By Lauren Plant, head of school
A few weeks ago, I sat down with some of our eighth-graders to talk about their upcoming trip to Israel. Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles has been sending students on this trip for years. It’s a defining and culminating moment in their academic experience.
This year’s trip was different, however, and not only because we chose not to send our eighth graders to Israel last year due to safety concerns in the wake of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This year’s trip is not just a long-awaited return to Israel. The students’ journey to Israel also symbolizes the new era in which these rising high schoolers now live.
In my conversation with some of this year’s graduating class, I sensed a worry that pained me. For these kids, there is some understanding that this trip is not just the end of their time at our school—it’s the beginning of something more. It’s their entry into the wider world as Jewish adults.
In 2025, that’s a profoundly complex thing to become.
The world our students are stepping into is noisy, fast and often cruel. Antisemitism today rarely wears a uniform. It’s more insidious. It comes as a whisper or a suggestion by an admired figure or friend on social media, a throwaway comment made by an acquaintance, or a news story that leaves them feeling othered. The hate is real, and it doesn’t always come from where we expect.
As Jewish educators and parents, we have a responsibility that goes far beyond teaching Hebrew or holiday traditions. Our job is to prepare our children not just to be Jewish, but to live Jewish lives with pride, with joy and with strength. That means we can’t only be focused on raising Jewish children. We must be focused on raising Jewish adults.
Childhood is short. But adulthood is long. In our school community, this reality is foundational. Our curriculum, programs and culture are all designed with one central question in mind: How do we equip our students to leave our campus not just with knowledge but with identity?
This work, raising Jewish adults, isn’t abstract. It’s urgent and concrete. It starts with building identity from the inside out. Yes, we provide our students with historical knowledge and religious literacy. But that’s not all. They need a strong Jewish core. They need to understand where they come from, why it matters and what they stand for.
First, we give them values. Our students learn that being Jewish means practicing empathy, pursuing justice and seeing dignity in every person. These are not just lessons from Torah—they are tools for life and are reflected in Sinai Akiba Academy’s core values.
Second, we prepare them for complexity. Our world is not black and white, and we don’t pretend it is. Our students are taught to think critically, ask hard questions and hold nuance, especially in the tough topics.
Third, and most importantly, we give them joy. We want our students to sing loudly on Shabbat, to dance on Simchat Torah and taste the sweetness of Jewish life. Because joy is what keeps us whole and unites us.
To be sure, no school, no family, can fully shield a child from the heartbreak of the world. We cannot predict every challenge our students will face. But we can promise them this: They will not face it unprepared.
As head of school, I’ve seen the transformation that happens when Jewish education is approached on multiple levels—not just as an academic knowledge transfer, but as deeply-rooted identity formation. I’ve seen what it looks like when a student leads a discussion on antisemitism in front of their peers. I’ve seen our alumni return from college, telling us they felt ready. Ready to speak. Ready to lead. Ready to be proudly Jewish in public, and in the face all the shades of gray that come with being a Jewish adult. This is our work. This is our mission. Not just to raise Jewish children, but to raise confident and proud Jewish adults who will shape the future with wisdom, courage and joy.
And as I watched our eighth-graders prepare for their trip to Israel on May 4, the very same morning that a missile hit outside Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel, I knew and trusted they were ready.