Building on Reimagining Israel Education: Moving forward with shared purpose and shared investment

Nearly two years ago, our foundations embarked on Reimagining Israel Education, an ambitious initiative to reshape how the Jewish community delivers Israel education and meets this challenging moment for young Jews. The need was clear: Despite real progress over the past two decades, the last five years—especially after Oct. 7, 2023 — showed that many Jewish learners need a more holistic, realistic and relevant approach to Israel education, woven across Jewish learning at every age and setting.

David Bryfman and Rabbi Dena Klein of The Jewish Education Project and consultant Beth Cousens led this field-wide effort, engaging more than 400 thought leaders and practitioners across the broad spectrum of Jewish and Israel education. We are grateful to them and the many other partners and fellows whose insights shaped the resulting framework that will guide the field forward.

Last month, we released this framework and its 10 core principles for more authentic Israel education. It builds on the field’s strengths, while also calling on us to center learners and to invest in educators, leaders and high-quality content so that Israel education can be deeper, stronger and more impactful and enduring. The framework is not meant as a curriculum, but rather as a guide for aligning around a new shared vision, language and approach. It can be used as a tool for planning, scaling what works, adapting what does not and designing professional learning to be more effective for educators across the field.

At its core, Reimagining treats Israel education as an ongoing and integral part of Jewish education and engagement, not a stand-alone topic. It is based on the premise that good Israel education requires the same standards of good educational pedagogy as any other content area. This means that educators will have knowledge and confidence to engage with Israel’s complex realities and diverse society. Learners will encounter Israel’s history, land, people and modern state in all their richness and nuance, participating in an evolving Jewish conversation about what Israel means today.

Read the fill piece at eJewish Philanthropy.

Lisa Eisen is co-president of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. Dawne Bear Novicoff is the executive vice president of the Jim Joseph Foundation.