About the Course
What would it look like for students to connect personally to tefilah? To experience Jewish prayer as a language through which they can express gratitude, encounter wonder, experience belonging, articulate difficult emotions, and hold onto hope? This professional development fellowship program for Jewish day school educators approaches tefilah education through five core emotional dispositions and experiences, exploring their expression through classical Jewish texts and familiar prayers, as well as through poetry, music, reflective exercises, and experiential activities. We will develop practical tools and strategies for bringing these experiences to students of different ages and backgrounds, fostering a more personal and intrinsically motivated connection to prayer and the Divine. Closed Captioning will be available for this course. DATES: Thursdays, Nov 12, Nov 19, Dec 3, 2026, Jan 14, Feb 4, Mar 18 2027 TIME: 9:15 - 10:30 AM Pacific / 12:15 AM–1:30 PM Eastern
Make Tefilah Meaningful
Develop experiential approaches that move beyond teaching the mechanics of prayer and invite students into gratitude, wonder, belonging, emotional expression, and hope.
Bring Ideas into Practice
Design or adapt a tefilah activity, lesson, ritual, or reflective exercise that responds to the particular ages, needs, and culture of your students and school community.
Turn Prayer into a Growth Experience
Help students look forward to tefilah as a personal experience of connection to God, to the Jewish people, and to themselves.
What to expect in this course:
Class style
Lecture + interactive discussion
Participation
Questions welcomed throughout
Source sheets and materials
Will be available in the Online Beit Midrash 24 hours in advance of the session Will be shared via a link in the chat during the class itself Will not be shown on-screen during the session
Meet Aviva Lauer
Aviva is the Chief Education and Educational Training Officer at Pardes, as well as the Gottesman Family Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. She majored in Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, and earned a Masters degree in Midrash at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. Aviva is a Jewish educator with 25 years of experience in curriculum development, classroom teaching, school administration and educational consulting. Upon making Aliyah in 1996, Aviva developed formal and informal educational materials for Melitz and at the Leo Baeck Education Center, where she also gained experience in teaching pluralistic Judaism. She then served as the head of the department of Jewish Studies at Immanuel College, London. Working at the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators since 2009, Aviva took on the role of PCJE Director in 2017, and began serving as Chief Education and Educational Training Officer in 2023.
Ready to change the tefilah experience for your students?
Enroll now for the frameworks and practical tools that can make tefilah one of the most significant and approachable parts of the school day.
$50.00
More about this course
How can we help students experience tefilah not simply as an obligation to fulfill, but as a meaningful resource for their emotional and spiritual lives? This professional development fellowship will equip Jewish day school educators with frameworks, texts, and experiential strategies for approaching tefilah and God-connection through the lens of emotional and spiritual development. Grounded in Pardes’s “Goals of Tefilah Education” and its emphasis on self-actualization, the program will explore how prayer can contribute to students’ emotional, psychological, and existential growth and foster intrinsic motivation in their spiritual lives. Across the program, participants will explore five emotional dispositions cultivated through Jewish prayer: gratitude; wonder; Jewish connection and belonging; emotional awareness and expression; and hope and petition. Classical Jewish texts and familiar prayers will be studied alongside poetry, music, reflective exercises, and experiential activities, modeling approaches that educators can adapt for students of different ages and backgrounds. The fellowship will emphasize both teacher reflection and classroom application. With support from Pardes educator mentors, each participant will design or adapt a tefilah activity, lesson, ritual, or reflective exercise for their own educational context. In the final collaborative workshop, educators will share their work, receive peer feedback, and leave with practical resources and inspiration for creating more emotionally resonant and spiritually meaningful tefilah experiences for their students.
Course outline
Session 1 - Gratitude: Cultivating Appreciation and Graciousness
How can tefilah cultivate a disposition of gratitude? Through prayers including Modeh Ani, Mizmor LeTodah, and Modim, we will explore approaches for helping students notice, articulate, and express appreciation through Jewish prayer.
Session 2 - Wonder: Awakening Awareness and Awe
Using texts including Asher Yatzar, Birkot HaShachar, and Hallel HaGadol, we will consider how tefilah can cultivate attentiveness, wonder, and awe, and explore experiential strategies for bringing these dispositions into students’ spiritual lives.
Session 3 - Jewish Connection & Belonging
Through texts such as Ashrei and Shema, we will explore how tefilah can strengthen Jewish identity, communal connection, and positive associations with Jewish life, and consider how educators can foster a genuine sense of belonging through prayer.
Course outline
Session 4 - Emotional Awareness & Expression
How can prayer create space for the full range of human emotion? Drawing on Yotzer Or, Adon Olam, and selections from Pesukei DeZimra, we will explore how tefilah can provide language for joy, pain, fear, longing, comfort, and other dimensions of students’ emotional lives.
Session 5 - Hope and Petition
Through the structure of the Amidah, we will examine how Jewish prayer teaches us to ask, hope, reflect on our needs, and situate personal desires within communal responsibility.
Session 6 - Collaborative Classroom Workshop
Cohort participants will present a tefilah or God-connection activity, lesson, ritual, or adaptation developed for their own students. Together, we will offer structured peer feedback and consider how these approaches can be refined and implemented in participants’ particular educational settings.
Questions?
Reach out to Reuven Margrett at [email protected]
Ready to make tefilah personally meaningful for your students?
Enroll now to help your students experience tefilah as a meaningful resource for emotional growth, spiritual connection, and Jewish life.
$50.00