News & Blogs Category: Featured Partner

When people study Torah together in groups, they build powerful, lasting social bonds. That’s the premise of IYUN, a new(ish) project that helps educators, lay leaders, and organizations build and lead multi-week Torah learning circles. IYUN’s curricula are not just a sheet of sources, but rather a highly choreographed, step-by-step model to run a successful multi-week cohort experience for 8-20 adults through a specific educational arc. While experts and rabbis are more accessible than ever through online lectures and public events, IYUN focuses as much on the social design as it does on the Torah content to build a highly connected chevra of people who “share their lives together, knowing that we’re all in the same boat out here, and we need to show up for each other if we’re ever going to reach land (just ask Noah).”

This has been an incredibly enriching and wonderful experience for me. I’ve made so many new friends and we’ve bonded in a way few groups do (in my experience). I’ve loved expanding my Jewish knowledge, gleaned not only from the texts–loved those–but also from my fellow learners. We each are so different, but together we grew so fond of each other and created a Jewish group consciousness. I really looked forward to our sessions each week not only for the learning but to see my new friends again!
– IYUN participant 

Adults need the space and “the right folk” to have big conversations together. This is especially true during liminal life moments, when people often engage with IYUN as they are searching, exploring, and seeking meaningful connections. The years when someone leaves their childhood home, for example, but before they set down roots in a new family home, are opportune times to encounter deep jewish living.

Whether partnering with congregations, individuals, JCCs, Moishe Houses, and beyond, IYUN helps leaders each step of the way as they craft their multi-week Torah learning cohort—from curricular content, participant recruitment, marketing materials, group dynamics, teacher training, and ongoing Help Desk support. IYUN staff teach educators how to prepare and successfully execute each session and are always available to troubleshoot, answer questions, listen, and support group leaders quickly and in real time. With this support, IYUN’s facilitators “know how to read a room and get people talking.”

Somewhere in the whirlwind that is this COVID pandemic, I started running out of steam as an educator. No matter how interesting I thought the topics were, my lesson plans began to feel a bit stale. The IYUN program and their team of educators saved me from this difficulty… Thanks to IYUN’s onboarding process and educator training, something magical happened when I began teaching their material to my students. They reminded me that I was not teaching alone… The joy of Jewish learning is that it can be experienced in dialogue, in argument, in community. Being a part of IYUN reminded me of this joy.  Anyone who teaches is never alone. We are connected to those who taught, those who teach, and those who will teach. IYUN rekindled a spark that was dwindling a bit within me.
– Rabbi Jason Bonder, Congregation Beth Or

In just its first year, IYUN engaged over 1,000 adult learners in more than 70 learning circles. This coincided with the pandemic where more Jews asked big questions about their life and purpose, as they sought meaning, community, and connection. Building on the project’s initial success, IYUN’s leaders, Rabbi Daniel Smokler and Erica Frankel, see a unique opening to engage many thousands of adults in big conversations through Torah. This opportunity they say is due in part to the fruits of decades of outstanding work in Jewish education, making the case in thought and practice for the importance of widespread Torah study. Their previous work growing Hillel’s Jewish Learning Fellowship—now on 200+ campuses with over 20,000 alumni—demonstrates that Torah study, once an afterthought among Jewish college students, is an integral part of the Hillel experience. Those college alumni are the adults now ready to lead and engage in Jewish communal life. And IYUN’s leaders are capitalizing on a chance—perhaps once in a generation or more—to reach beyond those who are currently studying and immediately adjacent to the next levels of Jewish life. With this approach, more adults at inflection points will experience new friendships, meaningful space for thought and reflections, and will develop a lasting love engagement with Torah and Jewish life.  

Big Questions Bring Us Together
“Everyone’s welcome, everything’s on the table.” In the rapidly growing IYUN community of practice, educators share hard-fought operational intelligence, commiseration, celebration, and opportunities. IYUN welcomes more congregations, groups of friends, boards, school leaders, JCCs, federations, or giving circles into its community.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of IYUN. Learn more at iyun.us.

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

May’s Mental Health Awareness Month spotlights the challenge that Jewish educators, engagers, and leaders experience year-round: the growing youth mental health crisis. More than ever, these professionals are called on to identify youth who may be struggling, hold challenging conversations, provide support and, if needed, to help connect youth and young adults to proper care. 

Since 2019, the Resiliency Roundtable has brought together professionals from nearly 50 organizations—including BBYO, Hillel, OneTable, PJ Library, Moishe House, and staff at Federations around the country. These organizations and a growing list of dozens of others work with clinicians in Jewish settings to understand the issues young people confront and to support each other in these efforts. Ultimately, this endeavor strengthens the Jewish community’s ability to provide developmentally and culturally-appropriate care and build resilience among young people.

Through the Roundtable, leaders meet regularly to share best practices, problem-solve, and collaborate. They create resources that draw on Jewish wisdom to promote well-being and healthy environments, addressing issues such as addiction and substance use disorders, controlling behaviors, body image, issues of suicidality, creating physically and psychologically safe spaces, how antisemitism, impacts mental health, coping with failure in high performing communities. By their actions, the professionals in the Roundtable have helped prove that Jewish engagement and experiences can be a powerful tool for building resilience. To date, hundreds of professionals have been trained and positively influence youth and young adults every day. Organizations can learn more about joining the Roundtable here.

I feel like definitely more people are coming out and asking for help, but at the same time, being a little more scared to. In quarantine, we had a lot of time to ourselves. A lot of people had time to think and were stuck in their thoughts. We have school guidance counselors, and the rate of people going to these counselors and seeking help has gone up tremendously…Having a friend to talk to is amazing, but you can’t do nearly as much as someone who is a licensed professional.
– Carly LaKind, Jewish Teen Initiative Peer Wellness Fellows from Swampscott 

In an uncertain world, amplified by two years of collective trauma, young people face increasing levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. They often turn to friends first when they are struggling, but not everyone is properly equipped to respond. In addition to trainings the Roundtable offers to Jewish professionals, it also offers teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) trainings through its trusted partner, National Council for Mental Wellbeing. These trainings teach teens how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among their friends and peers. By the end of 2022, the Roundtable will train hundreds of teens in these skills.

If mental health becomes less of a stigma and more of an accepted social concept, and if teens can help their friends, our society will become a better place. We tell students they are not therapists or social workers, but we give them the tools to help someone find the people and places where they can have safe conversations.
– Jillian Feiger, Director of Jewish Student Connection, who led a Teen Peer-to-Peer Mental Health First-Aid Certification Training in Colorado, run in partnership with the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Collaborative powered by Jewish Federations of North America.

The Resiliency Roundtable is a strategic pillar of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)’s new BeWell initiative , in partnership with the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, the leading voice for the Jewish human service sector and association of 150 nonprofits. This unique and strategic partnership is helping youth and communities across the U.S. draw on Jewish tradition to strengthen their resiliency, develop the emotional literacy to support friends, and form positive relationships.

JFNA’s leadership with the BeWell initiative and this partnership gives Jewish professionals and organizations around the country access to BeWell’s consulting, skills-based trainings, education workshops, resiliency-building programs, and grant funding. Through these services, BeWell aims to help educate, prepare, and support people who are seeking or providing mental health care for teens and young adults. BeWell’s grant recipients will include local and national organizations who will be connected to the Resiliency Roundtable and each other so they can benefit from collective research and best practices.

By both bringing professionals together through the Resiliency Roundtable and expanding resources and support through BeWell, JFNA’s strategy reflects the community’s need and the opportunity at hand. When young people develop a strong sense of self, they will be better able to build a more compassionate world. Jewish organizations, culture, and traditions have the power to elevate their lives and deepen their connections to each other and the Jewish community.

Learn more at jewishtogether.org/bewell and get your resources for May’s Mental Health Awareness Month and the entire year. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Resiliency Roundtable and the larger BeWell Initiative. For more information please contact [email protected].

Rabbi Passow shaped my life at Harvard Hillel. From his brilliant divrei torah to his all-inclusive meals, he focuses on each individual while creating a wholesome community around them.
-Joe Hostyk, Cambridge, MA

Two years ago, YCT (Yeshivat Chovevei Torah) recognized that while the world had changed dramatically in the last 20 years, its mission—to train and ordain Modern Orthodox rabbis—had remained the same.  A new vision, and a new business and strategic plan, would be necessary if the institution was to remain at the cutting edge of its field.

At the heart of YCT’s rabbinical school was a distinctive talent for training mission-driven Jewish leaders, a vision for creating diverse and welcoming communities, and a belief that a Torah deeply anchored in the past can and must speak to who and where Jewish people are today. A four-year ordination program is one way to bring such leaders and Torah to the Modern Orthodox and larger Jewish community, but YCT recognizes that it is not the only way. 

While still centered around its rabbinical school, the institution now defines itself in broader terms; it is a source of “Vibrant Torah Leadership” and is known simply as “YCT,” or “Chovevei.” This new identity—internally dubbed “YCT 2.0”—is reflected in a range of initiatives designed to expand its impact and engage new audiences:

YCT’s Jewel (Jewish Leaders and Educators) Certificate Program focuses on non-rabbis, providing one year of immersive Torah learning and preeminent professional and pastoral training for individuals committed to serving at least one year in a Jewish professional capacity. This fully-funded program seeks to create empowered Jewish leaders who are confident in their Torah and professional skills and active listeners with an approachable, pastoral presence. Graduates of the program have access to job opportunities and professional connections through the YCT alumni network. YCT believes that Jewel will inspire more people to enter careers in Jewish communal service and maximize their future impact.

YCT’s competitive Zakkai Fellowship for Rabbinic Innovation provides mentorship and matching grants to spur innovative programming among its 150 alumni, expanding the impact and reach of its rabbis and of YCT’s religious and communal vision. With these supports and encouragement, YCT alumni can face new challenges and serve a broader, more diverse community outside of Orthodox congregational walls.

Recognizing the success of its rabbis in both pulpit and non-pulpit positions, and the growing need for rabbis in a range of roles, YCT also collaborated with Clal’s LTI program to provide students with training in innovative leadership and community building. More broadly, YCT shifted much of its professional training from the classroom to in-service, field-based, mentored training, individualized to the student’s needs and talents.

Going beyond the borders of North America, YCT’s highly successful, Israel-based Rikmah (Hebrew for “tapestry”) program brings YCT’s signature training and Torah to Israeli rabbis in the field. Rather than focusing on rabbinic skills, the program emphasizes rabbinic identity. Participants meet with religious leaders ranging from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem to the rabbi of one of the largest Reform synagogues in the U.S. Starting with its third cohort, which began just a few months ago, YCT has brought on Maharat as a partnering institution to train both women and men in rabbinic capacities in Israel.

Within these programs and others, YCT develops leaders who can address issues vital to daily life, such as climate change and advocacy for and modeling of disabilities accommodation. As just one example, all of YCT’s public programming has live closed captioning and ASL interpretation, and soon it will publish a resource book and practical guide for those seeking to do the same. YCT plans to play a similar leadership and advocacy role in the area of social-emotional disabilities as well.

With its new program offerings, committed alumni, and vast resources, YCT is poised for continued growth and deeper impact in communities across the country and in Israel.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of YCT.  The growth and expansion detailed above has also been made possible through the generous support of the Aviv Foundation, Micah Philanthropies, Maimonides Fund, and Preside. Learn more at yctorah.org

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.

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. 

“I felt connected and at home. It was a massive relief—I have actually spent the years since smicha without a spiritual Jewish community that felt like my home, separate from anywhere I was serving as a leader. Jewish Studio Project spoke my spiritual language.”
– Participant in Jewish Studio Project’s Sunday Studio Immersive

Jewish Studio Project (JSP) believes that creativity is the best tool for exploring, adapting, and coming up with new ways to thrive in an ever-changing world. Since 2015, JSP has become a leading resource for creative learning and spiritual connection across the country. Through its immersive experiences, creative facilitator trainings, professional development partnerships and community programming, JSP has served over 15,000 participants and collaborated with over 100 organizations seeking creative approaches to Jewish engagement.

“This course was even better than I expected and rather than a course that promotes art as just a “feel-good” or meditative activity, I felt really connected to my work at Hillel and in the Jewish world. Not only did this content give me student programming ideas, it also made me reflect on how I work.”
-Participant in JSP’s track at Hillel International’s virtual Dwell conference

Amid times of challenge and uncertainty, JSP’s collaborations with individuals, organizations, and communities across the country invite and inspire people to “make art about it.” Whether the “it” is  grief, bewilderment, fracture, or feelings of uncertainty, JSP provides sacred spaces in which new stories, prophetic imagination, and hope-filled possibilities can emerge. More than ever, individuals and organizations need tools and support to navigate the uncertainty of the moment and imagine a better future. In the midst of a pandemic, JSP digs deep into the wellspring of collective creativity to bring about profound shifts in the way people live, work and connect as a community and broader society.

These efforts are guided by the Jewish Studio Process, a unique methodology that combines creative practices from the field of art therapy with Jewish learning techniques and spiritual community building. For nearly six thousand years, our ancestors honored creativity as a sacred undertaking, interpreting and reinterpreting scripture not only so that the text might speak to the challenges and needs of their times, but itself as a spiritual practice to cultivating creative habits of mind. JSP combines this creative process inherited from Jewish traditions with the creative process of art-making from the field of art therapy to create a vital new pathway into Judaism, social change, and into each person’s own soul. Individuals and teams are empowered to activate their imagination and bring emotions and intuition into their engagement with Jewish life. The outcome is an ever-more resilient and resourced people, able to continually reimagine lives and recreate the future.

“This program helped me to grapple with and release many of the pressures and difficulties I was experiencing during this last year. From Covid, housemates to racism and worldly horrors. This was a creative release and processing of emotions, difficulties and trauma. I loved the concepts, the writing and I really loved the reflections on our work.”
– Participant in JSP’s Creative Resilience Program, a three month immersive professional development cohort for young adult professionals in the Bay Area

Now in its seventh year, aligned with this year of shmita (of rest and release), JSP dove deep into an intensive strategic planning journey – “Immersing to Emerge Anew” – to chart JSP’s next chapter. JSP has a bold plan for the next three years that is “courageous, inspiring and achievable,” centered around four key focus areas: thought leadership, creative practice, network building, and R&D. As the organization begins this exciting new chapter, JSP is poised to engage far more people and inspire networks, helping them connect deep Jewish experiences with the power of creativity as a vital resource for social transformation.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Jewish Studio Project. Learn more at jewishstudioproject.org.

Thirteen years ago, The iCenter was established to create a professional field of Israel education. The organization has led and innovated the field from its earliest stages to what it is today: one rich with opportunities for learners and educators alike. Guiding its efforts is the vision that every Jewish child develop a rich and lasting relationship with Israel and Israelis.

Initially, The iCenter convened leading thinkers and practitioners to discuss and frame the ideas that would animate its work moving forward. The result was the Aleph Bet of Israel Education, which has become the conceptual foundation of The iCenter’s approach and, as a result, has shaped the field.

We’re at an inflection point as to how American Jews are looking at Israel, and we need to find new ways to engage them because the old ways don’t work. The iCenter has articulated different modalities in Israel engagement that I want to try and adopt in my community.
– Peter Eckstein, VP at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County and a member of Cohort 2 of the Graduate Degree in Israel Education in partnership with the George Washington University

Today, the landscape has shifted considerably. Israel education has moved from the margins to the center, with local and national organizations prioritizing it. To support this growth, The iCenter provides a dynamic pipeline of professional certificate and academic degree programs that reach educators and leadership representing day schools, synagogues, camps, youth movements, college campuses, JCCs, federations, Birthright Israel, RootOne, and more. These programs include the Graduate Degree in Israel Education in partnership with the George Washington University, the iFellows: Master’s Concentration in Israel Education, and the Professional Certificate in Experiential Israel Education.

A Relational Approach
Key to The iCenter’s relational approach to Israel education is mutual experiences between North American Jews and Israelis. By including Israeli participants in each of its programs, The iCenter provides opportunities not only to learn about and experience Israel, but for participants to learn together and from one another.

On The iCenter program, I met North American participants. It was amazing meeting great people and finding out that we have something in our soul that connects us together. My Jewish life here in Israel is very different from a Jewish life anywhere in North America. I know that for my children, North American Jewry won’t be so far away.
– Gal Hahmon, iFellow

Conflict Education
The iCenter continually develops new frameworks such as its current work in the area of conflict education. Learning from practices in other disciplines dedicated to navigating complexities, and from voices in the field, The iCenter helps learners navigate the ever-more polarized political environment while maintaining and growing their commitment to Israel. In the coming weeks, The iCenter will convene leading experts in the field to further evaluate the most recent challenges and continue to develop its new initiatives in the area of conflict education.

Where Israel and Education Meet
The iCenter continues to grow, develop, and advance the field of Israel education through its commitment to dynamic educational practices, by developing a field of credentialed educators, and by the constant of innovative ideas ready to meet the newest emerging challenges and opportunities. The iCenter is where great minds in Israel studies, experiential education, and conflict education meet to develop the tools for nurturing a meaningful relationship between the next generation of North American Jews and the people, land, and State of Israel.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of The iCenter. Visit theicenter.org to learn more.

Adolescence can be a fraught stage of life for many families, and even more so now. The opportunity is ripe for a new timeframe and approach to Jewish family education. To strengthen Jewish families and Jewish life, family education in the preteen years needs to become as normalized as family education for preschoolers.
– Deborah S. Meyer, Moving Traditions Founder and CEO

Preteens—and by extension, their parents—face unique challenges and opportunities today from omnipresent technology and new ideas about gender, sexuality, race, and other layers of identity. To help meet the changing needs of Jewish preteens and parents, Moving Traditions invites the Jewish community to embrace a new approach for family education through its new white paper, Family Education @ B-Mitzvah. This endeavor builds on Moving Traditions’ efforts to inspire Jewish youth of all genders to pursue personal wholeness, healthy relationships, and a just and inclusive world

During the pandemic more parents participated in Jewish education with their preteens and many of them have asked me to continue to do family education this way in the coming year.
– Rabbi Matt Shapiro, Los Angeles

The B-Mitzvah Family Education Program is based on a SEL-model of Jewish family education that balances preteen self-reflection and peer discussion with parent-child explorations of family dynamics and Jewish ethics, both within private conversations and in a communal setting. Evaluation research found that, for program participants:

1. Jewish wisdom speaks to families in this life stage:
Preteens and parents find relevance and meaning in experiences integrating Jewish teachings with secular wisdom on social-emotional learning and human development.

2. Hevruta can bring value to parents and children:
Preteens and parents value the opportunity to be in meaningful dialogue with each other, drawing on Jewish and secular wisdom about issues of concern to them at this new stage of life, as children become teens.

3. Jewish community can be experienced by families as relevant and meaningful:
By effectively addressing the joys and challenges of preteens and parents, clergy and Jewish educators demonstrate to families that Jewish community is a place for support and connection.

Moving Traditions was created with the understanding that Jewish people and practice will thrive as Judaism continues to evolve—as it always has—to meet the changing needs of Jewish people. Since the B-Mitzvah Program was initially launched, Moving Tradition has touched the lives of 13,409 preteen and parents.

It was nice having something that gave preteens and parents an opportunity to think about what it means to be a part of the Jewish community, particularly when everything has been virtual.
– Parent

Family Education @ B-Mitzvah shares key findings from the pilot phase of Moving Traditions B-Mitzvah Family Education program in partnership with 110 organizational partners, and includes a call to action informed by Moving Traditions’ recent convening of 50 leading scholars, Jewish educators, activists, and funders. Moving Traditions has adopted the term “b-mitzvah” in place of “b’nai mitzvah” in recognition of trends in gender fluidity. With these findings, and after more than 17 months of the pandemic, Moving Traditions feels even more urgency to develop this new frame of Jewish family education for preteen families.

Please join Moving Traditions and a growing community of academics, educators, activists, and funders in developing this new framework of preteen Jewish family education. Together we will create Jewish experiences where preteens and their families can learn, explore, and feel more connected to each other, and to Jewish life.

As with the organization’s Teen Groups, the B-Mitzvah Program is implemented mostly in partnership with synagogues and other organizations, and the curriculum reflects their input and creativity. View Family Education @ B-Mitzvah.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Moving Traditions

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

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:

• Video and Media:  an ever-growing and wide variety of Jewish arts and media projects made by members of the Reboot Network, like Plastover, Silver Screen Studios, Reboot Podcasts, What Would You Bring? and more.

• Holiday Rebooting: a permanent home for stalwart Reboot digital events and holiday resources like Dawn and 10Q, and recent live events like Saturday Night Seder, Higher Holidays, Give Light.  

• Lifecycle Rebooting: reimaginings and creative resources for life’s milestones, such as Death Over Dinner – Jewish Edition, andreBar.

• 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.

• Recordings and Audio: hub for new Jewish soundtracks for modern life, including the Idelsohn Society and a rescore of the iconic films Ten Commandments and Golem.

• 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.

A second round of the National Jewish Educator Census conducted by CASJE at George Washington University is an opportunity to learn more about the size of and changes to the Jewish education workforce in 2021, collect more demographic data about Jewish educators, and refine the research team’s methods and estimates.

If your Jewish educational organization was not included in the 2020 Census please complete this Contact Information Form.

Results from the first year of the census provides an estimate of the number of Jewish educators across multiple sectors of American Jewish life, changes to the workforce due to Covid 19, and other information that will help leaders and stakeholders in Jewish education understand the state of the field as they prepare for a post-Covid world.

The CASJE Census is the first extensive data collection of its kind, and we took it out of the ivy tower into the real world. We created enthusiasm and recruited participation during a very strenuous time for everyone. Even during the pandemic, we partnered with many Jewish educator sectors and affiliations who understood the importance of collecting these data. Now, we know more about the size of the field and the changes that occurred during the pandemic. We look forward to learning more in the 2021 round of the CASJE Census and using the data to inform the field. – Dr. Ariela Greenberg, founder of The Greenberg Team and lead researcher for the Census

CASJE (Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) is an evolving community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders dedicated to improving the quality of knowledge that can be used to guide the work of Jewish Education. The Census is part of the CASJE Career Trajectories Study, a multi-year, national research effort addressing the recruitment, retention, and development of educators working in Jewish settings in North America. Ensuring that a strong and high-quality pipeline of educators exists is one of CASJE’s primary objectives.

Census Year 1 Key Findings:

In the early months of the Covid pandemic (March – September 2020) the overall size of the Jewish education workforce shrank. In this period, layoffs affected up to 11% of all roles; furloughs affected up to 9% of all roles. We estimate that the largest numbers of layoffs and furloughs were in camping and the Jewish early childhood workforce.

• In the Jewish community in 2019, as many as 71,000 Jewish educators filled over 93,000 educational positions.
• In the Jewish community in 2019, we estimate there were 28,483 full-time roles; 26,681 part-time roles; 38,624 seasonal roles
• Camps, day schools and yeshivas, supplementary schools, and early childhood programs had the most positions for Jewish educators, including full-time, part-time and seasonal positions in 2019.
• Day schools and yeshivas offered the most full-time positions for Jewish educators, followed by early childhood, camp and supplementary schools in 2019.

The success of Jewish educational programs depends, in large part, on the expertise, talent, and professionalism of the Jewish education workforce. Our field needs to know who Jewish educators are and what they need to succeed in their work. Then, organizations will be able to design training and support programs to help educators effectively and meaningfully engage with their learners. – Dr. Arielle Levites, managing director of CASJE.

CASJE’s multi-year research project examining the career trajectories of Jewish educators is generously funded by the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation.

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.

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.

Amidst a hyper-polarized, often heated environment of public discourse, Resetting the Table (RTT) helps communities “go toward the heat” and engage people in constructive conversations through highly skilled facilitators and trainers. In 2020, with a national election, the movement for racial justice, Israel’s shifting landscape, and a pandemic, RTT expanded to train even more Jewish professionals to navigate challenging conversations through meaningful dialogue.

As the pandemic began, RTT quickly adapted to offer shorter virtual professional development trainings and coaching to communities and organizations around the country. Whether an organization focuses on Israel engagement, young adults, campus, teens, the innovation sector, or other spaces, leaders learn how to integrate RTT’s tools and skills into their existing work:

Our teens are craving this type of engagement. They are watching a world that does not know how to listen, communicate, or interact in a way that is not polarized. The majority of their political experiences have been in this divisive and turbulent landscape. They are a generation that is told it’s up to them and that their voices matter. I see that they want to do better, and they want to be engaged in this work. I think offering this training to both the teens and the adults who are advising and mentoring them has the potential to create sustainable and tangible change, not just in the Jewish landscape but in their overall leadership and character development. … this class was a huge success and just highlighted that we have an opportunity to provide a skill set, through a Jewish lens, that these teens are craving.
– Rachel Dingman, Director of Jewish Enrichment, BBYO

As the leading innovator supporting thousands of Jewish leaders to speak about and facilitate conversations around charged issues, RTT’s work in the Jewish community focuses in four primary areas:

1. Training Jewish professionals in tools to facilitate and convene conversation and learning across divides in Jewish and in American life,
2. Partnership with central agencies to multiply discussion and inquiry on charged political issues across a range of ages, backgrounds, perspectives, and communities,
3. Detoxifying the Israel climate on college campuses by providing programs and training for student leaders and Hillel staff, and
4. Providing targeted trainings, workshops, and forums for community leaders and members.

Already this program year, RTT has drawn on its expertise in mediation and facilitation to train teams from BBYO, Hillel U, Maccabee Task Force, Gather DC, Revolve, Mishkan, the Mandel Executive Leadership Program, Honeymoon Israel, several individual Hillels and Day Schools, and more. Critically, RTT does this work on a large scale, having already directly reached more than 34,000 participants, many of them Federation CEOs, rabbis, Hillel professionals and others positioned to make far-reaching culture change and indirectly impact tens of thousands more. They collaborate with hundreds of Jewish organizations, including 85+ college campuses, 25 Federations, and hundreds of synagogues, JCCs, and other Jewish organizations.

This was a truly mind-blowing session and left me thinking about all of my previous conversations…. I think this will really elevate my one-on-one engagement skills as well as help build a foundation for eventual facilitation…. I am truly grateful for all of the facilitators and their patience as they taught us the skills and reshaped how we view conversations with our community members.
– Alexis Fosco, Community Coordinator, Gather DC

Resetting the Table is positioned to continue to build the American Jewish community’s capacity to learn, speak, and deliberate across differences. They are meeting a significant hunger, including among young Jews whose previous disengagement arose less from “apathy” than from the sense that “there is no room” for the welcoming, multi-vocal inquiry and discussion across difference they desire. The result of these dedicated efforts is a novel conceptual framework, core set of effective strategies, and nascent field of skilled practitioners for building courageous and constructive communication across divides.

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Resetting the Table’s educator training as part of the Foundation’s strategy to invest in professional development in the field. Learn more at ResettingTheTable.org.