Turning a Visit into an Immersive Experience

The Jim Joseph Foundation invests in curated, immersive, learning experiences and the training of talented educators who facilitate them. From a pedagogical view, this learning experience stands in contrast to a simpler “trip to the museum,” which by itself typically lacks the educational component that catalyzes learning. Rather, an immersive learning experience provides an opportunity for a participant’s growth of knowledge, character, and identity.

One example of the value of such an opportunity is found in a 1970 study of Sesame Street,[1] (which had premiered in 1969). The study sought to determine whether socioeconomic status (SeS) was a determining factor for whether children aged 3-5 benefited from watching the program. In this study, for this demographic, there was a difference in baseline performance between those with low SeS and high SeS. Both segments, however, exhibited material improvement on assessments after regularly watching Sesame Street.

Yet in a subsequent study examining the same age group[2], researchers noted a profound divergence. Researchers determined that certain children not differentiated by SeS excelled at a far greater rate than others.  The X-factor?  Parents.  When one or more parents collectively watched the Sesame Street episodes with their children, they saw the children’s measurable skill sets increase significantly more than those who did not. This result pointed to the “curated experience” as an important and a defining one.

This idea of curation permeates through each of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s strategic priorities:  Increase the Number and Quality of Jewish Educators and Education Leaders, Expand Opportunities for Effective Jewish Learning, and Build a Strong Field for Jewish Education.  Three respective grants to The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the American Friends of the Israel Museum, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Innovation Fund represent the symbiotic actualization of these strategies.

Increase the Number and Quality of Jewish Educators and Education Leaders
In 2013, the Jim Joseph Foundation complemented its growing portfolio of grants to American institutions of higher education—which already included New York University, Stanford University, Brandeis University, UC Berkeley, Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah—to include George Washington University.  One of the unique departments that differentiates George Washington University is its Department of Museum Studies, regarded by many as the premier program in the country.  The Jim Joseph Foundation awarded a grant for a dual degree program at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences to create the first ever Master of Arts in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts degree.  The program specializes in creating interdisciplinary educators who can emerge as what is described as a “scholar-practitioner” for the field of Jewish cultural education.  In other words, they are specially trained in visioning, designing, and facilitating curated cultural experiences to deepen Jewish learning.

Expand Opportunities for Effective Jewish Learning
Also in 2013, the Jim Joseph Foundation co-invested with the Steinhardt Foundation to increase the learning opportunities for Birthright Israel participants at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.  Consistent with the Foundation’s view on meaningful outcomes, this grant was not meant merely to increase numbers (although small subsidies helped to grow the number of attendees from a few thousand in 2013 to 15,000 in 2014 and to more than 20,000 in 2015). Instead, the grant focused on the development of a curated curriculum for these attendees at the Israel Museum. The grant stipulated that guides must be formally trained by the Israel Museum educational department before receiving the entry subsidy portion of the grant to bring a group to the museum. Consequently, hundreds of Birthright guides attended at least one of the 11 trainings offered by the Israel Museum over just the past year. While it is possible that without this training requirement more groups would have utilized the subsidy, the Jim Joseph Foundation was interested in making the curated, immersive learning experience more accessible. In total, nearly half of all Birthright Israel participants worldwide were brought to the Israel Museum over the last 12 months, making it the third most visited site on Birthright next to the Kotel and Yad Vashem.

Build a Strong Field for Jewish Education
In 2008, the Jim Joseph Foundation first funded the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Innovation Fund, a central component of which is to educate museum curators and other practitioners from across the country.  One example of this was the formation of the Jewish Education and Technology (JET) Institute, an educational workshop for Jewish day school teachers to integrate tech applications into their regular curriculum.  Another is the active partnerships and efforts towards collaboration that have been cultivated through the Innovation Fund that includes but is not limited to George Washington University and the Israel Museum. This complements the local programming and content acquisition that provide resources ranging from early childhood education for families with young children to young adult programming.

As a strategic grantmaking foundation, grants awarded by the Board intended to be part of a continuum of funding help to build the field of Jewish education, particularly for young Jews ages 13-30. Investing in the education of quality, experiential Jewish educators is one step towards the ultimate goal of the Jim Joseph Foundation, inspiring young people to discover the joy of living vibrant Jewish lives. The investment in cultural Jewish learning experiences is another significant way that the Jim Joseph Foundation attempts to achieve this goal. It is not enough to see a picture without the story behind it, and it is not enough to take a trip without understanding that you are walking through history.

[1] Bogatz and Ball, The First Year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation, Princeton, New Jersey: Educational Testing Service, 1970.

[2] Lesser, Gerald S.  (1975) [1974].  Children and Television:  Lessons From Sesame Street.  New York: Vintage Books