The Jim Joseph Foundation created the Education Initiative to increase the number of educators and educational leaders who are prepared to design and implement high-quality Jewish education programs. The Foundation education granted $45 million to three premier Jewish higher education institutions–Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU)–(each institution received $15 million) and challenged them to plan and implement programs that used new content and teaching approaches to increase the number of highly qualified Jewish educators serving the field.
The grant covered program operation costs as well as other costs associated with institutional capacity building. The majority of the funds (75 percent) targeted program planning and operation. The grantees designed and piloted six new master’s degree and doctoral degree programs or concentrations; eight new certificate, leadership, and professional development programs; two new induction programs; and four new seminars within the degree programs. The Education Initiative also supported financial assistance for students in eight other advanced degree programs. The grantees piloted innovative teaching models and expanded their use of educational technology in the degree and professional development programs.
American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an independent evaluation of the Education Initiative.
Education Initiative Year 5 Evaluation Report and Executive Summary
Education Initiative Year 4 Evaluation Report
Education Initiative Year 3 Evaluation Report
Education Initiative Year 2 Evaluation Report
Education Initiative Year 1 Evaluation Report
The doctoral and dual master’s programs in Education and Jewish Studies are a collaboration between the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU). The Jim Joseph Foundation awarded a grant of $4.96 million to NYU during the period 2009–2015 to improve the infrastructure of the two programs and to attract outstanding prospective students (Jim Joseph Foundation fellows).
American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an independent evaluation of this grant that assessed the extent to which the doctoral and dual master’s programs have provided what students need to become successful educators and educational leaders in Jewish education. This evaluation addressed three questions:
- According to fellows, to what extent did their programs promote applicable knowledge,
attitudes, and networking?
- To what extent have fellows engaged in leadership roles in the field of Jewish education
after graduation?
- To what extent do fellows attribute engaging in thought leadership to their doctoral and
dual master’s programs?
Moving Jewish Educators to the Next Stage in Their Career: An Evaluation of New York University’s Dual Master’s and Doctoral Programs in Education and Jewish Studies
In 2013, the Jim Joseph Foundation commissioned the report Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens. In that report, nine key implications for strategic development regarding Jewish teen education and engagement emerged. These implications provided a good baseline for The Jewish Education Project’s understanding of necessary factors to build programs that engage more Jewish teens in meaningful Jewish life. Following the release of Effective Strategies, the Jim Joseph Foundation began to partner with funders in ten communities to significantly invest further in Jewish teen engagement. The Jewish Education Project has run the National Incubator that has been working closely with these communities, known collectively as the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, as they design their respective teen initiatives.
Generation Now: Understanding and Engaging Jewish Teens Today — commissioned by the Jim Joseph Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and The Marcus Foundation—builds on the past and is the result of new research in Jewish teen education and engagement. Funders in the Teen Collaborative identified a need to define shared outcomes in order to pursue their common goals and to effectively aggregate and compare evaluation findings. While this research was intended only to lead to the development of outcomes in this space, it yielded insights that can guide and inform Jewish teen education and engagement more broadly, and can be used by those in the Collaborative as well as others. Generation Now details insights about Jewish teens—from their interests, to their fears, to what brings them meaning in life—along with shared outcomes, indicators, and measurement tools that will gauge Jewish education and engagement among teens participating in Jewish experiences.
Generation Now: Understanding and Engaging Jewish Teens Today, April 2016
Effective Strategies for Education and Engaging Jewish Teens, February 2013
Repair the World (RTW) was founded in 2009 to make meaningful service a defining element of American Jewish life. It is the only organization devoted exclusively to mobilizing young Jews to volunteer in tackling pressing local needs. In fall 2013, Repair the World launched its signature program, Repair the World Communities, in four cities: Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. New York City was added, also as a pilot, in fall 2015, following a year of site development. In each of these communities, a full-time City Director oversees the program and its base of operations, known as “the Workshop.˝ Each City Director supports a cohort of fellows (ages 21-26) who make an eleven-month commitment to volunteer and study while they accomplish their core mission to recruit and engage Jewish young adults in volunteering and service-related activities. Communities focuses primarily on two causes that resonate with Jewish millennials— education and food justice—and uses volunteering as a way to engage with these issues.
Before launching Communities in 2013, Repair contracted an Independent Evaluation of the program’s impact to be performed at the end of 2015. This report shares the fresh results, informative to anyone working to engage young Jewish adults or to design meaningful service opportunities, such as:
- Done right, service attracts large numbers of “unaffiliated” young adult Jews.
- Service through a Jewish lens can be “sticky” and keep participants engaged.
- Participants build new forms of Jewish communities around their service.
- Service connects meaningfully to Jewish identity formation and Jewish values.
Building Jewish Community through Volunteer Service – Repair the World Communities: Summary Report on the Independent Evaluation, March 2016
The Jewish Resource Specialist (JRS) Initiative, designed in 2008 by the Early Childhood Education Initiative (ECEI) of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties (the Federation), in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, positions the early childhood years as a gateway into Jewish life for children and their families. It is a response to several catalyzing factors. First, preschool is a critical time for young families. Children are eager to learn and are developing socially, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually. For parents, at no other moment will they be so involved in their children’s schooling. They are also choosing how they spend their time and with whom they spend it. The JRS Initiative came about to leverage this unique time for families.
Second, the JRS Initiative also addresses the dearth of leaders working to build the field of Jewish early childhood education (ECE). Those who want to focus on Jewish ECE and build communities of engaged Jewish families with preschool-aged children are challenged to find the support, mentors and professional development opportunities they need to craft a career path. The JRS Initiative seeks to meet these field-wide demands by developing the skills and Jewish knowledge of the JRS educators who then bring ideas and guidance to their schools.
Enhancing Jewish Learning & Engagement in Preschool Life Executive Summary, January 2016
Enhancing Jewish Learning & Engagement in Preschool Life Full Model Documentation, January 2016
Launched in 2010, the Education Initiative is a $45 million grant program to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU). The three institutions have each been awarded $15 million to support the field of Jewish education through the development and enhancement of advanced degree, leadership, and certificate programs; improvement of recruitment activities; and induction support to new teachers and education leaders. In all, the Education Initiative engaged more than 1,400 Jewish education professionals from 34 states and internationally, and supported 26 new and existing programs in three higher education institutions. More than 200 graduates are expected to complete full-time graduate degree programs and will fill open positions in the Jewish education workforce through this Initiative.
American Institutes for Research (AIR) examined the work and outcomes of the programs funded by the Education Initiative. This independent evaluation focuses on the five goals for the Education Initiative, three of which relate to educator preparation and support, and two to capacity building.
Education Initiative Year 4 Evaluation Report and Executive Summary
Education Initiative Year 3 Evaluation Report
Education Initiative Year 2 Evaluation Report
Education Initiative Year 1 Evaluation Report
HUC, JTS, and YU Education Initiative Grant Information
Building on previous research, in 2014, Rose Community Foundation entered into a partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation to develop the Denver-Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative. The goal is to make greater Denver-Denver-Boulder area Jewish life relevant and meaningful to young people both now and later in their lives, with teens serving as active partners together with their peers, adults and community leaders in shaping their own Jewish journeys.
The Initiative has three objectives: to identify a few innovative Jewish teen programs and help them achieve incremental growth; to promote and support a shift in Jewish teen programming to models that intentionally foster adult-teen relationships; and to fund youth-initiated, youth-led programming that could connect and engage a wider circle of Jewish teens than those currently engaged in traditional Jewish youth programs. Initiative leaders believed with an infusion of funding and addition staff, a small group of grantees could move their vision forward. As the Initiative launched, the five key grantees—Jewish Student Connection (JSC), Moving Traditions (MT), Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative (BJTI), PresenTense Colorado (PT) and jHub—and the lead funders—Rose Community Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation—articulated a Theory of Change that specified the Initiative’s key strategies and target audiences.
From the start of working together, the Initiative leaders invested in evaluation in order to learn along the way about what works and what needs adjustment, and to document the impact of the Initiative overall. Informing Change was invited to evaluate the first three years of the Initiative.
During the Initiative’s first year, teen participants and their parents from the three grantee programs that were operational—JSC, Moving Traditions and BJTI—were invited to participate in a survey about their experiences in these programs and their involvement in Jewish life in their communities more broadly. Due to the low response rates, these baseline survey data should be viewed as illustrative rather than as representative in nature. However, the survey data provides insight into the teens’ experiences from two self-reported perspectives: teens and parents.
Denver-Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative Evaluation, November 2015
Denver-Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative Grant Information
Denver-Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative in the news
In 2007, BBYO—the largest pluralistic Jewish teen movement in North America—launched an ambitious program called the BBYO Professional Development Institute (PDI). The purpose of PDI was to increase the capacity and commitment of talented, early-career Jewish professionals to build a career in Jewish communal institutions. The hope was that PDI would not only help young professionals grow at BBYO and support the organization in engaging teens, but that they would also help create a workforce of highly-qualified professionals for the Jewish communal sector.
PDI assisted participants through a suite of supports and multiple program components. The Jim Joseph Foundation, PDI’s sole funder, underwrote the program with a grant of $7.5 million over seven years. Although the goals and outcomes of PDI are meant to be realized over 15 years—through 2023, as alumni move through their careers—the program activities were time-limited. A total of 35 people participated across PDI’s three cohorts, with the inaugural cohort beginning in 2008 and the final cohort completing all PDI requirements in 2015.
From the inception of PDI, Informing Change worked closely with the Jim Joseph Foundation and BBYO to assess the program. As the program neared its conclusion, the evaluation evolved to focus on post-graduate and longer-term PDI outcomes and lessons learned.
Cultivating Jewish Professionals: Cumulative Evaluation Findings from BBYO’s Professional Development Institute
Executive Summary of Cultivating Jewish Professionals
Strategies for Professional Development: Lessons from BBYO’s Professional Development Institute
Advancing Early-Stage Jewish Careers: Lessons from BBYO’s Professional Development Institute
In 2012, BBYO, Inc. (BBYO) added three Directors of Jewish Enrichment (DJEs) to its field management structure. With professional backgrounds and graduate training as Jewish educators, these full-time employees were brought into the organization in an effort “to deepen the Jewish experiential learning offered to [BBYO’s] teen-led community and prepare Jewish teens for a lifetime of Jewish involvement.” The three DJEs are in place for a three year initial pilot project, from 2012 to 2015, with the understanding that a second cohort of three DJEs would be added, provided that the grant criteria for the pilot phase were achieved.
Growing out of a 2011 study of BBYO’s impact, the DJE Initiative is part of BBYO’s broader intentions to strengthen the potential for teens’ Jewish enrichment and deeper “meaningful Jewish experiences.” BBYO’s new Educational Framework, now called “Kivun,” was also developed in response to BBYO’s impact study. Kivun outlines BBYO’s goals for teens’ Jewish growth, outcomes related to those goals, and indicators of teens’ Jewish growth. The DJEs are meant to help BBYO implement this new Educational Framework in order to achieve the articulated goals.
Enhancing Capacity for Jewish Enrichment: An Evaluation of BBYO’s Directors of Jewish Enrichment Pilot, March 2015
In 2013, about a dozen funders from across the U.S. began meeting together to better understand how to develop and invest in local opportunities to educate and engage Jewish teens. Convened by the Jim Joseph Foundation, members of the group were already supporting teen programming but seeking ways to do it better in order to significantly expand teen involvement in active Jewish life. By the end of 2014, the group had developed into a Funder Collaborative in which at least half of the members were in the midst of or ready to begin grantmaking to support comprehensive, innovative and sustainable new community-based teen initiatives. Ultimately, the Collaborative hopes its work will reach beyond the initial participating communities, leading to adaptations of the pilot experiments in other communities across the country and in the offerings of national providers of Jewish teen education and engagement experiences.
Internally, the Funder Collaborative intends for this examination to help inform the ongoing growth and functioning of the group, which expects to continue until at least 2018. Externally, by documenting the lessons learned from this unique Funder Collaborative, they hope to inform future co-funding and shared learning efforts, both within and outside of the Jewish philanthropic community.
Finding New Paths for Teen Engagement and Learning: A Funder Collaborative Leads the Way, January 2015
Press Release on Finding New Paths