News & Blogs Category: Featured Partner

In 2008, five Jewish high schools in Los Angeles partnered with BJE: Builders of Jewish Education, the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Simha & Sara Lainer Day School Endowment Fund, and the Jim Joseph Foundation to launch the LA High School Affordability Initiative (LAHSAI). The initiative was premised on the schools collectively raising $17 million in cash endowments, which would be matched by $4.25 million from the Lainer Endowment Fund, positioning the schools—and really the broader community—to be able to help middle income families enroll their daughters and sons in Jewish high schools for years to come.

Earlier this month, the five schools—Milken Community High School, New Community Jewish High School, Shalhevet High School, YULA Boys High School, and YULA Girls High School—reached that formidable benchmark of $17 million raised. When combined with the $4.25 million Lainer match, this means that $21.25 million in endowment funds will be providing the schools with yearly income for tuition assistance.

The Jim Joseph Foundation wishes the schools, their families, BJE, and the entire community a sincere kol hakavod for meeting the challenge!

Jewish high schools develop individuals who possess strong Jewish identities, a dense network of Jewish connections, and deep Jewish knowledge. Now, more youth in Los Angeles will have the opportunity to  participate in enriching day school education.

To learn more about the LA High School Affordability Initiative, view its model documentation, read a previous blog from Arlene Lepoff Agress and Miriam Prum Hess of BJE, and see a previous featured grantee profile.

Three years ago, BBYO set out to enhance the quality of experiential Jewish education offered to teens across its global movement. This was no small challenge, given that BBYO engages about 42,000 teens annually, but does not have the capacity to reach out and to individually connect directly with each teen. As a result, BBYO launched its Directors of Jewish Enrichment (DJE) initiative, which placed three talented Jewish educators in BBYO regions throughout North America. DJE’s are responsible for teaching, inspiring and supporting key stakeholders—including staff, teens and community volunteers—in their ability to deliver meaningful Jewish experiences.

The DJEs developed the Jewish Enrichment Team—a kind of brain-trust that drives educational capacity-building throughout the organization. The DJE’s network together as a dynamic team of educational entrepreneurs, and work with teen leaders, program professionals, and volunteer adult advisors to strengthen the quality of Jewish programming at the local, regional, and international levels. As the pilot phase of DJE comes to a close, an external evaluation shows that the DJE initiative has helped BBYO deliver a deeper, more engaging Jewish learning experience:

 ‘As a result of the DJEs’ work, BBYO has shifted to prioritize Jewish enrichment … Stakeholders have a richer, more textured understanding of what Jewish enrichment can be, and they create programs that are more relevant to teens. BBYO’s Educational Framework [Kivun] has become a lens through which regional professionals and teens see their programs, which contributes to the potential richness of programs. Meaningful or high quality Jewish enrichment is following a pattern, where relevant content is put in front of teens who then discuss it in small groups, learning from the content and from each other.’

The DJEs have built important relationships and their own credibility within the organization, paving the way for dynamic new Jewish learning initiatives. The DJEs led a Jewish Enrichment Specialist Team (JEST) that hosted webinars for BBYO professionals, teen leaders and volunteer advisors.  Later, JEST evolved into The Learning Advantage (TLA), webinars designed for cohorts of regional professionals and supervisors. Whereas JEST primarily shared resources, TLA also taught skills and capacities.

Kivun—BBYO’s educational platform – guides all activities by clearly outlining goals for teens’ Jewish commitments, knowledge and attitudes; outcomes related to those goals; and indicators of teens’ Jewish growth.  Experiential Jewish programs focus on three core content areas: Shabbat, Israel and service/advocacy – each of which is supported by Jewish texts, questions and program modules.  Importantly, all major program initiatives are aligned with Kivun and designed with intentional Jewish learning outcomes in mind:

“… Kivun has become integral to the organization. The DJEs have increased Kivun’s utility by making the concepts within it more accessible with key questions and texts. As a result, stakeholders understand what Kivun is and report that it either validates or drives their program development … Kivun has also helped to make BBYO’s Jewish enrichment work more unified. An international professional shared, ‘The entire way of thinking about programming has changed… We’re driving toward the same goals, the same outcomes.’’

In 2014, just before International Convention, the DJEs hosted a 24-hour seminar on Jewish enrichment—“The eXodus Games”—to show teens how Jewish enrichment can be fun and engaging. Teen and staff reflections clearly demonstrated that this was a success.

The recently released evaluation report captures the significant positive effects the DJEs have throughout BBYO:

Stakeholders are now using new approaches to program planning, which in turn make programs more meaningful for teens. There are also indications that a different, deeper understanding of Jewish enrichment is at play within the organization, one that is more complex, more engaging to teens, and more entrenched in the organization.

Read the full evaluation of the DJE initiative here.

More and more young adults engage in Jewish life through volunteer service and leadership opportunities in which they create change and help others in ways personally meaningful to them. As the demand for these opportunities has grown, so too has Entwine, JDC’s initiative for young Jewish leaders, influencers, and advocates who want to make an impact on global Jewish needs and international humanitarian challenges.

Each year, Entwine engages more than 12,000 young Jewish adults through an increasingly large platform of service, educational, and leadership opportunities in global Jewish issues. By blending these experiences with deep Jewish learning, young adults explore their Jewish identities and shape their own vision of what it means to live a joyful Jewish life. Along with its international service experiences, Entwine’s Learning Networks in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, and London create volunteer-led events that feature peer-to-peer education, combined with socializing and networking. These experiences are bringing many young adults back into Jewish life in new and meaningful ways.

As one example, San Diegan Mike Spear had distanced himself from Jewish life post-Bar Mitzvah. However, he was attracted to exploring Jewish India with his local Entwine San Diego Network trip. After Shabbat at a synagogue in Mumbai, Mike said: “We were told that our visits were breathing life into these isolated communities. Today, I realized that this trip, this community, is breathing life into me and my Jewish self.”

Having returned from India, Mike continues to be active with his San Diegan Entwine peers. As a group, they are active service members in their local community—volunteering at the San Diego Jewish old age home, hosting Shabbat dinners for their local community, and, on behalf of Entwine, developing a formal local service initiative for the San Diegan Jewish Community.

Jessica Nysenbaum of Washington, DC also has re-engaged in Jewish life as a result of Entwine. She says:

“Until I discovered JDC Entwine, I wasn’t involved in the Washington, DC Jewish community….Through JDC Entwine, my Judaism has once again become a central part of my life. Learning about JDC’s international work, and making friends through Entwine with a diverse group of young Jews in my local community and around the world, makes me excited and proud of my Jewish heritage. I’m currently the Co-Chair of Entwine’s DC network, a role that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Entwine started me down a path of re-engaging with my Judaism that has led me to the incredibly opportunity to now help lead and teach my peers about the Jewish world.”

JDC Entwine is poised to expand and deepen its offerings for both new participants and alumni. As it does, Entwine will continue to catalyze a generation of young Jews to connect to each other and to live a life of action, with global Jewish responsibility at the core.

The Jim Joseph Foundation’s December 2014 grant to JDC Entwine was for $3 million over three years. The grant has a matching element that aims to leverage this investment to attract even more philanthropic investment in Entwine.

Against the backdrop of substantial changes—and many challenges—for American Jewish life, one of the areas of significant growth in the last dozen years has been the JOFEE field – Jewish Outdoor, Food & Environmental Education. Organizations such as Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah and Wilderness Torah have pioneered a wide range of programs that are enabling a growing number of people to connect Jewish life and tradition, on one side, with food, the outdoors and the environment, on the other.

Last year’s report “Seeds of Opportunity: A National Study of Immersive Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education,” made clear that JOFEE programs have had a significant impact both on leadership and on Jewish identity.  And the report offered a look at the potential of the field to grow, mature, and to deepen the Jewish learning JOFEE offers. Leaders in the field recognize this opportunity and continue to learn and experiment with new strategies and initiatives to create the most effective Jewish learning experiences.

The last 15 months have seen exciting developments in JOFEE.  Hazon completed a merger with the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. The start of the shmita year – in September 2014 – saw a flurry of new programing both in the US and in Israel, and the publication of a new edition of Rav Kook’s Shabbat Ha’Aretz.  The Davidson Foundation has provided support for the launch of Hazon Detroit. And, most recently, the Leichtag Foundation convened a significant gathering of Jewish farmers at their ranch in Encinitas.  As one JOFEE professional put it, “It’s only been 15 years since [JOFEE] has come into being. If you look at the field as a whole, we’re really just leaving childhood, and it’s stunning how rapidly the field has grown.”

And the field is poised for more growth in the future. In March 2015 the Foundation awarded a matching grant of $7.5 million over four years to Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah and Wilderness Torah. The matching grant for business planning and capacity support is designed to spur more investment into the field to support its growth. With the funding, Hazon also will launch a JOFEE Educator Fellowship, as all four organizations work to offer even more immersive JOFEE experiences.

“This is a significant moment not only for the JOFEE field but for the American Jewish community as a whole. If we can strengthen these three doorways – through food, the environment and the outdoors – we can have an immense and positive impact on American Jewish life in the next two or three decades – touching people’s lives, strengthening Jewish institution, and creating a better world for all.”

– Hazon’s Nigel Savage

At this important stage in the field’s development, Hazon and others are committed to engaging even more individuals in meaningful JOFEE experiences—imbued with rich Jewish learning opportunities and fostering deep connections to Jewish life.

When it comes to teacher preparation, the DeLeT program—Day School Leadership through Teaching—has a 13 year record of helping develop teachers into dynamic and effective educators. DeLeT operates at both Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, offering two summers of study and a year-long mentored internship during the school year. Whether its graduates teach general or Jewish studies, they all share a common characteristic—they view themselves as Jewish educators and understand how that identity informs their practice.

To date, DeLeT has graduated more than 200 teachers. Many of them are now veteran teacher-leaders at their schools. Recent evaluation helps to explain why the program is so effective: 93 percent of DeLeT graduates say that DeLeT articulates a clear vision of teaching and learning. And 81 percent of DeLeT graduates say that their coursework in DeLeT aligns closely with their internship.

DeLeT has truly changed my teaching and my ideas about teaching for the better. Even though I had a degree in education prior to beginning DeTeT, I can honestly say I learned more in my DeLeT year than I did in my four year education program. DeLeT has provided me with a community of teachers with whom I can seek advice, share ideas, and collaborate. I am lucky to have been a part of this tremendous program.
– Kathy Kanigsberg, DeLeT graduate and current mentor

DeLeT’s broad vision links initial teacher preparation with new teacher induction and ongoing professional development. Thus, DeLeT works with graduates across their career. At Brandeis, most of the current mentor teachers are graduates of the program who develop their mentoring skills by attending a monthly mentor-teacher study group. At HUC-JIR in Los Angeles, mentors meet six times during each cycle—two Y’mei Limmud and four Mentor Shuirim. At the beginning of each cohort, the mentors also attend a day long summer institute.

School heads and parents see the impact of DeLeT first-hand: “It is an amazing process to witness the transformation of eager and enthusiastic new student teachers evolve into mature, highly skilled—and eager and enthusiastic—professional Jewish educators,” says Elisa Deener-Agus, a parent whose child attended a day school in Massachusetts. “Equally as impressive as the transformation of the DeLeT fellows is the impact they increasingly have on the classroom as the year progresses. At some point during the year, we begin to realize that our children are having the benefit of an additional highly qualified teacher in the classroom.”

DeLeT continues to accept new cohorts annually, while at the same time evaluating the program to glean insights that can help the entire field of Jewish education. One current study underway examines how DeLeT students’ ideas about effective teaching evolve over the course of the program. A second study surveys graduates from DeLeT and three other teacher preparation/induction programs—Stern College, Jewish Theological Seminary and the Jewish New Teacher Project—to better understand why they choose to stay in day school teaching or leave the field.

The Jim Joseph Foundation recognizes that more well-trained and supported educators leads to more effective and compelling learning experiences for young Jews. Besides their contributions as classroom teachers and Jewish role models, some DeLeT alumni serve as technology coordinators, department chairs, directors of general studies, and leaders of teacher study groups. In the years ahead, DeLeT will help prepare even more teacher-leaders for success in day schools, shaping the Jewish learning experience for countless Jewish youth.

The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded a total of more than $8 million to Brandeis and HUC-JIR for DeLeT.

Not too long ago, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews were largely invisible in American Jewish life. Many LGBTQ Jews hid a primary part of themselves in order to remain involved in their Jewish communities. Other LGBTQ Jews left their Jewish communities altogether and never returned.

Significant change was needed to ensure that more of these Jews opted in to Jewish communal life, and that institutions provided opportunities for them to engage in Jewish experiences as their full selves. So, for more than a decade, Keshet has worked to ensure that Jewish communities and organizations have programs and policies that embrace LGBTQ Jews. As part of these important efforts, the Keshet Leadership Project (KLP) is a direct response to communities saying they want even more help and better strategies to welcome these individuals and to engage them in meaningful Jewish life and learning.

Through KLP, Keshet works with organizations, day schools, synagogues, youth groups, camps, and social service agencies along a continuum of inclusion—from those who are just beginning to acknowledge their need for improvement, to those who have deep and sustained initiatives in place and who strive to broaden their reach. A year-long multi-phased program, KLP gathers, trains, provides resources, and supports these institutions to become more inclusive to LGBTQ individuals and families.

The Project kicks off with the Keshet Leadership Summit, a dynamic, experiential day-long program designed to build the capacity of individual leaders. Follow-up support and training provided by Keshet helps Jewish leaders turn their LGBTQ inclusion action plans into on-the-ground, sustainable changes that impact programming, policies, and organizational culture of Jewish institutions.

A participant in Keshet’s Leadership Summit in Los Angeles last year commented, “This is a vital issue and, despite the enormous gains that have been made in recent years, there is still a long road to travel. And so, even in the liberal community of Reform Judaism, there is much to learn.”

Another participant said, “Understanding that while sexual and gender identity issues are complex subjects, the actions we all can take in helping each other to feel included and embraced, are pretty simplistic and easy to incorporate and have a major impact.”

Just last year, Keshet’s training helped professionals address homophobia and gender stereotypes, reaching more than 70,000 youth. And Keshet provided the leaders of 53 Jewish institutions with tools to make their organizations more inclusive, influencing 166,000 organizational members across the U.S.

Jewish communities are stronger and more vibrant when all Jews are actively included. And all Jews should have opportunities to engage in meaningful Jewish experiences that shape their Jewish journeys for years to come. With this as a guiding principle, Keshet’s work with organizations and their leaders creates important and long-lasting changes in communities across the country.

This Jim Joseph Foundation grant to Keshet (2014-2016) is to expand the Keshet Leadership Project to New York and Los Angeles.