In his talk, Mr. Geffen explains the importance and power of experiential education. In dealing with inter-cultural relations, when trying to understand other perspectives, and when trying to affect good in the world, first-hand experience is critical. He argues that we need to interpret the past and understand the present in order to build and insure the future. Mr. Geffen describes numerous anecdotes and personal experiences from his world travels, in order to reinforce his contentions.

Peter Geffen is the Founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in NYC and worked with the school for over two decades, providing assistance and guidance in its growth from 28 children in 1983 to its present international prominence. In the 1990’s, he began working with Jewish day schools across the continent that sought to model all or portions of their programs on the Heschel educational design. His career in Jewish education began with his design of the unique and unprecedented Park Avenue Synagogue High School program in 1967 that he served as Principal until 1985. In the field of informal education, he held a range of leadership positions (including decades of senior staff roles with Camp Ramah in Canada, Glen Spey and Israel). He has personally taught 1000’s of high school and college aged students over the past 45+ years!

He served as Director of Israel Experience Programs for North America for the CRB (Charles Bronfman) Foundation from 1990-1997; as a consultant with The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education; chief consultant to the “Heritage Civilization and the Jews-DVD-ROM” project of the The Charles Revson Foundation, and Executive Director of The Center for Jewish History (2003-05).

In 1999, Peter created (and continues to direct) KIVUNIM—The Institute of Experiential Learning for Israel and World Jewish Communities Studies, which became the largest, Israel-based teacher training seminar from North America. In September of 2006, he launched KIVUNIM: New Directions, a year-long post high school/pre-college gap-year program based in Israel, while traveling to 10-12 countries (from Morocco to India) studying the origins and integration of Jewish life and culture throughout the world. The program seeks to build “world-consciousness” as a context for strengthening Jewish identity, formed as it is from the magnificent history of the Jewish people amongst the nations of the world. His knowledge of world Jewish communities began in 1969 when he developed the first summer travel programs for students at the Park Avenue Synagogue High School linking Israel to trips to Eastern and Western Europe and the former Soviet Union. In the 1970’s, he designed the first programs to bring Jewish youth into the Arab and Islamic world (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran (pre-revolutionary) and Turkey). Today, as a results of his extensive annual travel, he is one of the most knowledgeable speakers on the state of world Jewry.

Peter received his elementary through high school education in NYC public schools, holds a BA from Queens College of The City University of New York (where he studied and developed a close personal relationship with the noted Jewish historian Professor Cecil Roth during the final years of Roth’s life), an MA in Religious Education from New York University, and a Certificate in Psychotherapy and Counseling from the Alfred Adler Institute in New York City. He is an ABD (all but dissertation) at NYU with a thesis linking the seminal work of Erik Erikson in identity formation to Jewish educational philosophy and approach.

His background includes involvement in many of the critical issues of social justice of the past 50 years, including service as a civil rights worker in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the summers of 1965 and 1966. Together with Queens College’s own Rabbi Moshe Shur, he accompanied Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at Dr. King’s funeral in 1968. He has been active in numerous civil rights and social justice causes for decades.



This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx