News & Blogs Category: Featured Partner

Early childhood Jewish education (ECJE) is critical for developing minds, engaging young Jewish families, and ensuring the Jewish community’s health today and in the future. For ECJE to succeed, the field needs to urgently address the shortage of early childhood educators, while also resourcing and supporting them throughout their careers. ElevatEd, a groundbreaking  collaborative initiative from  JCC Association of North America, Jewish Federations of North America, and the Union for Reform Judaism, aims to transform ECJE with a far-reaching strategy to attract, train, and support more educators in the field. In the new initiative, known formerly as Project-412, these three prominent Jewish organizations will collaborate 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.

ECJE director and teacher at the ElevatEd educator reception in Houston, Sept 6.

In total, the JCC Movement and Reform Movement operate 475 early childhood centers serving more than 65,000 young children and their families across the country. Tens of thousands more remain on long waiting lists or simply choose not to even try due to the shortage of educators. The three-year ElevatEd pilot will focus on 14 pioneer communities across 14 states, with a goal of recruiting, training, and credentialing up to 30 educators in each community, amounting to more than 400 emerging early childhood educators in total. ElevatEd launched in the summer of 2023 with five initial communities: Boston, Massachusetts; Denver-Boulder, Colorado; East Bay, California; Houston, Texas; and Long Island, New York. With these new educators, ElevatEd hopes to leverage ECJE as a driver of deeper and longer-term family engagement in meaningful Jewish life. The educators will 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.

CJP is incredibly proud to join several other Federations in supporting ElevatEd on a local level. In Boston, we believe that a focus on families with young children has the potential to transform our communities and a critical component of this work is support for early childhood education and educators. Together with our early childhood education partners, we are working to identify and tackle challenges and make the most of important opportunities such as this one. We are tremendously excited about ElevatEd’s new approach to boosting early childhood Jewish education and look forward to all of the benefits it will bring young families and our community.
– Marc Baker, President and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Boston’s Jewish Federation

With the new school year underway, participating emerging educators in cohort one will soon start their year of learning, 18 months of mentorship support, and will receive funds to support their work toward a credential in early childhood education. Equally important, mid-career educators in each ElevatEd school also receive a stipend and will participate in a research-based mentor training program in partnership with the Jewish New Teacher Project to support the emerging educators in their schools.

The second cohort of communities will launch in early 2024 and help cement the long-term model for improving ECJE and making it more widely available. Each pioneer community will pair their own funding alongside a substantial initial investment from philanthropic foundations, which will build a long-term financial model for improvement and growth.  To provide the foundation for the year of learning, ElevatEd is partnering with nationally recognized educational experts, Teaching Beyond the Square and the K’ilu Company, for the general and Judaic studies framework for emerging educators, respectively. 

We need a national strategy to address systemic challenges in the early childhood Jewish landscape, which is why we are excited to launch ElevatEd, a groundbreaking partnership to address these issues on a national scale in the Jewish community.
– Sasha Kopp, senior director of education and engagement, ElevatEd

ElevatEd teacher reception in Houston, Sept. 6

The launch of ElevatED is an ambitious and timely development for ECJE that reflects the urgent, large-scale needs of the field. Early childhood Jewish educators are integral to thriving Jewish life–they nurture children, families, and their Jewish communities. With this expansive effort to recruit, train, credential, and mentor ECJE educators, more families will have opportunities to engage in Jewish communal life.

This collaborative approach among national partners, national and local funders, and key stakeholders in each local community also reflects a powerful, shared vision of meaningful ECJE accessible to all. To shed light on the program’s impact, Rosov Consulting will measure its outcomes. Through iteration and experimentation, ElevatEd plans to use this pilot phase to become a long-term model for the growth of ECJE and for powerful ECJE experiences led by talented educators.

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.

Top picture: Representatives from Houston’s JCC, Federation, and the URJ at ElevatEd’s first retreat Sept. 6 discussed how to leverage the time that families spend in ECJE to connect them deeply with the greater Houston Jewish community for lifelong engagement and learning.

As the leading voice for Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, JIMENA is expanding its role as a thought leader and resource hub for the Jewish community and the field of Jewish education. While JIMENA has always worked to educate alongside its advocacy efforts, today the organization is in the midst of a strategic plan designed to deepen and grow its role in this critical area so that Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews and their histories are more fully included in American Jewish life.

JIMENA’s newest resource, Distinctions: A Sephardi and Mizrahi Journal, addresses contemporary Jewish concerns through a classical Sephardi and Mizrahi lens. The online quarterly publication offers fresh and impactful content that elevates the perspectives and raises the profile of Sephardi and Mizrahi people and communities. Distinctions’ inaugural Summer 2023 issue focuses on antisemitism, with a special introduction by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, as well as a featured story by Sharon Nazarian, who has worked on international affairs as a senior vice president for the Anti-Defamation League. Each issue of Distinctions will be framed around a theme of communal interest to Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. 

Distinctions is designed to push our community forward, to uncover people and perspectives on issues that for too long have been ignored. JIMENA believes that to genuinely change internal Jewish narratives and attitudes — and to become more inclusive and respectful of Sephardi and Mizrahi people and communities — we need this new platform.
– Ty Alhadeff, JIMENA’s director of education and director of JIMENA’s Sephardic Leadership Institute

JIMENA’s growth as an educational leader and expert is timely and fills a previous void in the field. To help advance the White House’s recently released U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, JIMENA curated a collection of lesson plans and educational units on antisemitism and Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, all of which are available at no cost to state departments of education, school districts, and individual schools.

These resources will help students understand the many ways antisemitism manifests and the diversity of Jews impacted by it. We were privileged to be a part of the development of the National Strategy. Now we need to play a role in its implementation. It is our hope to raise the funding to produce more lessons on Nazi camps in North Africa, the Farhud in Iraq, Convivencia as a model to fight antisemitism and bigotry of all forms, and other country-by-country lessons.
– Sarah Levin, executive director of JIMENA

JIMENA also has undertaken major efforts to help New York and Los Angeles Jewish Day Schools better integrate Sephardic and Mizrahi students, culture, and content. The projects began recently with an assessment of Day Schools in those cities to determine what types of interventions school administrators and educators need to create more inclusive classrooms. The assessments’ findings will enable JIMENA to design the right training for Jewish educators and administrators.

Over the next few years, as JIMENA grows, so too will its leadership development programs and knowledge-base it can share with the field. In particular, JIMENA commissioned a research team under the direction of Dr. Mijal Bitton to conduct the first-ever demographic study of Sephardic Jewish Americans. The research is designed to help inform professionals, educators, leaders and scholars about who Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in America are and recommendations for their representation and inclusion in Jewish life, among other key outcomes.  

Learn more at jimena.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of JIMENA.

At the height of the pandemic, leaders and organizations involved in Israel educational travel scrambled to stay up to date on travel policies and regulations. During that chaotic period, the Israel Educational Travel Alliance (IETA) was born. Today, it is housed at the Jewish Federations of North America and includes over 100 partner organizations and funders across North America and Israel—who share a commitment to learning from and with each other to provide innovative, effective, relevant, and impactful Israel educational travel experiences.

The field of educational travel to Israel has grown to become one of the cornerstones of Jewish identity building in North America. It is the most effective educational tool we have, and that is why Jewish Federations remain committed to our investment in IETA.
– Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America

In just a few years, IETA has evolved from a space focused on travel policies to become a critical source of leadership, support, and information for the field. More than 80,000 people come to Israel each year through IETA partner organizations, representing different age cohorts, target audiences, and travel experiences. Of course the common link is each partner’s dedication to Israel educational travel.

Israel educational travel plays a critical role in nurturing a strong sense of Jewish identity among North American teens and young adults, deepening ties between the global Jewish people and Israel, and inspiring allyship between Jewish and non-Jewish communities. IETA is committed to serving the professionals and organizations in this field so that they can be most effective and operate at the highest levels of professionalism.
– Tal Gozani, Founding Executive Director, IETA

Thanks in part to the IETA, the field is both growing and becoming more sophisticated as a space for knowledge sharing and skill development. The IETA hosts convenings, trainings, and enrichment opportunities for professionals in the field, and advocates on behalf of the field. It also engages funders to better align the interests, concerns, observations, and investments of the philanthropic community with the field.

Being part of a professional alliance with other organizations in the Israel educational travel space has helped to elevate the field in important ways. Enabling valuable information sharing and collaborations as well as raising awareness about important policies is proving to benefit the entire field. When the quality of Israel educational travel is raised, each of our member organizations are stronger.
– Elizabeth Sokolsky, Executive Director, Birthright Israel North America and co-Chair, IETA Steering Committee

This past year, the IETA conducted important, timely surveys about cross-organizational Covid policies and pain points as well as about the field’s impact on Israeli society. IETA plans on conducting more intentional planning for the future, with an eye toward three strategic priorities that build and expand on current efforts:

• Advocacy: raise the visibility of the field and understanding of the importance of Israel educational travel through advocacy efforts with the Government of Israel and the North American Jewish community among other stakeholders
• Research: continue to learn about the field through mapping and research to better understand and communicate the impact of Israel educational travel and the potential for greater effectiveness and efficiencies
• Elevate & Support: ensure opportunities for professionals in the field of Israel educational travel to network and learn from one another through gatherings and professional development opportunities

Prior to COVID, there was little cross-communication other than through professional friendships we might have had or through other meetings convened for those of us working in the field of Jewish engagement. As a coalition we have created a field of practice as professionals. We can focus on looking forward to how we work with the government of Israel, advocating a policy to support travel, funding training across the field and building up the infrastructure needed to insure our success.
– Mike Wise, Founder and co-CEO, Honeymoon Israel and co-Chair, IETA Steering Committee

All organizations under the IETA umbrella work to provide meaningful learning experiences that add value to the participants’ lives. As the only professional community that brings together these scores of diverse Israel educational travel organizations and professionals, IETA is committed to ensuring the wellbeing and resilience of this important field.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Israel Educational Travel Alliance. Photos courtesy of Honeymoon Israel.

As the network organization of Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools believes in the power of data-informed decision-making. Through knowledge curation, qualitative research, and financial and operational benchmarking, Prizmah empowers professional and lay leaders to help their schools thrive and tackle challenges on their paths to success.

To allow a better understanding of trends in North American Jewish day schools and empower school leaders to make strategic, informed, and data-driven decisions, Prizmah has led national enrollment studies, developed a salary data bank, and compiled benchmarking data and development reports that include annual fundraising benchmarks and data on day school endowments. Prizmah also partners with Jewish federations across North America to create community reports and provide dynamic dashboards that contain communal benchmarks with key operational metrics.

Being able to see the data from other schools regionally and nationally is incredibly valuable as it provides us with actionable insights into industry trends, benchmarks our performance, and empowers us to make data-driven decisions to stay competitive and deliver the best educational experience.
— Shmarya Gasner, Executive Director, Berman Hebrew Academy

These reports and tools are used by communities, foundations, and individual schools to optimize efficiency and maximize potential, often making a direct impact on decision-making. In one case, a school leader who was struggling to recruit new teachers accessed data from DASL (Data and Analysis for School Leadership), Prizmah’s financial and operational benchmarking tool, and realized that her school’s compensation structure put them on the very low end in the marketplace. Recognizing the impact this had on their ability to recruit talented educators, this leader and her board made the decision to increase teacher salaries.

Prizmah’s Knowledge Center is its central hub of data, research, and resources for Jewish day school and yeshiva leaders. In addition to curating existing resources for day schools, Prizmah also produces its own studies of the field and its needs. The Knowledge Center directs original research on a full range of topics integral to Jewish day school management, including compensation data, fundraising benchmarks, and student enrollment and retention trends. This important research allows school leaders, stakeholders, and foundations to understand the fieldwide landscape and place what is happening on the ground in communities and schools into the larger context of regional and national trends.

Currently, Prizmah is conducting a research project to measure and quantify Jewish day school affordability programs and better understand how these initiatives affect enrollment trends across North America. Prizmah expects to be able to leverage this data to inform and advance affordability programs going forward.

In line with the traditional principle of tocho kevoro, keeping internal processes in sync with external appearance, just as Prizmah champions the use of data by schools, the organization itself make research and data a critical part of its operations.

Through the use of surveys, Prizmah gathers participant feedback on all its programs and gatherings in order to understand the impact these initiatives make on professionals and schools. This data also measures what program aspects were most successful and where there is room for growth. Similarly, Net Promoter Score, the popular metric used by businesses globally to score the customer experience that measures loyalty and is predictive of business growth, is tracked across Prizmah’s programs. Measuring outputs, outcomes and impact allows Prizmah to understand its greatest levers for change.

Alongside comprehensive evaluation of its own programs, Prizmah also utilizes research in the field of Jewish education, both to determine the best ways to support schools and how programs are designed and to enable school leaders, boards and philanthropists to understand emerging trends as they are happening. On an annual basis, Prizmah’s Year in Review Report aggregates and summarizes trends and data that inform the organization’s strategic functioning and can help schools in important areas, including student enrollment and retention, fundraising, affordability, teacher retention, professional development, and more.

Prizmah is dedicated to creating and implementing a strategic and systematic approach to research, data collection, and knowledge sharing—one that informs, inspires, and empowers individual schools and communities.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Prizmah. Learn more at prizmah.org/knowledge

Founded on the belief that healthy arguments can be an important tool for learning and social growth, For the Sake of Argument (FSA) helps leaders and educators engage learners in open, trusting educational experiences. FSA’s materials, tools, and training – currently focused on Israel – spark healthy arguments in various settings, including homes, workplaces, synagogues, schools, and campuses. In its first year, more than 2,000 people have participated in FSA’s in-person or online workshops and courses.

It can be really hard to have a healthy argument with my peers and my family. I think one of the things we might take from it is listening…Not just jumping on someone, not just listening to respond, but actually listening, to engage and try and understand the conversation. I think my peers and I could benefit from taking a step back from a heated argument and being able to look at it from all sides.
– Workshop Participant

As Israel faces deep internal divisions and political turmoil, FSA’s resources enable people to confront and discuss these challenges in  meaningful ways. Its book Stories for the Sake of Argument, includes 24 stories that provide opportunities to discuss some of the more controversial issues in Israel. FSA’s newest short story, Anything to Celebrate?, was released in advance of Yom Ha’atzmaut and grapples with the complexities of celebrating Israel at this time. Building on this, FSA will soon release a series of short stories that explore the proposed judicial reforms and the protests sweeping Israel. In the coming months, the organization also will release a short, theme-based curriculum for schools, youth movements, Hillels and other educational organizations to use in their settings and during their organization’s trips to Israel.

Many educators tend to stay clear of divisive issues so as not to cause unwanted conflict. But whether we like it or not, the topics of greatest interest today are also the most contentious. We lean into the arguments that arise when complexities are addressed rather than shying away from them. By harnessing the energy and passion contained in healthy arguments, we seek to create deep educational engagement.
–Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras, co-founders and co-directors of For the Sake of Argument

FSA offers many ways for educators and leaders to learn about this approach to education. A 90-minute introductory workshop models the FSA framework and tools, and in-depth courses for professionals provide a deeper mastery of engaging with contentious issues. FSA’s open online resource center has tips and specific language for healthy arguments, animated videos, and short written pieces sharing pertinent research. New stories cover all kinds of timely topics–Who is Welcome? delves into interfaith marriage and how different values affect family dynamics; Tweeting Israel covers the legitimacy of vocal criticism of Israeli politicians from Jewish leadership outside of Israel; and What is It All About? explores what Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day means to different groups within Israeli society. FSA also offers consultations with individuals and organizations thinking about the role of arguments and disagreements in their work.

The session helped me to envision how facilitated conversations on Israel might play out in select communities who we are now approaching about hosting similar conversations. These would be less about navigating disagreement, and more about toeing into hard conversations about Israel.
– Workshop Participant

While Israel education is the first subject matter on which FSA focuses, the organization may address others in the future, ranging from Jewish topics to broader non-sectarian issues. This year and next, FSA is researching the impact and educational effectiveness of different elements of its approach. As the research brings insights, FSA continues to hone its materials and tools and will structure and refine the ongoing direction and development of its work.

For more information, visit forthesakeofargument.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of For the Sake of Argument.

We engage with Israel today not only as subject matter, but as part of who we are, who we wish to become, and who we wish Israel to become. In 2009, 18 educators convened to explore what a field of Israel education could be. If someone would have said then that in just over a decade there would be a professional field of Israel education, as it is today, it would have seemed far-fetched. And so I reflect with gratitude to everyone whose collective efforts are helping lead to a steady, yet remarkable evolution of the field.
– Anne Lanski, Founding CEO, The iCenter

As the field of Israel education continues to grow and advance, more than 500 Jewish communal professionals, day school educators, camp professionals, youth group leaders, lay leaders, and others gathered together at iCON 2023: Where Israel and Education Meet.  Hosted by The iCenter, participants experienced iCON as a laboratory, infused with the curiosity and courage to discover something new and to deepen relationships with one another, with Israel, and with education. Due to the pandemic, this was the first iCON since 2018.

iCON was curated to challenge, to provoke, to open new perspectives, to raise important questions, and most importantly, to inspire participants. We want people to embrace a diversity of perspectives and opinions; so we designed the convening to be a catalyst for meaningful conversations and transformative learning experiences. We hope these experiences enable participants to better understand Israel, its place in the world, and its place in our hearts in our lives.
– Aliza Goodman, Director of Strategy and R&D, The iCenter

iCON participants engaged with leading-edge thinking about Israel education today, exploring the newest frameworks for integrating Israel into Jewish learning experiences, while also networking with a diverse crowd of practitioners and leaders in the field. Featured speakers included international figures in arts and culture, sports, nonprofit, education, science and technology, and more. Participants learned about the complexities of history, present, and future—because Israel education covers all of this and more. 

Anyone who cares about Israel is filled these days with concern, even angst, in light of the recent political and social turmoil. I believe staunchly that our educational work should rise to this occasion and address this complex reality thoughtfully. This could be the finest hour for us educators. We are not only capable of transmitting ideas, concept, values, or information; our deeper potential is to explore and traverse times, spaces, ideals, concepts, and values, and to share a story that is worthy of being remembered as a memory and creating a desire of learners to become a member of that story. In order to realize this goal the educator needs to think of themself first and foremost as a perpetual and passionate learner. The task before us is to flesh out and articulate the unifying foundational values that bind us together as a community and cement them as the stage upon which disagreements can be played out respectfully and responsibly. Let us remind ourselves, and the ones with whom we are in contact, that the purpose of education is neither resolution of conflict, nor the alleviation of all ambiguities; rather, it should focus on laying the ground upon which non-uniformity may exist, and be celebrated without threatening our sense of unity. Perhaps I dare say, where politics might divide, education may unite.
– Zohar Raviv, International VP of Educational Strategy, Taglit-Birthright Israel

The iCenter works with and supports educators in nearly all settings. As just a few examples, it offers a Master’s Concentration in Israel Education, which brings together graduate students at 14 different universities from North America and Israel. It offers a Graduate Degree in Israel Education in coordination with George Washington University. It provides expert training for Birthright-Israel staff who influence tens of thousands of trip participants. And it has numerous ongoing initiatives and resources, including its new Conflict Education toolkit and its long-standing Aleph-Bet of Israel education core principles.

For more information, visit theicenter.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of The iCenter.

“Over the last ten years we’ve seen the quality of our teaching rise because of the impact JNTP has had on teachers and mentors. We believe this has had a direct impact on the learning and experiences that our students have every single day!”
– Rabbi Avi Greene, Director of Curriculum & Instruction, Scheck Hillel Community School

As the Jewish New Teacher Project of New Teacher Center celebrates its 20th anniversary, the organization looks back at its impact and ahead at new opportunities. In its 20 years, JNTP has supported more than 2,200 educators in over 200 Jewish day schools across North America, teaching and modeling the skills they need to become great educators, both in and out of the classroom. Through partnerships with schools, communal agencies, and donors, JNTP promotes excellence in teaching and leadership so that the next generation of Jewish day school students are engaged, inspired, and knowledgeable—and prepared to have active roles in their Jewish communities and beyond.

“The training and mentorship that I received through JNTP directly informs my work as a school administrator. I apply their methodologies every time I visit a classroom, facilitate a conversation with a student or colleague, lead professional learning for our staff, and design school systems that promote our educational vision. I am grateful to JNTP for providing me with this skill set, and I see the impact on student learning every day.”
– Yael Cortell, General Studies Principal, Yeshiva of Greater Washington

JNTP offers two core programs—drawn from New Teacher Center’s research-based and field-tested work—that strengthen teaching, learning, and educational leadership. Its intensive Teacher Induction Program pairs new teachers with veteran teacher mentors for weekly mentoring conversations and classroom observations, utilizing a research-based and field-tested mentoring methodology and tools developed to improve teacher growth. JNTP’s Administrator Support Program helps early-career school leaders grow into their leadership roles through cohort-based learning and individualized coaching focused on leadership, culture, and supervision. Program participants develop into effective, quality teachers and school administrators with skills and support to create “Optimal Learning Environments,” in which students thrive through learning and social-emotional growth. 

I will forever be grateful for my experience as a participant in the first cohort of JNTP. When I entered this brand new program, I honestly had no idea what to expect. The framework that I was exposed to gave me a new way to listen, to think about language, to communicate, and to grow. My own teaching was transformed, and I learned how to empower others through mentoring.”
– Shira Schiowitz, Founding JNTP Mentor, Current Mentor and Educator, SAR High School

Supporting teaching, learning, leadership, and culture in schools has been the heart of JNTP’s innovative work since 2003, when it received seed funding from The AVI CHAI Foundation to launch as an offering of the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz, CA. Back then, 12 mentors in 7 schools, and 21 new teachers, formed the original Teacher Induction program. Today, JNTP’s offerings include that national induction program, the program for new school administrators, a pilot early childhood education (ECE) program in Chicago, professional learning communities in Brooklyn, and more. In total, 160 administrators, 690 mentors, and 1,609 new teachers will positively influence more than 40,000 students in North America this year.

JNTP is poised to continue to elevate the field of Jewish day school and early childhood education. With support from a range of funders, JNTP is building on past achievements to scale and expand its offerings to reach all teachers in Jewish day schools and early childhood centers, so that more students engage in meaningful education with talented, highly-trained teachers to build the Jewish community of the future.

Learn more at jntp.org/20th-anniversary. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Jewish New Teacher Project.

Every year, tens of thousands of Jewish young adults serve with Repair the World, addressing pressing local needs while tying their service directly to Jewish wisdom and teachings. For many of these young adults, service is their entry point to Jewish life; Repair engages them at the critical intersection of service, Jewish learning, and the shared passion for a more just world.

Repair’s approach to Jewish education has always been at the heart of their work. In recent years, they deepened their commitment to their Jewish educational strategy, elevating service as a bold expression of engaging in Jewish life. The organization set out to build a culture and strategy that centers Jewish education and works toward ingraining Jewish service in support of social change as a cornerstone of Jewish life.

Repair recognized at the beginning of this process that they would need to commit fully to this shift, naming their education strategy a top organizational priority and aligning budgets and hiring accordingly. They created new organizational values that centered the core Jewish values that drive their work, and built an adaptive strategic plan to ensure consistency in Jewish education throughout its programming. Repair’s multi-step process to evaluate, ideate, and create this culture led to new organizational partnerships, resources and education tools, and a multi-year educational strategy created in deep partnership with M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. Now, every act of service powered by Repair builds meaningful connections to Jewish service, Jewish culture and community, and participants’ commitments to their own Jewish selfhood.

There is no question that the education and learning component of our approach to service enhances the experience, creating an opportunity for young adults to learn more about justice issues and the many ways Judaism has addressed each of these issues. For many, Repair the World is their Jewish community, giving us the chance to draw meaningful connections and learning together, both from a Jewish educational standpoint and from one another. As our Jewish Education Team continues to provide us with incredible resources, I have no doubt our impact will only strengthen in the future.
– Samantha Berinsky, Atlanta City Director, Repair the World

Repair understood that to pursue this new strategy, its professional team would have to include people who are experts in Jewish education. In 2021, Rabbi Jessy Dressin joined Repair as the senior director of Jewish education. She received the support and resources to build a team of talented and experienced educators who are critical to actualizing the strategy. Under Rabbi Jessy and her team’s leadership, Repair collaborates with consultants and leading Jewish educators to facilitate learning for all Repair staff.

Repair’s new Jewish educational strategy focuses first on training and supporting staff to feel confident and empowered in developing and delivering Jewish service-learning content. One new resource for staff is the Repair Facilitator’s Toolkit, a 38-card deck of “grab and go” cards that equip facilitators with key resources to connect participants to Jewish service. This toolkit includes a series of “core tensions” cards that help to engage with the broader landscape of questions and considerations that arise when people participate in direct service. Repair explicitly leans into these core tensions, such as tradition vs. renewal, to deepen participants’ connection to their service and Jewish values.

This investment supports staff who lead Jewish learning on their journey from new to experienced facilitators. Other Repair investments in Jewish education include one-on-one chevruta learning through the Jewish Learning Collaborative (JLC) in partnership with Moishe House, quarterly facilitator workshops, monthly meetings for program staff to collaborate, regular Torah l’shma (learning for its own sake) opportunities for staff, and more.

My favorite part of Repair’s programming has always been the opportunity it holds to spark transformation. I can think of so many “aha” moments participants have had, not only during the service itself, but after being exposed to a new piece of contextual Jewish education. In my work now, I supervise alumni who are creating these gatherings for their own communities. I couldn’t be more excited to bring these new Jewish education resources to them. It’ll allow for a deeper and broader exposure to Jewish service-learning, as well as a more accessible leadership opportunity for alumni who have never facilitated something like this before.
– Rose Capin, Alumni Engagement Associate, Repair the World

This internal culture shift at Repair is resulting in a profoundly deepened Jewish experience for participants and partners. By investing first in building strong Jewish educators and facilitators, Repair is laying a strong and sustainable foundation for Jewish service nationwide. The effects of this investment are already shining through, as 84% of participants said that serving with Repair provided them with an entry point to do good in the world through a Jewish lens. By connecting participants’ service and experience directly to enriching Jewish education, Repair is creating a Jewish community coalescing around the commitment to repairing the world through service.

Learn more at werepair.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a funder of Repair the World.

The Berman Archive (bermanarchive.stanford.edu) is the new starting point for anyone engaging with American Jewish communal life—be it academic, professional, or religious—and is a repository for the reflections and expressions of American Jewish professionals today. As the largest open-access, digital archive of printed material about the subject, the Berman Archive’s holdings are a vast trove of insights, observations, data, reports, and perspectives on organized Jewish life and service—valuable glimpses into the past for today’s professionals, scholars, and inquiring minds.

Formerly the Berman Jewish Policy Archive, the rebranded, refreshed platform is more user-friendly than ever, reconfigured to make it easier to search for and find desired content. Organizations and individuals are invited to contribute (by emailing [email protected]) to the ever-growing collection of resources that are vital for collecting, preserving, and sharing ideas, data, and points of view that define and sustain the American Jewish experience. The Berman Archive houses material typically produced outside traditional academic and commercial spheres, but which nevertheless provide insights into the long-lasting trends and persistent concerns about Jewish life in North America. This includes material about small, defunct organizations, quirky collective efforts, and historically underrepresented groups in American Jewish life. Reports, writing, and publication that might otherwise be lost to history or shoved in the back of a file cabinet—but that shine light on the true diversity of American Jewish life—are welcomed content on the platform.

We want the Berman Archive to be a catalyst for new perspectives in the Jewish world. Considering the past is key to working in an informed and curious way and we hope to be that point of connection for the Jewish community.
– Dr. Ari Y Kelman, Director of the Berman Archive

Berman Archive new brand

The Berman Archive is committed to ongoing critical engagement with its holdings and invites comment, criticism, essays, and contributions from current professionals and scholars engaged with the American Jewish community. Moving forward, the Berman Archive will also feature and host events and initiatives. To sustain and expand all of its efforts, the Berman Archive welcomes additional support.

Visit bermanarchive.stanford.edu. The Berman Archive is led by Dr. Ari Y Kelman and is a project of the Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, and is a partner with the Berman Jewish DataBank at the Jewish Federations of North America. The Berman Archive is sustained by the support of the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Going on this Israel trip was the best experience of my life. I made new friends and strengthened relationships with old ones, all while discovering the deep religious and personal connection I have with the land of Israel.
– RootOne Teen

After just two summers, RootOne LLC at The Jewish Education Project is changing the landscape of teen travel to Israel. Last summer alone, more than 5,000 American teens received $3,000 towards travel to Israel on immersive summer programs with RootOne-affiliated trip providers. Every one of these participants spent hours learning about Israel through RootOne’s online learning portal before stepping foot on the plane, and returned home to a  comprehensive set of Israel-based opportunities designed to deepen their connection to Israel.  The RootOne initiative is not just maximizing the number of Jewish teens participating in meaningful Israel summer experiences, it is ensuring that these experiences have a lifelong impact.

From the moment they register with one of 40 RootOne affiliated trip provider partners, teens embark on an educational journey. This journey is rich in content, completely interactive, and connects what they learn pre-trip with what they experience in Israel and upon their return. As an example, through RootOne’s partnership with the Israeli organization ENTER Peoplehood, 1,500 American and 1,500 Israeli teens are matched in one-on-one online conversations over the course of five weeks before the summer begins, as part of the One2One program. American teens forge personal connections and friendships with their Israeli counterparts, and gain a better understanding of what it means to be a teenager in Israel today. Some teens even met up with their new Israeli friends in person over the summer, something RootOne aims to grow and expand.

Beyond One2One, teens can select from dozens of learning experiences on RootOne’s teen portal in order to complete 18 “nekudot”, or credits, toward their travel voucher.  In 2022, 98 percent of the more than 5,000 Jewish teens completed an average of 14 hours of learning prior to boarding the plane to Israel — over 68,000 hours of online Jewish learning on one platform.

Once in Israel, RootOne affiliated trips integrate Israeli teens into their daily activities as full participants, a new take on the traditional “mifgash.”  Teens experience itineraries that are crafted with RootOne’s eighteen stated outcomes, which are informed by the most recent research on North American Jewish teens. These outcomes include crucial developmental milestones such as gaining the confidence to engage in informed conversations about Israel with their peers upon returning; better understanding the significance of the State of Israel in Jewish history; better understanding the multiplicity of voices and perspectives, needs, and desires of all the peoples living in Israel; and feeling a greater sense of pride in being Jewish.

A seminal moment of summer 2022 was the Big Tent that brought together 2,300 teens in Rishon LeZion for a massive celebration with music, activities, performances, and rallying speeches. The Big Tent event will be a hallmark of future RootOne summer experiences.

 

This moment belongs to us….it’s our time to be heard, and to listen…it’s our time to feel like we’re part of something bigger – much bigger – and it’s our time to feel like we’re not alone. – Levi Fox, senior from BBYO, at Big Tent event 

After returning home, teens have a range of opportunities for continued engagement in Israel and in Jewish life, fueled by their trip providers on a local and regional level, and complemented by RootOne on a national level. RootOne’s Teen Advisory Committee meets regularly to shape post-trip experiences, which includes ongoing exclusive access to certain courses and programs, and teens can choose to continue their participation in the One2One program, meeting with and learning from Israeli teens during the rest of the year.

After two summers, RootOne feels it has arrived. Taken together, the number of teen travelers and the number of their educational hours shows the power and scale of this engagement model. More than 9,000 Jewish teens in those summers traveled to Israel through its partner trip providers — double the number who would have gone to Israel without RootOne vouchers.

Moving forward, RootOne’s ambitious plans for growth include new partnerships to ensure that all Jewish teens are given the opportunity to travel to Israel, regardless of affiliations or access to existing Youth Serving Organizations. Soon, more teens will arrive on college campuses with stronger connections to Israel and the confidence and desire to build a meaningful community of peers.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of RootOne. Learn more about the impact of RootOne here. Learn more at rootone.org.

RootOne LLC, an ambitious initiative seeded by a generous gift from The Marcus Foundation, is a Delaware limited liability company, whose sole member is the Board of Jewish Education, Inc. d/b/a The Jewish Education Project, a New York not-for-profit corporation. 

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.

Ammud is truly a space where I feel I can bring all the facets of my multi-cultural Jewish identity, and also wrestle with thought-provoking concepts amongst like-minded peers. With each course, I feel I learn more about myself and grow more confident in my identity as a Jew of Color.
—Emily McDonnell (she/her)

Since 2019, Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy has worked to build a more vibrant and equitable future for all Jews by providing Jews of Color with access to Jewish education that empowers them to be members and leaders of the broader Jewish community. Ammud members, which include Jews of Color and non JoC allies, are part of a community that receives personalized support as they gather and learn unchallenged in their Jewishness. 

Ammud leadership is driven by the belief that Jews of Color deserve to study the depths of Torah, become Hebrew experts, and fulfill their Jewish educational goals without worrying about experiencing racism. Hebrew classes give members the knowledge and confidence they need to study Jewish texts in an environment that cultivates belonging and a Jewish community. Ammud’s rabbinical team leads popular weekly Parasha study classes, during which members dive deep into learning the beauty of Torah and share their unique and inspiring takes on the week’s Parasha. And Ammud’s rabbis are available as needed to the Ammud JoC community, whether to study a Jewish text more in-depth, for support on navigating life cycle events, to discuss a path to the rabbinate; or for guidance through personal challenges.

When Jews of Color enter Ammud, they know they’re in a space designed to make them feel beloved, in which there is no limit to where their Jewish education can go.

I’ve had such beautiful experiences with Lomdim courses I’ve taken with Ammud, and feel so affirmed in my Judaism as a result. Everyone from the teachers to the Ammud staff to fellow classmates have taught me how vital the Torah of Jews of Color is. For the first time, I feel like Judaism has reached my actual cells, rather than remaining mostly in my head. When I think about how grateful I am that this space and all of the people in it exist, I am humbled. Thanks to Ammud, I’ve made some precious new friendships and reinvented Jewish rituals that I will treasure forever.
—Kristin Eriko Posner (she/her)

Ammud is working toward its vision with long-term plans to invest in its teachers and their growth through professional development. Many Ammud teachers say the opportunity to teach their Torah to other Jews of Color gives them the comfortable space they need to become leaders in Jewish education. And many Ammud members say their learning experiences prepare them to go back into the larger Jewish community with strength and resilience. With this approach—and subsequent impact—Ammud ensures that Jews of Color are present in wider Jewish communities, particularly in the Jewish professional world.

Although I have taught in a variety of Jewish settings, teaching for Ammud was a uniquely rewarding experience. Not only did I feel more comfortable as a teacher, I also knew that Ammud’s by-JOC, for-JOC approach made it possible for me to share Torah with Jews who might not feel welcome in other Jewish learning spaces.
—Daniel Delgado (he/him), ALEPH Ordination Program rabbinic student, Earth-based Judaism track

Building on its early success, Ammud looks to double its program offerings over the next year to increase engagement, while laying the foundation for even greater scale in years to come. In Ammud’s dynamic space, more Jews of Color will be able to study the depths of Torah, become Hebrew experts, and fulfill their Jewish educational goals.

Learn more at ammud.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Ammud.