Educators Share and Learn at Chinuch Conference

Surrounded during a meal in the dining room for an impromptu discussion, Rabbi Avrohom M. Segal, the educational consultant who came specially form Israel to present at the Kinus HaMechanchim, expressed his delighted surprise at the level of the discourse.

“This is a very serious educational conference, not just a Chinuch social event,” he said. His keynote session addressed the issue of meaningful communication, a major overreaching educational concern.

In more than five hours of lectures and workshops and from as far away as Australia, South America, and the UK, mechanchim converged on the Crown Plaza Hotel in Danbury, CT to attend the Kinus.

Veteran dean of Oholei Torah, Rabbi Hershel Lustig, said it was the best Chinuch conference he attended, and Rabbi Hersh Dubrowski, a younger mechanech form Tampa, FL, exclaimed that he is so full of ideas he expects next year to be outstanding.

Reb Meir Eichler, Chairman of the board of the Merkos Chinuch Office, remarked that when he arrived there was no one in the lobby; 150 participants were attending three concurrent sessions.

The issue of dealing forthright with adolescents and teens about “Inyonei Kedusha” was discussed by the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva Gedolah of Miami, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Schapiro, and Dr. Isaac Schechter, a frum clinical psychologist from Monsey. A panel of yeshiva menahalim, members of the Chinuch Office commission, analyzed and discussed the preliminary findings and urgency to create a comprehensive plan to give young people the spiritual tools to cope with the challenges they face.

The Kinus featured workshops dealing with curriculum, classroom management and school administration.

In his closing remarks, during the final lunch, Rabbi Nochem Kaplan thanked the Kinus committee and especially: his son Rabbi Boruch Kaplan of Wallingford, CT, who was the Kinus’ administrator, Reb Yossi Popack, who came specially to address the Kinus during dinner on Sunday night, and Rabbi Menachem Kirschenbaum, member of the Vaad Hakinus.

Photos by Itzik Roytman