Sharna Marcus
"The spiritual journey can be a very valuable and enriching thing. It is very easy to fall into gullibility and superstition...it's true on the spiritual path you are by definition embracing irrationality. Irrationality is part of the human mind, part of the human psyche. We can't get rid of it. It's there. So is critical reason. So is rationality. So is skepticism. If you abandon those things just because you are on a spiritual path, you are giving up a good part of what it means to be a human being." - author Geoff Gilpin, author of The Maharishi Effect, in a segment broadcast December 30 ,2007 on "To the Best of Our Knowledge."
Name: Sharna Marcus
Organization: Shorashim
Website of Organization: www.shorashim.org
Favorite Place in Israel: Kineret
How has Israel played a part in your personal Jewish identity? Israel is my Jewish identity. My connection to who I am Jewishly exists because of Israel and propels me to be an educator in the United States.
Who was the educator who most influenced your path to Jewish education? Describe the effect that they had on you.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove. He was the person who recognized my potential and tapped into it at an early age. He also would "pick me up" if I was getting frustrated and help me channel my energies into positive directions within the Jewish community.
If you had the ability to build the landscape of Jewish education, what would it look like? - in 140 characters or less.
Jewish education would be more similar to Judaism in many ways in that it would encompass all aspects of life. Jewish education would reflect the beauty of Judaism that would attract a broader segment of the student population over history, language and theology, although those too are important.
What are you looking forward to most in the InCiTE Fellowship?
I'm looking forward to increasing my teaching tool box as well as hearing from the best and the brightest to foster my own growth and development.
Name: Sharna Marcus
Organization: Shorashim
Website of Organization: www.shorashim.org
Favorite Place in Israel: Kineret
How has Israel played a part in your personal Jewish identity? Israel is my Jewish identity. My connection to who I am Jewishly exists because of Israel and propels me to be an educator in the United States.
Who was the educator who most influenced your path to Jewish education? Describe the effect that they had on you.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove. He was the person who recognized my potential and tapped into it at an early age. He also would "pick me up" if I was getting frustrated and help me channel my energies into positive directions within the Jewish community.
If you had the ability to build the landscape of Jewish education, what would it look like? - in 140 characters or less.
Jewish education would be more similar to Judaism in many ways in that it would encompass all aspects of life. Jewish education would reflect the beauty of Judaism that would attract a broader segment of the student population over history, language and theology, although those too are important.
What are you looking forward to most in the InCiTE Fellowship?
I'm looking forward to increasing my teaching tool box as well as hearing from the best and the brightest to foster my own growth and development.