Ms. Cahana. From someone who’s lived in 4 places, to teaching about the art of commentary, she is not your average teacher. But why does she want to teach? What makes JLA a better job than another school? What are some major challenges she faced? With all those questions come a lot of answers and keep reading to find them out.
But what was it that initially gave her the desire to teach? Well it actually stemmed from her love for learning Torah. Ms. Cahana before her undergraduate course decided to go to seminary for two years. Seminary is where women learn for two years about all Judaic topics. She enjoyed it so much and was so moved by it, that she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave. She thought that she loved learning so much that she couldn’t see herself doing anything other than that. However, what she truly loves about teaching is seeing the growth of a student and seeing what’s moving for that student in particular. What is that one thing that they are truly passionate about? That’s what she wants to unlock.
Great, she loves teaching. But why JLA? What is so special about JLA that other schools don’t have? In her words, “JLA is a remarkably innovative institution. I wish more people understood that.” But what is so remarkable about it for her? For starters, JLA has a course catalog for Judaics where you actually get to choose which area of Judaics you’re interested in. In other schools, you have Judaics in a specific subject and the learning is just very structured. Not at JLA. She also loves the Fridays at JLA and how different they are. She truly believes that five days vs four days a week of proper classes is a truly different experience. As she states, “JLA reimagines what education could be.”
What is that one topic that truly stands out to her, that she truly enjoys teaching? Well, that topic is a rather unknown one called Dev-Art. It’s about looking at and analysing biblical art. She believes the painter had to make many deliberate decisions about what narrative they were trying to paint. She sees biblical paintings as more than just something beautiful—she sees them as a means through which you can derive a lot of meaning. She’s even taught a class on it before.
Although it may seem like her life has been smooth, the truth is that it really wasn’t. When she was in school, she had dyslexia to such an extent that she couldn’t even fulfill basic assignments. In class, she had to rely on other people’s reading abilities but had little to no reading comprehension at all. On top of that, she also found it extremely difficult to contribute without her ability to read properly. However, she found a way to make it work. She was able to leverage class time extremely well, to take all the notes that she needed. When she was 19 years old, she slowly taught herself the ability to read, but even when she could read, trusting her reading and finding her voice took time. She had a challenge and she overcame it.
If she were to have one motto what would it be? As quoted by her, “according to the effort is the reward. No pain no gain.” There is an inherent reward that comes out just by the act of putting in the effort. Another motto that she believes is that everyone has talents, but there’ll always be some areas that require improvement. When you put in the effort to work on something, you can achieve great things. As Aviva says, “Morah Cahana is an amazing teacher. She is so willing to sit with you and help you out and understands us as students. Her devotion is so inspiring, I really appreciate her class.” It is clear that Ms. Cahana really cares about her students and truly wants to see them succeed.
