Addressing the Educator Shortage: ElevatEd Draws on the For-Profit Sector to Advance the Field

When the groundbreaking, collaborative ElevatEd initiative launched in the summer of 2023, it immediately began to develop a far-reaching strategy to attract, train, and support more early childhood Jewish educators (ECJE) in the field. Over the last year, the initiative, led by JCC Association of North America, Jewish Federations of North America, and the Union for Reform Judaism, has collaborated with funders, practitioners, educators, and community leaders to address the critical educator shortage and work to expand the field of early childhood Jewish education in North America.

The three-year ElevatEd pilot focuses on 11-12 pioneer communities, with a goal of recruiting, training, and credentialing up to 30 educators in each community, amounting to more than 300 emerging early childhood educators in total. The five initial communities—Boston, Denver-Boulder, East Bay (California), Houston, and Long Island—will be joined by a second cohort beginning this school year, including Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis. Educators from these communities work in JCCs, synagogues across all denominations, and a diverse collection of other Jewish educational settings that reflect the unique demographic makeup of their area.

ElevatEd’s multi-pronged approach to recruitment and retention is designed to address the field-wide educator crisis in a strategic, scalable way. By drawing on best practices, techniques, and new technologies from the for-profit world, ElevatEd supports these directors through numerous resources and offerings, in an area in which most of them have little if any training.

The realization that we are always learning and the connection between director and staff is one of the most important components of a healthy working environment. Supporting staff at all stages of their journey is a crucial part of keeping teachers motivated and committed to the field. – Debbie Neuschatz, Director, Long Island

Launched last year, ElevatEd’s Director’s Year-Long Course in Recruitment offers curriculum in talent acquisition and a stipend for participants. The course covers topics such as using AI/ChatGPT, creating personas for targeted recruitment, constructing engaging job descriptions, creating and using a SWOT analysis to understand one’s local job market, and creating an employment value proposition to attract top talent.

This past spring, to provide immediate support to directors, ElevatEd contracted with a recruitment process outsourcer (RPO). A recruiter from the RPO drives traffic to open positions in ElevatEd communities, supporting the “top of the hiring funnel” through ads on Indeed and posts on social media and job boards. The aim is to have more people looking at ElevatEd job ads than would otherwise occur. In some cases, the recruiter connects with schools that have several open positions, then handles all the sourcing and screening of candidates before the director conducts a final interview and hire. It is streamlining the interviewing and hiring process, saving time and energy for local center directors.

ElevatEd has given a voice and brought attention to the fact that my role as a Director of ECE includes many hats. In particular, even though I had no desire to be in recruiting…whether we like it or not, we are doing recruiting work. They said, ‘so here are some ways to be more effective’ since almost no one in a role like this has training in this area. They noticed an area of the job that we were trying and failing to do and gave tangible steps and training to help us improve. – Courtney Ludlow, Director, East Bay

Another key offering is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which increases the efficiency of the talent search process. A single post links to 12 free job boards, including LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, Glassdoor, Talent.com, and more. Each school can customize their workflow and create personalized automated emails to streamline the hiring process. Schools can also create “knock-out” questions to ensure they only spend time screening candidates who understand the job post and are eager and excited about the job prospect.  

Along with these offerings, ElevatEd offers “Recruitment Labs,” which are drop-in coaching hours, an employee referral program, a digital marketing campaign toolkit launching this fall, and a dedicated careers website that is designed to act as a centralized location for early childhood positions across the country.

The educator pipeline crisis is significant, so our response to it must reflect that. By drawing on best practices from outside of the Jewish world, leveraging technologies, and building professional competencies among directors in this critical area, we can help ECJE communities attract new talent in new ways, in a manner that’s sustainable for the long-term. Throughout the recruitment season, we are assessing which strategies are most effective and cost-efficient. We seek to share these learnings with ECJE centers across the country and with the field of Jewish communal service at large. – Orna Siegel, Executive Director, and Sasha Kopp Hass, Senior Director of Education, ElevatEd

ElevatEd is a pilot initiative funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, and the Samuels Family Foundation, as well as from local Federations, foundations, and local philanthropists in each pioneer community. Visit elevatedtogether.org for more information.

 

13 Leaders with 13 Lessons over 13 Years

For well over a decade, I have been privileged to be a part of the evolutionary story of the Jim Joseph Foundation, which works to inspire connection, meaning, and purpose in Jewish youth and young adults. The Foundation is a learning organization that is both highly invested in research and evaluation regarding grantee-partners and the broader field, and entirely comfortable turning the lens on itself through internal assessments and grantee perception reports.

There are many values I cherish from my years in service and from my interactions with hundreds of thoughtful grantee-partners, colleagues, and friends. After 13 wonderful, productive years, I am moving on from the Foundation—but my covenant to the Jewish community and its people remains steadfast. This is an opportune moment to highlight 13 individuals, and specific lessons they offer, who have guided my path of learning, either knowingly or inadvertently. I hope they inform and inspire your work as they have my own.

Stand Up…Especially When it is Uncomfortable
A disciple of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l, Dr. Mijal Bitton speaks up because she is compelled to do so. She is a Latin immigrant, a descendant of Jews expelled from Arab lands, and a proud Jewish American changemaker. Mijal’s research has expanded the definitions and inclusionary practices toward the Sephardi and Mizrahi communities. It is a far easier practice to allow appeasement to supersede conviction, but the results of forsaking one’s ideals can be catastrophic. Mijal was one of the first to raise her voice on college campuses after antisemitism became rampant in 2023 – she then spoke at countless campuses and rallies including the March for Israel in Washington DC with 290,000 people in attendance.

Be Proximate
Early in my tenure at the Jim Joseph Foundation, I attended a conference in which Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, delivered the keynote about his experiences with witnessing and advocating for the victims of mass incarceration and racial injustice firsthand. He described this type of advocacy as being proximate and differentiated it from building a case for an issue from a distance.

In philanthropy, we are already multiple steps removed from the beneficiary voices of the individuals we purport to serve.  If we want to truly understand the experiences of young people, as an example, we need to visit their camps, schools, youth groups, universities, and immersive experiences.  If we truly value their opinions, we need to invite them to speak, participate, and drive change.

Find the Gaps and Fill Them
In the four decades since the founding of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation (now Schusterman Family Philanthropies), one of the most identifiable characteristics of their philanthropy remains the ability to identify and respond to gaps. Lisa Eisen, Co-President of Schusterman Family Philanthropies, has served as an anchor in this arena for the past 20 years, responding to gaps in service learning, Israel education, leadership, and gender equity by being founding funders of Repair the World, The iCenter, Leading Edge, and the Safety Respect Equity Network, respectively. She stewarded each of these and others as either a board member or its chair, leading by example and refining aspirational goals with intention. Different than beneficiaries of funding, philanthropy has the advantage of both time and a bird’s eye view of the broader field, and it is incumbent on us to utilize those.

Learning – Learning – Learning: That is the Secret of Jewish Survival
The quote above is attributed to Ahad Ha’am, the pen name of Asher Hirsch Ginsberg, the early 20th century leader of Cultural Zionism. This teaching was part of the fabric that Dr. Chip Edelsberg invoked in forming the theory of change of the Jim Joseph Foundation. There is no stage in Jewish history or history itself that is completely the same as what came before it, so we cannot accept that doing the same things over again will yield a different result.  Learning and acting upon those learnings are essential if subsequent generations are to survive and thrive.  Among his many feats, Chip brought teachings from The Performance Imperative to the Jim Joseph Foundation as well as leadership and grantmaking tools from the secular world into the Jewish nonprofit community. By continuously learning, he led each of us to strive to be greater and more informed.

You Cannot Just Communicate with the CEO
In Episode 1 of Michael Lewis’ Against the Rules podcast, he tells the story of a woman named Sue Henderson who had solutions for the medical billing industry … but she was six levels down in her organization in a windowless basement of a hospital.  Sue developed nuanced expertise particularly around the Medicare and health insurance system that enabled a level of efficiency that singularly made the hospital successful. But few in the building appreciated the excellence that she brought or even knew of her existence.

When we speak only to the C-Suite of an organization, we can miss the most critical elements of day-to-day interaction that may not be otherwise articulated. In real terms, we miss the individuals that define the organization’s achievements if they are not part of the senior leadership. It is incumbent on us to dig deeper to find the source.

Mentorship Matters
For more than 30 years, I have been privileged to be mentored by Professor Joel Fleishman, Director of the Heyman Center for Ethics at Duke University and author of the foremost compendium on foundations and philanthropy. I am sure there are tens if not hundreds of others who feel similarly about the role that Joel has played in their lives.  In his eyes, mentorship is not about a single avenue to success or about being in total alignment with your mentee.  Rather, it is about being available, a consummate listener, and forthright about what is possible and right for the person in the moment.

His example led me to take on mentees over the past decade and provide pathways for success to others in similar fields. We cannot develop or maintain a pipeline of stellar nonprofit and philanthropic professionals without role models and mentors who support professionals on their journey.

Acknowledge Those Who Came Before Us
There is a phrase called Columbusing that is used to describe the appropriation of an idea or practice that has been in existence previously. This idea is often employed with the best of intentions but overlooks the pioneering efforts that took place long before the ideas reached the mainstream. One of my earlier Foundation memories was participating in a workshop facilitated by Yavilah McCoy, an innovator of the Jewish diversity and equity movement who has dedicated much of her professional career to amplifying the Jews of Color community.  Yavilah reminded me and others that new research can always be complemented with historical documentation and that it is important to be inclusive of those texts and individuals.

Speak to Your Audience
Prior to my tenure at the Jim Joseph Foundation, I benefitted from the tutelage of Dr. Kristy Towry, chaired professor of accounting at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. I learned that in the normally dry and lifeless budgeting process, managerial accounting allows one to incorporate psychology and other social sciences to speak to your audience. Activity-Based Costing, connecting the salaries and ancillary costs of performing a function with that budgeted component, is one highly informative method of illustrating this process. Being an effective steward of relational grantmaking is not about evoking fear of punitive actions.  It is instead encouraging partners to showcase accurate strengths and challenges without fear of reprisal.  Kristy’s teaching helped me tell the story of relational grantmaking on behalf of the Foundation through a series of spreadsheets and videos in ways that would not have otherwise been possible.

Live Your Values
There are few leaders I have encountered who are both soft-spoken and strong-hearted. Rabbi Yossi Prager epitomizes these characteristics and more. More than anything else, Yossi teaches me and the rest of the world how to be a mensch in grantmaking. He led the largest Jewish education foundation in the country on a magnanimous spenddown, which effectively put him out of a job while exponentially enhancing the field. He ensured that each member of his team was cared for with amity, support, and consideration. And he put the grantee partners with whom he worked on a pedestal, reversing the traditional polarity of the funder/grantee relationship.  He is truly a values-driven leader.

Be Aware of the Dreams of Others
Few experiences in my life have been as impactful as the Dreams of Others Seminar facilitated by the Jewish Agency’s Makom in January 2023 in partnership with Mohammad Darawshe, Hartman Fellow and Senior Strategy Director at Givat Haviva. Mohammad was a co-creator on this pilot seminar that included education directors and leaders from many of the most impactful organizations in the Jewish world.  We traversed Jewish communities and the adjacent Arab villages, West Bank settlements and Palestinian towns, border communities and large metropolitan communities.  And we were able to see each through different lenses.  This was not about changing minds but about having the ability to accept a different perspective.

Since October 7th, our WhatsApp group from that trip continued.  We lost one of the leaders in civil society from Ofakim who met with our entire group in his home. Mohammad lost one of his nephews who was a first responder at the Nova Festival. One member of the group is still waiting for a loved one who is abducted in Gaza. We continue to weep together.

Prepare Yourself to be Unprepared
There are few who have faced storm upon storm of upheaval and uncertainty as Eric Fingerhut, President of Jewish Federations of North America.  He confronted boycotts directed at Israel in Congress, on campus, and in the broader community. He addressed systemic security concerns following the most antisemitic events in US history. He responded to poverty and some of the most horrific natural disasters and their effects on our Jewish community. And he dealt directly with the loss and destruction after October 7th. In each of these instances and in others, he led with thoughtfulness and inclusivity.  There has not been an initiative, whether it is a bill in the legislature or a new initiative in the Federation system, that Eric has undertaken without significant reliance on partnership.

From him, I’ve learned that the best response to unpredictability is cooperation. Alliances do not have to be built beforehand, but trust does.

It is Not Just About Your Work – It is about the Ecosystem
When I first met Jay Kaiman nearly 25 years ago, he shared how when he first moved to town in Atlanta to run a Jewish agency, he made a point to meet with other Jewish professional leaders in the community to understand their work and to convey his own organizational charge.  Now on the funding side, his teachings have even greater meaning as our roles are not only dedicated to philanthropic stewardship but also to serve as connectors, interpreters, facilitators, and thought partners. He sees the community as his own and is personally vested in the success of the whole.

 

Give the Benefit of the Doubt
I have learned countless lessons from my colleague and friend, Barry Finestone, but the one that stands out most is his approach to culture.  He insists that without precondition, we should give our colleagues, our grantee partners, and others in the field the benefit of the doubt when approaching our work, assuming the best of intentions of others in our orbit. This embodies an ethos of trust-based philanthropy that creates an overall culture of respect and mitigates the power dynamic that is often at play between the donor and recipient. And the only way to exact this value set is to invest in an outsized way in cultivating and sustaining exceptional leaders and educators.  The philanthropic world could be much more about collective and collaborative success if more employed this philosophy.

________________

Know Before Whom You Stand – דע לפני מי אתה עומד
The phrase, “know before whom you stand,” generally sits outside a synagogue or in a sanctuary referring to the majesty of G-d in the house of worship that we should revere with dignity.  I see the phrase as even more ubiquitous. When you enter the Jim Joseph Foundation, there is a single framed photograph overlooking the boardroom table of an unassuming man who established a great fortune, virtually all of which was dedicated to Jewish education.

When Jim Joseph z”l passed on December 19, 2003, there was no extensive obituary in the New York Times. There was little fanfare across the secular and Jewish worlds… in part because few knew this accomplished real estate titan and philanthropist who operated in relative obscurity.  I unfortunately was never blessed to meet the Foundation’s benefactor, but I have learned considerably from the thoughtfulness, intentionality, and humility of his daughter, Dvora, and son, Josh. Even in his absence, he has taught me how to acknowledge and employ these attributes, and for that I am forever grateful.

—

I am thankful to these individuals for their insights and the values they both taught and modeled. They will inspire my work for years to come.

Steven Green most recently served as a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. He can be reached at [email protected]  

 

Birthright Israel Onward: Creating Meaningful Volunteer Opportunities

While I never lost my connection to the Jewish homeland and have always felt a strong personal connection to Judaism, being back after five years rejuvenated my love for the country itself and the local people. I had felt the urge to go and help; meeting the people I was directly and indirectly helping made it that much more special.”
– Mollie Falk, Birthright Israel Onward volunteer 

Following the October 7th attacks on Israel, many young Jewish adults expressed a deep desire to help Israelis in their recovery efforts. To meet this demand, Birthright Israel Onward launched “Taking Action: Volunteer in Israel,” for 18 to 40 year-olds to volunteer in Israel, with a focus on filling major labor gaps in agriculture and food rescue operations. This is critical work given that much of Israel’s southern agricultural region was evacuated on October 7th. Without these volunteers, fields and crops would largely go untended.

This was the first Onward program to be fully integrated since Onward merged with Birthright Israel in 2022. The rapid response to create the program, and its demand, exemplifies the success of the merger: More than 2,800 volunteers are expected by Passover and another 2,000 volunteers this summer. Serving as a purposeful “return to Israel” opportunity, 77 percent of volunteers are Birthright Israel alumni. Some volunteers join a cohort on their own, while others travel as a community through partnerships organized by Federations, the MIT Israel Alliance, Hillels, Hadar, Ramah, and Young Judaea. In many cases, strong, existing partnerships were utilized to build these programs.

I’ve found myself forever changed for the better due to this experience. I tapped into a part of myself that I didn’t know was dormant, waiting patiently to be activated: that philanthropic drive—the pursuit of living a life larger than myself—and my passionate belief in Zionism.
– Andrea Rice, Birthright Israel Onward volunteer

Over eight-day or two-week assignments, in addition to work on the ground, volunteers have a meaningful and full experience guided by Birthright Israel educational components. This includes an orientation to prepare volunteers for their placements; Kiddush and Shabbat experiences; sessions where they can discuss and process their experiences, thoughts, and feelings; enrichment activities that provide respite, a sense of community, and mental release for the participants (including a workshop, a city tour, a meal at a restaurant, and other activities that support local businesses and the Israeli economy); a geopolitical lecture led by an expert with an overview and Q&A period; an activity with Israeli Mifgash (encounter) participants and personal conversations with a madrich/a; and a closing session to reflect collectively and individually on their experiences.

Alison Swanbeck, an alumna of Birthright Israel Classic and Onward, and now of the volunteer program, says, “I was looking for a way to help. In the Diaspora, Jews felt helpless watching everything unfold, and when I saw the volunteer opportunity, I felt it was a tangible way to be there and do something helpful.” 

Her story, like many others, demonstrated the power of the interactions between American volunteers and Israelis in Israel today, and the deep sense of mutual responsibility that is embodied by the volunteer program. Alison returned to Israel as a volunteer after developing a deep sense of belonging to Israel and her Jewish identity on the classic 10-day trip and an Onward internship. At her Volunteer placement, Alison spoke with a family member at the farm where she learned about the impact of the war, and how the volunteers’ presence moves Israelis. While volunteering, Alison developed friendships and bonds with her peers, often discussing the responsibility of the IDF to protect Jews in Israel and around the world, and the sense of mutual responsibility to be there for each other. She was joined by Israeli peers on several farms, and for Shabbat meals, allowing them to hear impactful first-hand accounts.

Hear first-hand from Birthright Israel Onward Volunteers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stju5u4Je4w&amp

 

Visit birthrightisrael.com/volunteer-in-israel for more information. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Birthright Israel Onward.

Haggadot.com becomes Recustom, letting you control all of life’s rituals

New, merged organization looks to bring a DIY approach to not just holidays but every lifecycle event

In the beginning, there was the Maxwell House Haggadah, a cultural touchstone for generations of Jewish families throughout much of the last century. Though iconic, that guide to the Passover Seder – primarily meant to teach American Jews that coffee beans were kosher for Passover – was also barebones and rigid, lacking in individuality. In came Haggadot.com, allowing for infinite customization and personalization. “The Minimalist Haggadah” and the “Schitt’s Creek Haggadah” and, of course, “The Chat GPT Haggadah Supplement” were born.

Now, the outfit that brought us those alternative iterations of the retelling of the Passover story is merging with its sister websites to become Recustom. The new brand, in a bid to expand the notion of ritual, is looking to bring do-it-yourself content to the modern plagues of climate change and political polarization, as well as rituals tied to gender, identity and even retirement.

“We’re in a time of deep uncertainty, we need rituals to connect us, but we’re not just going to do rituals that don’t feel authentic,” Eileen Levinson, founder and executive director of Recustom, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “We all need to connect, and we believe that Judaism has a toolkit for connection and meaning making. People just need help using it.”

The tagline for Recustom is, “Where intention meets play,” Levinson said, because “we embrace playfulness. Even the most serious moments can let us find something that’s a little bit different, and we can balance joy with seriousness.”

Whereas Levinson’s original sites – first launched with Haggadot.com and later including High Holidays at Home and Custom & Craft – offered a DIY approach to Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Shabbat, the new site, which is aimed at both Jews and those who are curious about Jews and Judaism, will feature rituals across the lifecycle.

“We’re thinking about all the places where people have been unseen,” Levinson said, giving examples of milestones such as, “doing IVF for same sex couples to have a baby… Rituals for gender transitions, taking on your new name and your new identity. People are living longer and wanting to still be engaged Jewishly. Their Jewish life is not just about raising their kids or being with their grandkids, but potentially having a new ‘b-mitzvah’ ceremony or rituals for retiring or when they move out of the home that they’ve raised their family in for 30 years.”

Currently, the three older sites are still running, with plans for Haggadot.com to stay active at least through next Passover. Some of the rituals on the new site are linked to the old domains, while other rituals just say “coming soon.”

Custom & Craft, the design lab that created all three sites, has a long tradition of teaming with other nonprofits and organizations in the Jewish community to create content targeting diverse demographics. Current partnerships include Jewtina and OneTable, which is helping create volunteer cohorts to envision new ways to remix traditions.

“We feel like this opportunity would be great for us to partner with an organization that has a very similar vibe to what we have, believes in DIY, believes in connectivity around peer engagement,” Amy Bebchick, chief program officer at OneTable, an organization that has helped fund and plan over 100,000 Shabbat dinners, told eJP.

This year, OneTable expects to engage 65,000 unique individuals in Shabbat dinners, and Bebchick believes the partnership with Recustom will serve as a bridge. “For some people that have been One Tabling with us for a while, or Shabbating with us for a while, it may be that they’re ready for what’s next for them. They’re ready to explore the next Jewish ritual.”

Recustom plans to license its mix-and-match technology to congregations and organizations that can create interactive ritual templates that they can embed on their main sites. Levinson describes the initiative as “like a WordPress, or even Slack, for Jewish ritual making,” and plans to launch it in late 2024. The templates will be able to be customized to change pronouns, insert family names, pictures, poetry and videos.

Funding for Recustom comes from the Jim Joseph Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, through the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund.

Their first step towards this goal is a partnership with two organizations, the Conservative movement’s rabbinic arm, the Rabbinical Assembly, and its Cantors Assembly, which are collaborating to create what Rabbi Joshua Heller, the senior rabbi at Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs, Ga., and a senior editor on the project, described via email as a “new kind of Rabbi’s/Cantor’s manual for our over 2,000 Conservative/Masorti clergy around the world.”

Heller said this new manual is meant to make clerical life easier. “With the old printed manual, we could offer one or two versions of a given ceremony or a handful of optional additional readings,” he said. “Rabbis would have a book filled with slips of paper and have [to] adapt the printed language, remembering where to fill in names in each place and adjust grammar and pronouns as they went. Now we can have a rabbi start with a template and have incredible flexibility to choose the liturgical alternatives that are most appropriate for the specific people they are serving.”

Rabbi Mordechai Rackover, director of publications and digital engagement at the Rabbinical Assembly, told eJP that the organization had a dream to create “a product that is adaptable to changing social and religious conditions in the U.S. and across the globe” and Recustom was the team that could “translate our vision.”

Currently, Levinson and the Custom & Craft team are focused on preparing content for the High Holidays, with the goal to have a full ritual library launched by January 2024. They hope to reach 2 million annual users by 2025, up from the 650,000 users who accessed Custom & Craft sites in 2011.

As the site grows its offerings, Recustom aims to connect more with Jews of color and younger Jews. “We have a strong audience that is over 55 because we’ve been doing a lot of work in the aging area,” Levinson said. “We’re over-representative in the queer Jewish communities… We’re less than 10% Orthodox. We just did a survey of our users in the winter, and it was much more ranging Reform, Conservative, just Jewish, Reconstructionist, Renewal, and so pretty diverse as far as everyone who’s not super-Orthodox.”

Although Levinson hopes the site is welcoming to all, she said. “Our brand is about reimagining, rethinking, [and] that obviously means that there’s more work into the how do we reimagine, rather than how do we keep things the same. Our intention is definitely not to throw out anything in Judaism but it definitely is about making it fit for you.”

published in eJewish Philanthropy

The Center for Values in Action: A New Initiative from M²

How can examining challenging issues through the lens of Jewish values be both clarifying and activating? 

Change, self-discovery, and growth most often happen when people are confronted with challenging situations and issues.  Difficult circumstances and disruptive events prompt people to examine what’s important to them and how they want to move forward in response. Today’s learners are often compelled to respond to a range of issues, from climate change, food insecurity, social pressures, increased antisemitism, and more. To help them navigate challenges and be inspired to take action, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education is launching the Center for Values in Action, which will partner with major organizations to support Jewish educators, community builders, and leaders across the country.   

“While growth happens when we are challenged, it’s not easy, nor is it a linear process. When confronted with challenging issues, we tend to feel first – we get caught up with strong emotions, become overwhelmed, anxious or stuck.  We may react impulsively.  Sometimes it becomes so overwhelming we shut down – literally pulling the hoodie over our head and tuning it all out.  These are all very normal, in fact, very human responses.” 
– Debbi Cooper, Senior Director, Center for Values in Action, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education

Understanding these initial human responses, the Center will provide training for thousands of educators, offering content, pedagogies, and resources to ensure that Jewish values can mediate and illuminate some of today’s most pressing challenges. Grounded in Jewish wisdom while including a diversity of perspectives, the Center will make sure that educators are equipped to help their learners find meaning in today’s challenges and live a more fulfilled life in line with universal and Jewish values. 

Taking action grounded in a commitment to values will nurture learners’ identities, help them find personal meaning, and recognize the relevance of Jewish ideas and perspectives. In fact, examining challenging issues through the lens of Jewish values can be both clarifying and activating. This approach often enables educators and learners to move beyond buzzwords and soundbites, illuminating how the issue impacts them personally. They can narrow the focus of an issue that feels unwieldy and overwhelming, while also navigating alternative narratives or perspectives. And this lens of Jewish values can provide a “pause” moment to reframe and collect thoughts, and then to examine what truly matters to the learner.

The Center for Values in Action includes a 10-hour Certificate Course for hundreds of educators, engagers, community builders, organizational leaders and program facilitators.  Once these professionals have participated in the Course, they will have access to dozens of “grab and go” resources designed to move learners through the Values in Action approach, using experiential learning modalities and exploration of a variety of Jewish sources to support their experience. While the Center’s many resources are customized to the needs and realities of partner organizations, they all share the same DNA and underlying structure. The “Values in Action” approach will help educators: 

  • Frame contemporary issues (such as climate change) for learners, giving them a chance to weigh in on how the issue is impacting them/their lives.
  • Anchor the issue in a Jewish value (such as responsibility) that can be helpful to educators as they contend with the issue and determine how they can respond.
  • Examine the issue in core Jewish or secular texts, meaningful ideas, and lived experiences.
  • Lead an experiential activity to deepen learners’ understanding of the value, examining the complexity of the value and identifying what’s hard – and grounding – about enacting it.
  • Provide learners with opportunities to make meaning of the experiential activity, drawing out how the activity helped them to reframe their understanding of the value.
  • Prompt learners to consider how they might take action as they respond to the issue.

M² is excited to debut the Center for Values in Action in November, training hundreds of community builders throughout all of 2022 with its first organizational partner, and then introducing a second organizational partner in early 2023. M² has retained an independent evaluator to work with the M² team to identify opportunities for strengthening or refining its offering and/or delivery and to assess the impact on both the educator as well as the organization. 

As a society, it is imperative that we begin having conversations about the difficult topics of the day, with a focus on agency; how we can move past stagnation and take active steps toward creating a more just, kind and compassionate world. An exploration of values can help us clarify our next steps and our tradition’s wisdom can guide us to new understandings of ourselves. We’re eager to get started!
– Kiva Rabinsky, Chief Program Officer, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of M². To learn more about M², visit URL www.ieje.org. To learn more about partnering with the Center for Values in Action, reach out to Debbi Cooper, [email protected]. Photos above are of M² professional staff and thought partners in April 2022 at “ThinkLab” – a thoughtful and experiential gathering to prototype the approach and resources for Values in Action.

At The Well: Engaging More Women at the Intersection of Jewish Practice, Mental Health, and Wellness

Since 2015, At The Well has addressed women’s mental health and wellness using Jewish rituals that have always existed—but were never widely taught or invested in. Today, amid the growing challenges of disconnection and isolation, ATW’s collaborative model delivers Jewish wisdom directly into the hands of women who want to claim it. Many of these women seek wellness in a spiritual context, outside of a more traditional Jewish context. ATW offers a pathway into these experiences, helping women learn, create new practices and rituals, and then lead others to access ancient Jewish ritual and adapt it for modern times. Through its resources, large-scale events, and Well Circles around the country, women take ownership of their journey toward meaningful transformation for themselves and their community.

Over the past year especially, more women sought out At The Well’s resources and engaged in its Well Circles—independently-run groups of 6-12 women who meet every month to story-tell, support each other, and share spiritual experiences. As a result of this community care model for wellness, women in Well Circles report significant growth in relationships with themselves, their community, and their Judaism, and in their leadership skills and confidence to help their family and peers lead Jewish lives. For some people, Well Circles are the first and only Jewish space where they feel comfortable participating in Jewish community.

I’ve been going through a journey of reclamation and finding my Judaism, as opposed to the Judaism that I learned as a child. I’m owning it for myself and rediscovering amazing things about Judaism. That process didn’t start with ATW but ATW is definitely part of it. Learning about the lunar calendar and Rosh Chodesh and the meaning of the months has been really inspiring. It adds to this journey that I’ve been on. It also has a lovely feminist slant which helps me connect with Judaism. 

Beyond Well Circles, ATW’s other offerings make learning around Jewish time and embodied spiritual practices accessible for all—both enhancing the Well Circle experience and engaging new participants. Big Gathers, for example, are bi-monthly, donation-based, online events designed to serve as an entry-point for a Rosh Chodesh practice. These gatherings attract about 100 participants, many of whom serve as co-hosts, modeling ATW’s collaborative leadership approach. The Big Gathers provide a taste of the Rosh Chodesh ritual and a broader sense of community among people in the ATW network.

Another resource, Moon Manuals, are digital guides with themes, activities, and rituals related to each Hebrew month. Moon Manuals are written by At The Well’s staff with contributions from network members, many of whom come from communities that historically have not been centered. Moon Manual contributors work with ATW’s Scholar in Residence and experience a learning journey of self discovery and Jewish inquiry as they create content for the diverse ATW community. In this way, they become leaders for others,  helping to create sacred space through writing exercises, singing, intention-setting, and movement. This year alone, more than 1,700 women have engaged in Well Circles and more than 1,800 are using Moon Manual Readers.

My Well Circle showed me how ritual and an intimate Jewish community have supported my own resilience. At work, I am now hosting conversation circles about spiritual resilience and how Jewish ritual can support us in times of change, conflict, and challenge. I would not have gotten to that topic without the learning I’ve done through ATW.

The pandemic only exacerbated feelings of loneliness and isolation that ATW helps fill. According to a 2021 survey by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “one-third of Americans described themselves as seriously lonely–up from one-fifth before the COVID pandemic.” In response, ATW quickly scaled its approach and reach to broaden its audience. They created more virtual offerings, in addition to Big Gathers, to meet the moment and provided opportunities for deep connection when it was needed most, including:

  • Launching a monthly Biblical Babes program, with a co-sponsored event with the Jewish Fertility Foundation and Biblical Babes en Español on June 15.
  • Relaunching Rosh Chodesh coaching that connects new network members to volunteer coaches who can either help them launch a Well Circle or create a Rosh Chodesh ritual practice of their own.
  • Sending daily text messages to 850 people with reflections for each day of the Omer through My Moon Message.

As more and more women yearn for wholeness and connection—looking for ways to bolster their well-being and seeking to learn and practice Judaism in relevant and meaningful ways—At The Well is poised for greater growth and impact through its proven approach to:

  1. Support Jewish Learning through the creation of relevant content and tools, rooted in Jewish wisdom;
  2. Foster Belonging by inviting women into structures and spaces that enable them to connect with themselves and others in meaningful ways; and
  3. Encourage Leadership through co-ownership and a rotating leadership model in which women facilitate Well Circles, co-host public programs, contribute to the shared resources online, and coach other women on how to develop a Rosh Chodesh practice in their homes or start a Well Circle of their own.

Enhanced well-being has a strong ripple effect on a person’s own life and on a society’s soul. At The Well is committed to connecting women to themselves, their communities and their Judaism. The next three years of our strategic plan will enable the creation of a strong foundation. We are building a legacy for future generations to be energized by the power of ancient Jewish practices — and to see these practices as welcoming paths to enhanced well-being and spirituality, accessible to all.
– At The Well Strategic Plan

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of At The Well. Learn more at atthewellproject.com

Institute for Jewish Spirituality: Creating Thriving Communities With Rich Spiritual Lives

For more than 20 years, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) has developed and taught Jewish spiritual practices to help individuals and communities experience greater awareness, purpose, and interconnection. This work takes on even greater importance today as young people encounter life’s unprecedented challenges and struggle with mental health. In this environment, IJS can be a vital source of support, engaging people through Jewish spiritual practices across the country, around the world, and online at any time of day.

In the past year, more than 10,000 people participated in IJS’s offerings—from online courses on Jewish mindfulness meditation, Tikkun Middot, and prayer as personal practice, to master teachers leading the daily sit, weekly Torah study, and online Yoga studio. IJS also offered specialized training for more than 300 JCC professionals and reached thousands more through its podcast, online retreats, and numerous other programs. These efforts are proven to have positive outcomes. 94 percent of participants in IJS programs say they are more emotionally resilient. And 87 percent of participants say that Jewish spiritual practice deepened their connection with their Jewishness.

At a time of anxiety and isolation for so many young people, this virtual fellowship enabled the students to connect with each other as writers, friends, and spiritual chavrutot (learning partners). Together, we built a remarkable community that spoke to the spiritual experience of writing, gaining a new understanding of the relationship between our bodies and our creative process. For Jewish writers in particular, this isn’t always an easy relationship.
– New Voices Editor-in-Chief Rena Yehuda Newman on the “Resilient Writers Fellowship, an eight-week cohort program from IJS and New Voices Magazine that brings together college-age writers in a virtual community to cultivate a Torah of creative, embodied Jewish spiritual practice. 

Integral to IJS’s broad reach is its work with clergy—more than 500 rabbis and cantors have engaged with IJS programs. They in turn engage more than 250,000 people. The Clergy Leadership Program (CLP), an 18-month fellowship experience, and Hevraya, which provides ongoing support for CLP alums help clergy reenergize and deepen their spiritual lives.

It’s essential that Jewish leaders provide our communities with offerings that are fully authentic, alive, and responsive to congregants’ needs as human beings in the world today. IJS helps us learn how to do this. What IJS has given me is invaluable—infusing my Jewish practice and my leadership with mindfulness, a deep connection to my body, and the understanding and language to draw others into contemplative practice. This matters because Jewish communal life must connect to our inner lives.
– Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a CLP graduate, an active participant in Hevraya, and a graduate of IJS’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, which she credits with enabling her to lead online meditations for her congregation.

Now, IJS is positioned to grow and create even more thriving multigenerational communities with rich spiritual lives. Building on its success and proven outcomes, and drawing on the deep well of Jewish texts, rituals, and traditions, over the next few years IJS will expand efforts to:

  1. Reach Young People. Through strategic partnerships with youth-serving organizations, IJS will help tens of thousands of young people develop greater emotional resilience and a deeper sense of belonging in Jewish life. 
  2. Develop New Leaders. While continuing to support the vital role of clergy in the spiritual lives of American Jews, IJS will launch cohort programs for activists, community leaders, and agency executives to deepen their own leadership and become champions of Jewish spiritual practice. 
  3. Become the Platform for Jewish Spirituality. IJS will power the development of a network of organizations, individuals, researchers, and funders to create research, develop media channels, host convenings, and train a new generation of teachers of Jewish spirituality.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/674449491?h=4f92272c70

Through this work, IJS aims to lead the Jewish community in making spiritual practice a vital part of meaningful Jewish life, increasing the resiliency and compassion of individuals and communities. 

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Visit jewishspirituality.org to learn more. 

 

Elevating Reboot’s Work Redesigning the Jewish Experience

As an arts and culture nonprofit reimagining and reinforcing Jewish thought and traditions, Reboot uses an inviting mix of discovery, experience, and reflection to engage people in Jewish life. In the past five years, more than 4 million participants found Jewish connections and meaning through Reboot—they become creators in their Jewish experience. Whether the engagement is an event, exhibition, recordings, book, film, DIY activity toolkit, or an app, the common link is the space Reboot offers to imagine Jewish ritual and tradition afresh.

Building on this success, Reboot is poised to reach more people and more meaningfully engage them through its new website, Rebooting.com

 

The creative firepower of our network and its projects are now matched by our ability to host and distribute them – our reach is growing. The relaunch of our website will bring even greater rigor, scale and impact to our work, engaging with our network and beyond to provide digital experiences for a modern Jewish life.
– Reboot CEO David Katznelson

Reboot Tashlich

More than just a website, Rebooting.com is a new brand and a robust digital platform that aims ambitiously to impact Jewish life through media, arts and culture, and become a tentpole digital destination for wandering and curious modern Jews everywhere. The new brand also will grow Reboot’s role as a premier research and development leader for the Jewish world. In this space, Reboot catalyzes its Reboot Network of preeminent creators, artists, entrepreneurs, and activists to produce experiences and products that evolve the Jewish conversation and transform society. 

Reboot has forged real relationships with Jews to whom I can relate — at work, at play, in spirit, and especially in our efforts on social justice. When I see a Reboot email it always feels like a little gift to unwrap: which unusual person will provoke some new thought today? Reboot is the community I turn to when I want a response to something important to me that might also be important to making the world better.
– Roy Bahat, member of Reboot Network.

Check out Rebooting.com to experience:

  • Reboot Ideas: a growth and continuation of our online (and one day offline!) conversations grappling with the issues of our day as seen through and impacted by our multiple Jewish identities – including the not-to-be-missed, Laurie Segall (60 Minutes) and Aza Raskin (The Social Dilemma) DAWN conversation about the ever-changing technology and social media landscape, and the ways they affect our perceptions of the future, and thus the future itself.
  • The Reboot Glossary: a Reboot spin on Jewish historic characters (known and unknown). Written by the likes of authors A.J. Jacobs and David Sax, writer and director Joey Soloway, rabbinical student Kendell Pinkney, and Jewish historian Eddy Portnoy, find entries on everything from Amtlai (Abraham’s mother ) and chutzpah to dybbuk,gefilte fish and more.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Reboot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons in Scaling Initiatives for Maximum Impact

One of the ways in which funding partners can make the biggest impact is by recognizing and supporting ideas and efforts worth scaling. But how can well-intentioned funders realize the potential to help grantees grow and export relevant solutions far and wide? We’d like to share some recent lessons learned from a funding collaborative’s efforts to scale meaningful programs for teens in the Jewish community.

Although mental health has always been a concern for the teen population, 2020 and 2021 have seen increasing and alarming rates of stress, anxiety, and depression in teens and young adults. In response to these times, the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative and other partners have thought critically about how they might reach more teens in today’s climate.

Through 2019, the Funder Collaborative—in which national and local funders work together to develop, nurture, and scale new approaches to teen engagement—had delivered mental health training to 400 professionals. But this scale wasn’t enough. Guided by their ongoing work with Spring Impact, founded in 2011 to help mission-driven organizations create change at a greater scale, the Funder Collaborative decided to offer a virtual certification course for professionals, caregivers, and parents to train as Youth Mental Health First Aiders. The Funder Collaborative is now offering this course at no cost to nearly 1,000 professionals, caregivers, and parents, equipping them with a hands-on, five-step action plan for helping young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Each of the ten communities within the Funder Collaborative has integrated mental health wellness into their unique programming.

This example demonstrates how impactful, relevant programs can be scaled to reach thousands, while fostering local adaptation to each unique community.

By pooling resources, sharing toolkits, and learning how to adapt best practices to fit different programs, locations, markets, and audiences, local organizations can successfully scale up to maximize their impact and see results on a national level. While the value of scaling new approaches is clear, there are obstacles to accomplishing this in a sustainable way that centers local adaptation by each community.

Some of the main lessons the Funder Collaborative has learned to address these challenges include the following.

  1. Scaling does not equate to duplication. Programs must be evaluated and adapted to fit the unique context of a new setting or target population. Some of the most successful instances of scale have come from stripping back to specific elements of a successful program and thinking about creative models to extend this impact to new communities. In the Funder Collaborative’s experience, it’s crucial to consider nuanced scaling approaches that go beyond duplication — like centralization, accreditation, loose networks, and training or fellowship programs. Funders can help by introducing organizations to examples of others who have successfully scaled impact through looser, creative models.
  2. The time and resources it takes to scale are often underestimated. It is essential to have the drive and resources to scale impact. Often, organizations are unaware of the key elements necessary to scale successfully and underestimate the need for dedicated capacity and overestimate the demand from other communities. Scaling requires both time and capacity to plan and implement, as well as the ability to move beyond local funding restrictions. Taking into account the organization’s readiness to scale by assessing these key elements is a critical step before embarking on the scale journey. Funders can support organizations on this front by being flexible with restrictions and ensuring organizations have adequate resources to support the ample capacity and time needed to scale.
  3. Scaling proven solutions can often be more valuable to your community than designing unique programs from scratch. Organizations often think that the only way to provide value is to create unique programs for their communities, when, in fact, capitalizing on existing great ideas and adapting them to fit your community is often a far more effective and efficient way to generate impact. Funders are in a unique position to have a broad view of different programs happening far apart and can make introductions that lead to collaboration and use of existing programs.
  4. People who create programs may not always be the right people to scale them. The skills and strengths needed to create great programs aren’t the same skills and strengths needed to scale. Scaling requires empathizing with the leaders and individuals that adapt a given program in their own community and preparing sufficient initial and ongoing support to aid their adaptation. The Funder Collaborative has seen that many scaling initiatives need support from partners who can help build the structures, resources, and support for leaders and individuals that take on and adapt the program. Funders need to invest in building the capacity of organizational leaders to design effective, intentional scale plans, and iteratively validate these plans in the real world.”  

From its inception, the Funder Collaborative was dedicated to sharing program results and, eventually, proven models of effective engagement with other organizations. By using its considerable resources to develop, implement, and evaluate meaningful programming, the Funder Collaborative has and will continue to empower other organizations that might not have the means to take the risks involved in new programming.

With support from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Funder Collaborative continues to work with Spring Impact to help effective teen engagement initiatives impact more lives. Our work together involves identifying programs ready for adaptation, answering key questions that would determine new community selection criteria, systemizing and codifying the processes that support program success, and coaching new communities through the launch of these programs.

Whether an organization is at the stage of understanding the criteria necessary to adapt to new environments, or testing out new methods of implementation, the Funder Collaborative helps to break down the barriers to scaling by identifying and providing key resources. The Funder Collaborative identifies the key ideas in an organization’s programming, evaluates how to best replicate or adapt programs, assists new communities in absorbing and implementing new ideas, helps match organizations with populations in need, and empowers organizations to self-evaluate and best understand scaling methodologies.

Philanthropy must be able to identify proven models of engagement and plan strategically to scale them when possible. Now more than ever, community leaders should know how to help smaller and medium-sized communities take on proven new initiatives in sustainable and cost-effective ways.

Additional Resources

Methodology to Extend Impact: Email [email protected] to receive our step-by-step toolkit that helps Jewish programs effectively and sustainably extend their impact to new organizations and communities.

The impact of Jewish experiences on teens can be measured using the Teen Jewish Learning and Engagement Scales (TJLES), which formed the basis of a major national research project on Jewish teen engagement.  Anyone can freely access the Teen and other validated measurement tools by contacting FC Director Sara Allen at [email protected].

Dan Berelowitz (he/him) is CEO and Founder, Spring Impact.

Sara Allen (she/her) is Executive Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

originally published in Grantcraft

Collecting These Times Seeks Materials to Document Jewish Experiences of the Pandemic

As the Jewish community and the country begins to reenter life, a new web portal is dedicated to gathering and preserving materials related to Jewish life during the pandemic. The interactive website, Collecting These Times: American Jewish Experiences of the Pandemic (CollectingTheseTimes.org), was developed by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) at George Mason University in partnership with the Council of American Jewish Museums.

The Center asks individuals and organizations to share photographs, videos, documents, and memories about Jewish life from the last year and a half so that these materials can be collected and preserved.

Share your materials HERE.

Jewish community

During the pandemic, many communities drastically changed the ways in which they experienced and offered Jewish life—how they celebrated, gathered communally, prayed, and mourned. Today’s digital age poses unique challenges. On the one hand, a Tweet might circulate long after its author has disavowed it. On the other hand, media files and webpages are ephemeral. Much of this material will be lost if a record of it is not retained.

Collecting These Times offers an easy way for people to find collecting projects and upload images, videos, audio recordings, documents, and oral histories to be preserved by institutions in different parts of the U.S. Users can also browse curated contributions from different Jewish communities, covering everything from Jewish ritual practices to schools, summer camps, businesses, and many other aspects of Jewish life during Covid. Communities and individuals can participate in a variety of ways:

  • Migrate any institutional media (e.g., digital sermons, congregational bulletins, photographs) that illustrate your community’s response to and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rosenzweig Center has a 27-year track record of preserving digital materials for the long term.
  • Share the portal with other people and communities. Individuals and families can contribute photographs, narratives, videos, audio recordings, documents, newsletters, Tik Toks—almost anything.
  • Possibilities of what to share include communal and individual responses to social needs and injustices; stories of grief, loss, and hope; adaptation to new circumstances; regathering; reopenings, and vaccination drives.

We have much to learn about how individuals, families, and communities used creativity and tenacity to reimagine so many Jewish experiences during the pandemic, and we hope that the Collecting These Times site will be an educational resource both now and in the future. Future Jewish community researchers and leaders will be able to view these collections and learn about the rapid transformation of Jewish life during this time. We hope that the collections will continue to grow as more people contribute content and tell their stories.
– Jessica Mack of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University

Efforts to elevate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are integral to this project. Its organizers seek to engage communities that are less often included in this type of collecting and interpretation, lending valuable insights into a diverse range of Jewish pandemic experiences. The project partners will be working with DEI consultants and an advisory board to approach this work with an inclusive lens and strategy.

To learn more about the project, visit collectingthesetimes.org or email [email protected].

Collecting These Times is supported by Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Jim Joseph Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Maharat: Graduates Meeting the Moment

Maharat is the only rabbinical school in North America providing training and rabbinic ordination to women to serve in the highest levels of leadership in the Orthodox world and beyond. Through education and credentialing, Maharat’s graduates break through long standing glass ceilings, serving as Orthodox clergy in pulpits, schools, college campuses and communal organizations in a capacity previously reserved for men alone. These graduates, along with Maharat’s intentional community engagement efforts, are building new communities of men and women who are open and welcoming of women’s leadership and scholarship.

“Maharat” (מהרת) is an acronym for manhigut (leadership), hilkhatit (Jewish law), rukhanit (spirituality), and toranit (Jewish Text). These core values are essential to every aspect of Maharat’s work – its curriculum, its community programming, the kinds of students they recruit and the entire strategy of the organization.  In the face of the global pandemic, Maharat leaned even deeper into these core values through the work of its alumnae, new programming, and digital presence. Over the past year, alumnae have drawn upon their Maharat training, the support of their cohort, and the relationships they’ve built with the faculty to provide pastoral care, relevant learning, and innovative community experiences to their constituents. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGzWIqjFGE&list=PLCMKFsPtDtFHW9mmKMqwEr2fhi1TaTahW&index=1

View more videos here about Maharat graduates overcoming challenges and helping others during the pandemic. 

In the face of rising numbers of unemployed Jewish professionals due to furloughs and layoffs, Maharat also partnered with Yeshivat Chovevei Torah to launch “Mind the Gap: A Mini Sabbatical.” The program’s next session is March 8 and is designed for Jewish professionals who are headed to or are in between jobs in the Jewish communal sector, with the goals of deepening knowledge of Jewish content and strengthening leadership skills. Fully-funded tuition and stipends (through grants from the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund) are available for professionals to engage in multi-month long sessions. Through Mind the Gap, participants gain exposure to Jewish values and tradition while also obtaining resume-building experience.

My highlight was waking up and getting to learn Torah every morning with my interesting, insightful, Jewish sisters and brothers. The topics we discussed so deeply hit home at this time, and our conversations gave me strength.
– Sophie, participant in Mind the Gap

Now in its 12th year, Maharat has graduated 43 women, with 36 more students in the pipeline preparing to change the landscape of Orthodox Judaism and the community at large. Maharat has increased its commitment to sharing relevant Jewish text to the broader international Jewish community with its Power Hour of Torah holiday series, specialized workshops like its recent series, Breastfeeding in Jewish Text, Law and Ethics and featured books and topics of interest. Maharat’s new Maharatcast Podcast premiers in March.

Learn more at yeshivatmaharat.org and watch their brand story here. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Maharat. (Photos credit: Shulamit Seidler-Feller).

The Wexner Foundation Announces Class 5 of Field Fellows

Jewish professionals will receive professional development and education in leadership and Judaic studies over the course of three years

The Wexner Foundation, in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, is pleased to announce Class 5 of the Wexner Field Fellowship. In what was the most competitive pool to date and in the middle of a pandemic, no less, 15 outstanding professionals were selected for this three-year intensive program. Utilizing the diverse, cohort-based learning that is the hallmark of The Wexner Foundation programs, Field Fellows will be exposed to different approaches to leadership and tools for addressing pressing issues in the Jewish community, while being integrated into The Wexner Foundation’s vast network of more than 3,000 professional and volunteer leaders in North America and Israel, including the 45 outstanding professionals who are currently in the Field Fellowship Program, as well as 40 Alumni.

Complete list of Class 5 Fellows:

  • Benjamin Berger, Vice President for Jewish Education, Hillel International, Washington, DC
  • Aaron Cantor, Camp Director, Emma Kaufmann Camp, Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Amy Cohen, Chief Social Services Officer, JFS Executive Director, Shalom Austin, Austin, TX
  • Carrie Darsky, Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Hillel International, Washington, DC
  • Yoni Fein, Head of School, Brauser Maimonides Academy, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
  • Rachel Gottfried-Clancy, Executive Director, Jewish Youth for Community Action, Oakland, CA
  • Shira Hutt, Chief of Staff, Jewish Federation of North America, New York, NY
  • Steven Ingber, Chief Operating Officer, Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, MI
  • Nate Looney, Manager of Racial Justice Initiatives, Avodah, New York, NY
  • Analucía Lopezrevoredo, Senior Director, Project Shamash, Bend the Arc, San Francisco, CA
  • Danielle Natelson, Design Strategist, UpStart, Los Angeles, CA
  • Mindy Schachtman, Chief Development Officer, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, New York, NY
  • Alexandra Shklar, Director of Strategic Partnerships and the Centennial Campaign, JDC, New York NY
  • Dov Wilker, Atlanta Regional Director, American Jewish Committee, Atlanta, GA
  • Alex Zablotsky, Managing Director, PJ Library, Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Agawam, MA

The Wexner Foundation has more than 30 years of experience developing excellence in Jewish professionals and volunteer leaders in North America. The Wexner Field Fellowship was created in 2013 in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation to focus on developing promising Jewish professionals’ leadership skills while enveloping them in a rich network of Jewish colleagues. Wexner Field Fellows engage in a diverse, cohort-based leadership learning program.

Fellows are selected based on their past accomplishments, current motivation and engagement, and exceptional attributes they will contribute to the cohort of 15 diverse Jewish professionals of which they will be a part. Class 5 will start the program virtually and ultimately come together through in-person intensive institutes where they will be exposed to Jewish educational and professional growth opportunities, while addressing their unique needs of career and personal progress.

“The need to support emerging professional leaders in the Jewish ecosystem has never been more pressing. As we’ve seen during this unique application cycle, the field is richly blessed. I am excited about the ways in which these 15 midcareer Jewish professionals will contribute to the Wexner Field Fellowship and more importantly to the Jewish organizations and communities they will lead,” said Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, President of The Wexner Foundation. “This new cohort of transformational leaders will add mightily to the community of Wexner Fellows and Alumni shaping the Jewish future.”

As with the first four classes of Field Fellows, Class 5 is comprised of dynamic Jewish professionals at pivotal moments in their careers. Fellows work in Jewish federations, summer camps, advocacy and social justice organizations, day schools, national organizations and local institutions across North America. To get more info about each Fellow, please click here.

“This cohort represents the Wexner Foundation’s ongoing commitment to elevate diverse voices and perspectives among leaders in Jewish engagement and education,” says Barry Finestone, President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “There are deeply committed, talented leaders across the Jewish professional landscape. The Wexner Field Fellowship offers 15 of them a special opportunity to learn and grow at a moment filled with immense challenges and opportunities.”

As part of this three-year intensive professional development program, Wexner Field Fellows:

  • Become part of a selective cohort of lifelong professional learners.
  • Learn with amazing leadership teachers and Jewish educators.
  • Receive one-on-one professional coaching and Jewish learning, along with access to funds toward customized professional development opportunities.
  • Develop a nuanced appreciation for the diversity of the North American Jewish community.
  • Focus on developing strengths in adaptive leadership, storytelling, difficult conversations, negotiation and other crucial leadership skills.

About The Wexner Foundation
Led by Leslie and Abigail Wexner, The Wexner Foundation focuses on the development of Jewish professional and
volunteer leaders in North America, public leaders in Israel and Jewish teenagers in Columbus. With a respect for the
diversity of Jewish life, cohort-based learning and the development of a network of leaders, The Wexner Foundation has
never wavered from its focus on Jewish leadership excellence. www.wexnerfoundation.org

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