On Sunday, May 17, 2026, American Jewish University held its inaugural graduation ceremony at the House of the Book on the Brandeis-Bardin Campus in Los Angeles for the first cohort of Ed.D. candidates in Early Childhood Education through an explicitly Jewish program. I am proud to say I was among the graduates who earned their Doctorate in Early Childhood Educational Leadership that day. This milestone was not only a personal achievement. It was also a meaningful moment for our Miami Jewish early childhood community. I was honored to be asked to give a graduation speech on behalf of the entire class and in it, I reflected on a quote I first heard from a four-year-old child during my early years as a teacher: “Growing is invisible until suddenly, it isn’t.” That simple observation became a powerful lens for my doctoral journey and for the work of early childhood education itself.
This rich Torah portion Beha’alotecha incorporates diverse precepts within Judaism and thus offers many perspectives on how to lead a meaningful life. In it, we see that God leads the Jewish people in multiple ways: through the use of natural wonders, by establishing the Torah as a guide, and by teaching the importance of respectful behavior toward others. These modalities represent three of the myriad ways to find meaning in life and to develop a personal connection with community and the divine presence. Throughout the parsha, the Jews are physically led by the Ark of the Covenant, which held the tablets of the Ten Commandments and would travel in front of them. In this way, both literally and figuratively, the Torah served as the people’s guide in the desert. In our lives as well, the Torah can serve as a guide through the challenges we face.
At a recent CAJE meeting inside Miami’s new Holocaust Education Center at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, I had one of those moments where you stop listening to the agenda for a second and just take in the room around you. A building created to preserve the memory of the Holocaust is now also becoming a place where educators are helping students process October 7th in real time. That’s a staggering shift when you really think about it. For years, Holocaust education mostly lived in the world of remembrance. Testimony. History. Memory. The responsibility was to make sure future generations understood what hatred could become if nobody stopped it. Now Jewish educators are dealing with something entirely different. They’re helping students understand Jewish history while simultaneously living through it.