A History of the “Future of Jewish Education”

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.

Procuring the Proper Software, Hardware and Teacher Training for Successful Educational Technology Integration – A Funder’s Perspective

This is part 1 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.

When you care about successful technology integration in your local Jewish school, what is the most effective way to provide support? For today’s school leadership and school or community funders, the pathway forward to successful educational technology integration is murky at best. The many choices in this dynamic and still emerging field can be daunting.

One thing common to all (Jewish) schools today: technology is now (another) overwhelming responsibility for school leadership. Gone are the days of technology as merely a budget item relegated to the business manager, when tech costs were a part-time IT professional and some new desktop computers for the lab. Today, technology in education touches every aspect of school life, affecting teachers, students, educational administration and parents. Technology is no longer something used only for school-home communications and an occasional online research project. The field of educational technology has grown to complement teachers and schools in organizing and educating children beginning in the earliest grades.

In Seattle, WA where the Samis Foundation has invested more than $70M over 2 decades into our local Jewish day schools, technology use and integration was not a prioritized focus. To support our beneficiaries in this area, we researched and developed a technology initiative of our own, designing a 10-year, $2.5M initiative to support our schools in enhancing student learning experiences and improving outcomes in all academic areas, including through the acquisition of 21st century digital skills. What we sought was a cultural change in which educational leaders and their faculties were thoughtful experimenters and adopters of technology in service to their school mission and educational goals. But where does one begin when prompting this culture change? Here are some of the select steps the Samis Technology Initiative has taken, along with questions/challenges we are pondering going forward:

1. Site Visits: We made site visits to nearly 20 Jewish day schools and other independent schools to see a range of technology integration. Visiting schools and meeting educational leaders “new to you” provides learning and focus like no book or blog post can. The purpose of the trips was not only exploratory but was also to gain buy-in and excitement from school leadership. We saw Apple schools and Google Schools, cost-conscious schools and schools where donors were supporting a top of the line approach to technology. The best take away these visits taught us: there must be a designated educator in each school, responsible for technology integration, providing professional development to faculty and supporting student learning outcomes. A question we are thinking about: As technology sophistication has progressed in Seattle schools, should we consider another round of site visits?

2. Community of Practice: We began to convene representative teacher-leaders from each of our schools. This group of teacher-leaders formed the core of a Community of Practice (CoP) which began three years ago, meets monthly and is still running strong. These teacher-leaders serve as part-time Technology Integration Specialists in their schools, a position for which we provide funding. This Community of Practice is tasked with directing their own technology driven curriculum, professionally facilitated by a local professor with expertise in digital teaching and learning. Our evaluations of this Community of Practice show that our teachers are growing their personal learning (technology) networks, know where and how to find information and support for technology in education,and are learning to play technology-leadership roles within their school communities. This year we are focusing on peer coaching – on training our committed technology teacher-leaders to work effectively with peers in their schools to strategically integrate technology. A question we are thinking about: Will the technology Community of Practice continue to have meaning and relevance as each school’s educational technology leadership strengthens?

3. Advisory Committee: We formed a Technology Advisory Committee comprised of a select number of thoughtful leaders who care deeply and are still learning about this issue. Our advisors have backgrounds in technology, education, day school leadership and philanthropy. This Committee has been invaluable in providing guidance and oversight.

4. Infrastructure Assessment and Upgrade: We conducted an audit and inventory of each school’s technology infrastructure including wiring, bandwidth, hardware etc. We used this audit and inventory in close consultation with each school to recommend upgrades in infrastructure given their educational needs. We approached this upgrade as a pilot and were careful not to fund them in their entirety. A question we are thinking about: what is the cost cycle of inventory upgrade/refresh at each school and what role will the Samis Foundation play in infrastructure assessment and funding the next time around? How can we promote school self-sufficiency in this area?

5. Professional Development: We have experimented with different models for professional development in the schools we support. This has included exposure to new technologies and a variety of presenters. It has helped carve out time for teacher-teams intra and inter-school to devote to technology dreaming and conversation. More recently, we have offered professional development devoted to the acquisition of specific skills in technology (creating screencasts, exposing faculties to widely used educational apps like Kahoot and Seesaw.) We expose the CoP teachers and others to new and emerging educational software – most of it free – and let each teacher and ultimately, school, determine whether a particular app or software is one that meets their needs and culture. We see clearly that professional development through consultants, conferences and our ongoing Community of Practice, has fostered a technology culture shift in schools. We have data supporting the value of professional development as central to this effort. A question we are thinking about today: Can data link Samis’ investment in Professional Development to increased student achievement? Will we see a marked improvement in student acquisition of 21st century skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, character and citizenship?

6. Hardware Grants: We offered modest grants in hardware to each school. This was no more than $20,000 per school and in some instances, far less. The hardware basically outfitted one pilot classroom or shared devices among several grades. Using this approach allowed the schools and the foundation to maintain a balance between the shiny new computers and “toys” and a continued focus on how to use the technology in the service of learning goals. This approach has whet schools’ appetites and encouraged real consideration on their parts about educational effectiveness and cost. A question we are asking today: What will the next cycle of hardware funding for our schools look like? What percentage of a school’s budget might we reasonably expect each school to spend on technology including hardware?

7. Program Provider Partnerships: We have experimented with funding schools to partner with quality program providers. We have tried bringing in outside providers to teach coding and robotics but it was not successful. However, even our failed partnerships helped our initiative and each individual school to grow and learn. For example, a failed partnership with a coding company led a school that was previously skeptical of the value of teaching computational thinking to see the value and hire a teacher with coding skills. Another school, resistant to rearranging their Middle School schedule to accommodate coding courses has overhauled its model, making time for student learning in coding, engineering and a design lab. A question we are thinking about: How else can we partner our schools with one another and with (national) initiatives to provide excellence and support?

8. Teaching Technology Skills: A related area with which we are still wrestling is supporting teaching technology skills like coding and robotics. Our small schools largely do not have teachers on staff skilled in those subjects. A partnership with the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education is exposing our schools in a professional and supportive way to the value of embedding some of these subjects in the curriculum. A question we are thinking about today: How can we provide support and know-how to teach computational thinking skills? How can we encourage schools to grow in-house experts in these areas?

In the not too distant future we hope to support our schools in technology planning. Now that the schools have some in-house leadership who are thoughtful and knowledgeable about “technology in education,” there is a team in place in most of our schools to lead this effort. A school with a doable technology plan that is rooted in measurable educational outcomes will be one of the Samis Technology Initiative’s greatest achievements.

If you’re thinking about supporting schools in this most worthwhile, cutting-edge area, I encourage you to be hopeful: you too can meet with success. Strengthening school-based educational technology leadership through professional development focuses funders and schools on the most precious technology resource: our teachers! Coupled with strategic financial support to provide both relief and guidance, funders can measurably impact the quality of education in Jewish day schools.

Amy Z. Amiel is a native New Yorker living in the Pacific Northwest. Amy serves as the Senior Program Officer of the Samis Foundation, a Seattle-based funder focused on local, quality Jewish day education and State of Israel funding. There, she develops and leads a technology change initiative designed to improve educational outcomes in schools through strategic use and integration of technology.

Making the most of technology in Jewish education

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

In This Together: A Team Approach to Teen Engagement

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.

Professional Preparation: A “Value Add” for Educators and their Employers

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. 

 

 

From the Seminar to the Workplace: Programs That Promote Workforce Outcomes

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

Reflections on a Big Bet: The Education Initiative with HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU  

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 eJewishPhilanthropyYael 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.

Jewish Learning: Between Passion and Career

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 firstsecond, 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.

Jewish Learning Anchored in Culture, History and Preservation

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 14th-17th, 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.

The Importance of Individualized Identities

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 second in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs–is from Michael Kay, Head of School at Solomon Schechter of Westchester, who received his Ph.D. at New York University’s program in education and Judaic studies.

During the summer of 2014, a recent graduate of our High School experienced one of the preeminent rites of passage of those pre-college months: learning the identity of his soon-to-be-roommate. The excitement of the moment wore off quickly, however, as our graduate looked up his roommate on Facebook and found that his page was full of virulent anti-Israel rhetoric. One might have expected that such a discovery would bring about extraordinary anxiety or even paralysis in a student who was entering a diverse university after 13 years in the nurturing environment of a Jewish day school.

In fact, the opposite was the case. Our graduate confidently picked up the phone to introduce himself to his roommate. He explained who he was, what values were important to him, and why. He noted that an important part of his identity was his connection with the people, land, and State of Israel, having traveled there twice during his Middle School and High School years. In a self-assured but non-threatening manner, he asked the roommate about his own views and what motivated them. This profound conversation set the stage for a fruitful, intellectually vibrant relationship—and even led the roommate to reconsider his position and take down his incendiary postings.

A week later, I asked our student what prepared him to engage in such a sensitive, powerful conversation with a person whom he had only just met. He cited two particular elements of his Jewish day school experience. For one, his detailed knowledge of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian relationship equipped him to provide a factual basis for his own perspectives. But even more importantly, his experience in Judaic studies classes endowed him with what I call the skill of diversity: the comfort and wisdom to develop a strong, individualized viewpoint; articulate this view in a constructive, compelling manner; listen open-mindedly to people who represent different opinions; challenge when appropriate; and ultimately build positive connections with these people—even if they may never agree.

This conversation with our graduate brought into focus for me the practical benefits of my years of study in New York University’s PhD program in education and Judaic studies. My work during this time focused on defining and enacting pluralism in Jewish education, and I wrote my dissertation on leadership and community-building in ideologically pluralistic Jewish high schools. I studied theories of pluralism in the realms of philosophy and general education and sought in my field research to apply them to the very practical world of North American Jewish day schools. For me, my years at NYU turned out to be the perfect marriage of theory and practice, preparing me both to develop a philosophical vision of leadership in pluralistic settings and to implement it in real-world situations of curriculum-development and conflict in schools.

It has been clearly documented in research both outside and inside the Jewish community that learning in an environment that highlights exposure to multiple perspectives promotes—perhaps counterintuitively—the development of both robust individual identity and strong communal sentiment. This understanding, which was affirmed by my own qualitative dissertation research in the field, has played a significant role in shaping my practice through ten years of leadership positions in both denominationally-affiliated and non-affiliated schools.

One of the most prevalent critiques of Jewish day schools is that they are lacking in “diversity.” In fact, little could be further from the truth. In order for the concept of diversity to have significance, it must be understood not merely as aesthetic variety, but rather as an opportunity for people of divergent perspectives to interact in meaningful ways and craft community with one another without seeking homogeneity. This is a competence that can be taught and practiced, and there are few institutions in the world better equipped to teach it than Jewish day schools—after all, such vibrant, respectful articulation of strongly held viewpoints has been a hallmark of Jewish tradition for over 2000 years.

There may be no more important skill that we can impart to our students to prepare them for success in the 21st century than the ability to develop individualized identities, articulate them eloquently, and engage constructively with people who think and act differently. Through my graduate school experience—in the seminar room, in the library, and at case-study sites—I became convinced that Jewish day schools are uniquely well suited to provide this training. And my years in the field have served only to embolden me further in this conviction about the value of our institutions—just ask our graduate who was confronted with a seemingly anti-Israel roommate.

Michael Kay is Head of School at Solomon Schechter of Westchester. He received his Ph.D. at New York University’s program in education and Judaic studies.

Read the first blog in this series from Ilana Horwitz, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education

 

 

The fluidity of Jewishness

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 first in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs–is from Ilana M. Horwitz, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education. Ilana also is a Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar.

“This is Rebecca. She’s Jewish.” This was often how Rebecca’s high-school friend introduced her to new people in their small New York town where few Jews lived. In these brief encounters with others, Rebecca’s Jewishness made her different. It made her uncomfortable. Self-conscious. Teens usually want to blend in, not stand out. Now, in her twenties, Rebecca remembers those moments of difference when she recounts her life story. It was in those moments that Rebecca felt most keenly aware of her Jewish identity.

Rebecca’s story was one of 57 life narratives I collected as part of a research project in Stanford’s Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies. We wanted to understand how Jewishness fit into people’s overall life stories without asking them explicitly about their involvement in Jewish organizations, how many Jewish friends they had, or how often they lit Shabbat candles. When we started the project, I was a new doctoral student in the Education & Jewish Studies concentration at Stanford University. I realized fairly quickly that the concept of identity was far more complicated than I understood. After all, cultivating, strengthening, or enhancing “Jewish identity” was the goal of countless Jewish organizations and it had become part of my own lexicon. As I thought about other aspects of my life and realized that I might say I have a “White” identity or a “female” identity or a “Jewish” identity, but that the relationship between those social categories and myself was not at all stable.

Three years and multiple sociology classes later, I finally understand why it’s problematic to talk about strengthening Jewish identity. Jewishness, like ‘race’ and ethnicity are not stable and static qualities that inhere in individuals. Instead, ‘race’ and ethnicity are something constructed, negotiated, and reaffirmed through ongoing social interactions. I stopped thinking of ‘racial’/ethnic group membership as based on a relatively fixed ‘presumed identity’ and began seeing it as a dynamic and complex social phenomenon that ‘can change according to variations in the situations and audiences encountered’ (Nagel, 1994: 154).

I realize that this explanation sounds very academic, so let me illustrate with another story from the aforementioned research project. The key point I want to highlight is how the salience of our Jewishness changes based on our social situations and the audiences we encounter. Meet Dalia, who grew up in a highly Jewish area of New York and attended Jewish day school. She never felt particularly Jewish because many people around her were more observant or more engaged in Jewish organizations. In her twenties, Dalia moved to Texas and became a minority. Her curly dark hair was no longer the norm, but rather a feature that distinguished her from other people. But this difference was not an objective fact— her difference only became apparent when she came into contact with other people. And it was not just her appearance. Dalia’s Texan friends referred to her as the “rabbi,” a stark contrast to how Dalia perceived herself in New York where many people were more knowledgeable than her. Dalia felt obliged to educate others about Judaism and began hosting Shabbat dinners. By moving to Texas, Dalia’s sense of Jewishness moved into the foreground of her life, not the background. Her level of observance or belief may not have changed between living in New York and Texas, but her sense of Jewishness certainly became more salient. Being Jewish was not a stable and static quality that Dalia possessed, but was something she became more aware of because of her social situation.

If Jewish identity is socially dependent, what are implications for the Jewish education field? For social scientists and evaluators, one question is how to measure Jewish identity given its social nature. Surveys need to take into account the social and contextual factors that affect how Jews see themselves, and should ideally measure how one’s sense of Jewishness fluctuates over time. Meanwhile, practitioners may need to re-imagine how they affect and interact with program participants. Perhaps cultivating or strengthening levels of Jewish engagement (which relates to behaviors and participation in activities) may be more productive. Funders, who drive and support much of the work going on in the Jewish education field, would also have to adapt their mindsets and strategies to reflect the social—not fixed and inherent— nature of identity. And we should all remember that Jews are not vessels to be filled up with Judaism. Rather, they are dynamic beings who are shaped by the people they encounter, the places they live, and the myriad social situations they find themselves in everyday.

Sources:
Nagel, J. (1994) ‘Constructing Ethnicity’, Social Problems 41(1): 152–76.

Ilana M. Horwitz is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education. She also is a Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar.

Fostering Joy at the EJE Network Day of Learning

Editor’s Note:  An inaugural retreat in October 2015 launched a new network of experiential Jewish educators, comprised of more than 200 program graduates from HUC-JIR’s Certificate in Jewish Education specializing in Adolescents and Emerging Adults; The Davidson School’s Master’s Degree in Jewish Experiential Education program and Jewish Experiential Leadership Institute (in partnership with the JCC Association); and YU’s Certificate Program in Experiential Jewish Education

Earlier this summer, members of the Experiential Jewish Education (EJE)  Network gathered again for a Day of Learning on the topic of “Fostering Joy: How can we harness joy to meet our goals as experiential Jewish educators.” Network members had the opportunity to learn together, to challenge each other, to try new education strategies, to strengthen their relationships with one another, and to think about how they can bring joy into the lives of learners through the educational experiences they create.

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports the EJE Network through its Education Initiative with HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU. We are pleased to share the following reflections on the Day of Learning from three of its participants:

Bringing More Joy into the Lives of Teens,” by Kara Liu, Youth Director of Temple Israel in Long Beach, CA and a member of cohort five of HUC-JIR’s Certificate in Jewish Education specializing in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Finding Joy in Data Analysis,” by David Rosen, Associate of Campaign Analytics and Support for JEWISHcolorado and  a member of cohort one of JTS’s Master’s Degree in Jewish Experiential Education

Prioritizing Joy as a Solo Consultant,” by Lily Lozovsky, Director of Bring Back Shabbat and Network Engagement Manager for OU Next Gen and Platforma Global Network and a member of cohort three of YU’s EJE Certificate Program