This summer was supposed to have been a momentous one for Yellowstone National Park. Celebrating its 150th anniversary—the first national park in the world to reach this milestone—officials of the majestic park, which I visited in August, were anticipating a summer of record attendance, highlighted by an exciting process of envisioning the future of this geological/ecological treasure.
Of course, the reality didn’t quite turn out that way. Historic flooding in June caused catastrophic damage to roads and other critical infrastructure, so time that was supposed to be spent crafting a strategic vision for the coming years was instead dedicated to an operational/logistical emergency of the present. “What does the ideal national park of the future look like?” turned into “How can we open our gates safely?,” “How can we transport needed supplies to where they need to be?” and “How can we ensure that our guests will have the experience that they expect and deserve?”
School leaders throughout the world can empathize with Yellowstone officials. For two years, our summers—ordinarily occupied with strategic thinking about educational innovation and institutional growth—were utilized almost exclusively for pandemic-driven logistical conversations. How could we reallocate and reconfigure our space to allow physical distancing? Did we have adequate ventilation and safety mechanisms in place? Which activities could be conducted in person, and which had to be held remotely?
I am pleased to report to Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly—and to all of our school communities—that there is indeed a light at the end of this tunnel. For while our society has not left the risks of COVID-19 entirely behind us, and we remain highly conscious of the health impacts that the virus continues to have, the summer of 2022 marked a return to invigorating, forward-thinking planning within our schools.
Of course, the specifics of this look a bit different within each institution. At The Leffell School in Westchester, we are focused on enacting a vibrant vision for the Jewish community of the future, bringing together Jewish families from a variety of backgrounds with a shared anchor in traditional observance and text study. What matters most to the field is not the details of any individual school’s agenda, but rather the fact that all of us now have the opportunity to recommit ourselves to strategic, educational planning as a cornerstone of our work. And it is fitting that we mark this restoration of both a more-conventional school year and a forward-thinking orientation as we prepare for the holiday of Sukkot.
Known as Chag Haasif, the Festival of Gathering, in ancient times Sukkot provided an occasion for the collection of both the produce of the fall harvest and the people themselves, through aliyah l’regel and simchat beit hashoeva—resonant as we return to celebratory, full-scale gatherings within our school buildings. And of the three Pilgrimage Festivals, Sukkot is perhaps the most future-oriented: We focus on the ultimate redemption through both Zechariah’s vision that we read in the haftarah for the first day, and the insertion in Birkat Hamazon of a prayer for the restoration of the fallen “Sukkah of David,” representing the eternal Kingdom of Hashem.
The time my family spent in Yellowstone was profound and transformative, despite the urgent need for the park leadership to attend to the emergencies of the moment—just as, we hope, our schools were able to provide a meaningful educational, communal and Judaic experience for our students even as the conditions of the past two years required us to focus largely on pandemic-related operational matters. I am certain, though, that a visit to the park two years from now would be even more enriching, as by then the focus will have shifted to enacting a dynamic vision for the future. This is the phase in which we now find ourselves in the field of education, and we feel blessed and grateful to have arrived here—just as we commence our celebration of these concepts through our observance of Sukkot.
Michael A. Kay, PhD is head of school at The Leffell School.
