iHeartNoahides polled our readers asking:

What is the single most important next step for Noahide communities?

The number one response was “Child & Youth education”

Having said that, iHN excitedly presents our exclusive interview with Kristine Cassady, Co-Founder, President, and Administrative Director of N.O.A.H. : Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers.

All bold and italics and links were added by me, the editor of iHN.

It is my honest opinion that N.O.A.H. is laying the foundation for establishing real, non-web-based Noahide communities around the world.  Of course, it first begins online, as you will read in the interview.

Wishing you well, dear readers!
Happy Pesach.

- Daniel

p.s. my offer to hear your story and present it on iHN still stands.

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March 2009

Can you start by telling us about N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers?

N.O.A.H. is a subsidiary organization of Noahide Nations created to meet the needs of Noahide parents and children.

Although our name seems to limit our scope to homeschooling, our desire is to assist all Noahide families. It is a common opinion that parents who use public or private schooling options are not homeschooling their children; however, N.O.A.H. would like to challenge Noahide families to think differently.

We believe all Noahide parents are in fact homeschooling for a portion of their child’s education- the most important element of their education, actually, which is spiritual awareness and growth. After evaluating the need for Noahide specific material, a small group of three homeschooling mothers, including myself, came together under the Noahide Nations’ banner to devise a solution to the problem of limited resources for Noahide parents. The result was the foundation of N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers. www.NoahideHomescool.org

What services will N.O.A.H. offer?

The services we offer are closely tied to the goals we have set for the organization, which are multifaceted.

We feel there is a great need for Noahide specific Torah-centered material, so we have devoted part of our organization strictly to curriculum development for Torah related topics- emphasizing the Noahide perspective, including Parsha lessons and the feasts and festivals.

To maintain the highest standards possible, all of N.O.A.H.’s curriculum will be written from an observant orthodox viewpoint, but geared toward a Noahide audience. We believe rabbinical oversight is an important element and will have rabbinical approval of our curriculum material prior it becoming available to members.

We also believe strongly in the need for establishing meaningful relationships within the global Noahide community and will offer community building services like separate online forums for parents, teens, and elementary aged students, featured articles written by fellow Noahides on relevant education or parenting topics, and a service we are really excited about- our individualized notification to members of other member families within their region. This notification process will allow families to build (form) small groups of support and begin the process of the true community building we all know is needed. A core ingredient of attaining our organization’s goals is our Education Department which is responsible for creating the curricula, classes, and resources for N.O.A.H.’s members, and lead by Elisa Jay.

Will you only focus on the spiritual education of children or branch out?

Our primary goal, at first, is to fill the very real “hole” in resources available to Noahide parents regarding Noahide spiritual growth, understanding, and lifestyle. We hope to achieve this by the on-line classes and original Noahide Torah curriculums I mentioned earlier; as-well-as offering printable activity sheets for each of the 7 Laws, Torah lesson plans, creating original children’s books, and forming a Noahide appropriate book list. We are putting a lot into N.O.A.H. and are really excited to see where it could go.

So, all of that to say, once we have produced enough material to get parents going on the spiritual front, we will venture out into the academic fields. Our Educational Director (and Vice-President), Elisa Jay, has already started to create an ancient world history curriculum that incorporates the Torah timeline and corresponding Jewish calendar dates. She also has plans for a high school level science program that will introduce Torah science and how it applies to all the different disciplines within the currently accepted scientific arenas.  It will be a process and take time to develop these resources.

Some of our other future academic goals include writing Noahide specific guides for the Humanities, such as literature, art, and music, and establishing a high school level course in political science and psychology from the Noahide viewpoint.

I just want to reiterate to your audience that all material created by N.O.A.H. will have orthodox rabbinical approval prior to becoming accessible to members.

How will people access all of these amazing resources?

As our title implies, our organization is based solely in cyberspace and all of our resources will be available at our website: www.NoahideHomeschool.org.

Our website is divided into three separate spaces; one is the Home site mainly for parents/ adults to access family related material and support.

The second section is our Student Zone which is dedicated to students age 13- 18 years old.  Age appropriate Torah-centered educational material, printable documents, and a link to the teen community are all found in the Student Zone.

Our third area, the PlayScape, is set-up for students ages 5- 12 years old to use along with their parents, preferably.  Again, it will have age appropriate Torah-centered educational material, activity pages, and a link to the N.O.A.H. community forum for them to connect with other Noahide students.

Now, the public will have access to the Home site, but both of our student spaces are password protected and we have created a social network for our community forum site which allows parents to monitor where the students are while giving the students a place of their own to get to know fellow Noahide youth, you can visit the N.O.A.H. Community at www.NoahideHomeschool.ning.com.

So, membership to N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers will allow people full access to all of your services?

Yes and there is an additional benefit…it is all free to the public!

What can you tell anyone interested in helping N.O.A.H?

We are currently seeking illustrators, experienced curriculum developers, professional educators, or others with a passion for Torah and children.

I would also like to mention to our Jewish friends, please let the Gentiles in your community know about us and the work we are doing to bring Torah truth to the Gentiles in our communities.  As we know, there is a lot of confusion out there and well-meaning people are wondering around without proper direction and basing their faith on misinformation.  Noahides need all the help we can get to spread the truth of Torah-centered living–so if a gentile comes to you for direction–please let them know about us.

You may contact me at KristineCassady@NoahideNations.com if you wish to volunteer your time or talents to our organization.  I’d love to hear from you.

The below history was compiled by Rabbi Bindman in his book “The Seven Colors Of The Rainbow.”  I have not yet read this book, but found the following excerpt very interesting.

The Noahide and Jewish readers should take to heart that Noahides have had a G-d-centered relationship with the Jews for millenia.  This is not a “new” phenomena.

In my opinion, this perspective is far more empowering to Bnei Noach than pretending that the Noahide-Jew relationship is a novel concept.  Rather, you are part of a great chain of people who similarly strove for G-d against all odds.

What is novel, is that humanity is steadily approaching the redemption.

-iHN

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Mesopotamia, origin of seventy nations

Following the flood, humanity was still one united body, living in one place, the area now known as Mesopotamia or Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through a fertile plain. Here the people had settled and given birth to children. Their state of security was so great that they began to consider themselves the masters of all creation, ready to challenge G-d Himself for supremacy. They saw their own unity as the key to this, and they did not commit the sins of banditry and sexual infidelity (bestiality) for which the previous generation had been condemned. They were kind and loving to one another, but they grew arrogant as a group and decided to build a high tower, the Tower of Babel, from which to gain an access to heaven.

(Natural History Museum - London. w/permission)

This was a form of idolatry (violation of the Covenant of Noah), and their punishment from the heavenly court was that their languages should be confused. They would no longer understand each other as before. This was the origin of separate languages as we now have them; seventy basic tongues were established, from which all of today’s languages descended. This was also the number of the actual nations of the non-Jewish world before they were subdivided and intermingled. (more…)