News & Blogs Category: Featured Partner

Jewish day schools fundamentally strengthen the trajectory of Jewish knowledge, identity, community, and leadership. This is a core principle guiding Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools as it begins to implement its new five-year strategic plan, B’Yachad: Towards a Vibrant Future for Jewish Day Schools. The plan—which builds on Prizmah’s past learnings, extensive stakeholder engagement, and a research deep-dive—details the organization’s vision of a thriving, passionate, engaged, and committed network of Jewish day schools that shape our community for generations to come. Prizmah will help unlock the potential of the North American Jewish day schools through strategic investment in four key areas: Deepen Talent, Catalyze Resources, Accelerate Innovation, and Network to Learn.

With this investment, Jewish day schools will be part of a field in which:

• students graduate exceptionally well-equipped with the academic and social-emotional strengths that enable them to pursue their dreams;
• graduates’ Jewish identities are deeply enriched to last a lifetime;
• families are excited to enroll;
• talented individuals are drawn to the school’s career offerings; and
• schools have the sustainable resources they need to grow.

Core to Prizmah’s success—and the success of Jewish day schools, educators, leaders, and students—is the recognition that schools and communities are inherently linked. Together, they form a virtuous cycle, wherein investments in the key aspects of thriving Jewish day schools reinforce and embolden one another. Prizmah supports North American Jewish day schools and communities of all sizes and denominations to tackle the diverse needs and challenges of day schools on their path to success. This vision embraces the passion of schools’ leaders and educators, as well as the educational and philosophical differences of schools, which Prizmah serves according to their individual needs.

Leadership is a space filled with risk taking, vulnerabilities, and very often loneliness. Being part of Prizmah’s leadership training gave me a foundation that I know will propel me forward on my professional journey, as well as a community and support system I can rely on to work through any aspect of leadership.
– HEAD OF SCHOOL

While striving for vibrancy, Jewish day schools also face significant challenges. The changing academic, social, and technological needs of today’s youth create need and opportunity to re-think education—just as the demographics, dynamics, and institutions of Jewish communities are also changing. As the cost of education rises and many incomes stagnate, the struggle to provide an affordable Jewish education to all who want it grows, leading to challenges in enrollment. Prizmah creates the space and environments for days schools to explore these challenges and seek solutions together.

As a Head of School from a small community, it can be hard to take a moment to just…breathe. With the mounting pressures of finances, development, assessments, admissions, and H.R. how many moments do we get to learn and problem solve with our peers? Our time at Prizmah’s Small School Retreat and the continued connections after give us the tools for self-care and school-care. – HEAD OF SCHOOL

Prizmah believes that educating Jewish youth is the most important investment to make in their future—as Jews, and as active contributors to society—and in the future of the Jewish community. Vibrant Jewish day schools inspire and nurture young people, prepare them for remarkable and meaningful lives, and enable them to truly thrive. Prizmah works every day to support these schools and their leaders, laying the foundation so that the Jewish community will be empowered and fueled by stronger voices, identities, values, and leadership.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is one of many supporters of Prizmah.

Teens today are impacted by monumental sociological forces and challenges. With this understanding, and powered by research and data, the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative develops, nurtures, and scales innovative new approaches to teen engagement. In this unprecedented collaboration of national and local funders, ten participating communities are united by a paradigm shift in the approach to this work that demands that teen educators and leaders now ask, “how can our work help this teen thrive as a human being in today’s complex and challenging world?”

The Funder Collaborative and its communities look to answer this question every day. They come together—virtually and in person—to share lessons learned with each other and to identify the most relevant lessons to share with others. Recently, 20 implementers and professional development professionals came together in Austin, TX for three days. They wanted to learn directly from that dynamic city, a hotbed of creativity and entrepreneurship. Participants had a private workshop with the founder of Storybar to learn what makes a great story and to learn how they can integrate storytelling into their work. The Collaborative also met with Shalom Austin to hear about Jewish life in Austin and to share highlights about the experiences of the ten communities, so that their learnings go beyond the Collaborative.

What I value most about the Implementer Convening’s is the opportunity to network with my fellow Implementers. The relationships, both personal and professional, we are forming because of the opportunities we are given to get together are crucial to the success of our work, in my opinion. Because of the convenings we are more than a group of implementers we are a community.  No matter the location, our time together always inspires and motivates me to take our learnings and try new strategies in San Diego. Out of all the learnings I took away from Austin, I am most excited to experiment with influencers and campaigns to drive traction and awareness to the awesome work we are doing!
– Rebecka Handler, Director of the San Diego Jewish Teen Initiative

While the communities each have unique characteristics and singular elements of their engagement efforts, certain trends are prevalent across all the initiatives and highlight their important work:

1. Communities put teens in the driver’s seat of their own experiences because today’s teens are comfortable finding and using their voice to make change. Funder Collaborative community initiatives enable teens to architect their own journeys in a variety ways: by creating programming for their peers, in reaching out to their friends to make sure they’re aware of opportunities, and even making decisions about major grants for teen programming.
2. Discovery is a critical part of engagement. Teens, parents and even Jewish professionals say it’s difficult to find out about local Jewish opportunities. By developing online portals and searchable digital databases, the communities are amplifying the marketing power of all local organizations who post their events, and creating genuine value for the community.
3. Success means building and nurturing an ecosystem. The Funder Collaborative communities see first-hand that a dynamic ecosystem surrounds the teens themselves: community partners, supervisors, lay leaders, professionals and parents all directly and indirectly impact teen engagement. Especially in their the early teen years, parents require targeted marketing and outreach. Critically, the teen initiatives recognize that parents themselves often seek a supportive community to support their parenting, and many of the initiatives now offer workshops and community-building activities for parents.
4. Creating lasting change requires skilled and capable educators. After uniting around a new paradigm of teen-centric engagement, the initiatives quickly understood that developing a cadre of knowledgeable and capable educators and youth professionals would be critical to achieving their desired outcomes.
5. Wellness is fundamental to achieving positive outcomes for teens. Focusing on the whole teen, including their mental health and overall wellness, is emerging as foundational to effective Jewish teen education and engagement. Several communities offer workshops or conferences on adolescent development and family systems, deeper understanding of the social forces impacting teens today, and specialized training for educators in youth mental health first aid. By addressing and elevating teen wellness, Funder Collaborative communities are pioneering a new, holistic view of engagement work, with healthy, balanced and resilient teens at the center.

More than five years ago, the ten communities and funders came together to co-invest in teen engagement efforts that would be informed by up-to-the-minute research and data. As the initiatives evolve and continue to be informed by learnings, the landscape of teen engagement continues to grow—and the outcomes are increasingly positive.

Want to learn how your community can get involved? Contact Sara Allen, Collaborative Director, [email protected].

The Jim Joseph Foundation is one of many funders invested in the Collaborative. 

Jewish day schools participating in UJA-Federation of New York’s Day School Challenge Fund (DSCF) initiative are in the final months of raising funds for endowments that are eligible to be matched — with the goal of helping to secure their long-term future and to make excellent day school education more accessible for more families.

The DSCF initiative already has changed communal norms around endowment giving, elevating its importance for a diverse cohort of several day schools and yeshivas in New York. Since its launch in 2014, the $51 million Communal Challenge Fund has matched distributions on endowment dollars that participating schools raise. And, through expert training and strategic consulting provided as part of the initiative, day school leaders are equipped with best in class strategies and approaches in endowment fundraising.

The Day School Challenge Fund has had a profoundly positive effect on the culture of our school, in two different ways: It has provided us with a sense of long-term security that has stimulated us to think more creatively than ever about the future of our school, and it has inspired our donors’ confidence in their own ability to have a truly transformative impact.
– Michael A. Kay, PhD, Head of School, Solomon Schechter School of Westchester

Annual endowment distributions provide a school with a predictable revenue source, which can transform a school’s dreams of financial stability, increased affordability, and educational excellence into everyday realities for years to come. The Day School Challenge Fund initiative offers the 23 participating Jewish day schools and yeshivot the tools and incentives to develop and grow endowments to support each school’s programs and activities.

When the fundraising part of the DSCF concludes on December 31, 2018, the initiative will have generated almost $100 million in new endowment dollars. The schools are working to finish their campaigns strong with four months left to go.

Our school has received three seven figure gifts – unprecedented in our history – due to the encouragement and match in funds from UJA-Federation of New York’s Day School Challenge Fund initiative. We look forward to continuing to make history for our school.
-Danny Karpf, Head of School, Rodeph Sholom School

Jewish day schools play a vital role in fostering a knowledgeable and engaged Jewish community, and inspiring the next generation of leaders. The New York Jewish Community is laying a strong foundation for the future of its day schools.

The 23 DSCF participating schools represent the spectrum of North American Day Schools and Yeshivas:

Abraham Joshua Heschel School, Barkai Yeshivah, Carmel Academy, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Manhattan Day School, Magen David Yeshivah, Mazel Day School, North Shore Hebrew Academy, Ramaz, Rodeph Sholom School, SAR Academy, Schechter School of Long Island, Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, Solomon Schechter School of Queens, Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, The Shefa School, Westchester Day School, Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Yeshivah of Flatbush, Yeshiva of South Shore

The Jim Joseph Foundation is one of a group of foundations and philanthropists, including UJA-Federation of New York, that have contributed to UJA-Federation of New York’s Day School Challenge Fund, totaling $51 million in matching funds that will be part of a total endowment of nearly $100 million.

Jewish Community Centers (JCC) throughout North America offer rich, welcoming environments for families with young children to engage in meaningful Jewish life and learning. The JCC Association of North America’s new Sheva Center Leadership Institute for Early Childhood Professionals—an initiative of The Sheva Center for Innovation in Early Childhood Jewish Education and Engagement—is a three-year fellowship experience that will help increase the number and quality of educators who create and lead these formative experiences.

A cohort of new early childhood education (ECE) directors, administrators, and classroom educators study together and in tracks at retreats and at virtual learning sessions. They focus on experiences they face with learners and with parents, and how they approach their work and overcome challenges.

At the last retreat we found ourselves saying that “we’ve spent 20 days of our lives together,” but [the other Fellows] feel closer to me than people who have been in my life for years. We are able to relate to our work, to struggle over our situation together.
– Sarah Koffler, Participant in Sheva Covenant ECE Directors Fellowship, the pilot program funded by the Covenant Foundation that preceded the Sheva Center Leadership Institute

The Sheva Center is committed to connecting these educators, who are on the front line of ECE work, to each other for peer support and to inspire them to grow their practice, mindful of the best and latest research in the field. The foundation of the institute is the Sheva framework, which outlines a dynamic vision of excellence in early childhood Jewish education using seven Jewish lenses and seven core elements.

At the first retreat earlier this summer, educators built relationships with each other. As a group, they explored an early 19th century vision of Zionism through study and walking in the footsteps of Mordechai Manuel Noah. They studied the natural disaster of Love Canal and the natural beauty and wonder of Niagara Falls. They examined the threads between these subjects and how they might influence our understanding of leadership, Jewish life, and spirituality.

Faculty engages with each fellow throughout the fellowship, and different scholars-in-residence join the group at retreats. Each fellow also has a Sheva Faculty Mentor with whom she or he works for their entire three-year fellowship, including through monthly virtual meetings and two in-person site visits.

For me that’s the biggest piece: having people to reflect with and grow with and to talk to when you’re struggling, keeping those chavruta learning partnerships going, feeling that that connection is still going on, continuing to push each other and reminding each other of our strengths, and providing support for each other as a group.
– Tracy Labrosse, Participant in Sheva Covenant ECE Directors Fellowship

JCC Association creates leadership teams within the home JCC community to bridge the gap between the cohort in the institute and the JCC at large. These working relationships are crucial to the success of the fellow and the growth of the school within the greater JCC community. As the fellowship continues, JCC Association looks for new ways to develop and support leaders and educators. The upcoming second retreat in Boulder, Colorado will include scholar in residence Dr. Assael Romanelli, a certified family and couple therapist, facilitator and trainer, who grew up in Israel and the United States. Now living in Jerusalem, Dr. Romanelli is the artistic advisor and conductor for Or Chozer Playback Theater Ensemble and incorporates psychodrama and action methods in his workshops. Fellows also will spend time at the Boulder Journey School as a window into the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood.

Learning with my cohort has impacted how I want to start reflective learning for my staff and how to foster that in them, so that they’re continually thinking about their own journey as a teacher, to be reflective of their own practice. Before then it was just about imparting information. I need to reformat my staff learning and think how to help educators look at themselves and their practice, and make it similar to how the retreats were coordinated.
– Tracy Labrosse

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports the Sheva Center Leadership Institute.

Avodah is special because it is welcoming of people who have different levels of Jewish education and people with different levels of different experiences with social justice…by being in Avodah, I realized that not only do I belong in the Jewish community and that I have a right to be there, but that I can actually be a leader there and that has inspired me to be more of a leader following Avodah
– Ursula Wagner, Avodah Chicago Justice Fellowship ‘17.

Ursula Wagner is a clinical social worker and union leader at Heartland Alliance where she works with individuals experiencing homelessness. She is just one of many young adults engaging in Jewish community and learning through Avodah and their passion for social justice.

With a central tenet that justice is a Jewish value, Avodah trains and supports Jewish leaders so they have the skills to advance social justice and have a deep understanding about how their values connect to their Jewish identities.

Avodah’s training, tools, and the intellectual, spiritual and communal framework sustains the work of Jewish leaders and their  lifelong commitment to social justice. Through its national Jewish Service Corps and Justice Fellowship programs, Avodah provides the gateway for new generations of leaders to find meaning and inspiration in their Judaism to create a better world.

When I finished college, I really wanted to continue down my path of social justice and I also really wanted to re engage with Judaism as an adult. Avodah offered both of those things exactly
– Danny Brown Avodah Jewish Service Corps Member DC ‘18, Danny Brown is currently spending his Avodah year as a digital literacy instructor at Byte Back, a nonprofit in DC that offers computer and tech training to adults entering or reentering the workforce.

Through Avodah, young Jewish leaders learn to connect their Jewish values to the most pressing issues today.

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Avodah’s service leadership programs.

The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America cultivates the next generation of great thinkers who will grapple with and lead on the big questions impacting the Jewish future. Last year, the Institute launched a North American cohort of David Hartman Center Fellows, already an established fellowship in Israel, as an incubator of emerging talent that educates top academic scholars to apply their own research and scholarship to the big questions facing Jewish life today. These scholars are then encouraged to share that thinking with the broader Jewish community.

The inaugural cohort of seven top academic scholars from across the country represent diverse scholarly disciplines—rabbinic, modern Jewish thought, Biblical commentary, Judaism and Islam, legal theory, and philosophy—and diverse engagement in the Jewish community, including teaching in schools, adult education, and a Jewish printing house. Fellows are trained in a style of thought leadership enabling them to conceptualize and frame challenging issues of the day and equipping them to be change agents who will shape Jewish life.

Together with senior Hartman research fellows, the Fellows explore areas such as Talmud as Thought Leadership; American Jewish Spirituality; and the American-Jewish relationship to Israel.

What makes this program unique is both an uncompromising commitment to rigorous scholarship, and a commitment to use that scholarship to heal fractures in the Jewish community.
– Sara Labaton, David Hartman Center Fellow

As the first year of the program concludes, the Cohort has developed a network and ongoing relationships with each other as well as renowned scholars at Hartman. And, they will spend July at the Institute in Jerusalem, meeting with their counterparts in the David Hartman Center in Israel to better understand the transatlantic influence of thought leadership, and challenges and opportunities in the relationship between American Jews and Israeli Jews from a new perspective.  The second year of the program will include year-long collaborative research, culminating in a series of public lectures, writing, and projects.

As we think about the challenges facing Jewish life in North America, we know we need a stronger pipeline of leaders who will confront these challenges; and we need a stronger set of ideas that have been, and always will be, the currency with which the Jewish people travel through history. The David Hartman Center Fellows are a source of optimism and inspiration for thinking about the vitality, relevancy, and moral character of Judaism in the 21st century.
– Yehuda Kurtzer, President, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

The Jewish Emergent Network is comprised of the leaders of seven path‐breaking Jewish communities from across the country: IKAR in Los Angeles, Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkan in Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York. They join in the spirit of collaboration to revitalize the field of Jewish engagement, with a commitment to both traditionally rooted and creative approaches that welcome people into rich and meaningful Jewish life.

Now the Network is preparing to gather with thought leaders from around North America June 1-3 for (RE)VISION: Experiments & Dreams From Emerging Jewish Communities, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the the Network organizations.

Registration for (RE)VISION is open to the public at at www.JewishEmergentNetwork.org.

The three full days of content will feature laboratories, galleries, interactive experiments, panels, guest speakers and other creative learning modules, with plenty of time built in for networking, davening, singing and creating community.

(RE)VISION will also be the official introduction of the Network’s second cohort of select, early career rabbinic fellows and the farewell sendoff for the first cohort. The goal of the Network’s hallmark Rabbinic Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, with the skills to initiate independent communities and who are valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues.

Joining this incredible Fellowship of rabbis and innovators has been the best possible kickoff to my rabbinic career.
-Rabbi Lauren Henderson, currently the Network Fellow at Mishkan in Chicago

These rabbis who founded these emergent communities are my Jewish superheroes. They are redefining what is Jewish practice and Jewish life, and what Jewish community can really feel like. It can feel deeply welcoming and open but also, they are offering a Judaism that demands a lot of the people who walk in.
-Keilah Lebell, incoming second cohort Network Fellow at IKAR

Along with the Jim Joseph Foundation, additional support for the Network is provided by the William Davidson Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next two years.

Well-trained and supported teachers are integral to high quality and effective Jewish Day Schools. They deserve opportunities to continuously refine and improve their skills, and, equally as important, must have a desire to remain at their schools.

Now in its 15th year, the Jewish New Teacher Project (JNTP) addresses both of these areas, helping Day Schools offer support to new and veteran teachers in Jewish and general studies through their intensive mentoring and mentor training programs.

With full conviction I can say that I would not have stayed in teaching if not for the mentoring I received through JNTP!
– Tamar Kaplan Appel, Assistant Principal, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
former JNTP new teacher; current JNTP mentor

What began with a select group of Jewish Day Schools in Metropolitan New York, JNTP now engages mentors and new teachers elsewhere in the east coast and Midwest. Over the past 15 years, JNTP has worked with more than 1,000 educators in Jewish day schools across North America, helping schools achieve teaching excellence by increasing teacher effectiveness and teacher retention and by bringing the language of teaching standards, collaboration and professional development into school culture.

JNTP currently is training 154 mentors to work intensively with 174 new teachers from 69 schools across the country, with program hubs in New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Miami. JNTP also coaches early-career administrators and, between its Baltimore coaching cohort and one-on-one coaching work, has supported 47 new administrators in 25 schools. This year JNTP’s work is influencing the education experience of over 18,000 students in Jewish day schools.

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 meets his or her potential.

The Jewish New Teacher Project started as a pilot program of The AVI CHAI Foundation in 2003. The Jim Joseph Foundation continues to invest in JNTP today.

A growing base of knowledge is developing for Jewish education practitioners to turn to for insights and best practices so they engage learners in the most effective ways possible. This development is critical for the field of Jewish education. Just as other fields, such as medicine and law, have research that informs and improves practice, CASJE (Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education)—a community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders—is committed to sharing knowledge to improve Jewish education.

One current long-term research project explores how Jewish early childhood education (ECE) can serve as a gateway for deeper and more sustained involvement in Jewish life. The study includes a focus on ways that ECE institutions can better engage interfaith families and families that are not currently involved in a synagogue or other Jewish institution.

We want to equip communities with the knowledge and skills to welcome in families of all Jewish backgrounds as effectively as possible.
– Lesley Matsa Said of The Crown Family, which is funding the research program

Another project, recently completed, was a three-part literature review series exploring what recent research about heritage, second, and foreign language learning means for the teaching and learning of Hebrew.

This research directly informs how educators teach Hebrew—plain and simple. We now have a clearer picture of what Hebrew language learners experience and we can apply this research to improve the outcomes in Hebrew language learning.
– Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Head of School at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School of Greater Washington, D.C. and co-chair of the Board of Directors of CASJE

CASJE also is committed to developing the pipeline of future Jewish education scholars. As part of these efforts, an emerging scholar sits on CASJE’s Board and, each year, CASJE hosts an Emerging Scholars Seminar at the Network for Research in Jewish Education annual conference.

CASJE invited us—mentors and mentees all—to consult on its newly commissioned research project that investigates the extent to which Jewish early Childhood Education (ECE) may be a gateway to more meaningful Jewish educational experiences…There’s nothing like a good case study to animate thinking, to prod shareholders outside their comfort zones, and to advance “outside the box” rumination and reflection.
– Matt Williams, 2017 Emerging Scholars Seminar attendee

Visit CASJE.org to learn more about its areas of research and ongoing projects, including its recent Problem Formulation Convening (PFC) to explore the recruitment, retention, and development of Jewish educators, supported by the William Davidson Foundation. The day-long gathering brought together a small group of scholars, practitioners, and funders with a set of shared concerns. The primary question at this PFC was: what would it take to recruit significantly greater numbers of talented people to the field of Jewish education, and what would be needed to sustain and retain those personnel once they have launched careers in the field? Through carefully facilitated conversations, the day developed an applied research agenda that can shape understandings of the career trajectories of Jewish educators in North America.

Founded 17 years ago, Reboot affirms the value of Jewish traditions and creates new ways for people to make them their own. Inspired by Jewish ritual and embracing the arts, humor, food, philosophy, and social justice, Reboot produces creative projects that spark the interest of young Jews and the larger community. Among Reboot’s productions are events, exhibitions, recordings, books, films, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) activity toolkits, and digital apps. Reboot also collaborates with local and national community partner organizations to adapt the resources to enrich their programming offerings for their own constituents. Since Reboot’s inception, 542 network members, over 1,000 community organization partners, and hundreds of thousands of people have looked to them to rekindle connections and re-imagine Jewish lives full of meaning, creativity, and joy.

Sign up to be a part of the 2018 National Day of Unplugging.

Last year’s annual National Day of Unplugging—the 24-hour respite from technology from sundown to sundown on the first Shabbat of March—had a record-breaking year, engaging over 45,000 individuals, with 275 programs. Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the National Day of Unplugging has reached over 136 million people (and has been covered by more than 930 online, broadcast and print media outlets). The 24 hours includes live events across the country – including yoga, indoor rock climbing, analog-only parties, and more – which all celebrate people’s commitment to be more thoughtful about unplugging with Reboot’s signature cell phone sleeping bags and “I Unplug To _ Signs.” Since its inception, the National Day of Unplugging has reached over 112,000 participants with more than 1,000 events.

It was so refreshing to spend an evening unplugged, and connecting with people. It was a great reminder that our technology can distract us from the wonderful people standing in front of us. After attending the unplugged party I made a point to tell my friends that we need to start putting our phones away when we are together. – UNPLUG LA participant, 20s, Venice

It’s not too late to sign up to host your own unplugging event in your community or take the personal pledge to unplug on the new website. As of this posting, there are already over 750 events set to take place around the world for this year’s National Day of Unplugging, a growth of over 275% from 2017. Reboot is also facilitating its own innovative unplugging experiences in the core cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Detroit – more information is available here.

Reboot is able to strike both a personal, communal and cultural chord through the do-it-yourself material it creates and distributes, and its tiered approach to programming. It produces signature events, such as large scale Unplugging parties or the construction of an experimental public “Sukkah City”, while also consulting with local and national community partner organizations to enrich their offerings with Reboot’s field-tested Jewish content. This includes everything from enhancing a local synagogue’s High Holiday program with an integrated 10Q experience, to helping a JCC launch a Jewish food festival that uses Beyond Bubbie’s programs of intergenerational exchange.

The event [reBar – an opportunity to reflect back to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah] was spectacular, interesting, meaningful, edgy a bit. I thought it was inclusive in a way that was really interesting to me. It is rare for me to go to an event which is a Jewish event, but where non-Jews are included. – reBar participant, 20s, East Bay

Reboot continues to look for new opportunities to fill a void in Jewish life. Reboot also is currently piloting Death Over Dinner – Jewish Edition in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, with partners IKAR and Death Over Dinner founder Michael Hebb, which works to break the culture taboos around death conversations and activate meaningful connection for people around their dinner tables through a Jewish lens.

Learn more about the many ways to engage in Jewish life through Reboot at Rebooters.net.

The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah announced the launch of a new and exciting collaboration. Beginning in fall 2018, the two institutions will join forces to begin training outstanding rabbis who are passionate about Jewish education.
The Pardes+YCT Joint Program will include two unique courses of study:

• Pardes Day School Educators Program+YCT: a five-year teacher training, Masters of Jewish Education (from Hebrew College in Boston), and rabbinical school program, which will train exceptional rabbinic educators who will become teachers and leaders in Jewish day schools.
• Pardes Experiential Educators Program+YCT: a five-year experiential education and rabbinical school program, with the option of a Masters of Jewish Education (from the Davidson School at JTS), which will train excellent rabbinic educators who will work in the field of experiential Jewish education.

Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School is proud of its ongoing relationship with Pardes. Our two institutions share a commitment to the study and teaching of Torah, along with imparting a deep commitment to the Jewish People in our students. This partnership is an exciting opportunity for us to work together to bring the best educational opportunities to our students and ultimately to impact the Jewish world through their chosen careers in the rabbinate.
– YCT Mashgiach and Director of Recruitment Rabbi Yonah Berman

Both of these options offer advanced text study with world-class faculty in the Pardes and YCT batei midrash; Jewish education studies at Pardes in Jerusalem; semikha from YCT rabbinical school; Masters in Jewish Education; advanced Clinical Pastoral Education; unique real-world internships with master mentors; and generous stipend packages.

We are so happy that this partnership has developed between our two institutions. Our common goals of deep Torah learning and concern for the whole Jewish world make us natural partners. We hope this will be the first of many partnerships with other rabbinical seminaries as well.
– Dean of Pardes, Dr. David I. Bernstein

The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators – a branch of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem – trains and empowers Jewish studies teachers and experiential Jewish educators and leaders to serve as knowledgeable, skilled, reflective and passionate professionals in diverse Jewish settings.
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah – the foremost Modern Orthodox rabbinical school in the United States – trains rabbis who are leaders of Klal Yisrael, build communities that are inclusive and welcoming, and teach a Torah that motivates and inspires.

For more information, contact PCJE Acting Director Aviva Golbert ([email protected]) or Rabbi Yonah Berman at YCT ([email protected]).

Engaging with arts and culture is an increasingly popular way for American Jews, particularly young adults, to experience Jewish life, learning, and community. Yet, for these experiences to have meaning and resonance, skilled educators are needed to help guide participants. The George Washington University’s groundbreaking Master’s in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EE/JCA)—the only of its kind in the U.S.—now training its fourth cohort, is a field leader in developing educators who create and implement these dynamic cultural offerings.

The EE/JCA program provided me with an immersive intellectual experience that was as intense as it was textured. It greatly expanded my ability to interpret and appreciate Jewish cultural life in ways that enhanced both my personal and professional worlds. As an experienced educator, I found that the program’s focus on Jewish experiential education reinforced and deepened my understanding of successfully engaging people of all ages in ways that are active, meaningful, and that have a lasting impact on their connection to Jewish life… The relationships I built with my cohort members inspired me to feel confident about my contributions to the landscape of our academic and professional worlds while supporting me during the busy days of reading, research, and writing. My cohort members became colleagues and friends, a crucial element of my experience in the program.
– Jennifer Fechter, cohort 3

The intensive 13-month, cross-disciplinary curriculum combines coursework in Jewish cultural arts and experiential education with elective courses tailored to students’ individual professional needs and interests. During the school year, students enjoy hands-on, supervised field placements at a broad range of Washington, DC-area Jewish arts, culture, social service, and educational organizations. This element of their training is followed by the Capstone Fellows course—a summer internship placement offering the opportunity to pursue full-time work at exemplary Jewish arts and education organizations around the country and abroad, among them the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and Polin in Warsaw, Poland.

The EE/JCA program has fulfilled me academically, personally, and professionally in ways I never thought possible. I am valued as an individual, but also gain strength from my cohort and the professors who challenge and support me. The course material delves into a broad range of topics, from theory to cultural study to Jewish content, but most importantly, I am not confined to the four walls of the classroom. The content I learn in class and the discussions I have with my classmates enriches my fieldwork at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, an opportunity I have because of this program. All of these elements- experience, intellectual study, peer relationships, individual freedom- have been essential to my development as a Jewish educator. The EE/JCA program is the only one of its kind and I am privileged to be part of it.
– Erin Pirkle, cohort 4

Graduates are prepared to work in Jewish museums and arts institutions, community centers, college campus groups, social service organizations, and other innovative educational and cultural settings.

Since its launch in 2014, the EE/JCA Program has evolved to meet the needs and interests of its students and of the field. Today, students are especially interested in utilizing the arts and different methodologies of experiential education to address social justice issues and to help develop a heightened sense of civic responsibility. A track in the Master’s program focuses on teaching in social justice initiatives.  Additionally, in response to growing interest in cultural and heritage tourism, the program will soon offer a track that zeroes in on the relationship between travel and experiential education.

The program attracts a diverse group of students from various backgrounds, empowering them with the license to be creative. The GW faculty is proud of the large and welcoming tent the program creates, with room for different people and perspectives. Students leave with new knowledge, deeper skills, and innovative approaches to engage people in Jewish cultural arts.

The George Washington University’s Master’s in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EE/JCA) is accepting applications for cohort 5. Program faculty includes Michael Feuer, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development and Professor of Education Policy; Jenna Weissman Joselit, the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies & Professor of History; and Benjamin M. Jacobs, Visiting Associate Professor. Images featured here were graphically designed by Erik Mace and were included in the program’s “Mosaic” brochures.

The Foundation’s investment to GWU for educator training for the cultural arts is for $1.47 million.