Timely Resources and Programs to Meet the Moment

These resources are geared primarily toward educators and other professionals in the field to support their work and leadership during this challenging time.

Upcoming and Timely:

With Education and Engagement in Mind:

• Pardes offers different professional development opportunities for Jewish educators during the summer to help them “grow as educators, deepen their impact on students, and remain inspired.”
• With travel to Israel is still on hold, Makom continues to develop new ways of learning about and from Israel, including its “new and exciting set of educational resources in the form of a project we call Zimrat Ha’aretz: Makom’s New Israeli Playlist.
• New research from the Benenson Strategy Group offers insights on the kinds of virtual programming Jewish young adults are seeking out right now.
• Prizmah’s Reshet groups enable day school faculty, educators, and lay leaders to network with peers and colleagues. Choose from groups Judaic Administrator, Learning Specialist, Orthodox Women Leadership, and more.
• The Jewish Education Project launched The Jewish Educator Portal, filled with curated content and resources, ongoing professional development, and a mechanism to create community by holding their own convenings and gatherings.
• Hebrew at the Center offers a full menu of online resources for Hebrew teachers and leaders to specifically help prepare schools and the field for the continued uncertainty.
• Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has a resource guide with tips and best practices for “Teaching in Relationship Online.”
• The Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative (FC) launched NewRealityResources.com to aggregate timely content and offerings for Jewish youth professionals and educators who work with Jewish teens.
• The iCenter offers materials and links to live experiences to help educators continue Israel education.
• The Jewish New Teacher Project has a list of free ed-tech resources for schools that have moved to online learning and ‘low-tech’ ideas for home learning.
• Facing History and Ourselves has “readings and resources to start important conversations with your students about the coronavirus outbreak, and to explore questions about community, responsibility, decision-making and upstanding that are relevant in this moment.”
• CASJE has curated a set of resources that look at how changes as a result of COVID-19 are testing education in a variety of settings, including K-12 schooling, after-school learning, early childhood education, and higher education.
• Torrey Trust, Ph.D. at University of Massachusetts Amherst has a presentation available on “Teaching Remotely in Times of Need.”
• Moving Traditions has a thoughtful “Blessing for B’nai Mitzvah Impacted by the Coronavirus.”

Helping Leaders Navigate Crises:

• UpStart offers a guide, Facilitating in the Virtual World: 26 interactive exercises to engage participants at all stages of the learning journey, to help with digital engagement–whether it occurs in a board meeting, a Jewish afterschool program, or elsewhere.
• The Jewish Service Alliance launched Serve the Moment to mobilize Jewish young adults and college students (ages 18-29) through a full-time stipended fellowship program that starts this summer. Nominate a changemaker in your community for the fall.
• Leading Edge has released a new playbook on “Reopening Our Workspaces.” Learn how to keep human factors like team culture, emotional support, and equity front and center in your reopening plans.
• Resources to facilitate conversations and prompt actions regarding race and equality are available from the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, The Jewish Education Project, Repair the World, Moishe House, Moving Traditions, Prizmah, and PJ Library.
• Leading Edge has resources to help professionals at all career levels and in different positions approach “the challenges of work under quarantine, arranged by some questions we’ve been hearing a lot lately.”
• JPRO offers new Masterclasses within its ongoing webinar series to address current issues facing professionals and their organizations.
• Jewish Funders Network Resources Hub offers many helpful and timely resources by category.
• Board Member Institute for Jewish Nonprofits is hosting a number of webinars on board-related topics.
• The Center for Creative Leadership has “Leadership Resources for Times of Crisis.”

For Self-Care:

• The COVID Grief Network, an international mutual aid network, offers free 1:1 and group grief support and builds long-term community for young adults in their 20s and 30s who are grieving the illness or death of someone to COVID-19.
• JPRO and Jewish Federations of North America offer Rise, an initiative to help out-of-work Jewish community professionals financial resources, career resources and personal resilience resources.
• Maharat and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah “have partnered to launch an exciting new program: Mind the Gap: A Mini Sabbatical designed for Jewish professionals who are headed to or in-between jobs in the Jewish communal sector, with the goals of deepening knowledge of Jewish content and strengthening leadership skills.” You can share the names and email addresses of potential candidates at [email protected]