Living and Working with Different Religions: One Teacher’s Story

“Wait. Aren’t you Jewish?”

Ashley D. Plaeger, Associate Director of College Counseling at The Emery/Weiner School, receives this inquiry frequently, but she doesn’t mind. She loves the feeling that students at Emery think she is Jewish, even though she practices Catholicism “because it creates dialogue between individuals of different religions and backgrounds,” she said.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Ashley Plaeger attended Louisiana State University and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland before moving to Houston, where she has lived for the past decade. Before joining the Emery College Counseling department over a year ago, Mrs. Plaeger worked in Pre-K through 12th grade admissions along with higher education admissions. In 2018, she received her Masters in Education from Houston Baptist University.

It was during her time as a graduate student at HBU when Mrs. Plaeger was invited to participate in the inaugural HBU Passages trip to Israel in 2016. Passages is a nonprofit organization whose goal that is stated on their website is to “point trip participants to the roots of their Biblical faith and to introduce them to the complex landscape of modern Israel, with the goal of building bridges of understanding and friendship between our two countries.” As Mrs. Plaeger described, “The purpose was to learn more about the foundation of the Christian faith and to learn more about the political climate of Israel.”

With a background that includes living abroad to numerous countries including the Czech Republic, France, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Netherlands, Belize, Mexico, Canada, and Germany, when she was presented with the opportunity to visit Israel, Mrs. Plaeger couldn’t resist.“I wanted to experience the Holy Land. I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to go to Israel, so when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped on a plane,” she said.

As Mrs. Plaeger explained, “My interest in Israel, Jewish/Christian relations, Middle East politics, and the American involvement in the Middle East began as a result of my initial trip in 2016 with Passages. Since then, I have visited Israel two times; in 2017 as a Passages Fellow and in 2018 as a Passages Senior Fellow. Emery was a great fit for me professionally because it combined many of my passions.” Since that first trip, her passion and advocacy for Israel has grown and “have built connections and opened communication for interfaith discussion among students at Emery.”  

When it comes to working at a Jewish school even though she is not Jewish, Mrs. Plaeger explained, “It hasn’t been an issue at EWS. Many teachers/administrators are not Jewish. What it does do is open an interfaith dialogue, which can be impactful to both parties. The clearer the understanding, the better the relationship can be.”

On her most recent 10-day trip to Israel, Mrs. Plaeger served as Senior Fellow with Passages. She finds these trips important, “as the foundation of Passages is to educate people about the Jewish faith.” As a Senior Fellow this year, she supervised three buses and participants. Knowing that she was going to Israel during a time of such conflict, she was not concerned. She explained that the U.S. media portrayal regarding the violence and conflict between the Palestinian and Jewish people is not always reality. She further said, “I never felt unsafe whether I was in Jerusalem, the Galilee, Tel Aviv, or Ramallah.” She described her experience as “inspiring to see people who live in Golan and the Gaza border that see this conflict daily.”

Through her work with Passages, she became involved with Israel advocacy by participating and working with organizations such as StandWithUs, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israeli-American Conference (IAC), and Houston Hillel. Her first time attending IAC and AIPAC was this year. She said there were lots of Christians at AIPAC, however, there were none at IAC besides Passages’ students, which made the experience even more impactful.

Currently, she helps support pro-Israel clubs on college campuses such as Houston Baptist University, Rice University and the University of Houston. “I have worked with Passages alumni on the UH campus to battle BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) campus issues, promote peace, and equality. At HBU, I was one of the founding club members of the Christians for Israel club, and helped answer questions/ facilitate conversations with Rice students regarding Passages involvement and post-trip advocacy,” she said. She explained, “My motivation has nothing to do with prophecy - strictly to have democracy in the Middle East and preserve the holy sites in Israel.”  

For the past three years, she said going to Israel has been her highlight. “The people in Israel are very welcoming - I didn’t initially know how I’d be perceived,” she said. While Mrs. Plaeger didn’t join the Emery Class of 2018 on their month-long trip to Poland and Israel, she did see the class while they were there and noted that “it was fantastic!”

Moving forward, Mrs. Plaeger plans to stay involved with the various Israel advocacy groups and looks forward to more trips with Passages.