Session 1, 9:00am: Democratic Education
Yaacov Hecht: Introduced by Rabbi Idan Scher
Yaacov Hecht
Yaacov (married and father of 4 sons) founded in 1987 the Democratic School in Hadera, Israel – the first school in the world to be called a democratic school.
In 1993 he initiated IDEC – International Democratic Education Conference which convenes every year in a different continent. IDEC has facilitated the establishment of hundreds of innovative democratic schools around the globe, 30 of them in Israel.
In 1996, Yaacov Hecht founded IDE – the Institute for Democratic Education and within it a groundbreaking academic faculty for teachers training in the Kibuzim college, the biggest academic institute for teachers in Israel.
His book “Democratic Education – A Beginning of a Story”, which has been translated into English, Portuguese, Bulgarian and Korean, is a worldwide source of inspiration for groundbreaking educators and entrepreneurs.
In 2010 he founded Education Cities – the Art of Collaborations that weaves and maintains municipal collaborations that aim to turn the city into “one big school”. It also promotes collaborations and networking in the classroom, in the school, in the city, in the state, and in the world. WIRED magazine has chosen Education Cities’ MOOC learning model (How2MOOC) to one of the leading trends in 2015. In January 2017 Education Cities was chosen to one of the 10 leading innovations in the world, by HundrED the Finish initiative for globally promoting educational innovation.
Yaacov has served as an advisor to 6 Ministers of Education in Israel, as an expert in interfacing between the state and alternative education. He regards the preparing and directing of the educational system towards the future, as his main mission today.
Rabbi Idan Scher
Idan Scher is Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas, a modern orthodox synagogue in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was installed as the congregation’s next spiritual leader in 2015 making him the youngest Senior Rabbi of a synagogue this size in all of Canada at the time. Rabbi Scher is on the executive of the Rabbinical Council of America and a representative of the Canadian Rabbinic Council.
Rabbi Scher holds rabbinic ordination from both Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, the director of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, and from Rabbi Gedalya Schwartz, the director of the Beth Din of America. He earned an undergraduate degree from Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah in New York, a master’s degree in Talmudic law from the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, and an M.A. in Public Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins University.