclaimer: the applicant is currently employed by this institution) I was privileged to experience what Torah learning and Jewish community can look like when we remove barriers and welcome learners on their own terms. I know of many alumni whose Torah from Pardes inspired them to impact and change Jewish community and society at large. And it was at Pardes that I met my mentor and role model, Rabbi Daniel Landes. As the embodiment of Pardes’ vision, I spent two years observing what it looks like to genuinely welcome a multiplicity of perspectives and what courage and conviction it takes to speak against racial injustice. Since leaving Pardes, Rav Landes has endeavored to produce leaders in his image, and I was in the first group of 21 students to receive rabbinic ordination from him. As an administrator, I was often tasked with articulating the values and vision of a department or institution and of developing curricula aligned with them. My participation in Legacy Heritage’s “Standards and Benchmarks” provided me with the tools for curriculum development and coached me in becoming a change agent. This was reinforced by my fellowship with the Day School Leadership Institute (DSLTI), which exposed me to the various considerations and conditions required for any change to efficiently and effectively take hold. I have found that the skills I developed professionally have also served me well in my personal-religious life. When my Orthodox synagogue sought to revitalize its membership, I served as part of the Board that identified acceptance as its driving value. We set about creating programming that met the needs of a wide cross-section of the Jewish community and hired a rabbi who embodied the value and carried it forward. Twelve years on, the synagogue and its reputation have grown exponentially and it is the Orthodox synagogue of choice for many Jews of Color and members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community.