While most children were busy buying backpacks and lunch boxes these last few weeks, almost 1,000 boys and girls worldwide were testing headphones and mics as they geared up for the new school year. Children in places like Almaty, Kazakhstan; Venice, Italy; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Saskatoon, Canada, attend the Nigri International Shluchim Online School, a virtual educational institution provided by the Shluchim Office for Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in areas with no local Jewish schooling options.
Many emissaries live in communities with little or no Jewish infrastructure. While finding kosher supplies can be difficult and the closest peer may be miles away, these challenges don’t compare to the absence of formal Jewish education. For years, shluchim had to settle for makeshift arrangements—homeschooling, hiring post-seminary girls as tutors and even sending their children to schools away from home—until the formation of the online school in 2006.
It was created as a result of a group of emissary children growing older and the dire need for a better system for their education. Their parents contacted the Shluchim Office in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., to find a way to make this happen.
“I was 11 years old, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My parents had been homeschooling my brother and me, but we had no social life,” recalls Mussi Sharfstein, whose parents, Rabbi Berel and Devorah Leah Levertov, were among the first to enroll their children in the school and instrumental in its establishment.
With the generous support of Rabbi Moshe Weiss and the late Chassidic activist Reb Mendel Shemtov, who was known for his passionate dedication to Chabad emissaries and their children, the Shluchim Online School was founded.
It started off as a phone school. A handful of children would get on a conference call and listen to a teacher for an hour or so each day. This set the foundation for the sophisticated school it grew to become, a decade later, with a full day of academics and even extracurricular activities.
The Shluchim Online School has developed into a multi-continental educational institution, with a current enrollment attracting students from 379 cities in 71 countries around the world.
“The real credit goes to the children and their parents, who live ‘out there’ on shlichus,” says Rabbi Gedalya Shemtov, director of the Shluchim Office. “They have dedicated themselves to world Jewry, and we are grateful to be able to play a role in their work by providing the educational and social solution for their children.”
‘Empower a Generation’
The office was established in 1986 following the request of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—that a central organization be set up to assist the global network of Chabad emissaries and their families. The Shluchim Online School, a division of the Shluchim Office—represents another significant way to help them.
In order to accommodate children living in all time zones, the school operates as four separate divisions, serving major geographic areas across the world: Western Americas (Pacific Time), Eastern Americas (Eastern Time), Western Europe/Asia (Hebrew Division) and Euro/Asia (English Division).
Each division has separate classes for boys and girls in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. There are 97 classes in total with 131 teachers and 23 additional staff. As the school is Internet-based, a tech-support team is on hand 24 hours a day to make sure that the software is working properly for teachers and students.
Employing cutting-edge technological advancements used by Ronald J. Packard’s recognized K12 Inc. company, the online school provides students and teachers with a real classroom feel. With interactive whiteboards, teachers can easily display PowerPoint or OpenOffice slides, and engage students with multiple simultaneous presentations while allowing students to get a hands-on experience. Other advanced features such as easy navigation to private page groups and breakout rooms, allow students to engage in one-on-one paired review and study time.
“The recent technological breakthroughs allow students to benefit from a flawless educational program and also engage in a social atmosphere, having the opportunity to forge life-long friendships,” says Rabbi Yossi Goodman, director of technical development for the school.
Due to the strain of sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time, online students have more frequent “recess” breaks than a traditional school. Children are encouraged to get up and walk around to help them concentrate better when they get back to work.
A 50-inch flat screen at the Shluchim Office allows school principals and administrative staff to monitor classrooms in real time. Teachers are trained in a range of skills to help them engage and effectively educate their far-flung pupils. They use the latest Jewish curricula adapted in this format, and enhance the elements that invite and encourage student participation, incorporated for multiple intelligences in a tech-friendly format.
“A Day of Celebration” is held each year timed to the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim) for men and boys in the fall, and the Kinus Hashluchos for women and girls in the winter, where students have the opportunity to spend quality time with their teachers—in New York and in person—and get to know them better. For many (including the parents), this is the highlight of their year.
Another way the boys and girls keep their friendships alive is through attending the same summer and winter camps as their classmates, spending as many as eight weeks together. The closeness they create through their virtual relationships is so strong that oftentimes girls and boys will travel far to attend another’s bar or bat mitzvah celebration, even by plane.
“The girls who were part of my online school class so many years ago are still some of my closest friends,” says Sharfstein, who decided to “give back” to the school that did so much for her by teaching seventh grade—the grade she was in when the school began. “We continued on to the same high school, and later, to the same seminary in Israel. They even flew to Santa Fe for my wedding a few months ago!”
As an online-school student and then teacher, Sharfstein has the ability to relate to the girls in a unique way. She even contacted her former teacher for some tips and a curriculum. Says Sharfstein: “I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the incredible institution for young girls growing up with similar challenges as I did.”
Associate director Devora Leah Notik adds that “building on the great successes of the past 10 years, the school continues to aim higher in providing a superior educational experience to shluchim throughout the world. Together, we will empower a generation of proud junior emissaries who will lead, inspire and educate those around them, sharing their enduring love of learning with a fellow friend.”
Start a Discussion