What can social science and education research help us understand about how people learn?
We are asking first-principle questions about the nature of Jewish education and, even more fundamentally, how do we learn anything? The science of learning is a rich and established field of academic study that has a lot to teach us when we think about our vision for Jewish learning. Yet, for all of its rich resources, Jewish education has no theory of learning.
As part of our Emergent Strategy at the Jim Joseph Foundation, we have a desire to explore new and more effective pathways in understanding and practicing Jewish education. To this end, we looked to familiarize ourselves with landmark research and learning theory. We turned to Ari Y. Kelman, the Jim Joseph Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. Kelman shares a model for how people learn that we think is foundational for understanding more about how people learn to be Jewish.
As opposed to starting with specific pieces of “content” or knowledge that people need to acquire to learn to be Jewish,Kelman illuminates, more fundamentally and impactfully, how people learn. By understanding the obvious and less obvious ways in which people learn, we begin to better understand effective approaches, interventions and modalities needed to achieve educational impact and desired outcomes.
The model posits that learning how to do or be Jewish is not actually uniquely or exceptionally Jewish; 80% of the ways that people learn to be Jewish can be explained by understanding how all humans learn anything. Often educational approaches are dwarfed by and blinded to this much larger learning context. Failing to acknowledge, examine or understand the relationship between learning in general and learning to be Jewish will curtail the effectiveness of Jewish education.
The model, described in part below, is an important shift to centering learners before programs.
As the Jim Joseph Foundation aspires to enable all Jews, their families and their friends to lead connected, meaningful and purpose-filled lives, and to make positive contributions to their communities and the world, we invest in powerful Jewish learning experiences. In this investment area, BBYO, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel International, Birthright Israel and Moishe House are categorized as “signature grantee-partners” in our Deliberate Grantmaking Strategy. These grantees have made evaluation an integral part of their work, informing their own efforts, the Foundation’s, and the field. More recently, the Foundation has also integrated cross-portfolio evaluation into more of our work to learn about shared outcomes across different sets of grantee-partners.
In cross-portfolio evaluation, we’re able to identify overarching trends and opportunities. Our latest cross-portfolio evaluation, for example, conducted by Rosov Consulting, covers all five of these signature grantees and identifies a set of common outcomes and ways to measure the participants they serve. When we began this evaluation, we didn’t know this would be the end result. However, as we convened the grantees and dug into their own evaluation structures and findings, we recognized the opportunity to learn about the value of participating in multiple experiences during the teen years and 20s/30s. Through a qualitative study with the alumni of programs, we came to understand the added value of the programs, the interactions between outcomes created by the programs and the pathways that take young people from one program to another.
It was both exciting and gratifying to learn that a large proportion of alumni from one organization also participate, over time, in at least one other organizations’ program. In the spirit of elevating the value of cross-portfolio evaluation and the work of these grantee-partners, here are some key findings:
From finding to designing Jewish community. All five experiences provided by these organizations helped participants find and become part of Jewish community in ways appropriate to their ages and stages in life. One study participant commented, “[Camp] was a very different environment to anything I’d experienced before. I would say it opened my eyes to what community could look like in a way that I really connected with very strongly… I don’t think I really had a grasp on what a community was supposed to be before that.”
Another participant reflecting on their experience with Hillel added: “Until college, all of my Jewish experiences were kind of chosen for me… college was the first time where I was having the opportunity to choose my own Jewish experiences and opt into those and feel what felt right for me… And it felt way more like it was mine and I had autonomy over the Jewish life I was living and it wasn’t being chosen for me by my parents.”
Personal growth. A second outcome of all five experiences was that participants could develop important life skills and grow as well-rounded individuals. This was because these settings offer increasing levels of personal autonomy and are spaces where participants feel safe to fail forward.
Over a decade ago, the Jim Joseph Foundation convened more than a dozen local and national funders of Jewish teen programming for a series of discussions on expanding teen involvement in Jewish life. We recognized that adolescents are a critical demographic and adolescenceis a moment of inflection. Moreover, teens are holders of great insights and have the ability to articulate them and the realities they hope those insights can create. To paraphrase Joel 3:1, while those of us around the table had dreams, we knew it would be teens holding the vision to move us forward. We felt and continue to believe that teens are the futurists and optimists that our world needs.
These early conversations, which included teens themselves, taught us a lot — namely, how much more we still needed to learn. As a result, we commissioned groundbreaking research to identify and unpack strategies from both the non-Jewish and Jewish worlds are most effective in educating and engaging teens. This research ultimately gave us the knowledge to design responsive local teen initiatives in 10 communities across the country, under the banner of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative. United by the shared aspiration of creating and nurturing contemporary approaches to Jewish teen education, engagement and growth, this new network of national and local funders and practitioners worked side by side with teens. Together, they reimagined the youth-serving ecosystem in these communities of varying sizes and demographic composition, with a commitment to sharing whatever unvarnished lessons they would learn.
Fast forward to today and the teen-serving ecosystem in the communities looks vastly different than when the Funder Collaborative started. New programs were incubated and unconventional partnerships took root. Scaling the most successful ideas was baked into the Funder Collaborative’s DNA; impactful programs launched in one community were adapted by others or brought to a national audience via the Funder Collaborative itself. In this way, the impact of the best ideas was amplified to reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of teens. This evolution was always the vision.
Now powered by Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Funder Collaborative created an environment that fosters risk-taking, experimentation and ongoing reflection. Since becoming nested at JFNA, the Collaborative has offered six scaling masterclasses where Jewish professionals from more than 70 organizations learned about best practices and strategies for scaling, many with innovations successfully scaling across the country.
As the Foundation’s grants to these communities conclude, we are eager to advance this work in different ways. While our local partners on the ground continue to cultivate important relationships with an eye on sustainability, we want to share learnings for the benefit of the field at large. In this vein, we are excited to share “From Kedem to Kadimah: 10 Lessons from 10 Years of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative”. Authored primarily by Sara Allen, executive director of the Funder Collaborative, and Rabbi Dena Shaffer, the Funder Collaborative’s director of education and learning, the lessons cover areas including how to hold space for both innovation and proven models; how best to collaborate and engage different audiences; the importance of mission clarity and leadership development; and how to build initiatives and programs designed to be sustainable; among others.
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All of those major events occurred in a span of 33 days, coinciding with Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, a landmark election in the U.K., the warmest days ever in the history of our planet and countless other major events.
We are in a state of VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — a concept coined by the U.S. Army College in 1987 and popularized by the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus. In short, the term describes the current state of our world.
Yet, as coach and facilitator Robin Sawan stated in 2020, “[w]hile VUCA may be the latest buzzword, this constant evolution is not really anything new. Businesses have been facing bold, dramatic change in their specific industries for many years.”
The difference today is not change itself but the pace of change. In part because of the advent of new technologies — and we are still learning the true impact of many of them — the change is happening not year to year but day-to-day or even second-to-second. Human beings are not built to observe, process and adapt this fast.
What, if anything, does this have to do with philanthropy?
Instead of reacting to emergencies and then waiting to “get back to normal,” we must recognize that we are living in a new normal. There is no going back. We need to embrace VUCA, understanding we will experience different degrees of it at different times, and prepare ourselves to navigate effectively through the most acute VUCA moments.
Recently, over morning coffee, my wife remarked to me how lucky I am to do the work I do to help the Jewish community in this moment.
She was and is 100% correct. “I know that I am so fortunate,” I said. “I have an amazing job, incredible colleagues and a brilliant and supportive board. I am on the funder side, where true emergencies are extremely rare.”
“Even with all that,” I confided, “I very occasionally wish I was doing something else. It’s hard to be in the Red Zone all day, every day, which has been the case since Oct. 7.”
“The Red Zone” is a reference to the work of Susan Britton, founder and president of The Academies. Her company focuses on training courses for leaders, businesses and organizations using evidence-based methods that are rooted in neuroscience. One of the cornerstones of her work is what she calls Blue and Red Zones.
These “zones” are measurable physiological states. When we feel safe, in Britton’s words, our “parasympathetic nervous system… brings heart rate and blood pressure to healthy levels, nurtures immune and digestive systems, and restores cortisol levels to baseline… [Thinking becomes] broader and more creative so that we can be more strategic and proactive.”
But when we feel threatened, she writes, “we get emotionally hijacked… [T]he sympathetic nervous system [spikes] us with extra cortisol, adrenaline, and other neurotransmitters. In this fight-flight state, the smartest part of the brain goes off-line (the neocortex), heart rate increases, vagal tone diminishes, and open-mindedness shuts down.”
As humans, we simply can’t spend too much time in the Red Zone. For sure, acute events happen — a loved one dies, a medical diagnosis scares us — but over time, people generally regulate back to “Blue Zones.” As Britton explains, “These temporary spikes are normal and functional when limited to a short period of true need, but damaging to organs over extended periods of time.”
In our incredibly volatile world, pressures on communal professionals have been steadily growing for over a decade. We thought that came to a head with COVID-19, but sadly, while that was very difficult, it was a picnic compared to what many professionals are experiencing today post-Oct. 7. That unprecedented day affected nearly all Jews — most intensely, of course, the direct victims and hostages, as well as their loved ones and all Israelis. For professionals in the Jewish communal world, the lingering impact of that day is felt 24/7 (yes, even on Shabbat) in other ways. In addition to the emotional toll, we feel it logistically as well, with new efforts aimed to support Israel, readjust organizational priorities and respond to rising intra-community and intercommunity tensions and a global upsurge in antisemitism. These efforts are a sprint and a marathon combined.
Recently I had the privilege to attend BBYO’s International Convention. I witnessed the power and joy of over 3,800 teens as they sang, learned, hugged old friends and simply hung out together. The convention was a space to grow personally, share their perspective on big issues and articulate their hopes and fears. I think in many ways I needed that time and experience more than they did. It was incredibly uplifting to be “in the room where it happens” and witness teens, well, just being teens in deep community.
All the uplift of that moment was in stark contrast with the general state of Jewish professional life right now. Over the past five months, I have spent time with dozens of colleagues representing the full range of positions and years of experience in the Jewish professional field. What I saw and heard in many conversations was, frankly, scary. The burnout is massive and the pressures on them are simply not sustainable.
Our people have been in the Red Zone for over five months; this is damaging to the Jewish community and the people who make it function. I fear this will cause a exodus of professionals in the field. Particularly as we inch closer to a surely heated and polarizing November election, the pressure and urgency are not sustainable. The “brain drain” will accentuate an already acute workforce and leadership pipeline problem.
To be sure, being in the Red Zone every once in a while can be a good thing to deepen one’s focus and accelerate progress toward a goal. But how can we get the Jewish workforce out of the Red Zone in the long term to counter an exodus before it occurs?
This will take a concerted and long-term effort, but here are a few basic ideas to get started:
1.) Make jobs doable by no longer fearing overhead. We need a serious rethink of the jobs we ask people to do. Our expectations of people should be, yes, demanding, but also manageable. That could mean leaders focusing more on key priorities and/or dialing back demand. To any leader, manager, board member or other stakeholder, I recommend that before you ask a professional for something, you ask yourself: Is this question important and/or urgent? If it is not, hold off.
On the flip side, making jobs more manageable could also be accomplished by hiring more people. Those who work in the Jewish community are our “raw material,” and yet we skimp and save like crazy. Even before Oct. 7, Leading Edge data from May 2023 showed that most employees and most CEOs at Jewish nonprofits don’t feel there are enough people in the organization to do the organization’s work. Since Oct. 7, that can only have gotten worse. More general operating support from more funders to our trusted grantees would begin to alleviate these feelings. Let’s not fear “overhead.” After all, Jewish professionals are in positions to bring joy to the community, but when their jobs are too overwhelming, that is impossible for them to do.
2.) Compensate our field better. If we want to attract and retain the best and brightest people, we have to pay them well. Why are so many entry- and mid-level employees, who are so critical to their organizations, paid so little while living in large cities (where many organizations are based) with high costs of living? This is even more egregious because we knowhow much day schools, camps, Israel trips and other programs cost in so many parts of the country. Ironically, working in the Jewish community can sometimes make it financially impossible to access the offerings in the community.
3.) Do more to activate boards to help. Boards will be vital in getting back to the Blue Zone. They are stewards of organizations’ resources and long-term strategies, as key partners to professional leaders, and as links between organizations and their communities. Boards need to support their professionals like never before in recognition of the massive amount of complexity they are dealing with every minute of each day. In the long term, we need to rethink the sacred and powerful alliance of how boards and professionals work together. It is often the “secret sauce” that makes our community tick, but a lot of the models are stale. When professionals get stuck in the Red Zone, their boards need to help stabilize and transition their work back to the Blue Zone.
One thing we can all do immediately is express gratitude
A little thank you goes a long way. Let’s go out of our way to acknowledge all that Jewish communal professionals are doing in this moment. We can show patience, kindness and the wisdom of our ancient teachings to judge others favorably.
Think for a moment how, for example, a Hillel professional’s job has grown exponentially. Instead of just focusing on joyful Jewish interactions, they now deal with student mental health, antisemitism, college administrators, safety and security — the list goes on and on. One job became ten. The same is true as the list of demands on many professionals grows and grows.
As I wrote a few months ago, these organizations are the heartbeat of Jewish life in North America. They need more resources, they need more champions, they need more colleagues—and they need a simple thanks.
So, to everyone in this field: thank you. You are giving it your all, you are tired and you’ve been in the Red Zone far too long. Your work and dedication are incredibly valuable.
We can all engage more thoughtfully and more gracefully with professionals. We can structure organizations to better attract young talent and support their success as they become veterans in the field. The Blue Zone is out there. We can get back to it. The vibrancy and health of Jewish professionals and communities depend on it.
Barry Finestone is president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.
This blog originally appeared in eJewish Philanthropy as part of its opinion column “The 501(C) Suite.” (image credit Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay)
“One of our three strategic priorities is investing in Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE),” the foundation shared then. “Build Grants support organizations to invest in their capacity to expand their programs and operations, thus engaging more people at different life stages in meaningful Jewish life. And importantly, we utilize these grants, in part, to support offerings that engage new audiences of young Jews whom we are not reaching with our existing investments.”
When we launched this new strategy, we relied heavily on all of the principles that now compose the Foundation’s First Principles, including centering young people, building meaningful relationships, looking around corners, being curious and leveraging time. Aware that grantee-partners would be on a learning journey with us, we leaned on strong relationships developed over years of relational grantmaking. Our mutual trust actually deepened as we navigated unknowns together about how the work was going and what might come at the conclusionof these grants.
With a new strategy and hypothesis about structure and impact, the Foundation Program Team sought from the outset to always learn throughout this grantmaking experiment. We are devoting significant time, energy and resources to learn as much as we can to improve this area of grantmaking, continually reflecting on what works well and where changes could strengthen our approach.
To this end, we solicited early feedback from grantee partners, funding colleagues and field experts, incorporating high-level insights from our board and assessing our own experience with these investments along the way. We also partnered with Third Plateau on an external evaluation to capture both best practices and formal feedback from early Build Grantee partners.
Some insights led to minor changes, such as identifying which readiness factors needed to be met in full and which had more flexibility. One major observation became clear, however: Given the high bar to qualify, fewer organizations than anticipated were ready for a Build Grant right away. Many required smaller, more targeted capacity-building investments to improve their readiness to absorb growth capital.
In response, we conceptualized Capacity Build Grants: an investment in an organization’s initial capacity when it is a promising Build Grant candidate but missing one or more of the readiness criteria. These targeted investments can fund a strategic plan, evaluation, organizational assessment or other specific areas of need that further position an organization for a Scaling Build Grant next. Growth targets are not tied to these initial investments, as the focus is on preparing for growth. This shift helped us to understand the mutual value of making grants tied to dramatic growth projections only when an organization is ready to absorb significant capital to expand its work.
Importantly, we also learned that we needed to lengthen the timeline of funding. Three years — the initial design — is usually enough time to grow the staff, upgrade systems, further enhance internal operations and begin to expand the program; but it is not enough time for organizations to fully achieve ambitious goals around breadth of reach, fundraising and sustainability. As a result, we have adjusted our arc of investment to best position our grantee-partners to achieve our shared goals.
Another piece of feedback we are acting on is to provide additional technical support beyond the grant funding. While we have begun providing opportunities for networking and learning, specifics of this approach will be identified through continuing engagement with Third Plateau, who will work closely with our grantee-partners to identify areas of emergent need.
These lessons learned, challenges and successes are covered in the evaluation report we shared with Build Grantee-partners in late summer 2023. In addition, a best practices report, which was shared broadly, highlights best practices in capacity building support and is a tool to assess and evaluate our assumptions and design of this new grantmaking area based on the experiences of our grantee partners.
Of course, after we shared the evaluation, the world changed on Oct. 7. Following that day, the foundation recognized a need to provide both emergency grantmaking and additional non-grantmaking support to existing grantee-partners. Our Build Grant recipients were no exception. We relied on our genuine, open, honest relationships with those grantees to learn about their needs and to respond as best we could. We also affirmed that sound grantmaking strategies are effective during both routine and unprecedented times.
More broadly, we are pleased that Build Grants are helping the foundation reach new audiences and support new approaches to powerful Jewish learning; and we look forward to continuing to learn and to share our insights along this journey. As a strategy, Build Grants are a vehicle to support multiyear growth plans and capacity building across the Jewish education ecosystem. These efforts help more Jewish leaders and organizations expand their reach, increase their impact, strengthen their organizations and raise new dollars. As with nearly all of our grantmaking, honesty and transparency with grantee-partners is paramount. Then independent evaluation can be digested and shared and important changes can be made — enabling all of us to better pursue our goals.
Aaron Saxe is the program director of Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE) at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Rachel Shamash Schneider is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.
We are in the immediate wake of the most significant Jewish event of our lifetime. Jews all over the world will mark time as everything before October 7th, 2023, vs. everything after October 7th,2023.
Still in the sheer horror of the moment, Jewish philanthropy–individual donors and foundations alike–are supporting Israel to an unprecedented degree. This is exactly what we should be doing, and it is not the only thing we should be doing.
Our actions in this moment will have a lasting impact, for better or worse, on the American Jewish community. Right now, the Jewish philanthropic community must have a “yes, and” approach toward funding. Yes, we absolutely need to support Israel and Israelis. We need to contribute mightily to the multitude of needs Israel has—for the orphans, the evacuees, the businesses whose employees are now on the front lines, the mental health of the traumatized. All of these causes need our philanthropic support. Yes, give.
And the American Jewish community needs to stay intact; unless philanthropy steps up in the U.S. as well, there is a genuine chance much of the organizational structure we have spent generations building will be stretched to the limits. The structure is holding for now. But I am looking more long-term over months and perhaps years as this war continues. There are very real risks that could break our community.
During Covid, the ENTIRE world was affected. In this instance, Jews are uniquely affected. The need for increased philanthropy in this moment is great. We must address key areas:
Increased security, safety, and mental health support for Jewish organizations’ staff and participants.
Staffing shortages at organizations that depend on employees living in Israel; this includes the Israel offices of American organizations, and Israeli workers who help sustain Jewish experiences here (i.e. Jewish overnight camps rely heavily on Israeli counselors and staff, and recruitment for these positions ordinarily occurs in November and December).
Staffing shortages here in North America as professionals say “enough” of emergencies and the mass stress they bring
Effective responses to requests from Jewish organizational leaders, educators, curriculum content developers, parents, youth, and young adults who need to communicate and educate about what is happening and how to talk and teach about it.
Disruptions to educational programs that involve travel to/from Israel.
Fundraising needs for organizations whose philanthropic supporters are diverting resources to the much-needed aid and assistance for Israel.
These needs are both immediate and will remain for some longer period of time. Our synagogues, day schools, JCCs, social services, our people and our institutions, are the beating heart of Jewish life outside of Israel. Now more than ever, we must give and give generously to cement their existence, so that they may cement ours. If we don’t, we risk losing a generation of North American Jews due to fear, shrinking Jewish engagement offerings, and lack of Jewish professionals equipped with resources and training to do their job effectively.
So, continue or start giving to Israel.
And continue or start giving to the North American Jewish community.
This is a moment to dig deeper than we ever have for Jewish related philanthropy, and we need to give more than ever by a large factor. The time is now. The need is urgent.
This may mean giving less to other worthy causes (e.g., hospitals, museums) that are not in dire need or in a crisis. Instead, direct that money to needs in Israel, to your local Jewish day school, JCC, Jewish camp, and Jewish student organizations. There are countless other very worthy Jewish options from which to choose.
In this moment of despair, I remain intentionally hopeful. Hatikvah, literally “The Hope,” defines the Jewish people and the story of Israel. Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l, juxtaposes “optimism” with “hope” as a call to action:
Optimism and hope are not the same. Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can make the world better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope an active one. It needs no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to hope.
We must continue to hope. Each of us can be Jewish philanthropists to actively make our situation better. We, the Jewish people, need all hands-on deck, and we need each other for the long haul. Generations from now, I see a thriving North American Jewish community, along with a thriving Israel. Both of those will come to fruition, but only if we hope and act.
Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation
We’re pleased to share reflections written before October 7th from the Foundation’s operations associate, Amanda Leal.
I told myself in July of 2022 that I would find a job that helps serve a greater purpose.
I had worked in the semiconductor manufacturing industry for a couple years, as my first “big girl job.” I acquired incredible experience and worked with people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and skills. I scrubbed the floors of a manufacturing floor in order to “5S” the place to create a more productive workspace. I loved it. It was fun and dynamic, but at the end of the day I felt like I did very little to better the world. Just a cog in the machine…you know all the sayings. I decided to begin a job search to work for a nonprofit organization that makes a difference to people’s live—even if I would not directly be hands-on in that work.
I was stoked to find out I had an interview for this “Jewish foundation.” Then after one interview… and another one.. and another one…I got the job! I felt incredibly happy and proud; my hard work had paid off, I prayed/manifested, and it happened. I admit, I was incredibly ignorant to Jewish culture and practice, but I knew that the Jim Joseph Foundation made a difference in the education of youth, and I loved that alone. Interestingly (or maybe not), I am a Christian and was incredibly honored that I would be able to catch on to little things here and there. However, beyond that, I did not completely understand what I was walking into. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up in Central California and as a Christian where church is your whole world. You just don’t meet Jewish people, or even know such a community exists in your own backyard.
In fact, as I told family and friends back home about my new job, I was met with interesting comments from Christians and from self-identifying progressive, young left-leaning people. One interaction: When my parents shared with friends at church that their daughter would be working for Jewish foundation, one person exclaimed that I could be a “beacon of light” at the foundation and help convert every Jewish person there to Christianity. This statement never fails to make me laugh. Another person asked, “Why do Jews need a foundation?” Now listen, I went into this ignorant but not that ignorant. The fact that someone would ask that question truly threw me for a loop. Yet, as I answered the question, I realized I had a pretty surface level response. I recognized that I needed to acquire more knowledge to answer this question to the best of my ability.
It’s been almost a year since I joined the Foundation team and I can answer this question in so many ways. I see how Jewish learning encompasses such a wide range of experiences and opportunities that help young people throughout life. I see how Jewish values inform actions to help others and to improve communities. I see the efforts being made to better welcome BIPOC Jews, LGBTQ+ Jews, and more marginalized communities into Jewish life. The way I think about it in my worldview is this: Some children feel forced by parents to go to their religion’s place of worship. I would have felt so much safer and more loved if I had the same kinds of safe spaces I see the Foundation’s grantee-partners create. I have friends on friends who would have been saved from a lot of misery and could still benefit from those safe spaces, at their big age. It’s all so important, and the journey of “learning how to human,” as I like to say so eloquently, is tough.
I also appreciate the culture of the Foundation, in which all members of the professional team are encouraged to learn about Jewish culture. As I learn more, I also have more questions. Thankfully, the Foundation enables any team member to participate in the Jewish Learning Collaborative, which is one-on-one personalized Jewish learning. I jumped at this opportunity and was thrilled to meet my teacher, Rabbi Dusty Klass. Dusty grew up in an interfaith home with one Catholic parent and one Jewish parent. In wanting to feel seen, I chose Dusty because of the interfaith background, and hoped that she would be open-minded when it came to my inquiries.
Dusty has made clear to me that no question is off limits (something I absolutely adore about Judaism) and provides beautiful responses that lead to about a thousand more questions. Some of the questions I have asked: “Under Judaism, how do we feel about the LGBTQ+ community?” (this was a major item I looked into prior to accepting the job) “How are young adults so involved in the Jewish community?” “What do y’all believe about the afterlife?” “What does Judaism/Jewish text say about periods?” Sometimes a question will lead to another question right out of left field. It is so fun and informative and endless. Most importantly, the JLC makes my learning possible and connects me even more to the work and beneficiaries of the Foundation.
Now, that was a ramble about many things and I hope at the very least, you are not offended by how ignorant I was and still continue to be. I am still learning! Bear with me. As my first year at the Foundation wraps up, I feel incredibly thankful. I feel blessed to feel embraced by my colleagues, and also to be learning about a community that I previously knew nothing about. I am blessed to have coworkers that are patient with me while I pronounce Hebrew words or attempt to drum up excitement for a Jewish based meditation. And most importantly and not at all corny, I feel blessed to continue learning day by day.
Amanda Leal is an Operations Associate at the Jim Joseph Foundation.
What does it mean to scale impact? Many of us equate growth and scale. However, the difference between these approaches to achieving greater impact is worth understanding.
Growth= Adding resources at the same rate that you’re adding reach
Scale = Adding incremental time and resources for exponential impact (increase impact without resource investments). Also known as the J curve!
Thanks to a strategic partnership between Spring Impact and the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative (Funder Collaborative), powered by Jewish Federations of North America, there’s a new opportunity for professionals in the Jewish community to amplify this critical knowledge, skill set, and ultimately, their impact.
The Funder Collaborative, an innovative philanthropic experiment launched over a decade ago, unites national and local funders and practitioners to create, nurture, sustain and scale contemporary approaches to Jewish teen education and growth. From the beginning, the Funder Collaborative committed to sharing frameworks, tools and learnings openly with the goal of helping to advance the entire field of Jewish education and engagement. In 2019, the Funder Collaborative entered into a strategic partnership with Spring Impact, a global organization that specializes in scaling social impact that has worked with over 250 organizations. Today, the Funder Collaborative has become the go-to expert deploying a methodology for scaling impact in the Jewish community.
What does this mean? Think a step-by-step disciplined Methodology to Extend Impact, online toolkits, courses, 1:1 coaching with scaling experts, cohort experiences, and in-person gatherings focused on this content. With new innovations blossoming out of pandemic necessities, and pressures for increased efficiency and expanded impact, there is growing demand for the know-how that can guide this sort of exponential reach. After a few online Scaling Masterclasses, two dozen alumni, including from Hazon (now Adamah), Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Moving Traditions, and Dorot/UJA have each internalized the lessons to scale to new communities. These successes emerged specifically from the Funder Collaborative’s work, and now there is the opportunity to take this methodology to the broader Jewish community. The Funder Collaborative selected organizations to join its first in-person Masterclass in Scale this past April in Silicon Valley.
The signal and invitation were clear: if you have a program or organization that is ready to scale (based on a readiness assessment), come spend two days with like-minded professionals from across the Jewish community’s education and engagement field and create an action plan to expand your impact. Right-fit organizations participated in an online orientation, received 1:1 coaching, and gained access to an online classroom.
I was fortunate to attend the Masterclass in Scale and witness the impactful experience first-hand. Leadership teams from 12 organizations (including Jewish Kids Groups, Jewish LearningWorks, and Hillel International) came together for a masterclass convening that provided a deep dive into nearly all things scaling, guided by the following learning principles and objectives:
Understand the spectrum of scaling models and select a resonant model
Connect the scaling methodology to Jewish context and conversation on growth, expansion, and adaptation
Learn the multi-step process of scaling in a practical step-by-step way
Identify and articulate barriers and explore collaborative solutions
Be inspired by tangible examples of successful scale
Share an experience and connect with a cohort designed to offer support and opportunities for cross-promotion
Together, participants learned about different approaches to scaling, the roles and responsibilities that must be accounted for, various stages to anticipate, and more. Participants chose a pathway to scale (from the nine pathways below), and built in time for pitching, action planning, and brainstorming as an organizational team and cohort. The convening married theory and practice, creating a scaling lab with coaches, teachers, and the cohort colleagues on hand.
As a funder representative and believer in this work, the benefits of this Masterclass were clear. Here are some learnings from the experience:
Theory and Practice Are Essential. The Masterclass provided a valuable space for learning and building connections. An in-person setting is most conducive for action planning and relationship building – skill building and cohort building go hand-in-hand for impact.
Thoughtful Convening Design. Event designers took this training to the next level by infusing connection time and gathering best practices. Pre and post meetings helped make the most out of the in-person time together.
Belonging Matters and Creates Momentum. Professionals from the 12 organizations expressed a sense of belonging and an appreciation for the diversity of people and programs represented. Participants craved more learning and social together time in person and partnerships are already being explored.
Next-level Professional Development. Participants praised the PD experience as unique in the ecosystem, many of them creators of training programs themselves. They enjoyed opportunities to learn from others and the real-world stories that validated all the effort it takes to plan and scale effectively.
Field and Funder Education is Needed. There is a significant opportunity and critical need for our field to understand the difference between scale and growth and provide the resources to extend impact accordingly.
Scaling does not get the credit it deserves in the innovation ecosystem. Building from scratch is important, and so too is not reinventing the wheel and successfully spreading all the good ideas already out there.
Relevance Beyond Programs and Across Organizations. Scaling methodology is relevant for organizations of all shapes and sizes and at different points in the lifespan. From synagogue programs to regional afterschool programs to Hillel International, this content and experience was valuable for everyone. Though the training is designed for program scaling, it offers value to the entire organization’s way of thinking and doing.
Organizations Need Technical Assistance. Organizations receive funding to scale but often don’t have the skills to get there. Their professionals need to be equipped with more support and training, earlier in their scaling journeys.
As we continue to share learnings around scaling, with the Funder Collaborative leading these efforts, we also look to share “learnings around learning.” Throughout this year, the Foundation has shared insights around small convenings, large network conferences, and more. Masterclasses are yet another tool in our field’s toolkit to bring people together and share best practices.
We are especially excited to see the concept of scaling continuing to make inroads in our field. Innovation and experiments with new initiatives are of course important. But so too is understanding how to scale effective programs, whether new or legacy, that have proven, positive outcomes. We recognize the importance of education and thought partnership on this topic, with funding colleagues and grantee partners alike. If you are interested in learning more about upcoming Scaling Masterclasses, please complete this form and if you’re a funding colleague interested in supporting and elevating this work in your portfolio, please reach out to me, [email protected]
Rachel Shamash Schneider is a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.
In the past few months, I have been fortunate to attend two “inaugural” convenings of Jewish professionals who previously had not been together in person as a cohesive group. Each event was curated for individuals who play a particular role in different organizations within Jewish education. The power of convening professionals in person, with similar roles across organizations, was especially pronounced in a world heavily impacted by the pandemic. There was a unique energy and excitement created by those face-to-face interactions, with the opportunity to discuss common goals and innovative solutions for shared challenges.
Convenings of this nature are more than just learning opportunities for the participants; they are valuable learning experiences for the Jim Joseph Foundation too. We get to hear, in real-time, how professionals approach their work, what they’re grappling with, and what they need to further advance the field. Convenings also are part of our strategy to scale best practices—whether in data gathering and usage, design of professional development programs, Jewish learning experiences, or other models—from one organization or community to others in the field.
One convening, sponsored by the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE), invited directors of professional development (PD) programs for Jewish educators writ large to learn about applying research to practice. Thirty organizations were represented that provide high-quality PD for a wide variety of educators using different teaching formats and in various settings—day school teachers, experiential educators, Hillel professionals, camp counselors, and many more.
Similar to our professional learning community in our Professional Development Initiative five years ago (convened by Rosov Consulting), the 60 program directors at this convening saw themselves as individuals within a professional field—not in silos focusing only on their particular audience or setting. With this mindset, their learning and knowledge sharing covered more topics and focused on more audiences. And any successes each person has is much more likely to impact one of their peers. The group of participants spent two days hearing about research findings (studies both inside the Jewish education arena and outside), asking questions to gain clarity and understanding, breaking into small groups—sometimes with peers they collaborated with previously and sometimes with peers they never thought to consult—and brainstorming how to apply their new learning to improve their programs.
The second convening involved “the data people” at five large organizations who provide powerful Jewish learning experiences for young people. The goal was to explore shared measures of outcomes and of participant demographics. Of particular note is that not only had these individuals never before convened, but many of their positions within their organizations are relatively new. This reflects a field of Jewish engagement and education that more and more is recognizing the power of data—and ensuring that they have in-house expertise to help gather it and make data-informed decisions.
Rosov Consulting facilitated a productive conversation about the implementation of a pilot study of shared outcome and participant demographic measures, the resulting findings, the challenges, and the potential for future data collection. Together, the group generated opportunities that will leverage data sharing and discussed issues that might prevent data sharing in certain instances. Some conversations centered around learning from each other (for example, how to collect attendance data, what databases are most conducive to storing data) to sharing challenges related to hiring early career professionals who are data savvy.
Consistent data gathering, analysis, and application of research is in relatively nascent stages across much of our field. These convenings, and future ones like it, will help the field advance in this area, become more sophisticated in data collection and analysis, and scale the use of resulting data more quickly across the field.
While many already knew or knew of each other, the post-pandemic meetings were rich with content, ideas, networking, and celebration. In both, new relationships were formed and past relationships were strengthened, enabling a sense of community and commonality to be regained. These factors make it more likely that proven models of professional development and data gathering are shared and adapted throughout our field. We recognize too that while one convening is productive, its especially impactful to bring these people back together for more convenings, while also introducing new individuals into these experiences. This approach will help to bring fresh perspectives to the table so that more people in Jewish education and engagement can share learnings and work through challenges together.
Stacie Cherner is Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation.
In the West Bank, one can travel directly from Jerusalem to Efrat to Ariel without having to go through Nablus, Rafa, or Ramallah. There is a bypass road that avoids areas deemed to be troublesome, problematic, or unsafe. There is beauty (and efficiency) in a pathway that goes directly from point to point; a thoroughfare that provides feelings of safety and security while circumventing locations that are considered less desirable.
As a traveler, however, the bypass road is problematic. The traveler is only exposed to and interacts with a narrow group of people and their perspectives on life. Call it tribalism, isolationism, exceptionalism – the truth is one can traverse Israel and the Territories without ever seeing many of its inhabitants. The traveler on this road is cut off from difference.
At the end of January, I participated in Makom’s pilot training seminar, Dreams of Others, designed for educators seeking a deeper understanding of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Over the course of five days, we went off the bypass road. Using the pedagogy of hesed (respect) and din (judgment) and a framework of dreams and nightmares to understand personal bespoke narratives, we visited the in-between spaces. We visited the home of a Palestinian woman named Hinadi living in Silwan and the home of Ahron in Ir David, ostensibly in the same neighborhood while worlds apart. We visited Mayor Oded Revivi in Efrat before meeting Ashraf Al Ajrami, the former Minister of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in the Palestinian Government, in Atarot. We met with Palestinian and Jewish devotees of civil society and those with completely divergent viewpoints. As expected, we heard about the safety and security concerns of Jewish Israelis and of the civil rights and democracy challenges of the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. But we also learned that no segment of people can be cast as binary.
First, the beauty. The trip was partially defined by hospitality. This ranged from rugelach to baklawa; from traditional coffees and teas to sodas and spirits. There was not a home, office, or classroom that we entered without being welcomed as any guest would be, with open arms. This visit was co-created by R. Joe Schwartz, R. Danny Weininger, and Osnat Fox (The Education Lab of the Jewish Agency), and lead educators Mohammad Darawshe and Rebecca Bardach. I mention this both to credit these talented educators and to highlight the importance of having a Palestinian / Israeli Arab perspective and presence on this journey and a significant focus on processing. It is one thing to have speakers show up with varying views; it is another entirely to build a program together which engenders trust and candor.
Experiential education like this is not without its challenges. A 24-year old Palestinian nonprofit CEO who traveled to meet the group was not dropped off by her Palestinian taxi driver outside of the restaurant in Gush et Tzion- rather she was left more than 1/2 a kilometer away because the driver feared he would be shot when opening the door in this settlement community. Additionally, on our final day of travel, we were forced to take literal side streets as the main roads in the West Bank were closed after the Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp. A terrorist attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue; a shooting in the Silwan neighborhood; and rockets overhead in and around Gaza followed over the subsequent 48 hours. While not constant, fear is a reality for many.
In many ways, the last two decades of Israel education (both metaphorically and in some instances literally) have taken place on bypass roads. These scenic passageways exposed learners to Israel’s achievements in science and technology; advancements in arts & culture; academic and athletic successes; and humanitarian accolades, often under the banner Israel Beyond the Conflict. On this bypass road, many educators and programs avoided topics like the second Intifada, the Lebanon War, Gaza incursions, and terror attacks. Certainly, meaningful discourse about the conflict has existed in some Jewish education settings, and many entities have engaged with Jewish and Arab Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab communities across the Middle East as a touch point for Israel travel experiences. But, across the field writ large, this has been more of the exception than the rule. There is a difference between making space for a conversation and intentionally, regularly incorporating it into curriculum and practice. More and more organizations in the field of Israel education are finally doing the latter, and we think our community and our next generation will be better off for it.
This new vertical builds on the vital work of educators and practitioners in developing the field of Israel education over the last two decades. Organizations like The iCenter, the Israel Institute, Makom, The Shalom Hartman Institute, The Center for Israel Education, and Israel Studies departments across North America emerged during that time. Parallel to this, talented individuals helped found immersive Israel travel providers for youth and young adults, including Birthright, Honeymoon Israel, iTrek, Onward Israel (which is now a part of Birthright), RootOne, Tamid, and many others. Organizations existed before this but were far less interconnected.
Jerusalem overlook with Palestinian children’s cemetery in the foreground adjacent to an excavation site in Ir David/City of David
The Jim Joseph Foundation is now following the lead of other philanthropists who have led the charge by investing in Israel education that includes the conflict. Conflict education is the more multilayered approach that engages with different perspectives and people. This approach trusts that offering a balance of perspectives will not turn a learner away; rather, it will have the opposite effect. Sivan Zakai, a researcher and professor who directs the Children Learning about Israel Project, argues that conflict can and should be taught from as early as Kindergarten and progressively build on that education as students increase their depth of knowledge and begin to understand more about nuance. Some organizations and initiatives, like For the Sake of Argument and Resetting the Table, focus on how to have and learn from courageous conversations. Others, like The iCenter’s Conflict Education, teach educators directly about the history and present of the conflict. Still others, like Makom, incorporate travel components to Israel and Palestinian territories as a way to deepen Israel education in a way that reflects the learners’ needs and the realities of our world today.
While the newer interventions themselves are formidable, we continue to invest in market studies, applied research, and evaluation to better understand both the opportunities and needs in the field today. Particularly over the last two years, practitioners, educators, and funders have encouraged many organizations in the field to embed conflict content into core offerings to create a deeper and more holistic understanding of Israel for learners. The iCenter recently found that more than 130 initiatives now incorporate learning about conflict education related to Israel and the Middle East into their curricula. This was not the case five years ago.
The purpose of the Dreams of Others Seminar and other conflict education experiences is not to change the minds of the participants. There is no political agenda. Rather, it is a deep learning and training opportunity to help educators create experiences for learners premised on connection, meaning, and purpose. Young Jewish learners are asking and, in some cases, yearning for an authentic approach to Israel that includes dialogue about the conflict from many vantage points. In juxtaposing their universalist human values with their particular Jewish ones, many are finding the topic of Israel more of a wedge than an opportunity to engage. These immersive experiences can help them navigate and lean into nuance and varying perspectives. Similar to our belief in trust-based philanthropy as a methodology to achieve effective relational grantmaking we believe that we should trust the young Jewish women and men we serve to engage in courageous conversations as they build their complex identities.
We are grateful to the bold educators who are charting this path and engaging learners in holistic Israel education experiences—taking all of us off the bypass roads for a more impactful, more authentic learning experience.
Steven Green is Senior Director, Grants Management and Compliance at the Jim Joseph Foundation.
A joy of being part of the funder-grantee relationship is experiencing the grantee-partner’s work first-hand. In particular, I am grateful that the Jim Joseph Foundation prioritizes staff time to experience field-wide gatherings hosted by grantee-partners, many of which are occurring for the first time following the height of the pandemic.
Recently, I was privileged to attend the Prizmah conference in Denver, where I learned alongside educators, education leaders, lay leaders, content experts, funders and other inspiring colleagues. While I was a little nervous congregating with so many people again, I was immediately put at ease by the warmth and creative energy that was palpable throughout the conference (as well as thoughtfully planned break time to breathe in the fresh Colorado air).
Experiencing the conference reinforced for me the importance of investments in network organizations. These organizations, such as Foundation for Jewish Camp, JCCA, along with Prizmah and others, are uniquely positioned to bring together many diverse voices in the field to celebrate and learn from each other’s successes, while also addressing challenges and imagining and planning for a vibrant Jewish future.
Now in its seventh year as an organization, Prizmah’s conference exemplified its readiness to sustain and grow the day school field by supporting the people and schools who positively influence young learners and help develop them into leaders. Here are some insights into how Prizmah leveraged the conference to pursue this vision:
A Platform for Futurist Thinking – By bringing education futurists to speak at the conference, Prizmah helped reinforce the need for day schools to anticipate not just what families and educators want now, but to think about these needs with a long-term view, ten, twenty years out. What should Jewish/secular curriculum look like then? What will parent engagement need to account for then? What will student and educator needs be at that time? What will an endowment look like that ensures financial stability and offers long-term affordability models? Many conference participants had already begun to think in this way and about these questions, but futurist speakers like Lisa Kay Solomon, Ariel Raz, and Louie Montoya helped to inspire, prioritize, and concretize how to develop plans with a level of specificity that address these areas.
An Investment in the Entire Ecosystem – Prizmah has a very holistic approach to the day school field’s opportunities and challenges. In this regard, Prizmah as a network organization is a conduit for the Foundation to invest in educators that influence myriad learners, families, and communities each year. At the conference, while some of the conversations focused on the local level, it was clear that people were craving macro level systemic content and resources. Conference participants, for example, wanted to hear how Prizmah network members and partners are addressing educator pipeline, recruitment, and retention challenges. While these are three distinct challenges, they are also clearly related. Prizmah, as the field leader, can help craft potential solutions to solve one of the challenges in ways that account for the relationship between all three. This complex set of issues is an area of interest to the Jim Joseph Foundation as it relates to not only day school education but the broader Jewish education sector as well.
Relevant and Timely Programming and Resources – The theme of the Prizmah conference, Creative Spirit, says it all. This mindset was evident in every detail of the conference program design as well as all that Prizmah offers to its network members and beyond. In addition to the speakers, learning sessions, and networking, the conference provided a real time space for organizations to share their resources and address nearly anything a day school education leader would need to support their educators and, in turn, their students and families. From youth mental health, to diversity, equity, and inclusion, to digital technology tools, network organizations are able to offer support through these gatherings at the individual, community, and macro levels. And while virtual conferences can be valuable, especially when being physically together is not an option, there is no substitute for in-person gatherings and resource sharing.
Prizmah is a partner that both thinks granularly and also with a larger “systems lens.” This perspective is critical in developing viable interventions at a scale that leads to field-wide solutions. Forward-thinking thought leadership, partnerships, collaborations, and investments will help build a shared vision for the future of Jewish day schools. I am proud to work alongside our Prizmah colleagues and other strategic partners to support these efforts so that more educators are well positioned to positively influence the lives of young people today and in the future.
the 60 program directors at this convening saw themselves as individuals within a professional field—not in silos focusing only on their particular audience or setting. With this mindset, their learning and knowledge sharing covered more topics and focused on more audiences. And any successes each person has is much more likely to impact one of their peers. The group of participants spent two days hearing about research findings (studies both inside the Jewish education arena and outside), asking questions to gain clarity and understanding, breaking into small groups—sometimes with peers they collaborated with previously and sometimes with peers they never thought to consult—and brainstorming how to apply their new learning to improve their programs.