Imagine the wind in your hair and good music coming out of your car radio. You and your family are road tripping to a college town. You are going to find the best burger place, sit on the grass in the quad and dream about the future. You might even check out the Hillel while you are there or see that family friend who is now a student. You might sit in on a class, you might go to a game, but you won’t go home without that hoodie from the campus store that says, “I went somewhere, and I am going somewhere.”

The college visit road trip, more than just a rite of passage for those fortunate to have the means, is an inherently hopeful act. For many of our teens and parents, visiting campuses is the culmination of years of work and planning, studying and dreaming. It is that first step out of the house and into adulthood. There are so many hopes and expectations wrapped up in finding the right school. The school you can get into. The school you can afford. The school where you can be happy and flourish.

Planning for the future is a hard thing to do right now. In so many ways the future is unclear. Families are potentially dealing with financial realities due to COVID-19 that seemed impossible just months before. On top of that with cancelled Spring Breaks and prom behind them and cancelled camp and graduations still ahead teens are feeling robbed of key moments in their lives. While those losses are small compared to the global unrest, they are real for our teens and their families.

With no ability to travel, the college visit road trip seemed destined to be yet another milestone cancelled. That is why JumpSpark Atlanta, 4Front Baltimore and the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Collaborative are partnering for the first-ever national virtual road trip for all college-bound teens and their parents. Since the road trip kicked off at the end of May, over 6,000 teens and their families have visited Roadtriptocollege.org. In the first week of programming, more than 500 people attended sessions with thousands more engaging with social media content. As families and teens #Jumponthebus throughout the month of June, they are able to join virtual college tours with current students, admissions staff, and Hillel professionals, participate in teen and parent workshops and interact via daily student takeovers on Instagram.

Amidst all the excitement of college exploration, the virtual road trip has also emerged as an important platform to process the fact that both the road we’re on right now and the one ahead are rough. From uncertainty about the future of on-campus experiences to the turmoil currently wracking our country in the weeks since George Floyd’s murder, staff from Atlanta and Baltimore have leveraged the road trip to explore things like the impact of Covid-19 on the admissions process, the importance of diversity to the college experience, the role of higher education in anti-racism, and the history of student activism and Black-Jewish cooperation in university settings.

In short, this has evolved beyond what any of us could have imagined when the virtual college road trip idea was first generated. It is more than just college information sessions moved to Zoom. Rather, it is a deep immersive experience, exploring through a unique lens the issues that matter and seeking to recapture the feeling of actually visiting a school, speaking with students and faculty and imagining yourself there. In the midst of this pandemic and national tragedy, a new concrete way has been created to help teens envision and transition to the next chapter of their Jewish lives.

And it is more than that, too. This is giving families back something which we all so desperately need at this time – the opportunity to engage in hopeful acts together.

So, how can you #Jumponthebus?

1.       Visit RoadTriptoCollege.org

This is the home base for everything happening on the college road trip. Find information about all the colleges, students and workshops being featured. Browse the resources or register for information sessions, parent webinars and teen workshops. Miss something?  Sessions are also on-demand on our YouTube channel.

2.       Follow our Bus Drivers at @JumpSparkATL and @4FrontBaltimore

Over 100 college students or recent graduates have been engaged meaningfully to help drive this experience. JumpOnTheBus and follow our student ‘bus drivers’ on Instagram Stories to get their insider guides to their campus and college towns – what they love, what makes the place special, and what Jewish life is like there. More than a virtual tour, here’s your?chance to see things through a student’s eyes. Reference each college page for social links, dates and times of these tours.

3.       Turn up the tunes with our student curated Jump on the Bus Spotify playlist

4.       Check out our TikTok to see daily college student-created videos about their schools.

Kelly Cohen is Director of JumpSpark in Atlanta. Rabbi Dena Shaffer is Executive Director of 4Front Baltimore

Inspired by Springboard Chicago, which ran a virtual College Road trip in partnership with JCC Camp Chi in March, this immersive iteration was the brain child of JumpSpark, based in Atlanta, and originally featured colleges and universities in the South. Through the cooperative opportunities of The Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, 4Front Baltimore joined up and added schools from the mid-Atlantic, growing the list to over 30 schools. The Funder Collaborative s an innovative philanthropic experiment. In an unprecedented collaboration, national and local funders work together to develop, nurture and scale new approaches to teen engagement. This innovative learning and sharing network has created an environment that fosters risk-taking, experimentation and ongoing reflection. 

Source: eJewish Philanthropy

Jewish day schools were quick to pivot from a traditional in-class setting to online classrooms, and as the academic year winds down, they are taking stock of where they stand, what they have accomplished and how to move ahead in a COVID-19 world.

On a recent June night, 25 people, primarily young children, sat on their couches and watched as a puppeteer explained how he creates his puppets and how they could build their own with materials they have one hand. In another “room,” about a dozen people watched as an artist explained how he uses paints to create depth and design.

Welcome to the annual end-of-year art celebration at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md. Traditionally held in person, this year’s event—like events at schools around the country—took place online with the “rooms” separate live video streams that families could tune into.

Across the country, Jewish day schools were quick to pivot from a traditional in-class setting to online classrooms, and as the academic year winds down, they are taking stock of where they stand, what they have accomplished and how to move ahead in a COVID-19 world.

“Jewish day schools have worked incredibly hard, and as a result, we have been world leaders in providing a virtual education in this period,” said Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools.

A New York Times article on May 9 highlighted the success of remote learning at the Chicago Jewish Day School, which provided more than four hours of live, online instruction daily after the coronavirus caused brick-and-mortar schools to close their doors this spring, in comparison to many public schools that provide only limited live, online programming. Other Jewish day schools, similarly, provide multiple hours of online instruction each day.

“As a private school, we had leeway and flexibility to get creative about the way we were teaching and make sure we reaching the whole child’s emotional and social well-being, even if it’s through a screen,” said Ilyssa Greene Frey, director of admissions at The Rashi School in Dedham, Mass., a Jewish elementary school outside Boston.

Part of the that early success came as a result of the pandemic hitting the Jewish community in New Rochelle, N.Y., particularly hard in early March. The Salantar Akiba Riverdale Academy (SAR) was the first Jewish school—and the first school in the nation—to shut down on March 3. It reopened virtually two days later, and within days, was sharing its findings on virtual education in a webinar with other Jewish day schools around the country, facilitated by Prizmah.

Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School on 259th Street in Riverdale, Bronx, N.Y. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Right away, teacher training went into effect on how to utilize a virtual-learning platform with communication to parents about the next steps. Administrators also ensured that all students had access to computers or iPads for class and arranging for electronic devices for those students who did not; in a number of cases, families may have had only one device and the parents were using it, or there were not enough for each child in a family to be online at one time.

That level of detail, along with online instruction that seemed to run circles around what the public schools managed to offer these past few months, has attracted interest from Jewish families that previously had not considered a Jewish day school for their child.

Officials at The Rashi School, which enrolls 250 students in grades kindergarten through eight, began seeing interest from prospective parents relatively soon after its classes went to an online platform on March 18.

“Families are seeing that Rashi is able to provide an education experience for their children that the public schools just cannot, and that is driving some the inquiries we are getting,” said Frey, noting that officially, admission for the 2020-21 school year closed just before the pandemic hit.

She notes that interest from new families has been particularly strong for enrollment in its middle school, where tuition can run upwards of $40,000. (Tuition begins at $29,900 for kindergarten and goes up from there.)

Among the new families joining the school will be the Shilman family, with eldest son Nathaniel starting kindergarten this fall.

“In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain uncertain what the next school will be like; however, our decision is more certain than ever,” said Nathaniel’s mother, Stella Shilman. “Rashi has been great at keeping new students up to date with plans during quarantine and continuous efforts in online learning. From my conversations with other families, Rashi was able to quickly transform to virtual classes and continue to advance academic studies while maintaining connections within their community, beyond walls of the school.”

Those connections, said Shilman, included a virtual “play date” where Nathaniel got to meet some of his new classmates.

Students thank their teachers during an online Zoom class. Source: The Rashi School via Facebook.

The Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans has also seen increasing interest in its program.

“We’ve had a few families that are looking at us more seriously and a few that have already applied not just because of what we’ve done online, but because we are a smaller school and they feel we can take appropriate precautions for in-person learning,” said Brad Philipson, the Oscar J. Tomas head of school chair. The school is also working with a regional hospital system that has developed a safe-return system for when classes reopen in August.

According to Rabbi Mitch Malkus, head of school at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, for those families who could afford to send their children to day schools but “weren’t committed to the value proposition of spending time in a Jewish day school, this has changed the equation for them. They may have felt in the past that the public school was good enough, and now they are seeing it is not good enough.”

At Charles E. Smith, parents who have been impacted by a job loss or furlough because of the pandemic will be eligible for tuition from a special emergency fund so as not to strain the general tuition-assistance fund. “We look at COVID-19 as something that will have a one- or two-year impact on tuition-assistance requests,” said Malkus, “but we wouldn’t be able to sustain this additional level of support in the long run.”

Malkus added that local donors have stepped up, but he’s hoping to secure even more gifts.

“When we were thinking about our emergency fund, we looked back to see what was needed in the great recession of 2008-09, and historically, how many people left the school,” said Malkus. “We are trying to address economic crisis from COVID-19 as best we can. My hope would be that the Jewish day-school field and schools individually are working to address that this time around in ways we didn’t during the great recession.”

“At the end of the day, unfortunately, everyone has limited resources, and there is only so much fundraising that can be done, and the impact of the pandemic is pretty significant,” he added.

Malkus said that prospective families were able to join in the end-of-year, online art program, and that more than a dozen families participated in a recent virtual open house. Like at Rashi, much of the interest for new enrollment is in the upper grades—both the middle and high schools. Currently, there are 920 students over two campuses in the pre-k through 12th-grade school.

The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Financial, enrollment and donor-support challenges

While an uptick in enrollment is good news, especially as the trend was moving in the opposite direction in recent years for non-Orthodox day schools, some 34,000 Jews attended a non-Orthodox day school in 2013, according to a report from the Avi Chai Foundation, down from some 39,500 in 2003. It comes as schools face new financial challenges as they examine how to reopen schools in a few short months.

Finances are always a concern for Jewish day schools, but even more so now as parents have been furloughed or laid off completely, economic downturns have impacted donors’ wealth portfolios, and the costs of doing business will rise to meet the myriad of health and safety guidelines and regulations needed to reopen schools as early as August.

A survey of 110 heads of Jewish day schools conducted by Prizmah recently found that 90 percent of them were expecting at least a 10 percent increase in tuition-aid requests for the upcoming school year, while two-thirds of schools said they anticipate tightening their budgets.

There is precedent for their concern.

The school rabbi of the Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans, Michael Cohen (right) and the head of school, Brad Philipson, putting on a Zoom graduation program, a combination of prerecorded tributes and live participation. Credit: Courtesy.

During the economic crash of 2008-09, Jewish day schools across the country were hit hard. Parents who were facing  financial challenges pulled their children from Jewish day schools because they could no longer afford them. A number of school even shut their doors for good, unable to keep up with the declining enrollment and fiscal shortfalls.

The 2020 landscape, say experts, is quite different.

“We’re not hearing there is a big re-enrollment crisis, but we are hearing a lot of need for tuition from families that are struggling, particularly in families where one of both parents may have lost jobs or been furloughed,” said Bernstein.

To help ease that burden, Prizmah recently announced that it will be launching two new tuition-assistance funds for families impacted by the pandemic. One will be general tuition-aid fund, and the other is specifically for those parents who work in the Jewish communal sphere.

Both grants are being supported by the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund, an $80 million fund that was established to help a variety of Jewish organizations and institutions weather the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. JCRIF is being backed by the Aviv Foundation; the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation; the Jim Joseph Foundation; Maimonides Fund; the Paul E. Singer Foundation; and the Wilf Family Foundation.

Schools are also trying to encourage local donors to step up.

In New Orleans, for instance, school officials had hoped to raise $15,000 during the Give NOLA Day, a citywide, annual charity event. When the pandemic began and the event was postponed until June, school officials were concerned people wouldn’t be able to give so they lowered their initial benchmark to $10,000.

They wound up raising $27,000 through the campaign. (People were able to give as early as May, even though the actual “day” was pushed back.)

“The community really stepped up,” said Philipson. “We don’t have the kind of money in New Orleans that bigger cities do, but we have a lot of philanthropists who are very dedicated to the Jewish community.”

At Charles E. Smith, parents who have been impacted by a job loss or furlough because of the pandemic will be eligible for tuition from a special emergency fund so as not to strain the general tuition-assistance fund. “We look at it as something that will have a one- or two-year impact,” said Malkus, “but we wouldn’t be able to sustain it in the long run.”

Malkus added that local donors have stepped, but he’s hoping to secure even more gifts.

A teacher at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., celebrates a drive-through graduation in June 2020. Source: Charles E. Smith via Facebook.

Even with assistance for parents, fiscal challenges hover above potential openings this fall.

Laurence Kutler, head of school at the Tucson Hebrew Academy in Arizona, estimates that reopening his school in early August with all the necessary health guidelines in place will cost a minimum of $40,000, including hiring an additional employee to help with sanitizing the school between classes.

That dollar amount, however, does not include the purchase earlier this year of Chromebooks for students who didn’t have access to one at home. Funds for those computers came from a private donor. The kindergarten through eighth-grade school is attended by 122 students.

“We have 38 pages of protocols from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the governor’s office, including hygiene-sanitizing equipment, social distancing in classrooms and teacher-student ratios,” said Kutler, adding that they are saving some funds by bundling their supplies with the local Jewish community center and Jewish federation to keep costs on masks, gloves and hand sanitizer down.

Said Malkus, “When we were thinking about our emergency fund, we looked back to see what was needed in the great recession of 2008-09, and historically, how many people left the school. We are trying to address that as best we can. My hope would be that the Jewish day-school field and schools individually are working to address that this time around in ways we didn’t the first time.

“At the end of the day, unfortunately, everyone has limited resources, and there is only so much fundraising that can be done and the impact is pretty significant,” added Malkus.

Incorporating scenarios for social distancing, eating, recess

With so much uncertainty regarding COVID-19—and concerns of a second or third wave of the coronavirus expected come winter—nearly every school JNS spoke with is preparing various scenarios for running the 2020-21 academic year. Saying anything is certain remains … uncertain.

“We have a variety of scenarios planned,” said Wendy Leberman, director of admission and marketing at the Jewish Day School in Bellevue, Wash., the city now known for the overwhelming large number of elderly who died in nursing homes. “We have large campus and small class sizes, so if we are limited to 10 kids a classroom, we’ve looked at how we can do that. We’ve also planned how we can can go back to campus at a 100 percent [normal], how we can do remote learning in the fall or a hybrid of the two.”

Leberman said one idea is how to have teachers educate multiple classes without risking exposure from different sets of students. One solution: having an educator remain in one room to teach classes live to be broadcasted virtually to students in other classrooms.

Some schools, particularly those with large campuses or in suburban areas, are talking about taking lessons outside, at least on good weather days, with virtual classes during cold or inclement weather. Other institutions are anticipating having a group of students in class some days, with others working virtually, and then switching either weekly or every other day. (Israel began a similar policy upon first opening its schools.) Most school concede that class sizes will be kept to a minimum per state guidelines to allow ample distancing between children.

Lunch and recess are also being reimagined. Many schools said they will focus on eating in classrooms. Some added that children and teachers will be responsible for wiping down desktops before and afterwards. Because class sizes will be significant smaller—the current best estimate is 10 to 12 students per classroom—with one teacher and perhaps an aide, adults will be better able to watch that students don’t share meals or snacks.

Recess will likely be staggered so that classes aren’t mixing on the playground or ball fields. Educators will also be looking at how camps running this summer handle their sports and free time for ideas for games and athletic activities that can be done with little contact.

Also, the school day may be shortened in some areas to allow for staggered shifts and more cleaning times, which would affect recess.

Whatever it looks like, 2020 will be like 2008—a “pivot point” for Jewish education, suggested Bernstein. “The question is: How do we pivot to have good things happen? And if that means there will be some consolidation among schools in a particular area, that’s a real possibility.

“We aren’t just talking about schools closing, but of schools coming together and making something that is stronger than their individual parts,” he continued. “ … There are even opportunities between schools to share the virtual platform, which can be cost-saving. There are lots of creative ideas ahead.”

Source: “Amid the pandemic, Jewish day schools survive (and even thrive),” Faygie Holt, Jewish News Syndicate, June 19, 2020

The Jewish Service Alliance (JSA), a new coalition of organizations, today launched “Serve the Moment” to engage Jewish young adults and college students in 100,000 acts of meaningful service and learning addressing the COVID-19 crisis, its economic fallout, and the movement for racial justice. The initiative will mobilize tens of thousands in virtual volunteering, in-person service, and national service campaigns around specific issues during the year. Full-time stipended fellows, known as “Serve the Moment Corps Members,” will serve at nonprofit partners in cities across the country.

“The Jewish community is facing an extraordinary moment as we see unprecedented need in our communities and a great awakening to the fact that Black Americans and People of Color are being disproportionately impacted,” says Cindy Greenberg, President and CEO of Repair the World, which mobilizes Jewish young adults and their communities to serve, and is leading Serve the Moment nationally. “We must step up boldly and in alignment with our Jewish values to support our community and our neighbors. Serve the Moment will galvanize the Jewish community to meet pressing local needs, strengthening our country while building bridges across lines of difference. I want us to look back on this unprecedented chapter knowing that we lived our values, showed up, and made an impact.”

Powered by Repair the World, Serve the Moment is in partnership with Amplifier, Avodah, Base Hillel, Be’chol Lashon, Birthright Israel, The Bronfman Youth Fellowship, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Challah for Hunger, Hillel International, IsraAID, JCC Association, JDC Entwine, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, Moishe House, Network of Jewish Human Services Agencies, OneTable, Religious Action Center, Tivnu, Union for Reform Judaism, Congregation Emanu-El (San Francisco), Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish Volunteer Centers, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish Volunteer Connection Baltimore, Righteous Persons Foundation; and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Maimonides Fund through the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund.

“The Jewish Service Alliance is an ambitious, exciting and important endeavor with the power to influence countless lives, both those serving and those being served,” adds Michael Brown, Co-founder and Senior Advisor of City Year, who is advising Serve the Moment. “Ultimately, it is the collective service of all of us, from all backgrounds, life experiences and beliefs, which empowers change, builds unity and shared purpose, and allows us to dream of a better life – and work together to achieve it. I’m honored to be a part of the Jewish community’s effort to rise to meet this moment.”

Beginning with a summer of service from July 8 – August 7, Serve the Moment will mobilize 100 Jewish young adults and college students through a four-week stipended Corps Member program, which will grow to bring on more Corps Members in the fall and spring. The Corps Members will volunteer in-person and virtually while also learning and reflecting with their peers. The initiative also will mobilize the Jewish community around specific issues, such as food insecurity, learning loss, and unemployment related to COVID-19 and racial justice, through four national campaigns during the year. In total, Serve the Moment will engage tens of thousands of young adults and college students in 100,000 acts of service and learning.

The initiative’s leaders hope their collaborative approach is a model for other Jewish organizations to work together to engage Jewish young adults in meaningful ways.

“Mobilizing a national service movement for Jewish young adults can play a critical role in helping Jewish life to persist and flourish through these uncertain and challenging times,” said Adam Lehman, President and CEO of Hillel International. “Just as important, this initiative will inspire a new generation of Jewish young adults to translate their Jewish values into serious commitments to service on behalf of the broader community, now and into the future.”

Following an intense period of evaluation and planning, Serve the Moment is responding to an unprecedented need, as vulnerable populations are experiencing loss of life, financial insecurity, and challenges accessing basic necessities and care. Additionally, as Jewish camps, communal organizations, nonprofits, and other pillars of Jewish life are disrupted, the Jewish community can invest in innovative efforts that engage young Jews in meaningful ways around a common purpose.

Volunteers can connect with Serve the Moment in the following ways:

• Full-time Corps Members will engage in immersive, in-person (with social distancing as needed) and virtual service with carefully vetted local partners who are following CDC guidelines. For example, Serve the Moment Corps Members will support vital food and supply delivery and packaging at food pantries.

• Volunteers will engage in virtual and in-person service episodically through Serve the Moment’s robust menu of projects, such as online tutoring for low-income children who have fallen behind because of school closings, calls and welfare assessments with isolated seniors, food delivery, and home seed starting for urban farms that provide fresh produce to low-income families who would not otherwise have access. Volunteers can also provide pro bono skilled volunteering for frontline nonprofits such as website development, logo design, and fundraising support.

• Time-bound national volunteering campaigns offer opportunities to engage thousands of young Jews in episodic service and learning. This volunteering is centered around key issue areas (e.g. food, education, social isolation/mental health) and holidays (e.g. High Holidays, Purim, MLK Day), inspiring and galvanizing the Jewish community nationwide to serve. Campaigns will incorporate both in-person service and digital engagement to educate participants about pressing social needs and support individuals in finding service opportunities to meet needs in their communities.

For more information, contact Jordan Fruchtman, Senior Director of the Jewish Service Alliance at [email protected].

Repair the World (Repair) mobilizes Jews and their communities to take action to pursue a just world, igniting a lifelong commitment to service. Repair believes service in support of social change is vital to a flourishing Jewish community and an inspired Jewish life.

Source: eJewish Philanthropy

One of the more positive Jewish communal stories at this time of communal disruption is of how hundreds of Jewish day schools, globally, have mobilized so that students can continue their education via distance learning platforms. We do not intend to re-tell the story of this important effort, nor do we propose to reflect on the outcomes created for teachers, students and students’ families. It is too early to say. We don’t yet have enough systematically collected data about these phenomena.

We turn, instead, to data gathered during easier times, just two years ago. We offer a research-informed perspective on the extent to which the shift to virtual schooling challenges the most distinctive feature – call it the beating heart – of day school education: its relational core. Appreciating the present upheaval in such terms can help educators focus on what is most important when there are so many claims on their attention.

CASJE, the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, housed at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, commissioned a study of leadership in Jewish day schools (with the support of the AVI CHAI Foundation and the Berman Family Foundation), conducted in 2017-2018. Over the past year, the team at Rosov Consulting has worked with CASJE to conduct a secondary analysis of the data gathered. The study involved surveys of teachers and students, and both interviews and surveys of professional leadership in schools. Secondary analysis has provided a chance to explore issues besides leadership.

In all of its strands, the study exposed just how much day school education is enriched by the interpersonal relationships of its main players – students, teachers, school leaders and parents. In fact, the study revealed how these relationships function as both means and ends. In their most successful renditions, these relationships both nurture and come to serve as expressions of covenantal community, what one might call an ultimate purpose of day school education.

To explain further: A study of time-use among Division Heads (second-in-command leaders in schools) revealed how in day schools (unlike public schools) these people function less as instructional leaders and more as harbor pilots. Through their conversations with parents, teachers and students, through their own personal modelling and by talking about the values at the heart of their schools, these leaders give teachers a sense of direction and they give students a sense of higher purpose. Through endless rounds of conversations and personal interactions, they help steer schools away from the rocks toward open water.

A survey of teachers, and an investigation of teacher satisfaction, revealed that those who work in day schools exhibit high levels of satisfaction with their work, at levels similar to their public education peers. It showed too how the greatest sources of teacher satisfaction are associated on the one hand with the joys and challenges that derive from being with students in the classroom, and on the other from supervision by professional leaders who convey and cultivate a vision for their schools.

A survey of student perspectives on school climate makes plain that the older students are, the more they associate a positive climate in their schools with the personal relationships they form with their peers and with the personal attention from and interaction with their teachers. For students, these relationships are the special sauce that accounts for why so few of them would prefer to go school elsewhere.

Woven together, these three research strands make it clear how so much of what teachers and students value about their day schools can be traced back to the quality of their relationships in the classroom and, really, in every other corner of their schools. This is a sobering insight when right now school is experienced most commonly through the medium of a computer screen.

Of course, we might want to devote as much as possible of that screen time to serious learning, to stretching students academically. These studies suggest it is no less important to use the time to ensure that the blood continues to reach the relational heart of schools. When our schools are physically dispersed, we should make especially sure to mobilize the undoubted potential of technology to continue nurturing these essential relationships.

Alex Pomson, PhD, is Principal and Managing Director of Rosov Consulting. Frayda Gonshor Cohen, EdD, is a Senior Project Leader at Rosov Consulting.

Source: eJewish Philanthropy

Families face multiple challenges as they shelter in place together for months and the busy lives of adolescent children are put on hold indefinitely

Sophie Riegel has started pulling her hair out again. The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a reversion to some unhealthy habits for the college freshman who suffers from trichotillomania and three other anxiety disorders.

Riegel, the author of two books on anxiety, was informed while home in New York for spring break that her university would be closed. She and her father immediately drove down to North Carolina and packed up her belongings with just hours to spare before the dorms were locked.

“I had no idea how long the wait would be until I could return to campus, and I didn’t have enough underwear,” explained Riegel about the determination to retrieve her things.

Riegel has been busy with online classes and virtual speaking engagements, but a planned lecture tour of summer camps has been cancelled.

Sophie Riegel (Courtesy)

“None of us can make plans. Everyone is uncertain about the future, and uncertainty is the root of anxiety,” she said.

Adolescents are angsty and moody in the best of times, and the pandemic and its restrictions have either caused or exacerbated genuine mental health challenges. Professionals in the Jewish community were quick to identify that teenagers and their parents needed extra support during this difficult period.

Local teen-focused Jewish organizations and programs have swung into action to provide guidance, and the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative launched a multifaceted, interactive online resource for Mental Health Awareness Month in May.  The collaborative is a philanthropic experiment sponsored by a variety of local and national funders anchored by the Jim Joseph Foundation, and involves 10  communities. Through its “Collective Compassion” initiative, it is offering 23 different virtual workshops, discussions, and hands-on activities for teens, parents and professionals.

“Although this monthlong series of events is new this year, well-being of teens has been a concern for us since our inception in 2013,” said the collaborative’s executive director Sara Allen.

“We had always wanted to do something for Mental Health Month, and COVID amplified the need for it now, and for it to be virtual,” she said.

Illustrative: Boston Jewish community teens. (Courtesy of Jewish Teen Initiative of Boston)

According to the collaborative’s wellness coordinator, licensed independent clinical social worker Margie Bogdanow, it was critical to include parents in the equation.

“There can be more friction between teens and parents now because of everyone being home together all the time. And in general, there isn’t a lot out there in terms of support for parents of teens. It’s important to provide this support to parents before their teens are in crisis,” Bogdanow noted.

The new non-taboo

Erica Hruby, executive director of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Network (JTEEN), started a virtual support group for parents and teens in late March. Once a week, parents from different parts of the United States come together to share their struggles and successes.

Chicago Jewish teens participate in Springboard School Break Program Ski and Snowboard Adventure (Courtesy of Springboard)

“These parents look forward to our conversations and appreciate hearing that others are experiencing similar challenges. They look to each other for guidance and as a non-judgmental shoulder to lean on,” Hruby said.

Accustomed to overloaded academic and extracurricular schedules, daily face-to-face interaction with their friends, and burgeoning independence, teens sense that their lives are on pause — with no definite restart point in sight.

It is no longer taboo to talk about mental health

This uncertainty takes its toll on many young people, especially those with clinical anxiety or depression diagnoses. Fortunately, many members of Generation Z and their parents do not regard coping struggles as a sign of weakness, and are willing to seek help.

“It is no longer taboo to talk about mental health,” said Gail New, a mother of three — including 16-year-old twins — who sits on a key committee at her children’s school in Marblehead, Massachusetts. “The subject comes up at every meeting we have.”

Ryann Bloom (Paradise Photo & Video)

“My generation is so great about trying to break the stigma surrounding mental health,” said Ryann Bloom, an 18-year-old high school senior in Natick, Massachusetts, who has seen an uptick in anxiety and depression among her friends since the beginning of the pandemic.

Bloom finds going out into the world scary these days, afraid she could catch the virus. “I went to Target with my sister. She was okay, but I freaked out,” she said.

According to retired psychologist and adjunct lecturer at Hebrew Union College Betsy Stone, the best thing adults can do for teens is listen to them vent about how hard it is for them right now. She cautions that trying to impart perspective and reassurance to teens will backfire.

“They’ll perceive that as you not really wanting to listen to them,” she said. “Just listening to them express themselves is a huge act of love and holiness.”

Stuck together

There are definite downsides to families being cooped up at home for months at a time. Conflict should be expected as a result of this unprecedented forced intimacy, with a perceived lack of privacy and personal space.

However, Stone pointed out that this is a perfect opportunity for parents to help their teens build character and work on who they want to be as members of their family and individuals. Part of this involves insisting that teens do chores to help keep the household going. Stone suggests giving teens choice in terms of which jobs they take on so they maintain some control.

Ben Suffel (courtesy)

“Parallel play” is also important as a way of spending quality time together as a family, and as a way for parents to be emotionally there for their children.

“Watch TV and movies together. Do puzzles. Play board games. Do stuff your teens like to do even if you don’t like it,” Stone said.

Ben Suffel, a high school junior in Owings Mills, Maryland, has enjoyed eating dinner every night with his parents and twin brother. The 17-year-old has also liked running with his dad and just hanging out on the front porch.

He misses seeing his track teammates and friends from his synagogue youth group, but he has found that keeping in regular touch with them online has been a good second-best alternative.

It’s been harder for Bloom, who has struggled with the forced social distancing from her friends.

“I’m a social person and crave in-person connection. I like physical contact and hugging as part of showing emotional ties to people,” said Bloom, who is a leader in the Boston Jewish teen community.

Spending so much time in her room has gotten Bloom a bit down. She has found herself hanging out on social media just to pass the time and quell her boredom. “I’ll be scrolling through TikTok for hours,” she said.

Teenage girls from the Atlanta Jewish community. (Courtesy of JumpSpark)

Riegel warned against overdoing the social media exposure and following the news excessively.

“Not everything circulated is accurate, nor are statistics necessarily relevant to where you live. You really have to contextualize so you don’t catastrophize,” Riegel said.

An opportunity for independence

Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, associate director of adolescent initiatives for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland, has discovered that the COVID crisis has helped many teens become more independent and responsible about managing their time.

I’m seeing teens develop their own coping skills and new levels of self-awareness

“I’m seeing teens develop their own coping skills and new levels of self-awareness. I’m hearing teens describe going for daily runs, getting full nights of sleep because they’re able to set the agenda of the day according to their own rhythms, and realizing when their screens aren’t a substitute for the longing for human connection,” Vinokor-Meinrath said.

Boston Jewish community teens work on staying healthy. (Courtesy of Jewish Teen Initiative of Boston)

Suffel agreed about the benefit of setting his own schedule. He has been less stressed doing his school work at home, because he can do it at his own pace and not be distracted by the school environment.

The recent announcement by Jewish summer camps that they will not operate this summer has been a hard pill for teens to swallow. New’s twins’ trip to Israel with their Jewish camp has been cancelled.

“They’ve been commiserating with their friends, but I think they are still in a bit of a state of denial,” New said.

Bloom, who is set to begin studying criminal justice, criminology and psychology at the University of Maryland in the fall, feels robbed of her final semester of high school. There are tentative plans to hold her school’s graduation ceremony in August.

Boston Jewish teens participate in a community service project. (Courtesy of Jewish Teen Initiative of Boston)

For some teens, being introspective can help. Aaron Henne, artistic director of Theater Dybbuk in Los Angeles, is offering a “Storytelling for Sanity” workshop as part of “Collective Compassion.” Henne believes in the power of creative expression and the arts to help people navigate difficulty. For the workshop, he will focus on storytelling as a vehicle for connection, understanding, and healing, particularly in the Jewish tradition.

“The intended primary audience of my workshop is teens who are open to connecting with their own inner voices at this time. They’ll have the chance to write their own story so that they can keep it and refer to it in the future,” Henne said.

Sammy Ginsberg (courtesy)

It is also important for teens to look forward to things they can return to when it is safe to do so. If his plans to work at a local JCC day camp fall through due to COVID-19, Suffel is committed to being as active and busy as possible this summer. Bloom has already lined up a college roommate and has been coordinating with her about décor.

Allen has found that teens who have shown agency, turning to action, purpose and meaning, have exhibited resiliency. For instance, Houston brothers Matthew and Jeremy Jason took on a major project making protective face masks from kippahs for the homeless.

Toronto teen Sammy Ginsberg intends to grow his blossoming baking business this summer. The 15-year-old self-taught baker has seen the number of orders for his creatively decorated confections soar since mid-March. Sheltering at home with his parents and sister, Ginsberg has focused solely on his school work and his baking.

“I’ve been fulfilling an average of eight orders a week, and I have had to turn down a lot of orders,” he said.

A selection of cakes from Sam’s Sweet Creations. (courtesy of Sammy Ginsberg)

Ginsberg has been leading free instructional baking sessions over Zoom, and gives 20 percent of the profits from his cakes, which range for $55 to $300, to the Frontline Fund. He even lined up two matching donors to triple the impact of his gift.

Ginsberg’s baking has kept boredom at bay and helped him stay motivated toward the end of this usual school year.

“Most of all, it’s kept my mind off the scariness of this worldwide pandemic,” he said.

Source: “Virtual initiative promotes teen well-being, mental health in COVID-19 crisis,” Renee Ghert-Zand, Times of Israel, May 26, 2020