In 2010, Ronnie Halibard embarked on a mission to educate adults and school students across the world in a subject that seemed to have an enormous knowledge gap: Jewish History.

Ronnie is an experienced and dynamic English-born educator with many years of experience teaching students of all ages and administrating at Jewish schools in the USA and in Israel. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Technion Institute of Technology, a Master’s degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor’s degree in Jewish Studies from the University of London and is a licensed school teacher in Israel.

Ronnie learned post high school at Yeshivas Mercaz Hatorah and Midrash Shmuel in Jerusalem, and at Ner Israel in Baltimore, prior to starting his formal teaching career.

Through his teaching and tutoring, Ronnie discovered that Jewish History could be an attainable and enjoyable subject! In his experience, students tended to utterly dislike learning about “those ancient and irrelevant times”… after all, “who cares?! How is it relevant to me?”

But we do care and we should care! Knowledge of Jewish History enhances our general understanding and appreciation of all Jewish and Torah education, belief and tradition. It provides valuable context for almost everything we do. And, of course, it helps to widen one’s overall perspective of the world.

Ronnie realized that one of the major ‘blocks’ in the learning of Jewish History was the laborious memorization of names, numbers and places… once that ‘block’ is removed, this subject could become fun. Additionally, he understood that unless Jewish History is presented as a relevant narrative, most people see it as merely an academic subject, not one that pertains to ‘you and me’. To that end, Ronnie developed Jewish History in a Flash – using all the necessary tools to turn the tone from dull to delightful!

The Jewish History in a Flash program began with just one presentation but fast developed into a far more comprehensive series of lectures, each created as individual stand-alone sessions, but which can be combined into a wholesome series, whether on one day or over several years. The program also offers Scholar in Residence packages and teachers’ training and staff development sessions.

Jewish History in a Flash usually presents to audiences starting at 11 years of age but over the past few years many Elementary school teachers expressed an interest in a version of Jewish History in a Flash lectures for younger aged children. Recently, Jewish History in a Flash unveiled a new program: Young Events – the original Events presentation designed for children aged 7-12.

In the meantime, Jewish History in a Flash launched its App – providing a simple and inexpensive way to review the material learned in each of the Jewish History in a Flash courses. The app also contains many quizzes for each course, allowing the user to test him/herself and to even rate his/her scores against those of friends! The app can be accessed via any web broswer on your computer. On mobile devices, you can bookmark the app – see more information.

Jewish History in a Flash is proud to announce that its 7th presentation – Astounding Statements – is now available.