Rhythms, Ethics
Miami, Florida

Marsha Cohen

Marsha Cohen believes that humor can be a very effective safety valve and dispel tensions in an adult classroom. At the end of a class, a joke on the topic can end the class on an upbeat note, especially those which make students realize how much they themselves now understand about a topic.

An example of one of the jokes she sometimes uses to wrap up the session on Jewish Symbols (Rhythms) is: A brand new kosher hotel on Miami Beach is about to welcome a large convention of very observant guests. The hotel manager suddenly realizes that the mezzuzot haven't yet been put up on the doorposts of the rooms and knows that these guests won't stay in a room with no mezzuza. He frantically calls the maintenance supervisor, gives him a carton of mezzuzot, explains to him how to properly place them, and tells him he's got an hour to get the job done. An hour later, he asks the maintenance supervisor if all the mezzuzot have been attached. "Yes sir," says the supervisor beaming with satisfaction. "And here are all the warranties that were inside them!"

Many students were probably unaware before the class session that it's actually the parchment scroll inside that is the mezzuza, not the outer case. The joke reinforces some points of the lesson while making the students feel the satisfaction and empowerment of now being "insiders" who "get it" who understand things about mezzuzot that they may not have an hour ago.

Marsha was born in the Bronx, NY, and moved to Miami as a child. At age 20 she lived in Israel for three years, where she received her BA in Ancient, Medieval and Political Philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She holds an MA in Religious Studies and is currently working on her Ph.D in International Relations.

Marsha first began teaching at the Mini-School in 1998. "I was attracted to Melton’s transdenominational approach to adult Jewish education, the curriculum’s emphasis on the use of primary sources and the awesome commitment and motivation required of Melton learners," she says.

Ania Diaz, Director of the Miami Mini-School, describes Marsha Cohen as an outstanding educator in every way. "Her depth and breadth of knowledge is extraordinary," she says. "She is a committed instructor who is beloved of her students." Ania says Marsha's classes are always packed and Marsha's evaluations always read like a tribute journal: words like "brilliant", "captivating", "challenging" are common descriptions. "We are indeed very fortunate to count her among our faculty," exclaims Ania proudly.

One of the gratifying things that Marsha finds about teaching Melton is being able to reach students of all kinds of backgrounds. "I've had Melton students who grew up in and live in very traditionally observant families who have told me that they'd been observing certain Jewish practices all of their lives but had never before understood the rationale behind them." She also feels that for students encountering Jewish study for the first time, a whole new world is opening up for them, prior knowledge cannot be taken for granted, and ideas must be presented in a way that is neither intimidating or off-putting.

Creating Roadmaps has also been a useful discipline for her. "I think it's valuable in any teaching setting to start with a clear sense of where you want to go and how you propose to get there, while at the same time having the flexibility to encourage discussion and allow for questions," she says. Marsha claims to have her Roadmaps down to a science and finds that if a Roadmap is more than a page (exclusive of supplementary texts), she knows she won’t accomplish what she’s setting out to do in an hour. "My Roadmap style seems to be rather unconventional: I begin with a paragraph explaining the key idea about the topic, which I find to be an "equalizer" between students who know a great deal about the subject and those who know very (or relatively) little," she explains. "Our modus operandi then becomes to discover how we get from the texts to these ideas, historically and logically. I know most teachers prefer to have the key idea emerge at the end FROM the texts, but time sometimes runs out before you get to wrap everything up into a coherent whole."

Marsha has found that her students have grown from their experience in the classroom in different ways. One way is the realization during the two year program that biblical texts in themselves are not always reliable guides to Jewish beliefs and practices, and that most of our Jewish identity is derived from how these texts are understood by the Talmudic sages and later commentators. Another is the respect for and an increase in comfort level with rabbinic logic when applied to textual analysis as the program progresses.

Advice Marsha would give to a new Mini-School teacher is threefold. Imagine questions your students might ask during a lessons and be able to answer them, always be on the lookout for newspaper articles and "case studies" that can illustrate the relevance of the texts you teach to every day life, and most importantly – take the first opportunity you can to attend a Melton Faculty workshop in Jerusalem!

Marsha’s hobbies include surfing the internet and putting together her own collection of links relating to her teaching, designing web pages, gardening and cooking. She is married with a 21 year old son majoring in Radio/Television.

Marsha can be reached by email at marshaco@yahoo.com and has her own website: http://mcohen02.tripod.com/Jewish.html

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