Debra Katz Klein is a ball of Jewish energy.
This is how Zvi Weiss, director of early childhood education at Albert L. Schultz JCC in Palo Alto, described his star teacher on the nomination form for the Diller Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, which is administered by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
The judges agreed, awarding this T’enna Preschool teacher $10,000 in June.
“I didn’t see it coming,” says Klein, a Los Altos mother of two who hadn’t originally set out to be a teacher.
After earning her master’s degree in public administration, she became the energy services manager for utilities in Palo Alto. In the meantime, her daughter started preschool at Albert L. Shultz JCC, and word got out that a substitute was needed for a week or so every month.
Klein signed up and her managerial experience served her well. “I learned some skills that were very useful when I became a preschool teacher,” she says, explaining for instance that, “crazy songs are a great way to get a message across. When the city was combating the drought, to promote our water waste patrol program, I had the staff dress in yellow raincoats and do a number in front of City Hall: ‘When someone’s sprinkler floods the neighborhood, who ya’ gonna call? Gushbusters!’ … You get the idea.”
An interview with Klein is a whirlwind of anecdotes and Jewish paradigm — with laughter tagged on.
“Children adore Debbie,” says Denise Clarke Pope, a lecturer at Stanford University School of Education, whose three children have been in Klein’s preschool class. “They love her warm and witty sense of humor, and they hang on her every word.”
Klein says that her only regret is that she didn’t come into the field of Jewish early childhood education sooner. After two years of substituting, “one thing led to another, and it evolved into a full-time profession.”
“My mother always told me that the best you could always hope for career-wise would be to find something you love so much you could do for free — and then get paid for it,” Klein says. “Hey, Mom, I arrived.”
So, how does one go about teaching Jewish values to preschoolers? After all, they can’t really read the Ten Commandments yet.
“Play” is the keyword here, Klein says.
For example, of her preschoolers’ all-time favorite Jewish sayings is Shimon Ben Zoma’s “Who is strong? The one who controls his own impulses.”
Klein’s pre-K kids know this saying isn’t about muscle strength. “I can look at a kid who’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing, and I’ll say ‘Be strong,’ and he knows that it means control yourself.”
“When it becomes part of their play, then they absorb these values,” Klein says. “They may not remember how to spell Mordechai during Purim when they’re 4, but if they come out of here feeling connected to Judaism, I feel like I’ve done my job.”
“She’s a master storyteller and entertainer,” adds Pope, whose son is now in Klein’s class. “She works hard to create the lessons that will foster an understanding of the joys and traditions of the Jewish people.”
Klein’s own Jewish education came about on the job.
“I had a lot of the Jewish values without knowing it,” she says. She grew up in the Los Angeles area, “but my parents were atheists. I knew all about bagels and could quote some Yiddish expressions, but I was in my 20s before I went to my first seder.”
After the birth of her children, Klein became a self-described “fanatical genealogist,” who began tracing her own Jewish history.
In fact, she now teaches a unit on Jewish immigration history to preschoolers. First, children make models of their own homes with family portraits, after which they plot their houses on a huge Bay Area map. Then parents complete worksheets, telling where their families came from, including stories that show how connected we are.
Preschool parents commend Klein’s open communication — she sends out weekly email updates with lines like these in the heading: “A Plague-A-Day Keeps the Pharaoh at Bay.”
When the plague of frogs arrived, for instance, the kids (only those who wanted to, of course!) sat on a “throne” like Pharaoh and had miniature plastic frogs stuck all over them.
“Then when we went to have snacks, there were frogs in the cracker bowls and frogs in the water pitchers,” says Klein. “Giant frogs we painted last week suddenly were appearing all around the room. Did it get annoying? You bet!”
Klein says that she has discovered her calling at T’enna Preschool. “I have a great time doing this. I have a whacky nature. I am silly and crazy, and this is the level I connect with the kids on.”
“Debbie has been a catalyst for change in our school,” adds Weiss, who has been involved in Jewish education for 29 years. “She exudes creativity. She is the ultimate team player.”
Klein credits fellow teacher Jan Kozelka for “being incredibly supportive” and “going with the flow.”
The other winners of the Diller Awards are Cheryl Cohen, 4th Grade Hebrew School & Tot Shabbat Teacher at Temple Beth Torah in Fremont; Sherry E. Knazan, B’nei Mitzvah Coordinator, Teacher 5th & 7th Grades & Madrikhim Coordinator at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa; Atara Maolem, Teacher at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto; and Rick Concoff, Director/ Instructor of Kehillah of Or Ami Religious School at Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa.
Each winner exemplified excellence in teaching and distinguished achievement in developing creative curricula, programs or methods to advance Jewish knowledge, values and identity. In addition to the $10,000 prize for each educator, $2,500 goes to the educator’s institution.