Herzog College has won an Israeli government tender to run its successful Rimonim professional development program for Judaic Studies teachers around the world.
Herzog Global will run its Rimonim International Teacher Training Program during 2023-24 in three languages: English, Spanish and Russian. The program is taught online over several semesters, with asynchronous lessons that teachers can choose to study in the evenings or at the weekends. At the end of the course, they also participate in a 2-week intensive experiential seminar in Israel, meeting leading Jewish pedagogy experts and visiting sites of relevance to Jewish education. The program is subsidized by the Israeli government, to allow teachers from around the world to participate.
Herzog Global first developed its online Rimonim program for Spanish-speaking teachers in 2020. Under the leadership of Herzog’s Director of Spanish Language Programs, Rabbi Shmuel Kornblit, it has so far trained 70 teachers in Jewish schools of all types in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, and Spain. Following the success of the 2021 English-language online Rimonim course for teachers from North America, the UK and South Africa, Herzog will soon open a second Rimonim course in English, and the first such course for Russian-speaking Jewish Studies teachers. Rimonim graduates receive a Teaching Certificate for Diaspora Educators from Israel’s Ministry of Education, and many of the courses qualify for credits that are recognized in Israel and at some international universities.
Commenting on the tender, Herzog Global Director Amihai Bannett said: “The Ministries of Education and Diaspora Affairs have entrusted Herzog College with this important mission, because we have an impressive track record in training Judaic Studies in Israel, North America and Latin America.”
Herzog College President Rabbi Prof. Yehuda Brandes said: “We see this as part of our responsibility to Jewish communities around the world, to help empower teachers as an investment in the future of the Jewish people. We are particularly excited to be able to offer our successful Rimonim training program to Russian-speaking populations in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, including Jewish communities hosting refugees from Ukraine.”
Click here for more information about the English-language Rimonim program, commencing in October 2023.
Click here for information about the Spanish version, commencing in February 2023. The Russian program is currently in development.
Herzog College is Israel’s leading education college for training religious teachers, and also leads the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs UnitED project, offering subsidized teacher training courses and resources to Jewish schools around the world.
We invite you to watch this video about the Rimonim Program (in Spanish with English subtitles):
Photo shows recent graduates from the Spanish Rimonim program receiving their certificates in Jerusalem in January 2023.
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