One of the scariest things for me in accepting the role of Principal of a Jewish school was the fear that I just wouldn鈥檛 know enough about what being Jewish actually meant. Until last year I had not (knowingly) ever even spoken to a Jew and I knew very little about Jewish culture and religion other than some distant history lessons on the Holocaust, a childhood reading of the diaries of Anne Frank and a lot of tears shed during 鈥楽chindler鈥檚 List鈥�. In fact, I didn鈥檛 even know that there was a difference between Jewish culture and Judaism as a religion. I was terribly concerned that I would inadvertently cause offence by saying or doing the wrong thing, oblivious to the situation.

I signed my 橙子影院 contract last year 鈥� this was shortly followed by the luxury of a whole term of long service leave. I therefore had several months to devote to reading about Jewish history and culture and various people generously provided me with a great range of books to start off my Jewish education.

I began with Chaim Potok鈥檚 鈥楾he Chosen鈥�, a nicely wrapped leaving present from an English teacher and colleague at my previous school who said it would be a good introduction to Jewish Literature. I learnt about Hasidism and loved the idea of Yeshiva and Talmud study.听 鈥榋ionism 鈥� The Concise History鈥�, by Alex Ryvchin was a good follow up 鈥� educational, enjoyable and lots to think about. I loved Yossi Klein鈥檚 鈥楲etters to my Palestinian Neighbour鈥�, but it resulted in a few tears as well as waking up at 3 o鈥檆lock one morning in a sweat, genuinely fearful that I really couldn鈥檛 work out how on earth I would solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It just seemed impossible. Reality hit the following morning 鈥� this was presumably not within my remit. Checking this with the President of the Board revealed that I was correct 鈥� this would not be one of my Key Performance Indicators.

I broke the series of Jewish readings up at this stage when I unexpectedly received a copy of Peter Wohlleben鈥檚 鈥楾he Hidden Life of Trees鈥� in the post and the biologist in me meant that I couldn鈥檛 resist reading it, but then I was straight back to the Jewish books with 鈥楾he Newish Jewish Encyclopaedia鈥� which provided a light-hearted wealth of useful background facts.

I struggled with Eva Slonim鈥檚 鈥楪azing at the Stars鈥�, a retrospective account of her childhood in Auschwitz. Reading about such awful happenings written in such a factual way somehow made it more unbearable. I read this book as well as Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau鈥檚 鈥極ut of the Depths鈥� (the story of a child of Buchenwald who returned home at last) sitting at the side of the pool at Bilgoman aquatic centre, in Darlington. The location was perfect partly because of the extremely hot temperatures at the time, but mainly because my red eyes could be attributed to the chlorine from the pool rather than any embarrassing public show of emotion.

鈥楾he Jewish Book of Why鈥�, by Alfred J. Kolatch was next, and although I could continue extolling the delights of my learning, I shall stop there with my list of background reading.听 Suffice it to say that it was a fascinating introduction to a new culture.听 Part of the attraction of working at 橙子影院 for me was that I would have the opportunity to learn about something so new and interesting; I have not been disappointed.

Learning from books is great, but even better has been the learning I have undertaken from real life situations, conversations, and connections. Eight weeks into my Carmel journey and I realise that I needn鈥檛 have worried about my lack of knowledge.听 Many, many people from the warm and welcoming Carmel community have assured me that I can ask them anything without fear of saying the wrong thing, and I have taken advantage of this.

In particular, Mr Lawrence has played a vital role in not looking too surprised at my thinking and never, ever minding what bizarre questions I have arrived with in the morning. He has without fail contributed significantly to my Jewish education and understanding by considering what I have asked and answering in such a way that never made me feel stupid.

For example, I arrived one morning having found a list of the 613 mitzvot. I do like to have specific targets to aim for, so the logical thing seemed to be to divide these up into manageable chunks and tick them off as I achieved them. I had saved the list on my laptop, meaning to print them off, read them carefully and work out what would be a reasonable number to focus on each week. Mr Lawrence鈥檚 face was a picture as I explained my cunning plan. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do that!鈥�, he said. I found this a little judgemental, assuming I would fail before I had even begun, and told him so. I explained that it might take me a while, starting from scratch as I was, but that I was a determined type of person and I was prepared to put significant effort into something this important. He smiled kindly and explained that I couldn鈥檛 do it not because I was useless, but because some of them only applied to men. And others involved goats. Or being in the temple. I felt quite crestfallen that my plan was quite so inappropriate, but we managed to find me other areas on which to focus.

There was more real life learning last week as I experienced my first Purim. What an amazing day! The outdoor reading of the Megillah, the party atmosphere and celebrations and dressing up 鈥� it was a bonkers day and I loved it. The students were excited and participated with the utmost enthusiasm and the teachers appeared to have almost as much fun. I said 鈥淐hag Purim Sameach鈥� so many times I am hoping I will remember the phrase for next year.

I鈥檝e also been learning from Year 7 students who have celebrated their Bat Mitzvah. The girls I have talked to and subsequently written about have been more than generous with their explanations of what they did and why and I have been so impressed with the speeches they have shared. My weekly parsha readings have been going well and when an overload of COVID information meant that I got a bit behind, I was assured that I didn鈥檛 need to confess to anyone and it would be fine to just catch up and get back on track. Nobody needed to know and I was unlikely to be struck down as a consequence.

I have learnt so many things. There have been a few times when I鈥檝e idly wondered whether learning about a more recently-established religion than one which has been going for so many thousands of years might be easier, but where鈥檚 the challenge in that?

I have been astounded by and grateful for the generosity of everybody who has taught me all that I have learnt so far about what it means to be Jewish. I suspect I haven鈥檛 yet got to the 1% mark of what there is to learn, but for me that鈥檚 a major part of the attraction. Lifelong learning is something I鈥檝e always thought essential to keep your brain going and it looks as though mine won鈥檛 be finished any time soon.

听