As I toured the new Aaron Milken Center for Early Child Education last Sunday, an initiative of Stephen Wise Temple under the leadership of Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, I was hoping not to see too many digital screens. I’ve been engrossed these days in a book (“The Extinction of Experience” by Christine Rosen) that chronicles how the abuse of digital technology is undermining our very humanity. If that is true for the general population, imagine how true it must be for kids who just start out.
The new center looked promising from the welcoming remarks in the synagogue sanctuary. Major donor and visionary Lowell Milken spoke of creating “a living memorial providing benefit, tangible and lasting, for thousands of parents and children today and far into the future, one that will help contribute to Jewish continuity… in which future generations of children will develop a love of Judaism, and a love of Israel.”
There was plenty of love in the room, not least because Milken harkened back to his son Aaron, for whom the center is named. “I’ll never forget the first day of preschool for Aaron, 17 years after his oldest brother, Jeremy, when Aaron and I walked hand in hand into the same classroom and greeted Cynthia, the same teacher, nor will we forget all the memorable experiences that we enjoyed in all the years thereafter.”
Milken acknowledged that “while this occasion is one of great joy and accomplishment, it is also bittersweet for Aaron’s absence is reflected in a constant presence.” That constant presence will be reflected in the new center, which is the “sweet” in the bittersweet.
“As we now see the original vision becoming a reality, with the opening of his new campus today, it is on a sweet dimension that I’d like to dwell,” Milken said. “As the school and new facility will perpetuate Aaron’s memory, creating a living memorial, stemming from something that mattered greatly for him throughout his life.”
It was fortuitous that Milken spoke of the past, because there is at least one thing about the past that schools today would do well to bring back: real interaction in real time to counter the digital life that so many kids have grown accustomed to.
That’s why I was hoping not to see too many digital screens as I started the tour. The first thing that struck me was the marriage of the structure with nature and open skies. It helps of course to be on a major mountaintop— the views are spectacular. The space feels designed to nurture creativity and spontaneity, a sense of dreaming, a sense of possibility within safe boundaries.
I walked through the learning spaces and while the design is state-of-the-art, it’s not technology that dominates. It’s the openness and the flow. I saw lots of spaces for books, for art, for strolling through nature, for communal mingling, for prayer. And no, I wasn’t assaulted with digital screens.
Early education is so obviously crucial because it represents the foundation of a kid’s life. Just like the planting of a tree and Judaism itself, the stronger the foundation the longer it will last and the more it will thrive.
On the tour I bumped into my friend Richard Sandler, who is very involved with Milken Community School, which is located nearby and used to be associated with Stephen Wise. Even though they are now independent, I sensed a special bond between the two. Last year, the Milken school purchased the American Jewish University campus, also nearby, and Richard mentioned that it has its own exciting plans for expansion and for building a brighter Jewish future.
The fact that the Milken name is on both has created a kind of educational “ecosystem” that can serve as an innovative model for the rest of the country.
One can imagine a Jewish kid starting in the natural and stimulating spaces of the Aaron Milken Center and eventually graduating from Milken Community School with a top-notch education– an education that will, as Lowell Milken says, “help contribute to Jewish continuity… in which future generations of children will develop a love of Judaism, and a love of Israel.”
On a personal note, it seems to have worked with my daughter Mia, who graduated from Milken several years ago and is now raising a proudly Jewish family in the mystical city of Tsfat in Northern Israel. From what I hear, there are no digital screens in her kids’ pre-school.
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