| Yosi
Gordon Rhythms,
Purposes
Eau Claire, Wisconsin  | Yosi
Gordon |
"Yosi
Gordon is a recognized master educator, both locally and on a national level,"
says Sheryl Gross, director of the St. Paul Minnesota Mini-School, of which Eau
Claire is the satellite site. "He teaches in the Twin Cities Middle School
and Midrasha, an evening supplemental high school program. He is the Rabbi of
the congregation in Eau Claire as well as the Melton instructor. Yosi is a man
of many hats and wears them all well." Rabbi
Yosi (Joel) Gordon was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He discovered
the joy and intensity of Torah and Jewish life through Hebrew school, BBYO, and
Camp Ramah. Yosi was eager to master Hebrew and Jewish studies in classes and
at the University of Wisconsin Hillel. His junior year in Israel was notable,
not only for his studies at the Hebrew University, but for his work with troubled
Israeli youth in Kiryat Yovel, teaching English at the YMCA, and his successful
efforts to learn to speak Hebrew well enough to fool some Israelis. During
his six years at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yosi devoted himself to becoming
a master teacher of Jewish texts. Upon graduation, in 1972, he began his first
full-time position as Assistant Principal at the Los Angeles Hebrew High School.
There, he worked for six years in various administrative and programmatic capacities
but, most important to him, was his work as a teacher. His students gave Yosi
his greatest satisfaction and when asked to send samples of his "products"
to the Covenant Foundation, Yosi objected, "They won't agree to climb into
envelopes." Yosi
is always teaching. Last year he taught forty-five class hours per week. Even
over the summer Yosi teaches and tutors children and adults while writing voluminous
textbooks for his own classroom use. "As
long as I can remember, my fantasies and fascination were with teaching. I have
always preferred the title 'teacher' to 'educator'," he says. " It conveys
what is most important for me in my work and my life. A teacher is a person who
works directly with students, who conducts a class, who transmits Jewish learning
and helps students create a community of Jewish learners, one which shapes their
lives and gives them the tools and purpose to continue to live lives of Jewish
communal learning forever. 'Teacher' connotes kinds of relationships with students,
individually and as a group. It is a limited relationship in scope, place, and
time; yet ideally it creates directions in students which extend beyond those
limitations." Yosi
has been a teacher at the Eau Claire, Wisconsin Mini-School for a year and a half,
and is the recipient of the Covenant Award in 2000. He began teaching there to
provide a good introductory course in Judaism to his congregants in Eau Claire,
Wisconsin. "We are a congregation of about 40 households in west central
Wisconsin," says Yosi. "I am the part time rabbi. I travel to Eau Claire
18 times each year to lead services, teach and perform other rabbinical functions,
including teaching a Melton class." He
enjoys the personal contributions to discussions his students bring from their
lives and thoughts. He feels the students are beginning to feel more secure in
their Jewish commitments and ideas from the way they are participating more in
services, offering opinions about Jewish topics, and planning to visit Israel. "I
hope to teach as long as I am able. It continues to provide me with surprise and
challenge and enormous satisfaction in my life," says Yosi. Rabbi
Yosi Gordon can be reached by email at: yosi@attbi.com > More
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