Interview by Dena Udren
We spoke with long-time Bet El resident Miriam Shpatz, mother of ten and teacher of literature at the Jeannie Gluck High School Academy for Girls in Bet El. We asked her about her childhood, and about her professional life, and more – and came away with some pearls of wisdom regarding the beauty of a Torah-based life.
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| Miryam Shpatz (fourth from left) and family at the wedding of her eldest daugther |
Q. What can you tell us about your childhood?
Q. Which precisely brings me to ask: How did you choose Bet El?
A. My husband was studying in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem, south of Bet El, and I was in Orot, to the north, and Bet El provided convenient shuttles to both. This, and a small caravan [mobile home without wheels] to live in, was all we needed - and so we moved here. We lived in what was then the outer, northern edge of Bet El, in the middle of nowhere, but now it is built up with houses. After our family got bigger, we moved to larger quarters, and now we are happy to live in the David Neighborhood of Bet El.
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| Miryam and Shmuel Shpatz |
Q. Tell us please about your work in the Jeannie Gluck High School Academy for Girls.
A. I've been teaching there for 21 years now, ever since my oldest daughter was two weeks old. What happened was that they called me with an urgent SOS, asking if I could fill in for a literature teacher who had given birth; I was then in the middle of finishing my teaching degree. Thank G-d, this turned out to be a great instance of Divine supervision for us, as I've been teaching there ever since, both literature and Tanach (Bible). After only a year, I opened the literature department in the high school, which gives the girls a chance to major in literature, both Jewish and other types of classical works. They receive the tools to critically review what they read, to seek to understand the intentions of the author, and – what is perhaps most important for me – to figure out how they can learn something from it for their own personal character development.
Q. What do you like best about teaching?
A. I like the people. I very much like that even though it looks like I'm teaching the same material every year, I'm actually teaching different people each time, and so it comes out totally different each year. Meeting and engaging with the girls each year is fascinating for me. I love when their eyes suddenly open to new discoveries. We also run writing workshops to develop their writing skills, and this allows them to find their ability to express themselves in writing – and some of them are really quite talented. Part of their matriculation exam is a piece that they themselves write, print up nicely, and it is something that truly develops them and helps them grow.
Q. The Jeannie Gluck High School Academy for Girls is considered an esteemed girls' high school. How many students are there, and from where do they come?
A. We have four grade levels, with three classes in each, and 30 girls in each class. So that's 360 girls... They come from all over the country; I've had students from Migdal HaEmek in the Jezreel Valley, and from Be'er Sheva in the Negev, and from the Hevron region, and Tiberias… and of course from Bet El, Jerusalem, Petach Tikvah, etc.
Q. What, in your opinion, makes the school different and unique?
A. I believe that what's special here is the aspiration for Torah. The school wishes to develop girls who have true yirat shamayim [awe and constant awareness of Heaven], for whom the Torah is the center, whose future homes will be built on Torah, and who recognize the importance of children and home and family in the Nation of Israel. Another very unique and important aspect of our school is the warmth and personal guidance that it gives the girls, not only during their studies here but after they graduate as well. Rav Chaim [Sultan], the principal of the school, goes to visit the graduates at their National Service positions wherever they are in Israel, and is always willing to talk and give advice - and then they invite him and other teachers to their weddings. It is truly very special.
Q. Tell us about your family, your husband and children.
A. Thank G-d, my husband Shmuel and I have a very happy family, with ten children. Our eldest daughter is married, and they have a little baby girl; they live in Psagot, a couple of hills over from Bet El. The next daughter is doing National Service in Petach Tikvah as the leader of the Bnei Akiva chapter there. Our two high school boys learn in Derekh Chaim in Shaalvim, which is a yeshiva that teaches only Torah and no secular subjects… Our youngest is eight months old, and he became a very young uncle at age six months when our granddaughter was born.
Q. Can you remember a story or two from your many years as a teacher?
A. There are many… One girl who was a very gifted writer told me just before she graduated that she was so happy to have discovered her talent; before she started her major in literature, she had no idea that she had this ability … I just spoke to another graduate on the phone for an hour and a half, a girl who felt very challenged in her new program because of the competitiveness and the much less religious atmosphere than what she wanted. By the end of our conversation, in which we sought to find something that would meet her needs spiritually and in terms of her personality, she came to a conclusion as to what she wanted to do: private tutoring, possibly of special-needs children…
Q. What message would you like to give to our readers abroad?
A. I would like to say to them that what holds a family together the best way – as a family, and to each other, and to the Land of Israel – is to remember that the Torah is the center of our lives. If we keep the Torah at the center of our lives, then we can understand that even if we undergo something not pleasant, the knowledge that the Torah is the most important thing in our lives will give us strength to do, and to progress, and to give to others and to our family, and to be in better touch with those around us, and with the entire country and the Land of Israel, not just with ourselves and our comforts; we will know that we are here for an ideal, and in order to live a life of meaning and significance.