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 first, second, 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.

B’Yadenu: It’s In Our Hands To Create Inclusive Day Schools

The Jewish WeekChildren are served best in classrooms and other learning environments that consistently take into account their specific learning needs. The support children receive is most effective when it is offered throughout the entire day of learning—by all educators—as opposed to only specific periods of the day.

With this premise, in November 2011, the Jim Joseph Foundation awarded a grant to Boston-based Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) (in partnership with Gateways: Access to Jewish Education and Yeshiva University School Partnership) for the development and implementation of the B’Yadenu model in five Boston-area Jewish day schools: Gann Academy, Jewish Community Day School, Maimonides School, Solomon Schechter Day School and Striar Hebrew Academy of Sharon.

Much of the groundwork for this project was established by grants from the Ruderman Family Foundation that encouraged Boston area schools to set up staff and system infrastructures for serving an increasing number of students with special learning needs. The Ruderman Family Foundation has been a co-funder of the B’Yadenu project and through its efforts on inclusion and its commitment to creating sustainable models has created a vision and direction for this important work.

A Model of Inclusion
Over the past four years, the five demonstration schools have employed this model to create “whole school change” strategies, utilizing professional development activities to build teacher capacity to better meet the needs of diverse learners. A particularly compelling aspect of this project is that it enables participating teachers and schools to work more effectively with all students, not only the estimated 15-20 percent of students who have mild or moderate learning disabilities.

At the regional level, Gateways has supported the five schools through professional development in line with the strategies developed by each school. Currently, any Boston-area school can contract with Gateways for strategic professional development. And soon, Gateways—which now has a network of professional development providers both inside and outside the agency—will expand its reach outside Boston through its new Center for Professional Learning and a host of online tools and resources, offering more communities its expertise in teacher professional development combined with a commitment to Jewish day school education.

John D’Auria leads a professional development session for B’Yadenu teachers. Courtesy of B’Yadenu

While the B’Yadenu model was designed to address inclusion explicitly in day schools, the project’s committed team of professionals—from CJP, Gateways, Yeshiva University, and the five Jewish day schools—has created a national model that actually addresses several critical areas for day school education, more broadly, including: supporting diverse learners, especially children with special learning needs; strengthening Jewish day school leadership; enhancing professional development; and consolidating project management.

Necessary Time
A key lesson learned through implementing this model is that sufficient time for planning, for implementation, and for documenting change is necessary for a school to develop an impactful strategy that can be successfully embedded school-wide. This approach differs from the typical “in and out” or “one-shot” professional development found in many schools.  The B’Yadenu model instead requires a commitment to an intensive planning process and an equal commitment to focused implementation of an inclusive learning structure over a period of years. It takes time to create the conditions that build a school’s capacity to best serve all its learners.  Even as the B’Yadenu model is well on its way toward successful development and can boast promising results to date, its use across the five Jewish day schools is still in progress.

Teacher “Buy-in” as the Key Factor
Interim evaluation results from the Goodman Research Group show that all of the schools created momentum for change with comprehensive planning and by establishing relevant and meaningful activities for their staff.

The five schools each use a variety of professional development models–including whole school staff trainings, peer mentoring, small group coaching, and consultant in residence. Across several of the schools, the “train the trainers” model has become an effective approach.

The evaluation clearly demonstrates that professional development is most likely to translate to successful inclusion strategies in the classroom if teachers “buy-in” to what they are learning. This buy-in occurs when teachers perceive that the approach enhances their teaching rather than imposes a burden. Thus, the B’Yadenu model is based on a top-down, bottom-up process with teachers and administrators working together leading to the best conditions for the success of this model.

What Now and What Next
A final report from the evaluator on the five-year initiative is due this October. Currently the five Jewish day schools are committed to their work with whole school culture change addressing students with diverse learning needs. They will continue the B’Yadenu demonstration project, and they are ready to develop the model further.

The Jim Joseph Foundation Board, following assessment and evaluation of the model, believes that B’Yadenu can contribute significantly to day school education for all who seek it. With this outlook, the Board approved an additional three year grant to complete the B’Yadenu implementation in Boston and to support a pilot dissemination and outreach program to other communities. Already, in the first phase of this program, two communities (Detroit and Miami) received support from Gateways, YU, and CJP to adapt the B’Yadenu model to their particular circumstances. In the second phase of the program, more communities will have opportunities to adapt the model.

The B’Yadenu demonstration initiative simultaneously was a means by which to implement important change in five day schools; to learn lessons about how to do this most strategically and effectively; and to develop a model that can be scaled and adapted for communities across the country. For information about the project and to learn how your community can become involved, contact Alan Oliff, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, at [email protected] or Arlene Remz, Gateways, at [email protected].

Alan Oliff is Director of the Initiative for Day School Excellence at Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Stacie Cherner is a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Source: “B’Yadenu: It’s In Our Hands To Create Inclusive Day Schools ,” The Jewish Week, August 1, 2016

Jewish Journey Project – From Innovation to Self-Sustaining

CelebratiJJP Shalom Hebrew Reading Practice Bet, Tav and Shinng its fourth year, JCC Manhattan’s Jewish Journey Project (JJP) is an innovative supplemental Jewish education program for 3rd – 7th graders based on  four visionary pillars: flexibility, innovation, collaboration and community. Together with congregational partners from around the area, JJP has engaged more than 800 children and their families by using the rich and diverse history of New York City as an experiential “classroom.” Some of its most popular courses are Architecture: DIY Jewish Building, In the Footsteps of American Jewish History: A Walking Course, JJP NYC Museum Hop, and FoodCraft: The Jewish Culinary Tradition.

In addition, JJP’s innovative Hebrew Homepage is an internet-based, one-on-one video conferencing Hebrew-language learning model with college students as tutors. Each student engages in a weekly 30 minute online session with their tutor (that they both schedule), choosing from a Learn to Read Hebrew track for beginners, a Reading Fluency for Prayerbook Hebrew, and soon a Modern Hebrew track.

Hebrew Homepage was a wonderful experience for our family. While I was initially unsure about “virtual” teaching, the kids were actually more engaged than they ever seemed to be in the classroom setting. The secret ingredients in this approach are the wonderful tutors who are knowledgeable and great with kids. This was especially true for my son with special needs. Not only did he get 1:1 support that matched his pace but his tutor was highly sensitized to his unique learning style and flexible with lesson plans.

—Lisa Fleisher, parent of JJP student

featured grantee JJP Shalom HEbrewSynagogues and families tell JJP they are interested in the benefits that the Hebrew Homepage can offer all students, whether or not they are enrolled in JJP. Responding to this demand, JJP will roll out the Hebrew Homepage as a stand-alone service that any congregation or student can subscribe to, to strengthen their Hebrew acquisition. As a way of becoming a sustainable venture beyond the pilot funding phase, Hebrew Homepage will become a fee-for-service program that will help offset the philanthropic contributions that launched JJP.

Along with Hebrew Homepage, JJP, in partnership with Behrman House, continues to offer Shalom Hebrew, a free app that teaches the alef-bet and basic Hebrew decoding skills through a variety of modalities, including animation, images, slideshows, texts, sound cues, customized flash cards, interactive readings, activities and games, and recordings. And, since JJP engages many families with little or no previous involvement in Jewish institutional and synagogue life, it developed an alternative B’nai Mitzvah ceremony—a Brit Atid. Over the course of a year, 7th JJP Beit Atidgrade students and parents meet six times for family learning, and students meet weekly in their own class, Judaism On One Foot: Bring It Home and Making It Your Own. Students also study individually with a teacher to read and discuss their Torah portion, and develop a response to this portion that might be a video, musical performance, or an interactive experience for guests. The actual Brit Atid is a communal celebration where families and friends gather to share their presentations on their Torah portions.

In just four years, JJP has demonstrated how innovative educational experiences—with New York as its “classroom”—engage all kinds of families in Jewish life. Now, with JJP’s new sustainable Hebrew language instruction model, even more families will be able to access meaningful Jewish learning.

The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded two grants to the Jewish Journey Project totaling $500,000.

The Wexner Field Fellowship

http://vimeo.com/167012229
The Wexner Field Fellowship is a leadership learning opportunity for high potential full-time Jewish communal professionals to deepen their leadership skills and develop a rich network of colleagues.  Up to 15 exceptional professionals will be selected for a three-year program with a cohort of lifelong professional learners that is focused on enriching their ability to exercise leadership as Jewish professionals.

Wexner Field Fellows are matched one-on-one with an executive coach, as well as a Jewish educator to expand their leadership skills and Jewish knowledge respectively based on their individual needs. Additionally, Wexner Field Fellows can also receive financial reimbursement towards individualized professional development.  Fellows join a diverse professional community that encourages learning about one’s self as a leader though interactions with people of varying backgrounds and viewpoints. Wexner Field Fellows benefit from the mentorship of staff and faculty at The Wexner Foundation, as well as the connections to our extensive alumni network which serve as a professional community throughout fellows’ careers. To learn more about the eligibility requirements and awards, and to submit a pre-application for the Field Fellowship, please click here.  This program is initiated in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Counting All Educators, and Learning as We Count

E-Jewish-philanthropyIn San Francisco, the school year is about to end. Teachers and children (mine included!) are counting down the final days to summer. In the Jewish calendar, we are counting, too, but upwards rather than down as we mark the days of the Omer.

The end of the school year is a special time – one of marking accomplishments and celebration of learning. It is also a time to celebrate educators. We bring them gifts, make cards and take a moment to acknowledge their centrality to the process and cycle of learning.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation we do this daily. Since the Foundation’s inception, educating Jewish educators has been the first of three Foundation strategic priorities. To date, the Board has awarded more than $120 million to organizations that support educators’ professional credentialing and development, investing in programs that benefit thousands of educators. Consistent with our understanding that effective education occurs in myriad settings and at different life stages, this funding supports a variety of professional development and training opportunities engaging educators of all shapes and sizes – experiential educators, day school educators, Israel educators, peer-to-peer educators, early childhood educators. And these programs support educators at various stages of development, whether they are pre-service, early career, or veteran.

An obvious question is what compels the Foundation to award this amount of funding. There are many reasons. 1) there is a high demand for trained Jewish educators; 2) investments in educator training achieve a long-term multiplier effect through the large numbers of students and colleagues each trained educator ultimately influences; 3) investing in professional development and training programs provides peripheral benefits for advancing the field of Jewish education by contributing to the development and dissemination of knowledge and practice and enhancing the status of Jewish educators; and 4) even with this need and the benefits mentioned here, we still see asystemic under-investment in educator training at all levels, including both in-service and pre-service opportunities.

For the Foundation, another value of these investments (as is true for many of ours) is that the learnings from each have informed subsequent educator training grants. This enables the Foundation to continually experiment with new ways to structure investments to best support the field. Foundation professionals speak frequently both with the partners that conduct the educator training programs – such as the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the iCenter, and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah – and the many grantees that employee these educators, such as BBYO, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel, and many more. Through these conversations we gain a deeper understanding of supply and demand for these programs and the types of professional experiences that are most helpful to educators in different settings.

Certainly the seminal investment for the Foundation in this area of strategic priority is the Education Initiative – $45 million in grants for educator professional development and training programs at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, The Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University. Launched in 2010, 18 new certificate and degree programs were developed as a result of this investment focused on expanding educator preparation programs and building capacity to place and support currently practicing and newly trained educators.

This fall, the fifth and final evaluation report of the Education Initiative commissioned from American Institutes for Research (AIR) will be released. With more than 1,500 Jewish educators now part of the data set – including at least a third currently in middle or senior management positions in Jewish education – we are eager to share this summative report and substantial key findings with the field. Among many other areas, we anticipate the report will build on key lessons already learned from the Foundation’s work in the field, including:

1)     Working in partnership with prospective employers at the outset provides opportunity for strategic educator placements and increases the relevance of the learning offered through training programs.

2)     Cohort-based learning experiences establish strong networks for learning and endure well beyond the duration of the program itself, leading to greater alumni engagement and ongoing learning after the formal program conclusion. The exciting development of the Experiential Jewish Educators Alumni Network (about which we will share more soon) is indicative of this.

3)     Effective programs include ongoing and intensive mix of face-to-face, online and ongoing mentoring.

A decade into many of the Foundation’s educator training investments, it is rewarding to see their impact on the field, in action. Last week, for example, some colleagues and I went on a site visit to Stanford University. We met with talented professionals at Hillel working to educate, engage and nurture Jewish students on campus. We discussed the tools and training they need to do their work. We also met with Professor Ari Kelman, Jim Joseph Foundation Chair, and three of Ari’s current graduate students in the Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies – all of whom are engaged in applied research that will help build the field and help to shape the future of Jewish education and Jewish educators.

A healthy educational eco-system requires a mix of investments with varying target audiences and areas of focus. But undoubtedly, high quality educators are necessary for almost any initiative to be successful. They come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and interests, each bringing something special to their learners. We continue to hold them in high regard, with the deep belief that all of these educators count – just as we at the Jim Joseph Foundation count on all of these educators.

Dawne Bear Novicoff is Assistant Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation

Source: “Counting All Educators, and Learning as We Count,” Dawn Bear Novicoff, eJewishPhilanthropy, May 31, 2016

Congregational and early childhood educators talk innovation, recognize innovators

JUF News“What are we hearing from families about choosing Jewish early childhood education?” “What are common challenges and opportunities in congregational education?” “How do macro trends impact Jewish learning/life programming and choices?”

Some 150 educators, clergy, lay leaders, administrators and other stakeholders gathered May 10 to tackle these and other big questions, hear about innovation approaches from national experts, stimulate one another’s thinking, and empower each other to effect change.

Convened by JUF’s Community Foundation for Jewish Education, “Thinking Together: Communal Conversations about  Jewish Congregational and Early Childhood Education in Chicago” focused on national ideas and local challenges in the field, which engages nearly 8,000 students enrolled in 40 schools in the metropolitan area.

The participants began their day of learning and idea exchange with an overview of key data points relating to enrollment trends, capacity utilization, teacher compensation and professional development, funding and costs, and other vital information.

 

CFJE symposium 2016

(From left) Rabbi Scott Aaron, CFJE executive director; Buddy Schreiber, recipient of the CFJE-Grinspoon Foundation Award for Excellence in Jewish Congregational Education; Claudine Guralnick, recipient of the Sue Pinsky Award for Excellence in Jewish Education; and Sue Pinsky. (Photo by Robert F. Kusel)

“2015-2016 was the first year Chicago’s Jewish early childhood programs participated in a community wide, systematic data collection. The results offer a first view of the landscape and serve as a baseline for future tracking,” said CFJE Executive Director Rabbi Scott Aaron.

The data study was facilitated by CFJE and conducted by JData, a research program operated by Brandeis University with generous support from the Jim Joseph Foundation.

With information in hand, the conference participants broke into two interest groups, one focusing on early childhood education and another centering on congregational education. Both sessions offered case studies of innovative approaches and programs designed to address the challenges of engaging families and youth in Jewish education.

“The passion and energy in the room was unstoppable,” said one participant of the interaction with other professionals.  “Although we have a long way to go [in advancing the field,” said another, yet another educator stressed how “empowering [it is] being in the room with passionate Jewish educators.”

Guralnick, Schreiber receive Jewish education awards

Following informal conversations during lunch, CFJE presented its second annual Sue Pinsky Award for Excellence in Jewish Education to Claudine Guralnick, of Oak Park, an educator at West Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest.

Members of her congregational community described Guralnick as “understanding, perceptive, patient, and fun… Her support [for children and families] is unwavering, and her engagement with the children is constant and active.”

The Pinsky Award honors Sue Pinsky, a Jewish educator who was instrumental in the founding of the North Suburban JCC. Her son, Mark Pinsky, and his wife, Lisa, generously established an endowment fund in Sue’s honor to ensure the award in perpetuity through JUF’s Agency Endowment Program.

CFJE also awarded its first annual CFJE-Grinspoon Foundation Award for Excellence in Jewish Congregational Education to Buddy Schreiber, who teaches at Am Shalom in Glencoe.

The award celebrates successful innovation in Jewish education and was awarded to Schreiber, in part for “the quiet way [he] impacts students…[and] his determined presence and desire to bring them a high level discussion about higher level ideas.”

To learn more about the groundbreaking work of JUF’s Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago, visit www.cfje.org. 

Source: “Congregational and early childhood educators talk innovation, recognize innovators,” JUF News, May 12, 2016

 

Foundation for Jewish Camp Specialty Camps Incubator III

featured_grantee_300x200_1Building on the success of Specialty Camps Incubator I and II, Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Jim Joseph Foundation announced Incubator III, which will create four new Jewish specialty camps and continue the effort to achieve the joint vision of both foundations: to increase experiential Jewish learning, strengthen Jewish continuity, and foster strong Jewish social networks among Jewish children and teens.

Specialty Camps Incubator offers a forum to pilot new educational models by integrating Jewish learning with activities that kids are passionate about – the environment, performing arts, sports, and outdoor adventure.  The Incubator also successfully establishes new sustainable business models for Jewish camps by not requiring burdensome capital investment since the camps are required to rent existing properties.

Incubator III will launch four new Jewish specialty camps, provide funding to the new camps during their planning, start-up and first three years of operation, and evaluate the progress of each camp’s development.  Each new camp will receive start-up investment and operational funding for three years of up to $1.4 million, pegged to performance goals.

The first two Specialty Camps Incubators, funded initially by the Jim Joseph Foundation and then later joined by The AVI CHAI Foundation, was modeled on a business incubator, formed to accelerate the launch of entrepreneurial ventures.  The camps launched through Incubator I and II have already served more than 5,000 unique campers in six years.

“The Specialty Camps Incubators have raised the profile of Jewish camp and has allowed the field to continue to expand, grow, and attract children and teens from all backgrounds,” explains Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO, FJC.  “We are grateful for the Jim Joseph Foundation’s incredible investment in our field.”

featured_grantee_300x200_2FJC expects these four new specialty camps will serve annually, in aggregate, 1,200 campers and 160 college-aged counselors by the conclusion of the grant period (December 2020, after three summers).  The experienced Incubator team will provide expert training and mentoring to support the Specialty Camp Incubator III cohort as they plan and implement their vision for new models of Jewish specialty camps.

“Specialty camps continue to gain in popularity and have proven to be a very worthy investment,” adds Al Levitt, President of the Board of Directors of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “Now, we can apply previous lessons learned as we launch four new specialty camps with innovative ideas in underserved areas. With FJC’s leadership and expertise in the field, these camps will be positioned to incorporate experiential Jewish learning along with excellence in programming.”

FJC is now accepting proposals for four new specialty camps. The RFP can be found at:  www.JewishCamp.org/incubator.  


The Jim Joseph Foundation grant supporting Specialty Camps Incubator III is for up to $10 million.

Measuring Outcomes Across Grantees and Over Time

PND logoWhen the Jim Joseph Foundation‘s evaluators’ consortium met last November, the overall focus was on the long road ahead toward developing a common set of measures — survey items, interview schedules, frameworks for documenting distinctive features of programs — to be used as outcomes and indicators of Jewish learning and growth for teens and young adults. Consortium members and the foundation were especially excited to learn about the work led by George Washington University to develop a common set of long-term outcomes and shared metrics to improve the foundation’s ability to look at programs and outcomes across grantees and over time. A key part of this endeavor will be an online menu — developed in consultation with evaluation experts and practitioners — from which grantees can choose to measure their program outcomes.

Already, the GW team is making significant progress toward this end. As part of foundation efforts to inform and advance the field, we think the process and lessons related to these efforts are important to share.

To begin, the GW team reviewed the desired outcomes and evaluation reports from a dozen past foundation grants representing a variety of programs. Six grants address the foundation’s strategic priority of providing immersive and ongoing Jewish experiences for teens and young adults. Six others address the strategic priority of educating Jewish educators and leaders.

For this latter strategic priority, the GW team offers a welcome “outsider” perspective, bringing strong expertise on outcomes in secular education and teacher training to the development of common outcomes for the foundation’s Jewish educator grants. How, for example, do other programs measure quality and teacher retention? Both of these qualities are desired outcomes for the foundation’s grants. Yet, if these qualities are not measured with common metrics, the foundation will never be able to properly determine whether its grantmaking in this area is successful. GW’s expertise and strong relationship with the foundation are beginning to provide important answers to these challenges.

To be clear, the effort to evaluate the impact of the foundation’s grantmaking in this area is a work in progress, but the unique and collaborative relationships engendered by our Evaluators’ Consortium makes it possible. In fact, members of the consortium have volunteered to be advisors, working with GW, on the project to develop common outcomes for Jewish educator grants while providing valuable insights of their own based on their work, together and individually, with foundation grantees. It’s worth noting that this work intersects in several ways — with current field-building grants such as the Jewish Survey Question Bank; with CASJE, which aims to bring the rigor and standards of general education applied research to Jewish education; with the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative evaluation; and with the ongoing evaluation work that grantees and evaluation consultants engage in on a regular basis.We look forward to sharing the framework of our long-term outcomes and to using these new measurement tools. We then will begin to test whether these tools really do help grantees measure progress against their goals and improve; help evaluators document that progress and report out useful and valuable lessons learned; and help the foundation gather information on long-term outcomes across several grants.  Along with these specific tools and outcomes, we are confident that related learnings about our field-building efforts, work with teens, and ongoing evaluation will be of use to the field and will contribute to even more effective Jewish education.

Stacie Cherner is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Birthright Israel Fellows Program Raises Quality of Educational Experience

E-Jewish-philanthropyAs the newest cohort of Birthright Israel Fellows convenes this week in San Diego, the program continues to evolve as it seeks to raise the overall level and quality of the Birthright Israel trip experience. To help affect this change, Birthright Israel has hired a full-time Director of the Birthright Israel Fellows program to engage with the nearly 400 current fellows, as well as the continually growing cadre of specially-trained Birthright Israel staff that will participate in the program in the coming years. During the four-day seminar in San Diego, run in partnership with the iCenter for Israel Education, the latest cohort will learn from experts in Jewish, Israel, and experiential education. The participants will begin staffing trips this summer

According to Aaron Bock, the new Director of Birthright Israel Fellows, “This program was designed to be a game-changer on a large scale. As the network of fellows grows – and the interactions with Birthright Israel participants and alumni increase – we are beginning to see the deep and long-lasting impact that Birthright Israel Fellows will have. This convening is another critical step for Birthright Israel, bringing together talented, leading educators to work directly with fellows.”

The seminar includes a session on “Creating a Birthright Israel Culture,” along with skill development workshops in areas such as storytelling, building educational experiences, and facilitating meaningful conversations with participants. All sessions are designed to help fellows gain a deeper understanding of the core educational principles and goals of Birthright Israel. In addition, through engagement with the iCenter’s recently releasedAleph Bet of Israel Education – 2nd Edition – which represents a set of 12 core principles, approaches to content, and essential pedagogies that together constitute the building blocks of the field – fellows view and understand their work within a broader context as part of a larger field of Israel education.

Shoshana Gibbor, Director of Birthright & Israel Engagement at MIT Hillel and a member of the 1st Birthright Israel Fellows Cohort, tells eJP, “The Fellows program prepares us as staff to leverage every opportunity to help participants develop personal connections to the land, the people, and the state of Israel. That’s what makes this program so powerful, and that is how fellows increase the quality of the Birthright Israel experience and the quality of Jewish life once participants are back home.”

Birthright Israel Fellows accepts up to one hundred participants, aged 22 and above, into the program every six months. Along with the in-person seminar, Birthright Israel Fellows incorporates an online learning component and additional resources in experiential Jewish education.

The Birthright Israel Fellows program is generously funded by the Maimonides Fund.

Source: “Birthright Israel Fellows Program Raises Quality of Educational Experience,” eJewishPhilanthropy, March, 28, 2016

 

The Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Teacher Resources

A new resource from the Yiddish Book Center helps teachers make Jewish literature and culture more accessible for students of nearly all ages. Developed after the Center’s Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop in 2015, the website www.teachgreatjewishbooks.org is an ever-growing collection of textual, audio, and visual materials designed to support those who teach modern Jewish literature and culture.

The resource kits were created by elementary, middle, and high school teachers, and by college professors, from across the U.S. and Canada. Each kit explores a thought-provoking text or theme and includes primary and secondary sources—poems, photographs, audio recordings, film excerpts, and songs—as well as a guide to using them in the classroom, making it easy for teachers to enrich and expand their curricula.

Visit the Website

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 The Yiddish Book Center also is accepting applications now through April 15, 2016 for its summer workshop, taking place July 17-22, 2016 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Join other teachers of Jewish secondary and supplementary schools interested in enriching their curricula with materials that reflect the variety and depth of modern Jewish literature and culture. Participants come from a wide range of schools and educational programs around the country and teach literature, history, Jewish studies, theater, film, and other subjects. The Workshop is fully subsidized for participants.

Before this program, I was feeling uninspired and not at all excited about teaching American Literature this coming year. I came away with a million new ideas and ways to present them! I will plan a short story unit, a poetry unit, and a research unit based on what I covered at this program. I will incorporate important Jewish literature into my curricula at every level and I also learned new ways to present multi­media and guide my students to present in a variety of formats.
                                                                                                                                                                       –   Educator after the 2015 Workshop

 The Jim Joseph Foundation grant to the Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop was awarded in 2014 to support workshops in 2015 and 2016, along with follow-up programs.

 

 

 

CEO Onboarding Program

The first-ever national CEO Onboarding program designed for high-level organizational leaders in the American Jewish community is now accepting applications. Learn more at leadingedge.org/CEOonboarding or download the flier to the right.