Elevating Reboot’s Work Redesigning the Jewish Experience

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

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

 

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

Reboot Tashlich

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

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

Check out Rebooting.com to experience:

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

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Reboot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CASJE Now Conducting National Jewish Educator Census

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.

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

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

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

Share your materials HERE.

Jewish community

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resetting the Table Expands Efforts to Create Meaningful Dialogue

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.

 

 

Jews of Color Initiative: Next Steps for Count Me In Research

When the Jews of Color Initiative (JoCI) launched its Count Me In survey earlier this year to learn about Jews’ of Color experiences in Jewish life, the goal was to garner 1,000 respondents. Having surpassed that goal with 1,029 Jews of Color (JoC) completing the survey, the study’s research team housed at Stanford University is now combing through the responses. Later this summer, the JoCI will work in partnership with other JoC leaders nationwide to share the findings and to advocate for changes in the Jewish community.

Beyond the unprecedented nature of the study, which has created the largest dataset of Jews of Color in the U.S., the multiracial research team is a model for successful collaboration across diverse areas of specialization and research methods. To construct a survey that reflected not just the ideas of the research team but of the larger Jews of Color community, the team first held approximately 30 interviews with Jews of Color to determine common themes and questions that arise directly from the community.

“Surveys are only as good as the questions you know how to ask,” said lead researcher Dr. Tobin Belzer. After analyzing the content of these 30 interviews, the research team created the Count Me In survey with the consultation of a research advisory committee of JoC leaders and stakeholders. Key questions considered during this process, and that the Count Me In survey asks, include:

  • How does the diversity of JoCs think about Jewish identity?
  • How do JoCs self-identify?
  • What have been JoCs experiences in Jewish communities–both terrible and wonderful?
  • How has systemic racism affected JoCs in Jewish spaces? 
  • How can the Jewish community better embody the range of experiences and identities of all people so all Jews see ourselves in Klal Yisrael?

For Jews of Color, many of us have been on the margins in mainstream Jewish institutions. This study aims to better understand stories and experiences about the intersection of racialization and Jewish life for Jews of Color. This work has never been more crucial and timely. To Jews of Color, we say that it is time for visibility, for voice, and for data–for us and by us.
– Dr. Dalya Perez, critical race theorist and equity strategist for Microsoft, who is a Jew of Color on the study’s research team

Once the research team analyzes all the responses, they will conduct another round of interviews to deepen their understandings of participants’ experiences. This type of multi-step research helps studies represent a wide spectrum of perspectives—captured by surveys—as well as the depth of lived experiences—captured by interviews.

The Count Me In research team is led by Dr. Tobin Belzer, Contributing Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at University of Southern California, and includes Dr. Ari Y Kelman, Jim Joseph Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at Stanford; Dr. Dalya Perez, critical race theorist and equity strategist for Microsoft; Dr. Gage Gorsky, PhD in measurements and statistics in education from the University of Washington; Tory Brundage a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, and Vincent Calvetti, a doctoral student at the University of Washington.

To stay up-to-date with Count Me In, visit Jewsofcolorinitiative.org.

 

Maharat: Graduates Meeting the Moment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hadar Institute – Strategic Planning During a Pandemic

As the Hadar Institute rapidly responded to offer new digital Jewish learning and engagement in 2020, behind the scenes it was conducting a major strategic planning process. Always an important undertaking, developing a strategic plan during a pandemic was both uniquely challenging and one that offered unexpected opportunities. While the pandemic presented unprecedented obstacles, the strategic planning process provided a sense of grounding and the ability to look toward the future in an otherwise difficult time.

The future Hadar envisions is not limited by the current reality. But Hadar took learnings from experiments during the pandemic and incorporated those into their plan. Hadar’s leadership tried new ways of learning they never would have imagined possible before, such as digital education offerings on such a large scale, and new formats for learning, such as digital cohorts.

Hadar Jewish EducationFor example, the ubiquity of online learning in 2020 enabled Hadar to broaden its understanding of who they might teach beyond young adults. In a two-month period of online learning, Hadar taught as many people as it typically teaches in person over an 8 month period. More than 40 percent of those people were new users to Hadar. This expanded reach continued beyond the first few months of the pandemic: Hadar welcomed 30,000 participants to more than 800 class sessions since March. Thus, Hadar recognized that online learning had to become a mainstay and an integrated part of their plan.

Project Zug [Hadar’s online 1-1 learning platform] offers an easy on-ramp to making Torah learning a regular practice in people’s lives. It has certainly become part of my life! – 2020 Project Zug Participant

During the pandemic, Hadar also capitalized on years of investment in the children and families space through Pedagogy of Partnership (PoP), among other initiatives, to run new experimental learning opportunities for this demographic. Hadar’s Mishnah club began in mid-March and a grandparents and grandchildren learning event later in the year enabled Hadar to reach children and parents directly. These innovations and others were so successful that Hadar launched a new Children’s and Families Department. The strategic planning process underway as these experiments occurred enabled Hadar to concretize its vision for this department moving forward.

Hadar was my introduction to Jewish life and thought. It was the first place I had role models for how to live a deeply committed, gender-egalitarian life, and has helped me to develop a deep identification with the Jewish tradition. – Yeshivat Hadar Alum

Along with these learnings, the organization’s growth from the first strategic plan led to mergers and acquisitions of different programs—Hadar Students Learningincluding the Maimonides Moot Court Competition, the JJ Greenberg Institute, Project Zug and Pedagogy of Partnership—that help chart an ambitious and exciting path forward. This path encompasses five goals over the next four years, which Hadar details in its plan:

  1. Vibrant Center: Strengthen our immersive learning center (yeshiva) to fully anchor all parts of our vision.
  2. Lived Judaism: Enable Jews to meaningfully explore and sustainably live out Hadar’s holistic vision of Jewish practice.
  3. Meaningful Torah: Maximize the impact of Hadar’s Torah by reaching more people in more ways through meaningful content.
  4. Our Work in Israel: Enhance the visibility, vitality and acceptance of Hadar’s model in mainstream Israeli society.
  5. Organizational Capacity: Build the organizational capacity, structure and foundation to achieve and uphold Hadar’s goals.

View Hadar Institute’s Strategic Plan at Hadar.org/plan. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Hadar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jewish Educator Portal Offers Resources and Community

Thousands of educators are turning to The Jewish Educator Portal–a dynamic, growing, virtual community that helps them find relevant resources, share them among each other, enhance skills and knowledge through professional development, and positively influence the lives of tens of thousands of learners. Launched by The Jewish Education Project as the school year began, the Portal offers a wide range of resources–including timely offerings on Civic Education and Engagement in Jewish Education and Surviving and Thriving Through Civic and Civil Engagement, classroom mental health resources, support for digital learning, and so much more.

In the midst of the busy school year, I need to quickly be able to find the right programs and resources for my teaching style and students. The Portal will elevate all educators and will be a hub that enables us to help each other. – Ora Bayewitz-Meier, English Teacher and Director of Chesed Programming, SAR High School

Portal features support teachers who are teaching virtually, in-person, or any hybrid model, and are updated frequently. To get the most out of these resources, educators register in the Portal and create their own profile. This enables educators to save and share these and thousands of other resources in a personal library, explore professional development opportunities, and connect with Jewish professionals around the world.

Since the spring, The Jewish Education Project’s efforts provided resources and programs to help more than 10,000 educators adapt to a new virtual environment. And the Portal builds on its decade-long efforts to spearhead digital initiatives pushing the field to embrace new technologies and new ways of thinking. As an outgrowth of that, the Portal is designed for Jewish educators who work in various Jewish educational settings—including day schools, congregational schools, early childhood settings, youth serving organizations, residential and day summer camps, and Israel and other travel experiences. While The Jewish Education Project runs the Portal, it includes educator resources, professional development opportunities, and other program offerings from organizations around the country that support Jewish education. 

The new Jewish Educator Portal is an amazing tool for me and my colleagues to explore and share quality educational resources. The site is user-friendly and straightforward, and the content is relevant and timely.
-Dina Newman, Associate Director of Youth & Teen Engagement, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, New York City

Educators can create their Portal profile at educator.jewishedproject.org and can access timely resources on civic education here.

Initial support for The Jewish Educator Portal was provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Maimonides Fund through the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF), and The GS Humane Corp.

Jewish New Teacher Project Continues to Support Teachers and Elevate Jewish Education

My JNTP mentor has stood by me through all the ups and downs of my first year of teaching; consistently observing my class in action and being available to discuss it with me in a non-threatening, non-judgmental setting…This has allowed me to explore many sensitive areas of my teaching career and therefore grow in an immeasurable way.
Raizy Muller, Educator, Torah Day School of Dallas; Dallas, TX

Mentoring and training programs are hallmarks of the Jewish New Teacher Project’s (JNTP) efforts to support new and veteran day school teachers in Jewish and general studies. JNTP, a division of the internationally recognized New Teacher Center, has worked with more than 1,350 new educators across North America, helping close to 200 schools achieve teaching excellence by utilizing the New Teacher Center’s proven model of new teacher support to dramatically improve new teacher effectiveness, teacher retention and school culture. JNTP-trained mentors—574 in total—support new teachers through weekly meetings, classroom observations, and by using data to inform instruction. More than 20,000 students per year have a teacher trained by JNTP. And now more than ever, JNTP’s efforts reflect a holistic approach, with resources, webinars, and communities of support that focus both on teaching strategies and approaches and on teachers’ wellbeing and mental health.

As more teachers were trained, both as mentors and as beginning teachers…the schools themselves, as a whole, were lifted and transformed into more thoughtful, collaborative, purposeful, and ethical workplaces and learning institutions.
– Rabbi Dr. Steven Lorch, Head of School, Kadima Day School; Los Angeles, CA

JNTP shifted rapidly to meet the needs of this unprecedented moment—and is positioned for myriad scenarios moving forward. JNTP Virtual Mentors can support teachers in any day school across the country and JNTP’s program team has reworked its in-person content for digital platforms that include both synchronous and asynchronous work.

Regardless of the delivery method, JNTP’s resources and best practices are based on almost 20 years of experience and evidence-based insights. Its community and school partnerships have long-term, whole-school impact that build capacity and elevate the entire day school field. In the past five years, 86% of all new teachers supported by JNTP-trained mentors are still in the field of Jewish education. The demand for JNTP’s efforts remains high: JNTP is partnering with 63 schools in 13 states plus Washington, D.C. to train 94 veteran teacher mentors to support 121 beginning teachers through their first two years in the profession. In addition, we are coaching 31 early-career administrators in 25 schools as part of our Administrator Support Program Programs at this time.

JNTP’s model was adapted from the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz, California, which trains veteran teachers to provide two years of intensive mentoring to support new teachers in public schools across the country. JNTP’s efforts elevate teaching and learning in the world of Jewish education and enable schools to have more effective educators and school leaders positioned to help every student meet their potential.

 

 

(bottom photo courtesy of Chana Tzirel Fox)

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of JNTP.

UpStart – Bringing Bold Jewish Ideas to Light

For nearly two decades, UpStart’s team has been facilitating programs for bold leaders from all areas of Jewish life who, now more than ever, need to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to their work. When COVID hit, UpStart saw these leaders try to adapt programs from in-person to virtual and developed a new Virtual Facilitation Guide to raise the bar for digital gathering. The guide is filled with interactive exercises designed to engage people with different learning styles, in varied locations, and with different access needs. Beyond simply transitioning an in-person program to be online, the UpStart guide helps organizations to think creatively about designing a digital environment that is fresh and has real impact with participants. 

UpStart’s virtual facilitation guide looks stunning! But, more importantly – UpStart created a tool that is so necessary in this new digital space, that helps facilitators to think about their outcomes first and then select the appropriate tool. As I am working with more and more clients in this virtual realm, I will be using this guide as a reference and a roadmap.
Dana Prottas, Instructional Designer and Educational Consultant

Just as UpStart always works to expand how Jews find meaning and come together, the guide offers an expansive array of facilitation exercises divided into Reflections, Inquiry, and Application. People in different stages of their learning journeys or facilitating for different audiences can elevate their virtual engagement—whether they’re an entrepreneurial rabbi facilitating a program for their community, an institutional leader navigating a team meeting, or a funder conducting a small group conversation with key stakeholders.

UpStart is also taking a holistic look at the larger Jewish innovation field in order to support new collaborations. Organizations are simultaneously facing new challenges and recognizing that the virtual world opens up new opportunities. By building strategic partnerships and alliances, organizations can increase stability, create deeper impact, and build more efficient structures that will meet the evolving needs of the Jewish community. UpStart is working with La Piana Consulting, an authority on strategic partnerships, to help more organizations gain the tools, knowledge, and insights to effectively embark on these critical alliances so that the entrepreneurial ideas, talent, and progress of the past two decades will inform the Jewish future.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of UpStart. Access the Virtual Facilitation Guide here.

Foundation for Jewish Camp Leads a Resilient Field

This summer, Jewish camp has been put to the ultimate test. But, with resilience, determination, and collaboration, the camp community has navigated through the immediate challenges imposed by COVID-19. Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) has helped lead efforts to sustain and strengthen camps through the pandemic, pilot meaningful virtual engagement opportunities, and foster innovative efforts to ensure camp remains an essential asset to the Jewish community for years to come.

In light of the vast majority of camps not being able to open this summer, FJC served as the valued central resource and advocate for Jewish camps at this unique and pivotal moment. Working together with the field, FJC has provided updated data, insights, and leadership to successfully mitigate the financial gap and keep camp as a top priority on the Jewish communal philanthropic agenda.

FJC recognized that camps needed support in new and creative ways during summer 2020.

This will be our “summer of learning” during which camps will pilot a range of virtual engagement approaches to reach their current communities – campers, families, staff, and alumni – and even broader audiences. Together, we will help camp truly become a year-round, lifelong experience. – Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO of Foundation for Jewish Camp

In partnership with Mosaic United, FJC has launched Jewish Camp @ Home’s Jewish Experience Shuk – a centralized marketplace offering camps access to the best virtual programming and Jewish educational resources from across North America and Israel.

To help energize the field and foster collaboration, FJC has introduced its new Innovation Challenge, in which camps form teams, attend virtual workshops, and design creative engagement programs with a chance to receive up to $10,000 to pilot their creation.

And, camp staff and alumni, who feel the loss of summer camp as well, can learn, build their network, stay connected, and make a difference through FJC’s new Virtual Staff Lounge.

To learn more, visit jewishcamp.org. To read more about FJC’s efforts to innovate this summer, click here.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of FJC.

Amid Pandemic Challenges, Jewish Creatives Get Boost from CANVAS

At a time when arts organizations and artists are reeling from the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new Jewish initiative is stepping in with much-needed grants and an emergency relief fund.

CANVAS, a partnership of five Jewish foundations working with Jewish Funders Network, is awarding grants to five Jewish arts and culture networks totaling $736,000 in operating support, and an additional $180,000 in immediate emergency relief for Jewish artists/creatives whose livelihood has been devastated by Covid-19 and its economic consequences. CANVAS expects to surpass $1 million in funding commitments by September. The group seeks to strengthen and build capacity in the field, with the ultimate goal of helping fuel a 21st-century renaissance in Jewish arts and culture.

CANVAS’ first grantees are Asylum Arts, the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM), the Jewish Book CouncilLABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, and Reboot, which collectively represent nearly 2,000 artists and creatives and more than 100 Jewish museums. The five grantees will distribute the $180,000 emergency funds to individual artists in need.

Jewish creatives continue to shape our culture, even in lockdown. Now, more than ever, they entertain and distract us, empathize with and educate us, help us reflect and commiserate and open our hearts, reconnect with beauty, process the unthinkable, remind us to smile, help us to cry, capture the essential Jewish nature of these moments. And yet in almost all cases, artists are producing this work without pay. We want to support them as much as they support us.
Lou Cove, founder of CANVAS

The infusion of new funding and philanthropic coordination from CANVAS comes at a time when artists and arts organizations of all kinds are facing major budget challenges due to Covid-19 and the forced cancellation of performances, exhibits, and other events.

Lead funding for CANVAS comes from the Righteous Persons Foundation. The other founding partners are: the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Klarman Family Foundation, the Peleh Fund, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

The $180,000 emergency fund for creatives is open to further investment and can be supported here.

CANVAS’ advisory council includes “RBG” Director Julie Cohen, Forward National Editor Rob Eshman, musician and Latin Grammy Award-winner Ben Gundersheimer (AKA Mister G), Executive Director at the International Contemporary Ensemble Jennifer Kessler, photographer and filmmaker Gillian Laub, former Sundance Executive Caroline Libresco, Editorial Director at Godfrey Dadich Partners Mary Melton, The Warhol Director Patrick Moore, and Broadway producer/ARS Nova founder Jenny Steingart.

Learn more about CANVAS and its grantees here.