News & Blogs Category: Guest Blog

This is part 3 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

A century ago, when my bubbe sat in her fifth grade classroom in a Chicago public school, with 30+ classmates sitting row after row, listening to her teacher lecture, it would have been hard, probably impossible, for her to envision learning today. Learning now, as we all know, is everywhere. On a Wikipedia page, a YouTube TED talk, and your Twitter feed. The combination of your digital device and your experience powers up your learning, wherever you are. Curious about something? Look it up. Want to measure something? Go for it. Need to verify something? Check it out. Document something for the world? We’re waiting.

Within this context, it is easy to understand how more than 2.5 million students from public and private schools enroll in online classes annually. Among them are several thousand Jewish students who take Jewish studies courses online. Online learning, both formal courses and more informal learning “experiences,” has the potential to disrupt the Jewish educational framework as we know it.

There are several reasons why online learning turns traditional Jewish education on its head: its accessibility means that Jewish learning is not limited to classrooms, camps, or big cities; its pedagogy means that learning is personalized with multiple pathways and there is no “settling”; its digital nature means that it is familiar and always current; its price tag means it is affordable for families and communities; and its place in the Web makes Jewish connections – across city, state, and country lines – not only possible but probable.

Online learning can take on many forms: formal (courses) or informal (experiences), fully online (with an online facilitator), or blended (with a face-to-face element). It can have asynchronous (non-live) elements and synchronous (live) elements, be self-paced or calendar-paced, designed for individuals or groups, and integrate social media, multimedia, and games, or not. The creation of meaningful and effective online learning environments begins with understanding the centrality of the learner. To be engaging, online learning needs to activate learners from the outset, so that they are creating, thinking, sharing, and working with their peers, driving the experience. If they are passive consumers, there is no in-depth learning happening. Ideally, they are online and offline, completing authentic tasks, reflecting on their learning, producing prototypes and artifacts in constant dialogue with peers and their facilitator.

When we create courses at Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy, our first critical ingredient is intentional design. Form should always follow function. Is content learning the number one priority, or are social connections and community? The two need not to be mutually exclusive, but answering this question helps determine the structure. For instance, for a formal course, there will be assessments of some kind, whereas a course designed to be a social experience, will focus on collaborative activities. It will also point to the right balance between asynchronous and synchronous elements. Asynchronous learning is excellent for relaying information, encouraging learner reflection, and supporting a range of voices. But is academic achievement our only objective? There are always those “aha” moments in education, but just as important is the magic of children together, talking, doing, learning, and having fun. The opportunity for Jewish students to meet and work with other Jewish students from other cities and states cannot be understated.

Then specific learning objectives are delineated. Do we want participants to know how to light Shabbat candles? Study a chapter in a Biblical text? Break some kind of Jewish record (the largest virtual challah bake-off, perhaps?) Whatever the objective, we curate or create the supports and materials that they need to achieve their goals. If they need to meet Hillel, the Talmudic sage, we make sure that will happen (via avator) or, if they are in need of a trip to Tel Aviv to understand how modern Israel came into being, we produce the video. Perhaps they need to dig into their family history and interview their great-aunt about her experiences in the 1940s but need a hand crafting the questions, or want to speak to a peer about her family’s traditions on Rosh Hashana, but are in need of a module on active listening.

Avatar of Hillel from Online Jewish Studies Course

The other critical ingredient is facilitation, no mean feat. While excellent classroom teachers or informal educators may become excellent online facilitators, online learning depends on an additional (and sometimes) different skill set. Many classroom teachers are used to being the source of knowledge for their students. Facilitation, especially in an online medium, implies something different. Because the content is already constructed, the facilitator has time for what really matters: working with individuals and groups to collaborate, bringing out the wisdom of the group, asking (and modeling) thoughtful questions, guiding them towards discovery. Doing this in a face-to-face environment is challenging enough. All online facilitators should go through rigorous training, and if possible, work with a mentor until they incorporate best practices.

Once trained, a warm and energetic facilitator is vital, but so is a significant time commitment. In an online learning environment, participants are online when it works for them – early mornings, late afternoons, or perhaps the middle of the night, but early enthusiasm will wane if the participant feels unnoticed and ignored. The facilitator needs to foster a welcoming and inclusive culture, inviting participants first to participate, and then to lead the experience. This translates into dozens of IMs, emails, videos, and meetings via web conference. As participants begin to lead their own conversations and activities, the facilitator pulls back, always ready to encourage, correct, or probe students, if needed.

Because of the vast amount of data we can cull in online learning platforms, and the quantity of feedback from participants who are eager to share, it is relatively easy to determine what works and what does not. We know, for instance, that studies in K-12 education indicate that there is “no significant difference” between online and face-to-face education in terms of student outcomes (for further research look here, here, and here). That is, students learn effectively in both environments. In Jewish schools too, principals and students echo that the environment does not matter, as long as students are given the instructional and technological support needed to thrive. We also know that participants are enthusiastic about directing their Jewish learning, wherever it leads. They love meeting and collaborating virtually with other Jewish teenagers outside their locale, and reflecting about Jewish ideas, texts, and practice. But even with what we know, we can barely imagine what can be. The possibilities are endless. All we need to do is experiment. My bubbe – yours too – would expect no less.

Chana German ([email protected]) is founder and director of Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy, a project of The Lookstein Center, Bar-Ilan University. Lookstein Virtual is an award-winning online school of Jewish Studies, which enrolls more than 500 teenagers from Jewish and public schools every year.

Some of the most powerful memories from childhood are associated with summer: the riotous sound of crickets at night; a first sighting of the Milky Way; the hot sensation of a campfire on one’s face; or for those not able to get out of town, the intrigue of long hours left to one’s own devices. These moments gain their special force from breaking with the chores and routines of the school year.

For many Jewish adults, summer is associated with their childhood experiences of overnight camp. For six weeks or even longer, their foremost task as campers was to release the stress and constraints of school in the company of peers. Such programs might have recruited only a small portion of Jewish young people, but for many educators and parents they still constitute a kind of gold standard for immersive education and experience. Camp modeled an alternative society, and sometimes an explicitly Jewish one too.

In recent decades, these cultural patterns have dramatically changed. Overnight camps have been offering ever shorter programs. An increasing number provide 12-day/2-weekend experiences. Providers are being squeezed by diminished patience for multi-week programs, by a shrinking public’s ability and willingness to pay the fees associated with a full summer program, by the pressure teens increasingly feel to utilize summer experiences to enhance their resumés and by their interest to engage in a range of activities over the long stretch of the summer.

Against this backdrop, the New York Jewish Teen Initiative was launched in 2014. This ambitious effort to create new models of summer programing for Jewish teens, and to increase the numbers participating in Jewish experiences, is a partnership between UJA Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation within the framework of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, which includes national and local funders from ten communities. The Jewish Education Project serves as lead operator of the Initiative, which is being evaluated by a team from Rosov Consulting. Ahead of a third summer of programming, it is appropriate to take stock of what we’ve learned so far. A full report is available here.

Over its first two years, the Initiative incubated a cohort of eight new summer programs for teens. A second cohort of six programs will be launched this summer. The first cohort was extremely diverse in its offerings. It included a service learning trip to the South, a pop-up/design-thinking catering initiative to serve seniors, Jewish surf camp, a theater camp, and different internship programs. Perhaps the only common feature was that these were not overnight camping programs. They included daytime programs in the New York area, an Israel experience with a vocational twist, and a challenging service learning program out of the city.

For all their diversity, there are some general learnings to be derived from these first two years of activity, about teens, Jewish teen programs, and the teen summer program ecosystem.

Stretching and Breathing: The summer marketplace may have changed, but in important respects teens have not. They seek opportunities to make friends and have fun with friends. At the same time, they want to be challenged, learn new skills, make the most of their time, and find meaning, (at least that’s the case for these young New Yorkers). When teens reflected on what they most enjoyed about these experiences they highlighted how the programs provided a chance both to learn AND to have fun. These programs demonstrate the promise of a model where intensity and relaxation, what we call “stretching and breathing,” can be experienced at the same time.

By offering something different from regular summer experiences, the programs provide teens with frameworks that speak deeply to their own personal interests, and that enable them to find themselves. As one teen told us, “that was the most myself I’ve ever been.” And – no less important – teens have a chance to find others. Paradoxically, by taking participants out of their comfort zones, the programs enable them to connect and form new friendships with other Jewish teens who share their interests. This relational core is compelling especially when accompanied by a sense of authenticity, self-worth and achievement.

Programs finding a Jewish voice: In their first year, program-leaders were anxious about being perceived as too Jewish in their messaging and content. In the second year the programs found their Jewish voice. On the one hand, they did so in diverse fashion: by infusing social action work with Jewish texts or Jewish role models; by developing modes of Jewish spirituality and religious meaning; or by broadening their participants’ encounter with the global Jewish community. On the other hand, the programs did develop a common Jewish ethos, one captured succinctly by a program director as helping “teens discover the extent to which Judaism is a framework for teens’ lives.” None of the programs promoted a particular ideological or denominational vision of Judaism. But, they did all share the same aspiration to demonstrate to teens that Judaism, and being Jewish, has potential to be relevant.

This is no small matter. Even while reaching out to and engaging a diverse group of teens – with varying levels of prior Jewish experiences and commitments – the programs demonstrate that it is possible to conceive of Jewish education in terms that are broad, inclusive, and meaningful, and to publicize this fact.

Startups in a legacy market: The cohort of new programs incubated by the New York Jewish Teen Initiative face an additional challenge. They are competing in a space where the dominant players are either legacy programs that have been in operation for years, and often generations, or are programs that recruit returnee-participants year after year. With the exception of one program, the Initiative’s programs are not designed for returnee participants. Even when the programs are housed at brand-name institutions or are led by well-known organizations, their challenge is to gain attention and traction for new offerings and experiences in a highly-congested general teen summer marketplace. These circumstances mean that recruitment has been the greatest challenge the programs have faced. Some of the original cohort have fallen by the wayside. Only now as Year 3 begins can the first cohort say that they have really found their market. And, even then, the intense work of meeting families and gaining their trust continues.

Evidently, it takes a few years to achieve the kind of traction programs seek, especially when the day-program model that most offer is itself a departure from the overnight norm for this age group. At a time when stakeholders often seek rapid returns on their investments, these teen programs demonstrate that, like so many other memorable summer experiences, good things take time.

Dr. Alex Pomson is Managing Director at Rosov Consulting. Melanie Schneider is Senior Planning Executive, Jewish Life Department, at UJA Federation of New York.

originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy

Four years ago, Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens was released, a report that brought to the fore promising models and practical ways for communities to engage teens in Jewish experiences that enrich their lives and help them grow. On the heels of the report, national and local funders representing ten communities took action, coming together to study the findings, commission additional groundbreaking reports, and to design responsive local teen engagement initiatives. Ultimately, the group evolved into a robust community: the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

The Funder Collaborative is an innovative philanthropic experiment – a network of funders working together to develop, fund, support and grow new teen initiatives that draw on the collective strength of local organizations. Co-funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the community-based initiatives are multi-faceted approaches designed to reverse the trend of teens opting out of Jewish life in their high school years. Members have become valuable peer resources, each of whom are at different points in their initiative process.

Concurrent to the community-based education and engagement initiatives, the Funder Collaborative embarked on a process of enhanced research into teen Jewish engagement, learning and education. Outcomes for experiential and immersive Jewish education, as well as other research, informs our view of programming toward the whole teen. With a commitment to openness and transparency, the Funder Collaborative shares its hard-won lessons with others to increase knowledge and tools which may advance the entire field of Jewish teen education and engagement.

Today marks the launch of a new website designed to become a vital resource for anyone seeking to benefit from these lessons, models and research: teenfundercollaborative.com. Here we will share highlights of the work in each of our communities, as well as the deep research and rigorous evaluation that helps shape our efforts. We will also house detailed model documentation on specific initiatives exploring the structures, partnerships, risks, and more that have led to successes and “fail forward” moments for learning.

Learnings from the Funder Collaborative

While we are excited to share these resources, we also recognize we don’t hold all the answers to the challenging and complex issues surrounding meaningful Jewish teen engagement. Yet together – as we learn from and build on the knowledge of those who been active in this space before us – we are charting a positive course forward, helping to amplify and expand upon the important work of others.

We hope, too, to make some new discoveries which contribute to the field. Already we are poised to share the early results of interventions and other evidence-based understandings of:

• the urgent need to address the whole teen, recognizing that teens often do not delineate between one’s Jewish and “secular” identity;
• the paradigm of relationship-based engagement that places the teen at the center where we contribute and respond to them, not vice versa;
• the critical role of developing the talented professionals and adult volunteers who engage teens and who advocate for supporting teens’ increased involvement in Jewish life and learning;
• local communities’ role in weaving and publicizing a tapestry of meaningful opportunities for teens;
• and the desire of teens to feel empowered to create experiences for themselves for their peers, and to grow through leadership and skill development.

Two new publications from Rosov Consulting also released today highlight key learnings and encouraging results from this new form of collaboration.

1.) INITIAL OUTCOMES ACROSS COMMUNITIES: First Fruits from the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

The Funder Collaborative invests heavily in evaluation: each local initiative engages independent consultants and, importantly, a Cross-Community Evaluation enables us to analyze outcomes across communities and identify the most promising practices. The insights we glean can have wide-ranging implications for any community engaged in this work.

The CCE presents an honest and rich picture of early learnings of four of the initiatives, as well as the challenges of attempting to evaluate varied approaches, programs, partnerships and staffing structures. Results show we are beginning to “move the needle” in important ways.

Many communities attribute early programmatic successes to their participation in the collaborative and its steadfast commitment to knowledge-sharing. The evolution of the collaborative itself is central to creating an environment that fosters risk-taking, experimentation and ongoing reflection.

2) PREPARING TO DEEPEN ACTION: A Funder Collaborative Finds Its Way is the second installment in a series of case studies documenting the collaborative (the first released in 2015) and the result of 15 months of observations and interviews. It offers an informative and pragmatic examination for any organization considering the merits and challenges of such large-scale collaboration.

“Being part of something bigger than our community, to have the national support, intelligence and research and show that we are trying to change the conversation has helped me to justify and validate what we are doing.” – Local Funder

The Collaborative has evolved into a healthy mix of local and national funders and implementers who continue to come together to discuss, dissect and address shared areas of interest. In fact, this model of creating space for a Community of Practice across communities is echoed within many of the local initiatives, which themselves seed and nurture a thriving ecosystem of educators and youth-serving professionals to strengthen and sustain their models.

The Future of the Funder Collaborative

Now, around the country teens are benefiting from new and diverse models of meaningful learning and engagement that address the ‘whole teen’; communities employ better prepared and more well-trained and connected youth professionals; and there is a rising sense that teens themselves hold a special place on our communal agenda.

We invite you to be a part of this growth; to explore what we share; and to question, learn and experiment with us. Please be in touch ([email protected]) with your thoughts and feedback, and visit teenfundercollaborative.com to sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

Sara Allen is Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

This blog appeared originally in eJewishPhilanthropy.com.

This is part 2 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

In 1911, William Inglis, writing for Harper’s Weekly profiled Thomas Edison’s latest invention that he guaranteed would, “make school so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn’t keep boys and girls out of it.” The technology was Edison’s filmstrips, and the promise was that it would reduce costs and create a more engaging and effective educational experience for students.

Anyone who has sat through an educational filmstrip knows of course that this claim was overstated. Yet, the fact remains for over a hundred years folks have sought to ascertain the potential impact of technology on education. Unsurprisingly, the same promises that were made with filmstrips, radio, television, CD-ROMS, laser-disks, and the internet, are the same being made for 1:1 laptop programs, blended/personalized learning, and a wide range of other technologies. Before attempting to ascertain the potential impact on educational technology for Jewish Education today, it behooves us to look to the history of these technologically driven future visions of Jewish education from the past. They offer us tremendous insight as we look forward in our current time and place.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Jewish educational world did not ignore Edison’s technological innovation. Gratz College, Yeshiva University, the NY Bureau of Jewish Education, the Reform & Conservative movements and others had active audiovisual departments producing content to “instruct students through the eye.” Thousands of filmstrips, and numerous curricular guides, catalogs “running more than 100 pages” and other materials were created “in great abundance, particularly on Jewish history, Israel, the American Jewish community, customs and ceremonies, and current events.”

The problem was, folks were so concerned with ensuring that they were keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies that these efforts were designed without much forethought, were fragmented, scattered, and often had significant problems of quantity and quality.

In 1976, (just before the new educational VHS craze was to come onto the scene) the Second Jewish Catalogue summed up the problem succinctly:

“There is a lack of quality media resources for fostering the Jewish knowledge and identity needed to ensure the spiritual survival of Diaspora Jewry… Visual images in living color have become the language of the day. Unfortunately, however, the majority of Jewish institutions in this country are still in the Dark Ages. While the world at large has moved on to multidimensional modes of transmitting oral tradition, the Jewish world remains bound to the page.”

But we persisted. Five years later in 1981, JESNA was launched with the explicit goal to make engaging, inspiring, high quality Jewish education available to every Jew in North America. One of their key focus areas was “Innovative Solutions: Developing creative new approaches to expand the impact of Jewish education.”

Just a few months later, they devoted their entire quarterly magazine, The Pedagogic Reporter to focus on how Jewish education can be enriched through the use of technology. This included articles exploring the advances in computer hardware and software, uses for multimedia (television and film) in Jewish education, and integration of computers into schools and libraries.

My personal favorite insight from that 1981 magazine on the potential impact of technology on education is from Ira Jaskoll’s article:

“The computer can introduce a new dimension into Jewish education, one that is extraordinarily geared to the reality of the students’ future lives. As the information explosion continues, a shift must inevitably occur from the old style of education that stressed the acquisition of facts: what will be necessary in the world of tomorrow to increased skill in sorting and analyzing the vast quantities of available information. As the computer has been widely employed at this task in the realm of industry, so it can be liberating in education and in the student’s personal life.”

Which I’m sure many of you readers have heard articulated in an almost verbatim way to justify educational technological integration today some twenty-five years later.

This growth of technology, paired with the desire of content-driven education paved the way for publishers to respond as well. By 1983 Torah Aura had produced Torah Tunes, a Thirty-six week parashat hashavuah curriculum, and Davka had produced two acclaimed educational video games for the newly released ultra-light 20lb Apple IIe computer. By 1986 there were over 100 Jewish educational software titles.

Foundations like the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture hired experts to research the phenomenon, others like the Revson Foundation made huge investments to produce and distribute content from the non-Jewish world like with Shalom Sesame, and the The Jewish Heritage Video Collection, and others like the Covenant Foundation sought to provide resources and knowledge sharing to innovative local communities trying to harness this brand new thing called the internet.

And so on…

We have extremely short-term memories and a lack of institutional knowledge of the history of these Jewish educational endeavors, and as a result instead of building on our knowledge, we often end up starting all over again as if these ideas (not to mention the educational philosophers who laid the groundwork for them) have never existed.

I believe strongly in the ability of technology to help positively transform the Jewish educational field, but only if we commit ourselves to first understanding what it is we hope to achieve from harnessing these tools, developing a coherent educational vision for our institutions, and then to stop pretending that every discussion we have today about educational technology begins assuming that this is all brand new, and that we have no historical use, educational philosophy or evidence of efficacy of any of this stuff.

I wish to conclude with a series of recommendations moving forward, which admittedly I have basically plagiarized verbatim from Jacob Ukeles who wrote them for the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture thirty years ago:

1. Investment in technology for Jewish education should incorporate older technologies as well as the latest and greatest stuff. In the appropriate excitement over the latest shiny stuff older proven tech should not be ignored.
2. The design, production, and distribution of the new technology to schools must place teachers at the heart of the effort. Attempts to produce “teacher-proof” curricula for Jewish schools have been a dismal failure. Technology can only be seen as a tool for teachers not as a replacement for teachers.
3. We should leverage our resources by cooperating with others on specific projects. Others might be individual philanthropists, existing media or computer-oriented institutions, other Foundations or other communal organizations.
4. A concerted effort should be made to reach out and involve new sources of creative talent, particularly the kind of talent involved in the nonprofit world of independent technology. Many of the young developers and content creators are Jews who are not connected to the Jewish community. Involving them in experimental programs, whether through competitions or commissioned works, is a way to reinvolve them in the community as well as attaining lower cost, high quality products.

These recommendations, along with several others available at the link above, were written when I was three – ample time to put them into action to ensure that by at least my bar mitzvah they were implemented. Yet, they’re just as applicable to us today as my children start their day school experiences.

But the truth of the matter is that focusing on the impact of technology on education is the wrong frame. Frankly, electrification of schools and our ability to heat them in the winter and cool them in the summer is the single greatest technological advancement that has impacted education in the past century, but because it’s basically invisible to us, we take it for granted. And that’s ok, because instead of focusing on the stuff, we need to focus on outcomes. We need to teach how to be adaptive and resilient. We need to be agnostic about specific technology. Unless we do so, no matter how shiny the next ed tech innovation will be, it will end up as nothing more than another historical footnote in a history of the future a quarter century from now unless we are able to put it into practice.

Equally fluent in Yiddish and Javascript, Russel Neiss is a Jewish educator, technologist and activist who builds critically acclaimed educational apps and experiences used by thousands of people each day. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, NPR, the Atlantic, CNN, Teen Vogue, the Jewish Telegraph Agency, and other media outlets. Russel began his career as an itinerant Jewish educator traveling across the deep south and has worked in a variety of Jewish educational settings including day schools, supplemental schools, museums and archives. Russel lives in St. Louis with his wife Maharat Rori Picker Neiss and his kids Daria, Susanna & Shmaya.

You’ve seen the advertisements: A fit young woman pedals a stationary bicycle while an instructor on a video screen shouts encouragement. The company, Peloton, promises “fitness at your fingertips,” and both “live and on demand” spin classes and “world class instructors,” all from the comfort of your own home.

What does a stationary bike company have to do with Jewish education?

We believe that Judaism, a 4,000-year-old endeavor, has something important and timeless to say about building character and values; about dignity, persistence and survival skills; about humor, art and joy — all necessary attributes to build that better future. And we believe that media and technology have a place in this process to engage, model and teach.

An Israeli working with campers at the Union for Reform Judaism’s 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy in New Jersey. (URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy)

What if Jewish funders and educators were to adapt the Peloton model to Jewish learning, offering long-distance classes as well as opportunities for in-person connections and interactions? Such a combined model could provide opportunities for learning and community building, for families with young children or college-age students, building on already existing physical institutions such as JCCs.

The Peloton model is only one of dozens we explore in a new report, Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Together with several colleagues, all who work in the world of secular education and entertainment media, we advised the Jim Joseph and William Davidson foundations on the potential of ed tech and digital engagement to help the foundations’ missions to create meaningful Jewish learning experiences — for people on the margins of Jewish life and those deeply immersed — and vibrant Jewish communities.

The report provides a detailed roadmap for Jewish funders as they consider investing in this area and look to leverage new technology and media in Jewish learning. Here are some key points:

 Define your mission, a vision of what you want to accomplish.

• Jewish educators and researchers tell us that American Jews have decreasing connections to other Jews, Jewish communities, institutions and Jewish life. Technology provides a means to reach all Jews with Jewish wisdom related to values and character, and “life lessons” on topics such as patience, showing kindness to others and managing emotions. Jewish community building and social interaction are essential, technology cannot replace them — but it can be used to enhance them.
• Balance the need to engage Jews who are uninterested and uninvolved in Jewish life — providing them with authentic learning experiences — with deep educational experiences for those already interested and invested in Jewish learning.

Media is not an end. It is a means, a tool that can reflect reality, but with imagination, can also shape a new reality.

• Nurture young and established talent to experiment fearlessly.
• Insist on quality and dream big.
• Infuse a spirit of innovation into all efforts.
• Be willing to fail and learn from failures.
• Engage and educate through joy, humor and fun.
• Perform research that is formative, iterative and summative.

You can’t teach if you can’t reach. Be market knowledgeable and sensitive.

Create a solid distribution plan: all successful impact is dependent on reach and scale. In fact, it is as important as the quality of the content created.

With these guiding principles, we hope creative minds and funders will consider developing these types of Jewish ed tech opportunities:

A blended Jewish lifelong learning academy

The Khan Academy is an educational organization that produces short video lectures, practice exercises and tools for educators in math, science and the humanities. Envision a Khan Academy-like resource with personalized instruction on Jewish education topics taught through video, and supplemented by virtual and in-person mentoring and community meetings.

Narrative stories to engage audiences and link them to an eco-system of learning and community

Just as masterful storytellers have adapted Shakespearean classics for the stage, film and television, so should Jewish educators and ed tech producers adapt Jewish stories, whether biblical, historical or contemporary, for digital media distribution.

Innovative Israel education and partnerships

Advisers stress an urgent need to address the changing views toward Israel and Zionism. They explain that though it is difficult, ignoring these ideas will be detrimental and lead to a decline in especially young people’s positive feelings for Israel and, by extension, Judaism.

Create partnerships with Israeli tech and media companies, schools and universities for mentorship, exchange programs, virtual courses, joint storytelling and productions, and more.

A “J-Game Lab” that focuses on integrating curricular content into a game format

Experiment with virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR) to teach Jewish history, values and conflict resolution to give a sense of presence and empathy. VR and AR can be used for virtual visits to Israel, important Jewish sites and landmarks, or for virtual interactions with events in Jewish history. They can also be used to build empathy and an understanding of others through virtually walking in someone else’s shoes.

These could serve as stand-alone experiences or supplement others as introductions to or follow-ups for programs such as Birthright Israel, camp or Poland trips.

Empower and appeal to young people’s comfort with creating and using technology

Encourage young Jewish talent by building a pipeline for Jewish college students and graduates to professionally explore new technologies in a variety of ways — for example, by creating a Jewish Imagination Fellows Corps.

Launch community building projects around Jewish and general social activism

Create a Jewish Community Virtual Boomer Corps where retirees virtually mentor younger people and the younger people mentor the boomers, helping to improve their use of technology.

Invest in educator training

Support Jewish learning through training educators, specifically teachers who work in schools. If educators are not well trained, confident and competent in their use of a technology, the technology will not be used.

We are living in a complex world filled with information, accessibility and opportunities on the one hand, and with uncertainty, intolerance, fear and upheaval on the other. The need to empower children and adults to build a better future could not be more dramatic and urgent.

Our vision for this report is to stimulate funding to harness ed tech to transform Jewish learning and engage all Jews, whatever their beliefs and practice, with knowledge about Jewish values, legacy and teachings. How else will we transform this world for the better for our children and grandchildren?

(Dr. Lewis Bernstein had a 40-year career at Sesame Workshop, with roles ranging from executive vice president of the Education, Research and Outreach Division, to serving as the Emmy Award-winning executive producer of the domestic “Sesame Street” series. Shira Ackerman has worked in education, educational technology and media for over 15 years as a teacher, a director of educational technology at a Jewish day school, and at Gonoodle, Scholastic, Amplify and Barnesandnoble.com. They both served as researchers for Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy.)

originally appeared in JTA

We’re all looking for that magic formula. That unique program, experience or methodology that will somehow not only engage Jewish teens in the present, but also keep them Jewishly involved on college campus and beyond.

Foundations, Jewish federations and individuals invest millions of dollars a year in engaging the next generation of Jews. At the same time, there are tens of thousands of Jewish youth professionals, some affiliated with youth groups and others with Jewish organizations, working in the trenches to reach Jewish teens and connect them to their heritage.

And there are educators, and consultants, and other experts contributing their expertise and then evaluating all of these efforts in search of answers.

But the solution seems to be eluding us.

Perhaps it’s because we are looking in the wrong place. Maybe it’s not about the what, or where, or how often, but the rather, it’s about the who.

Case in point: Big Apple Adventure

Last month, Midwest NCSY had the opportunity to run a 5-day immersive experience as part of Springboard, a community initiative created with support from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and a consortium of local funders, to introduce more teens in Chicago to high-quality Jewish programs.

Last March, Springboard released an RFP asking local organizations to create new and exciting school-break experiences that would increase the number of teens actively engaged in Jewish life. Midwest NCSY submitted a proposal that would bring 45 teens to New York for five days of fun and inspiration, including visiting local attractions, touring the Jewish community, volunteering at Jewish nonprofits, and celebrating a traditional Shabbat.

Initially, NCSY planned to pattern the trip after its existing Jewish Student Union (JSU) trips, in which public school teens who participate in JSU clubs on public school campuses travel to other communities for fun, learning and Jewish inspiration. But it soon became apparent that Big Apple Adventure was going to be something different entirely because of the deep partnership between NCSY and JUF—which not only provided the financial backing, but also support and guidance from a variety Jewish youth professionals, consultants, marketing experts and many others, every step of the way.

Here are some specific examples of how the partnership shaped—and impacted—the ultimate program:

• Our first challenge was to recruit 40+ teens for the program, with the knowledge that Springboard’s goal is to reach as many unaffiliated teens as possible. While Springboard promoted this program among its other spring break offerings, the fact that Big Apple Adventure was a joint NCSY-JUF program helped NCSY garner the attention of many parents whose teens don’t regularly participate in the youth group. Of the 45 teens who participated in the trip, only one had previously attended an NCSY program.

• A JUF workshop on marketing and social media proved to be the impetus for the creation of a totally different type of marketing campaign, with an emphasis on social media. The presenter spoke of the need to communicate with both teens and their parents in two distinct voices, with two distinct messages. It took time and effort, but NCSY created separate media strategies for both groups, and ultimately succeeded in engaging not just teens, but their parents as well.

• At that marketing training, the presenter also put great emphasis on making one’s target audience the “hero” in all communications.  NCSY took that a step further, making “Be a Hero” – and Judaism’s viewpoint on heroism – the educational theme of Big Apple Adventure. This helped shape our entire trip, and also proved to resonate with teens and parents alike.

• A training on program design and evaluation also had a major impact on the program. NCSY identified goals, the steps needed to accomplish those goals, and the methods to evaluate our success in both the short and long term. Yes, we knew we wanted participants to strengthen their Jewish identity. Yes, we knew we were going to give them the opportunity to see the sites, volunteer and celebrate Shabbat. But what NCSY became adept at doing was creating a connection between those elements, and then almost automatically stopping itself, at each step of the way, to question whether what it was doing was in keeping with its goals, and whether it was the best way to get there.

• Bi-weekly check-in calls with JUF helped NCSY staff stay on track and proved to be an invaluable opportunity to share, question and discuss just about everything with seasoned Jewish teen professionals, from the location of the hotel to the type of swag to order, to the kinds of follow-up events that would likely draw the greatest number of teens. And that sharing wasn’t limited to once every other week. The lines of communication were open wide the entire time, with emails and calls flying back and forth – and steadily increasing – as the trip drew nearer.

We’re proud to report that the trip was far more successful than we ever could have imagined. In the blog written by the teens themselves on the trip, many spoke of the “meaning” and “connection” the trip had engendered. Many of the parents expressed the same sentiment, especially after being able to watch the teens in action in New York, during Facebook Live events. As one parent remarked, “I feel so fortunate that my child received this opportunity to embrace and love her Jewish heritage.”

So was Big Apple Adventure a unique program? We’d like to think so. Are there aspects of it that other Jewish teen professionals can learn from? We believe there are.

But of one thing we are certain: The trip worked because it was a partnership; we were in it together. And by pooling our knowledge, creativity, expertise – and shared commitment to truly inspire today’s youth – we made it happen.

Malka Levitansky is Grants and Marketing Manager of Midwest NCSY. Hallie Shapiro is Associate Vice President of Community Outreach and Engagement at JUF.

Editor’s Note: In October 2016, the Jim Joseph Foundation released the final evaluation from American Institutes for Research on the Education Initiative–the $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU) for Jewish educator training. The Foundation and AIR shared some of the key findings and lessons learned from the Initiative. AIR also is releasing a series of blogs that delve more deeply into important findings from the evaluation–the second of which, below, discusses the value of professional preparation programs, and key characteristics that make those programs excellent. 

Whether in a classroom, at a camp, at locations in a city, or nearly any other environment, effective Jewish learning experiences can enrich lives and develop deep, long-lasting relationships among participants. Over the last two decades especially, Jewish education and engagement experiences developed for teens and young adults often focus on opportunities to create peer communities and friendships, to develop leadership skills, to strengthen cultural and religious beliefs, and to enable youth to voice opinions and serve communities. An important aspect of many initiatives is a high level of accessibility and inclusiveness, so that people of various backgrounds and differing levels of prior engagement in Jewish life feel valued, respected, and welcomed.

A Need to Raise the Bar
With the groundswell of these program offerings, both as part of well-establish organizations and innovative projects, there is an urgent need for the professionalization of individuals who design, conduct outreach for, and facilitate them. Jewish Community Center’s (JCC)’s, congregations, youth groups, camps, Hillel, and social justice organizations in particular offer many of these experiences—and as a result need talented and skillfully trained professionals who work in this space.

However, at the moment, no degree requirement exists for individuals who lead these influential Jewish experiences. The Jim Joseph Foundation’s Education Initiative—the recently completed $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University—in part aimed to fill this void by increasing opportunities and improving access to professional preparation programs for educators, aspiring leaders, middle management, and directors and executive directors in Jewish education. The Education Initiative was based on the premise that higher education institutions are uniquely equipped to promote the research-based knowledge and decision-making tools needed by professionals to design and deliver a range of excellent educational practices for a particular age group in different settings.

We previously shared other key outcomes and findings of the Initiative, including the numbers of new educators trained and new training programs developed. Now, we want to home in on the value of professional preparation for the individuals and the organizations that offer an array of Jewish learning experiences.

From Personal Development to Organizational Change
Data collected as part of the Education Initiative independent evaluation confirmed that employers value training opportunities for their staff.

“Certificate programs help raise the bar of all of our staff. We want our employees to come from a place of knowledge rather than a place of hunch or guess.”
– director of education at a congregation

Employers recognize that professional training helps them (and other organizations) address recruitment and retention of qualified, skilled and experienced Jewish educators. In fact, from 2010-2016, most of the employers of students in Education Initiative-funded programs sponsored paid time for participation in seminars and for study time. Some of the Initiative programs even required employers to cover some of the tuition costs, but this was not a deterrent. Not only were most employers happy to support their staff; they also reported high likelihood of recommending the program to others inside and outside their organizations.

“My goal is to keep him in his position as long as possible, and that means that I want to see our youth director position continue to grow. What we need are qualified people staying in youth director positions for longer terms, as opposed to seeing their job as a stepping stone. A certificate allows the youth director to change in such a way that their role in the congregation can change.” – an executive director at a congregation

Across Education Initiative programs, such as M² (Machshava and Maase, formerly Experiential Jewish Education Certificate Program), Certificate of Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults, and the Jewish Experiential Leadership Institute, both employers and participants reported higher job satisfaction and improved job performance as a direct result of their programs. In most interviews conducted for the evaluation, employers remarked that their youth program directors are more confident in their leadership and management abilities after attending one of the certificate programs developed under the Education Initiative. A Jewish Community Center director explained that her program coordinator now feels “more connected to the organization and more empowered as an employee. She is working with her project [team] with greater excitement and it is going to help a number of part-time employees grow professionally.”

For youth directors specifically, the most common direct outcomes from participating in one of the professional development programs were (a) more efforts to design or redesign educational programs; (b) more efforts to embed professional development into staff meetings; and (c) improved stakeholder engagement. “[The program] has made him more self-confident about the education work that he is doing. That translates to how he speaks about our Hillel to others in the field and it boosts our profile,” – director of a Hillel at a university

Key Characteristics of Effective Training Programs
Interviews with the direct supervisors of the professionals who graduated from the Education Initiative-funded programs crystallize what made the programs so valuable:

• Relevance: Knowledge directly applies to the organizational context in which program participants work.
• Resources: Having the lesson plans and materials (e.g., texts, art, songs, movies, games) to teach children and adolescents about Jewish themes.
• Perspective: Learning from the experience of youth programs that operate in different geographical areas, communities, and organizational structures.
• Inspiration: Understanding how theory and research can be used to design state-of-the-art, developmentally-appropriate activities.
• Assessment: Developing the ability to collect and analyze data to identify ineffective practices that should be replaced or revised.
• Communication: Learning how to convey the rationale for program design when engaging stakeholders, such as other professionals, partnering organizations, and families.
• Model: Experiencing a learning process that bridges research, practice, and Jewish community context and gaining the tools to deliver a similar workshop to coworkers and others.

The outcomes of the Education Initiative suggest that beyond professional knowledge gain, successful training programs can boost organizational commitment and reduce job stress of educators. Such programs can inspire educators to think about new ideas for practice, share ideas with colleagues, and communicate about the meaningfulness of their work.

 The program impacted the way I see myself as an educator and my philosophy. I learned a lot in terms of how to plan and execute content in a meaningful way and [to carry out] team building [strategies] for an educational purpose. But the ultimate takeaway was the importance of the journey in forming a Jewish identity. I now have the language to explain it [to my colleagues] and to make it happen. It is important that you know that this program attracted people who feel like they are good at what they do – they are not novices and they are not struggling. But, they really needed the language and the tools for what they had a hunch for. This sort of takes you from ‘This is what I want to do with my life’ to ‘I am going be amazing at it.’ – director of teen learning at a JCC

The positive outcomes of the new programs created under the Education Initiative demonstrate how professional training influences educators, increasing the quality of education they deliver and increasing the likelihood they remain in the field. But beyond this, high quality training programs subsequently positively affects organizational content, pedagogy, staffing, and culture. Most importantly, these training programs can create a ripple effect of knowledge sharing and use of proven practices that ultimately advances and further helps to professionalize the broader field of Jewish education.

Yael Kidron, Ph.D. is a principal researcher at American Institutes for Research. 

Editor’s Note: In October, the Jim Joseph Foundation released the final evaluation from American Institutes for Research on the Education Initiative–the $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU) for Jewish educator training. The Foundation and AIR shared some of the key findings and lessons learned from the Initiative. AIR also is releasing a series of blogs that delve more deeply into important findings from the evaluation–the first of which, below, discusses programs that promote workforce outcomes.

Operating successful educational programs requires continually evolving skills and knowledge. With the constant growth of educational research on effective strategies to promote student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes, professionals are required to update and refine their skills periodically.

More and more, institutions of higher education are calibrating their programs to ensure that graduates with diverse career pathways have the skills that employers deem necessary for their organization. The success of programs is judged not only by participants’ satisfaction but also by their employment outcomes.

The Jim Joseph Foundation’s Education Initiative funded the development of many new programs in three institutions with the goal of dramatically increasing the number of Jewish educators and educational leaders with essential skills relevant for employment in multiple educational settings.

Specifically, the Education Initiative grantees—Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU)—identified the skills that programs should build to prepare professionals for success in the workplace, to challenge the status quo in the workplace, and to explore ideas to improve their own practice and their organization’s programs and policies. Then, over the course of the 2010-2016 grant period, the institutions developed a range of new programs through which they could offer this training: six master’s and doctoral degree programs or concentrations; eight certificate programs and leadership institutes; two induction programs; and four seminars within the degree programs.

Developing Work Skills

In designing new programs that provide practical training for improved workforce outcomes, there was a consensus among the three grantees that degree and professional development programs should include, at least, the following:

• A focus on what makes the Jewish education sector unique;
• Course instructors who have the unique combination of scholarly knowledge and practitioner experience;
• A project or practicum that connects theory to practice in the workplace;
• Mentoring; and
• Opportunities to network with other professionals in the field.

The new programs developed under the Education Initiative investigate educational challenges in the classroom or seminar from a practitioner’s perspective and address these challenges using research-based tools. One prominent example of research-based tools developed and taught in the new programs is experiential Jewish education. Experiential education – defined as a methodology to “purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities[i]” – is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in the education field. Experiential Jewish education (EJE) principles are relevant to the work of professionals across the continuum of Jewish education settings (e.g., youth groups, camps, Jewish community centers, day schools, supplemental schools, and Hillel centers). Each of the grantees developed at least one non-degree program on experiential Jewish education and integrated courses or principles of experiential Jewish education into master’s programs. Program participants explored concepts in experiential Jewish education, practiced the application of tools during classes and seminars, and carried out projects in which they applied the new skills to address an educational challenge or goal. Collaboratively, the grantees developed the Experiential Jewish Education Network, which brings together alumni from all EJE programs for continued learning and networking.

The Potential for Ripple Effect

Quality advanced degree and professional development programs can have a ripple effect on the entire organization. Many participants used their new skills to coach and mentor colleagues, deliver workshops to staff, and develop new strategic plans, policies, and teaching resources.

Considering that the grant supported 1,508 individuals across the entire spectrum of Jewish education settings, the potential for the scope of impact is substantial. The potential for ripple effect intensifies by the fact that nearly one-half of the beneficiaries of the Education Initiative currently work in leadership roles in day schools, supplemental schools, Jewish community centers, camps, youth groups, and other nonprofit organization providing or developing educational services. According to evaluation data, the practical skills that program participants acquired affected not only their job performance and career paths but also the professional practice in their organizations. These data suggest that investing in educators and leaders’ continued learning accomplished the goal of a better-prepared workforce in Jewish education.

Transferring Learning to the Workplace

A recent evaluation report of the Education Initiative summarizes the results of the grantees’ efforts to expand the number and variety of their programs with the Foundation support. Several findings of the independent evaluation are noteworthy here:

• Nearly all (90 percent) graduate students thought their programs were effective or very effective in providing the knowledge and skills they needed to be successful at their jobs.
• Most of the degree program participants (76 percent) introduced experiential Jewish education (EJE) at their workplaces.
• Most (85 percent) of the professional development program participants felt that they were better educators and leaders because of their participation in the programs.
• Most employers reported that their employees had higher levels of professional self-esteem (95 percent), were motivated to train fellow colleagues (90 percent), and introduced new instructional practices (83 percent) in their organization as a result of their participation in the degree or professional development program.
• Following positive initial experience with the programs, in the later years of the Education Initiative, more than 20 organizations (including day schools and organizations that provide immersive Jewish experiences) sent small teams of employees to participate in non-degree programs.

These findings and others show how the Education Initiative successfully advanced professionals on the career ladder and positively influenced the places at which they work. Given the scale of the Initiative—both the number of educators trained and the number of new training programs—this influence is sustainable and will continue to change the landscape of Jewish education.

Yael Kidron, Ph.D. is a principal researcher and Ariela Greenberg, Ph.D., is a researcher at American Institutes for Research. 

[i] Association for Experiential Education. (2013). What is experiential education? Boulder, CO: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aee.org/what-is-ee

When the Jim Joseph Foundation was founded in 2006, board members and other leaders in Jewish education held a series of meetings to determine a set of “strategic funding priorities.” While the foundation’s generous benefactor, Jim Joseph, z”l, ensured that Jewish education would be the sole focus of grant awards, he did not specify how the Foundation should pursue his vision. Ultimately, the Board identified three funding priorities, one of which is to increase the number and quality of Jewish educators and education leaders. This priority paved the way for the largest bet the Foundation has made to date—the recently completed $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU), known collectively as the Education Initiative.

As with nearly every major Foundation grant, independent evaluation was built into the grant from the outset. Annually, American Institutes for Research (AIR) provided the Foundation with a comprehensive evaluation of nearly every aspect of the Initiative—number of program enrollees and their experience in the workplace; how the institutions were working together; progress on programs achieving sustainability; and more. Now, with the final evaluation, recently completed, we believe the field has much to learn from the Foundation’s and grant partners’ experience with this investment.

Clear Communications and Supporting Long-Term Capacity

A crucial starting point of this Initiative was conversations with the presidents of each institutions. Getting their early buy-in, clearly outlining expectations, and building trust as grant partners all proved to be key ingredients as the Initiative progressed. With an investment of this scope, length, and ambition, each grantee experienced successes and challenges along the way. A genuine, transparent relationship between the Foundation and each institution helped to overcome the challenges, to allow for course corrections, and to amplify the successes.

The Foundation’s grantmaking practices certainly evolved as the Education Initiative did. As one example, many grantees today often rely on technical assistance for various practices. The Education Initiative demonstrated how crucial this can be. With support from experts in the field, HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU, the grantees made changes in their key marketing and enrollment management practices. The grantees revamped their websites, replaced blanket policies of granting full tuition waivers with systematic processes for allocating financial assistance, and began building robust databases of prospective students. These efforts led to professionalizing key enrollment management functions at the institutional level and to a dramatic increase in the number of inquiries. The work of the Foundation with the grantees ensured that the effects of the grant are long-term and can support an infrastructure for future new programs.

Supporting Change at Multiple Levels

The Education Initiative achieved three levels of measurable impact: institutional, program-level, and individual level. The granteesdid the diligent, tedious, and ongoing work to develop the infrastructure needed to move programs from start-up to sustainability. Out of 20 programs funded by the Initiative, more than 50 percent have been incorporated into core program offerings and will continue. Meeting this “viability” goal was an integral part of ensuring that the investment continues to influence Jewish education long after the grant period concludes.

This desire for long-lasting impact guided the Board’s initial thinking six years ago to make an investment that would support the professional practice of more than a thousand professionals in all kinds of Jewish education settings. Strong educators and leaders are the not-so-secret ingredient for high quality Jewish education programs. The positive effects of the Education Initiative have been confirmed by participants and their employers as well as objective measures such as salary increase and job promotions. Especially noteworthy are the programs that were a result of unprecedented collaboration among the grantees, such as the eLearning Collaborative, a set of professional learning opportunities to faculty members; The Experiential Jewish Education Network, a program for alumni of the three institutions; and The Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute.

Well-Designed Programs = Deep Influence on Participants

The independent evaluation has uncovered the key mechanisms which take place between program enrollment and post-graduation employment outcomes. Evaluation data showed that HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU have accomplished a lot more than increasing the number of prepared educators. The grantees have demonstrated what well-designed programs look like.

The high program satisfaction of participants in the new programs developed under the Education Initiative is a direct result of a positive and meaningful program experience that exceeded expectations. At enrollment, most participants were interested in programs that aligned with their learning interests and that were offered at convenient schedules and locations. They came with little or no expectations regarding the program experience or their relations with faculty and peers. After program completion, participants reported that the program experience had much more impact than they anticipated. In cohort-based programs, participants have found professional networks that they felt they belonged to; through internships and project-based learning, they have gained professional self-esteem when they saw the results of their new skills; and, through mentoring and advisory, they have sharpened their career aspirations and brought value to their workplace.

In Their Words

A participant in Yeshiva University’s Experiential Jewish Education Certificate Program told AIR researchers: “When I first went into the program I thought this is going to be just a program that puts into words what I have been doing for quite some time. But what I found was, right from the very first session, much more than that. This [program] is about really thinking about the pedagogy of experiential education and tying it to relevant research in the field. And then learning how to create experiences based on serious academic study.”

According to a participants of HUC-JIR’s Executive Master’s Program, she enrolled seeking a degree and found that her overall leadership style and organizational thinking has changed: “I came to the program because of the value of the degree and to have a seat at the table [for decision-making]. But I have gained a lot more than that. Now, I am not able to look at the world the same way I used to. The courses gave me the ability to step back and look at things from a broader scale.”

A doctoral candidate who enrolled in JTS’ Executive Doctoral Program told AIR researchers that a good program is measured not only by its content, but also by the collegial relationships that faculty and students can develop in small Jewish higher education institutions: “I came to the program as an expert in youth engagement and with the intention to focus on the post Bar Mitzvah years. This program helped me come out of the narrow box [of professional focus] and ask different questions. It really broadened my thinking. I had the confidence to explore new questions because I had the access to experts that I did not previously have. I could call a professor and pick his brain whenever I faced a challenge.”

Final Thoughts

Based on these findings and other results summarized in the final evaluation report, it is not surprising that the Education Initiative successfully advanced professionals on the career ladder. Within a very short time interval – up to one year from program completion – one third of the degree program participants and nearly 10 percent of the professional development programs participants advanced to Jewish education leadership positions.

These educators, and those who follow them in Education Initiative programs, will continue to influence Jewish education. Together, HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU, took unprecedented steps—and risks—that have genuinely changed the landscape of the field. The learners who engage in Jewish education, in its variety of settings and through countless experiences, are the ultimate beneficiaries of these advancements.

This blog originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy. Yael Kidron is a Principal Researcher at American Institutes for Research. Dawne Bear Novicoff is Assistant Director at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Read the full independent evaluation of the Education Initiative.

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the fourth in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs (read the first, second, and third blogs)–is from Erin Dreyfuss, a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center.

Almost all of my Jewish education has been experiential. As a convert to Judaism, I have learned Judaism and created a Jewish identity by doing, celebrating, schmoozing, eating, and absorbing everything around me. Through that process, I have come to appreciate the power of experiences to shape identity and I was hopeful that I could find a career that would allow me to create meaningful Jewish experiences for others. It was with this goal that I joined the inaugural cohort of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EEJCA) at The George Washington University in the summer of 2014.

During our EEJCA orientation, we received this piece of advice from Carole Zawatsky, the CEO of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center (EDCJCC): “Your passion is your career path.” In the two years that followed, the EEJCA program, supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation, blazed a trail between passion and career for my fellow educators and me. Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum that combines the arts, education, Jewish history, and museum management, the EEJCA program prepares its students to create innovative and engaging programs that enrich contemporary Jewish life and strengthen Jewish identities. I am extremely fortunate to have learned from community leaders and my students and co-workers in fellowships with the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital and the EDCJCC’s Washington Jewish Music Festival. Each of these experiences was contextualized by classes that ranged in scope from the history of Jewish music to the implementation of organizational change.

My extracurricular involvement in Jewish life has grown right alongside my professional development; I continue my annual tradition of personal reflection by counting the omer on my blog dedicated to Jewish learning and I recently joined my synagogue’s Board of Directors. These commitments reflect perhaps the most important lesson that I learned during my time in the EEJCA program – that my passion can be my career path and more.

Erin Dreyfuss is a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is turning her passion into a career as the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center. Follow her blog at GoAndLearnIt.blogspot.com.

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the third in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs (read the first and second blogs)–is from Michael A. Morris, who will receive his Master’s Degree from George Washington University’s program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts.  He works as a Museum Tour Guide with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

My journey in the George Washington University’s Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EE/JCA) program began in August 2015.  Now, in summer 2016, I’m completing my Capstone at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.  The one-year journey included academic courses in Jewish history and culture, Experiential Jewish Education and Museum Studies, as well as on-site work experience at the DCJCC and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington (JHSGW), all located in the great city of Washington, DC.  As I near graduation, it is clear that the effect of the EE/JCA program is that I now think more critically and holistically about the visitor experience at cultural institutions and museums.  Ultimately, my goal as an educator in the field of Experiential Jewish Education is to curate an experience that is an honest and comprehensive view of the particular Jewish concept under study and to encourage an understanding of how the subject fits into the larger mosaic of history and culture.  One area in which I put this concept into practice was leading walking tours with the JHSGW.

As an individual who works in the field of history, it is important to know that learning opportunities are everywhere.  When one walks down a street in any city, he/she is passing by structures that once housed businesses, residences, places of worship, etc.  Some of the layers are visible, while others have vanished.  A historical, experiential educator’s responsibility is to survey layers of life and create a narrative as well as learner-centered initiatives to convey the significance of the sites.  Using this pedagogy should give participants a direct experience with the source under study rather than an unconnected, didactic experience.  One of many ways to accomplish this is by way of walking tours, presentations or exhibits.

Now, at my Capstone at the Yiddish Book Center, I’m gaining additional experience and skills that encompass the entire visitor experience.  This includes: reviewing docent notes to ascertain why visitors are coming and where are they coming from, drafting content for a future quarterly newsletter to publicize offerings, working with other members of the Yiddish Book Center staff to further enhance the visitor experience, designing and refining materials to help younger visitors experience the rich Yiddish history and culture on display and the general building tour for all ages.  I’ve also strategized connections with my Capstone supervisor, the Director of Communications and Visitor Services, to meet with representatives from surrounding universities and cultural institutions to reach a larger audience.  These experiences will allow me to further enhance my ability to convey educational material when I return to the DC area and resume my responsibilities with the JHSGW.

Assisting with Yidstock, the Festival of New Jewish Music at the Yiddish Book Center, was the final piece of my Capstone.  This all-encompassing event took place from July 14^th-17^th, 2016.  People from all over the world attended.  Some sang, some danced, some just watched, but they all came to experience the premier performers in Klezmer and Yiddish music and had an opportunity to explore the exhibits at the Yiddish Book Center.  As the audience enjoyed Yidstock, I joined the Yiddish Book Center staff behind the scenes to ensure that the guests were taken care of and that the performances and accompanying lectures and workshops ran efficiently.

All of this was the culmination of having a greater understanding of how to operate in an environment that offers an experience anchored in culture, history and preservation.  Of course, I did not get here alone.  In all facets of the EE/JCA program, the professors and on-site supervisors have demonstrated professionalism and innovation.  While my classmates and I read and discussed history, culture and experiential education, we were guided by professors and professionals who created an atmosphere to learn and re-learn, question and discuss.  For all of these reasons, the EE/JCA has meaningfully and significantly impacted my professional trajectory.

Michael A. Morris graduated in 2014 with an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Stockton University and continued his studies in 2015 with the George Washington University’s program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts.  He will graduate this summer with an M.A. in Education and Human Development.  Currently, he works as a Museum Tour Guide with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.