Amid Pandemic Challenges, Jewish Creatives Get Boost from CANVAS

At a time when arts organizations and artists are reeling from the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new Jewish initiative is stepping in with much-needed grants and an emergency relief fund.

CANVAS, a partnership of five Jewish foundations working with Jewish Funders Network, is awarding grants to five Jewish arts and culture networks totaling $736,000 in operating support, and an additional $180,000 in immediate emergency relief for Jewish artists/creatives whose livelihood has been devastated by Covid-19 and its economic consequences. CANVAS expects to surpass $1 million in funding commitments by September. The group seeks to strengthen and build capacity in the field, with the ultimate goal of helping fuel a 21st-century renaissance in Jewish arts and culture.

CANVAS’ first grantees are Asylum Arts, the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM), the Jewish Book Council, LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, and Reboot, which collectively represent nearly 2,000 artists and creatives and more than 100 Jewish museums. The five grantees will distribute the $180,000 emergency funds to individual artists in need.

Jewish creatives continue to shape our culture, even in lockdown. Now, more than ever, they entertain and distract us, empathize with and educate us, help us reflect and commiserate and open our hearts, reconnect with beauty, process the unthinkable, remind us to smile, help us to cry, capture the essential Jewish nature of these moments. And yet in almost all cases, artists are producing this work without pay. We want to support them as much as they support us.
– Lou Cove, founder of CANVAS

The infusion of new funding and philanthropic coordination from CANVAS comes at a time when artists and arts organizations of all kinds are facing major budget challenges due to Covid-19 and the forced cancellation of performances, exhibits, and other events.

Lead funding for CANVAS comes from the Righteous Persons Foundation. The other founding partners are: the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Klarman Family Foundation, the Peleh Fund, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

The $180,000 emergency fund for creatives is open to further investment and can be supported here.

CANVAS’ advisory council includes “RBG” Director Julie Cohen, Forward National Editor Rob Eshman, musician and Latin Grammy Award-winner Ben Gundersheimer (AKA Mister G), Executive Director at the International Contemporary Ensemble Jennifer Kessler, photographer and filmmaker Gillian Laub, former Sundance Executive Caroline Libresco, Editorial Director at Godfrey Dadich Partners Mary Melton, The Warhol Director Patrick Moore, and Broadway producer/ARS Nova founder Jenny Steingart.

Learn more about CANVAS and its grantees here.

 

‘Collective Compassion’ Focuses on Jewish Teen Wellness for Mental Health Awareness Month

Artist-Led Workshops to Increase Resiliency, Philanthropy Pop-Ups and Tools to Create Powerful New Rituals Support Teens, Parents and Youth Professionals

This May, the Jewish community is bringing the power of ‘Collective Compassion’ to National Mental Health Awareness Month (www.collectivecompassion2020.com).  Created by Jewish Teens Thrive, a project of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, Collective Compassion is a national response to the growing wellness needs of teens. Dozens of events and experiences, many in partnership with artists and organizations, draw on the power of Jewish creativity, culture, learning and values to support teens – and the adults that care about them.

Adolescence is a turbulent time, and COVID-19 is leaving many teens and their families reeling by creating a heightened sense of uncertainty, confusion and loss. We aim to both call attention to these challenges and offer teens and adults new self-care practices they can use all year long, and a deeper understanding of the many dimensions of mental health.
– Sara Allen, Executive Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

Collective Compassion is free and accessible to anyone. Highlights include:

  • Creativity for Coping, a resilience-building workshop series led by Jewish artists including ‘Storytelling for Sanity,’ an intimate concert and open mic with musicians, movement exercises, and guidance on inventing new rituals to mark loss.
  • Finding Purpose & Meaning with toolkits for Mental Health Shabbats, integrating gratitude into daily lives and philanthropy pop-ups for teens to support local wellness organizations.
  • Education & Awareness with screenside chats and live Q&As with experts such as teen author and mental health advocate Sophie Regal, parent-focused discussions with Dr. Betsy Stone, and panels and trainings with youth professionals.
  • Curated books and quarantine playlists.

Addressing and supporting issues of teen wellness has always been a foundation of our work in our Los Angeles Teen Initiative. We know Jewish community, ritual, and values have a tremendous amount to offer to support and inspire families and educators in this increasingly critical area. The current COVID-19 crisis only makes this issue that much more dynamic and essential. Parents and educators in Los Angeles have really appreciated meaningful offerings and programming on these issues, and we look forward to continuing to serve as a key resource.
– Shira Rosenblatt, Associate Chief Program Officer at The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

Those who work with teens are familiar with the statistics: One in 5 teens has had a serious mental health disorder; 50 percent of all mental illness begins by age 15; and among ages 15-24, suicide is the second leading cause of death.

Collective Compassion is supported by BBYO, The Blue Dove Foundation, Jewish Teen Funders Network, Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Professionals’ Network, Here Now, the URJ, the Mitsui Collective, Moving Traditions, and the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit and harnesses the creative spirit and wisdom of many artists and educators.

Adds Allen, “In this moment we turn to each other and our Jewish tradition with the belief that unity is strength. We are inspired by the ‘Collective Compassion’ of our community as we come together to raise awareness, build resilience and ultimately thrive.”

Jewish Philanthropies Establish $80 Million Fund for Nonprofits During Pandemic

The challenges have affected every sector of Jewish communal life, including organizational closures, staff layoffs, canceled programs, a pivot to online education and an increase in financial-aid needs.

Seven Jewish foundations joined together to announce on Monday the launch of the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF), which will provide more than $80 million in interest-free loans and grants as thousands of Jewish nonprofit organizations are experiencing unprecedented needs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The challenges have affected every sector of Jewish communal life, including organizational closures, staff layoffs, canceled programs, a pivot to online education, an anticipated increase in financial-aid needs, a decrease in fundraising and and other operational interruptions.

“We recognize the dire health and economic needs that the pandemic has created and applaud the heroic efforts by so many to address them. We have also seen firsthand the acute challenges Jewish organizations across the country are facing,” said JCRIF’s funders, which include 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.

“While this fund alone cannot address all of those challenges, we believe that investing together in these vital pillars of Jewish life will help ensure a stronger future for American Jewry in the months and years to come,” they said.

JCRIF includes two components: a loan program and an aligned grant program. The loan program will provide short-term unsecured loans to alleviate cash flow challenges and to enable organizations to maintain services and/or make payroll in the coming three to six months.

The loan program will be based at the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), which will act as the loan fund administrator and lender of record. It will also partner with the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), which will source and recommend loan applications. Shira Hutt, JFNA Chief of Staff and an experienced nonprofit and philanthropic professional, is serving as JFNA’s liaison to the program. JFNA will work with key national Jewish networks, including members of the National Emergency Coalition, as well as independent Jewish nonprofits, to source loan applicants.

The aligned grant program will provide a combination of emergency funding for immediate needs and strategic funding to address organizational and sector-wide shifts catalyzed by the crisis. The program seeks to provide an efficient, simplified and accelerated application and reporting system for both applicants and grant recipients. It will supplement each foundation’s current grantmaking to Jewish organizations.

To create an efficient process that ensures quick turnaround and deployment of resources, both programs will proactively source funding opportunities rather than accept unsolicited proposals. The fund welcomes additional investors.

Source: Jewish News Syndicate, April 20, 2020

What Will Happen to Jewish Preschool and the Teachers our Children Love?

When my youngest child started preschool she cried all day long. Erika, a veteran teacher, held her for hours and comforted her. After two long days my little one (now a great big four-year old) was ready to look around, make friends and explore her environment. Now she asks me every day when she can go back to preschool.

A recent op-ed in the Boston Globe by Senator Elizabeth Warren and others argued for a 50 billion dollar relief fund for the early childhood industry. Ultimately the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act included only $3.5 billion for early care and education, although it includes provisions for small businesses that can help child care centers stay afloat.

Like almost all Jewish educators, Jewish early childhood educators have worked with tremendous speed, diligence, and focus to master new technologies and pivot during this crisis. Yet unlike other educational programs – such as day school and part-time Jewish education – it is almost impossible for early childhood programs to provide online learning that approximates the care and activities for learning that happen in person, particularly given the close supervision small children need. As a result, it is very difficult for a preschool to make the argument to parents that it can still charge tuition.

High quality early care is an expensive proposition. An elementary school classroom can function with one teacher for more than twenty-five children. But infants, toddlers, and preschoolers require a much smaller ratio to provide adequate care. In the United States, most families pay privately for early care and education. Day care and early childhood tuition is often a sizable portion of a family’s budget and paid month to month. Many families rely on these programs to provide childcare during working hours. When forced to simultaneously work from home and provide care for their small children – as many are parents are doing now – they understandably may not want continue to pay tuition (although some continue to do so). And given the financial fallout from the current crisis, many parents may not have the means to pay tuition even if they wanted to.

Generally speaking, the U.S.’s financial response to COVID-19-related business closures, unlike other countries, is a relief package at the individual level. This response encourages layoffs and unemployment, as opposed to incentivizing keeping small businesses running. Daycares and preschools, which often operate with very little reserve, thus may layoff or furlough teachers rather than continue to keep them on the payroll. Many will not reopen without support.

CASJE (Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education), as part of an ongoing study funded by the William Davidson Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation, is currently collecting systematic data on Jewish educators across all sectors, including information on salaries and benefits. Preliminary analysis shows that early childhood educators make lower salaries overall than other full-time Jewish educators (as is also true in general education). And it’s worth noting that recent CASJE research in Jewish early childhood education (ECE) shows that, in some cases, early childhood programs that are profitable often feed those profits back into the larger institutions that house the preschool (e.g. the synagogue) rather than into educator salaries. So while preschools can be important “feeders” into the organized Jewish community, the teachers themselves are often under-compensated. Will early childhood educators who collect unemployment be able to cover their expenses? How will they retain their health benefits in a health crisis? What about the injury to morale that comes with unemployment and to their sense of trust in the Jewish community? Will our preschool teachers want to return when programs can reopen?

One leader in the field of Jewish early childhood education shared her long-term fears for the field with me:

Jewish early childhood already has difficulty attracting teachers to this field. If being an early childhood teacher is no longer seen as a secure job will the teachers come back? Programs may be able to reopen in two months, four months, but will the teachers have moved on? Can a program reasonably begin from scratch and onboard a whole new staff and accommodate the same number of children?

The benefits of early care and early education are well-documented in the general education literature (so well-documented that it should be a right for every child in the U.S. to have access to high-quality early education). Specifically for the Jewish community, a forthcoming CASJE study funded by Crown Family Philanthropies (to be released in Spring 2020) examines how Jewish ECE can be a lever for family engagement. But before you can educate and engage, you have to be open and you have to have a trained cadre of professional educator offering high quality care.

Early childhood education is classed in the United States as a caring profession. The expertise and skills of early childhood educators are often undervalued, as is the hard work that caring takes. In this crisis, which sees strong advocacy for airlines and restaurants and any number of businesses that will be hard hit, few have spoken up for the preschool teacher.

Certainly, parents across the country who now are struggling with working from home productively while caring for their small children (including me!) no doubt appreciate the value of child care and knowing their children are in a safe, caring and developmentally appropriate setting. If anything, this crisis proves how essential early care is to working families of all backgrounds. But as a country, again and again we give short shrift to early childhood education. What will happen when the crisis passes and many day cares and preschools are out of business? How quickly will they be able to rehire and open their doors? Where will working parents send their children the day after the shelter-in-place orders are lifted?

Finally, while communities weigh the financial risk of keeping preschool educators on payroll, there are also risks in layoffs and closings and to our shared values. What will we say to the educators who have dedicated their lives to Jewish ECE? What will we say to the many families who love and rely on these institutions, which can be their main connections to Jewish life? I don’t have simple answers to these admittedly complex challenges. But we owe it to ourselves – and to young families and children – to demonstrably value these educators and institutions, and to understand what we have to do to safeguard them.

Dr. Arielle Levites is Managing Director of the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) at George Washington University.

originally published in eJewish Philanthropy

Sefaria’s Linker: Connecting Jewish Texts & Ideas Across the Internet

Taking Judaism’s sacred texts and building an online living library is a major undertaking. But that’s exactly what Sefaria has done. From Tanakh to Talmud to Zohar to modern texts—and all the volumes of commentary in between—Sefaria’s platform for Jewish learning enables students and scholars around the world to learn, discuss, question, and explore old texts in new ways. Today, more than 300,000 users access Sefaria each month. Many thousands more engage with Sefaria’s resources on third-party websites and apps that use Sefaria’s free data and API to power their projects.

Sefaria’s new two-way Linker is the latest major development for anyone interested in learning and exploring these sacred texts. The Linker automatically connects Torah content across the internet to primary sources in its library, and vice versa.

Websites that use the Linker give their users direct access to any primary sources they cite in Sefaria’s library, allowing curious learners to go deeper in their study. At the same time, the Linker brings the world of contemporary commentary to Sefaria by showing links in Sefaria’s sidebar to external websites that embed the free Linker code. Put simply, users can now explore beyond the confines of the Sefaria library and find relevant content from Jewish thinkers across the internet directly from Sefaria.org.

Example of the Linker connecting an external website to Sefaria’s library 

Example of the Linker connecting a primary source in Sefaria’s library to Torah commentary on a third-party website

 

The Sefaria project has become the digital home of the book for the people of the book. Sefaria is not just creating a vital online resource, but it is opening up our ancient heritage to a new generation on a global scale in a digital age.
—Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

With the launch of this new linker, Sefaria continues to emerge as the nexus of Torah on the internet, connecting more people with more great Jewish content and allowing for new layers of Torah study and conversation to flourish in the process.

The Linker is a free JavaScript plugin for websites that include citations to Torah texts. To learn how to add it to your website, visit Sefaria.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a funder of Sefaria.

 

Stepping Up and Forward: NYTI 2019 (Phase II Year 1) Evaluation Report

The New York Teen Initiative (NYTI) is the collaborative effort of UJA-Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation (as funding partners), and The Jewish Education Project (as lead operator) to redefine the New York area’s Jewish teen engagement field. This ambitious initiative unfolds as part of a national effort—spearheaded by the Jim Joseph Foundation—in which 14 foundations and federations are working together as a Funder Collaborative to expand and deepen Jewish teen education and engagement in 10 communities across the United States.

To evaluate the ongoing success of its second phase, NYTI has partnered with Rosov Consulting to explore the following five questions:

  1. In what ways and to what extent do NYTI programs demonstrate readiness to expand?
  2. To what degree does the diversity of the Jewish teens served by NYTI programs resemble the known diversity of the Greater New York City Jewish community?
  3. Has NYTI’s investment in marketing efforts—specifically the FindYourSummer.org website and the deployment of Find Your Summer Ambassadors—increased market awareness of NYTI?
  4. What is the ongoing impact of NYTI’s investment in scholarships on incentivizing participation, at a time when the level of subsidization is projected to decline?
  5. How has the new internship program—Summer Excelerator—fared? Was it able to successfully get off the ground, meet its recruitment goals, and meaningfully engage teens?

Stepping Up and Forward: NYTI 2019 (Phase II Year 1) Evaluation Report, March 2020

Message to Our Grantee Partners

The Jim Joseph Foundation is pleased to join with 18 other funders in sharing the following message:

Since biblical times, Judaism’s imperative has been to protect the most vulnerable members of society. Vulnerability has taken on new meaning in our communities today. It includes our friends and neighbors, teachers and rabbis, colleagues and family.

As COVID-19 drastically affects the world, our country and our community, we know that many of our grantee partners and other organizations face unprecedented challenges and concerns. We want you to know that we, your philanthropic partners, are in this together with you.

First, we wish a Refuah Shlemah to the many people in our community and around the world who have been directly affected by COVID-19.

We appreciate the ways in which so many organizations have stepped up in this moment to prioritize the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community, reminding all of us about how to live out our value of kol yisrael arevim zeh b’zeh (all of Israel are responsible for one another) with such care and intention. We are inspired by the many synagogues, schools, JCCs and other institutions that demonstrated creativity and flexibility as they adjusted Purim celebrations. This is a model for how all of us can respond quickly and work differently to continue to provide Jewish learning and community.

And yet, we know that you have had to cancel in-person and immersive travel programs, holiday celebrations, and convenings. You have had to close schools. Many of you have understandable concerns that raising funds, making payroll, and meeting grant benchmarks may be deeply impacted.

We want you to know that we hear these concerns—we have them as well, and we plan to act. As foundations and funders committed to klal yisrael, we have a responsibility to support our community and to help your organizations and the people who are part of your teams during this challenging period. We have been in touch with many of you—thank you for telling us about your immediate challenges and anticipated future needs. We welcome these conversations and know there will be many more.

We don’t have all the answers. We do, however, want to share some of the ways we are approaching our role as philanthropic funders who need and want to help our grantees.

  • Maintaining our funding levels: Previously awarded grants will not be revoked if a program or conference is postponed. We understand you have sunk costs and need the latitude to repurpose money already received.
  • Adjusting our expectations: Cancellations of in-person programs—professional development, convenings, retreats, trips and more—will adversely affect organizations’ participation and engagement numbers. We understand that these types of benchmarks often associated with grants will not be reached and will adjust our expectations to reflect the reality of the times.
  • Giving you time to plan and respond to the crisis: We understand that normal grant reporting requirements, site visits, and other commitments to funders take away from the time you need to plan and respond appropriately to the current crisis. We will work with you and make adjustments to ensure your time can be used in the most effective ways necessary.
  • Being nimble: As the situation evolves, and as we learn more about your needs, we will strive to offer support as quickly as possible. We will work with you and each other to help make funds available to address and respond to the coronavirus and global economic scenarios in strategic ways. This might include programmatic grants for new approaches to mission-driven work; interest-free loans; and other forms of technical non-financial assistance.
  • Staying coordinated: Wherever possible, we will coordinate our efforts and communication. If you need to talk to more than one funder, we will try to speak with you at the same time. We are committed to streamlining the flow of information between your organization’s leadership and the multiple funder contacts many of you have. In short, we will make these communications easier and more efficient for you.

Our community has made it through challenging times before, and we will do so again. We are committed to being understanding, palpably supportive, strategic and flexible to help ease the way.

As we talk with you more over the coming days and months, we will take what we learn and do our very best to turn it into meaningful actions that support your organizations, professional teams, and your programs and initiatives. Jewish life, learning, and meaningful engagement will continue. And the people who do this work will be supported.

Thank you for your commitment to our community.

Sincerely, your philanthropic partners:

Aviv Foundation

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation

Crown Family Philanthropies

David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation

Jewish Funders Network

Jim Joseph Foundation

Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds

Koret Foundation

Leichtag Foundation

Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah

Maimonides Fund

One8 Foundation

Righteous Persons Foundation

The Klarman Family Foundation

The Marcus Foundation

The Natan Fund

The Paul E. Singer Foundation

The Russell Berrie Foundation

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life

 

 

 

 

 

Sustainability of a Warrior: How Organizational Planning Can Occur at Unexpected Moments

I am not a sportswriter. Neither was I capable at 6’3” of even making my high school basketball team, despite expectations to the contrary. Still, my affection for basketball leads me to utilize many of the relevant metaphors the sport offers.

In 2015, the Golden State Warriors began their season at 24-0, the best start of any major professional sports team in the country. They ended the season with their second of what would be five straight NBA Finals appearances, an exceptional feat by any standards. Today, their starting line-up — really their entire roster — barely resembles that 2015 roster and is even significantly divergent from their 2018-2019 team. With iconic figures either traded or injured, they are left with a team now known as the “Baby Warriors.” A far cry from four years ago, for the first 24 games played at the start of the 2019-2020 season, the Warriors’ record was a league worst 5-19. With the second half of the season now underway, the team’s current record remains abysmal, looking nothing like it has the last several years.

What can we in philanthropy and the wider nonprofit sector learn from this sports experience? More specifically, what does this tell us about long-term planning? A great deal, I think.

Three years ago, I wrote about how the beauty of team basketball exemplified by the Warriors can be a useful model for thinking about field building. There can be powerful outcomes when one mobilizes people who may be at the table for different reasons but share a common desired outcome. Today, these new Warriors can teach us about never missing an opportunity to plan for sustainability.

Despite the team’s struggles, something special differentiates the Warriors from other teams with losing records. By the beginning of next season, barring any unforeseen circumstances, three of their four perennial All Stars will again be healthy, driven, and playing together (the fourth, Kevin Durant, chose to leave last offseason via free agency). As an organization, the Warriors’ key players are under contract for multiple seasons, providing necessary stability that should help the team regain its championship form. And now, while these All Stars rest and recover, the young second-string players are gaining valuable on-the-court experience and learning on the job — in what could even be called experiential learning — in ways that they were not anticipating before the season started.

As a philanthropic foundation professional for over eight years, I see long-term donor investment and long-term organizational planning (certainly two related actions) as an aspiration that is not always implemented in meaningful ways. Fewer than half of nonprofits have more than three months of cash reserves; close to 10 percent have less than 30 days. Most nonprofits have no endowments, so the day-to-day nature of the organizational structure is a stark reminder that today’s nonprofit may look very different tomorrow.

When I look at this Warriors team, I know that by the measurement of wins and losses, the 2019-2020 season has been underwhelming. In the nonprofit world, we would think about this in terms of a missed short-term objective. Directly related to this current shortcoming, however, is my belief that this season is laying strong foundations for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons to come, thanks to the planning, organization management, and players that management has brought in to be on the team.

Now, let’s bring this scenario back to our nonprofit world. Imagine that not only the CEOs, but the highest quality fundraisers, financial officers, and program professionals all were factored into an organization’s long-term planning. What if all of these employees felt valued and felt that their role with the organization was integral to the organization’s future plans and potential success? A byproduct of this intentional planning would be a sense of security for all the professionals in the organization. How might this influence the pursuits of those professionals?

A fundraising professional, for example, might feel less pressure during an annual campaign or an emergency campaign, and instead have the confidence to explore blue-sky scenarios in which investments are made for the long term. An employee’s sense of security — and faith in the organization’s future — is integral not just for that organization’s ability to plan for the future, but also for the organization’s ability to implement that plan. For many of the organizations with which the Jim Joseph Foundation partners and supports, losing a key member of their professional team — whether C-suite, mid-tier, or more entry level — would have a major impact on their ability to plan and program.

With the Warriors blueprint in mind — being opportunistic, giving young players time to learn, signing key veterans, and more — what can our field do to position organizations for long-term success? I see five key actions:

  1. Invest in professionals for the long term through competitive compensation.
  2. Provide professional development that is not just training staff for what they currently do, but prepares them for what they might be asked to do in the future.
  3. Offer access to conferences and professional learning communities both within and outside of the scope of the organization.
  4. Create a matrix-style organizational structure where each member of the team has opportunities to lead and shine.
  5. Secure operating reserves (and temporary and permanent endowments as possible) in order to ensure lasting fiscal security.

Planning for the short- and long-term can occur simultaneously. Immediate wins can come at the same time an eye is also kept on the future. And, sometimes the opportunity to build for the future happens at unexpected moments. Organizations should be ready to take advantage of those times in their organizational life. I invite others to provide additional ways to create stronger organizational health and security that may be even more forward-thinking than what I’ve included here.

And here’s a final plea: let’s help nonprofits in our community create meaningful legacies. And, when they do this, let’s celebrate their achievements and the “superstars” who made it happen — just as we do with our hometown teams.

Steven Green is Senior Director, Grants Management and Compliance, at the Jim Joseph Foundation

cross-posted on Center for Effective Philanthropy

Jewish Emergent Network announces (RE)VISION20/20 National Conference

From June 18 – 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, the Jewish Emergent Network will gather with thought leaders from around North America for (RE)VISION20/20, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the Jewish Emergent Network organizations: IKAR in L.A., Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkan in Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York. The conference is co-chaired by Rabbi Noa Kushner of The Kitchen and Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth & I.

“People can come choose-their-own adventure as we dig deep into ritual and prayer, a diverse spectrum of music, approaches to creating radically welcoming spaces and programs, and strategies for navigating moral leadership,” says Melissa Balaban, Chair of the Network and CEO of IKAR. “We also invite people into our processes: our best practices, yes, but also how we fail forward and iterate.”

The three days of content will feature laboratories, galleries, interactive experiments, panels, guest speakers and other creative learning modules, with time built in for networking, davening, singing and creating community. Registration is open to the public: rabbis, cantors, Jewish professionals, educators, lay leaders, academics, philanthropists, activists and interested-folks-at-large from across the spectrum of practice are invited to register at www.JewishEmergentNetwork.org. Spots are limited!

(RE)VISION20/20 will also be the capstone of the Network’s hallmark rabbinic fellowship, as the Network designs a leadership development program for rabbinical students, set to launch in 2021. The rabbinic fellowship helped shape 14 members of the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking, change-making rabbis, and among the myriad opportunities at the conference will be the chance to learn with both cohorts of the Network’s fellows.

The communities in the Network do not represent any one denomination or set of religious practices. What they share is a devotion to revitalizing the field of Jewish engagement, a commitment to approaches both traditionally rooted and creative, and a demonstrated success in attracting unaffiliated and disengaged Jews to a rich and meaningful Jewish practice. While each community is different in form and organizational structure, all have taken an entrepreneurial approach to this shared vision, operating outside of conventional institutional models, rethinking basic assumptions about ritual and spiritual practice, membership models, staff structures, the religious/cultural divide and physical space.

Funding for the Jewish Emergent Network and its rabbinic fellowship program has been generously provided through a grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. Significant additional funding is provided by the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Diane & Guilford Glazer Philanthropies, the William Davidson Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. The Network is working with current funders and cultivating prospective funders in connection with its next major project.

Source: eJewish Philanthropy

B’Yadenu: A Strategy for Whole School Reform

With the Foundation’s grant supporting the B’Yadenu Project now concluded, we are pleased to share reflections and a look ahead from David Farbman, Senior Director of Education at Gateways: Access to Jewish Education. 

In 2012, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, and five Boston-area day schools launched the B’Yadenu project with funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Ruderman Family Foundation. B’Yadenu, which in Hebrew means “In Our Hands,” was designed to shift a whole school to cohesively and collaboratively work to better serve all learners. Essentially a strategic planning process for day schools, B’Yadenu encouraged school leaders and faculty to develop and execute a model for boosting the capacity of educators to strengthen instruction and support for all students. With the project coming to a close, this is a good time to reflect on the successes and challenges we have experienced over the last few years with this ambitious project to re-shape Jewish day schools in ways that better educate diverse learners.

The Significance of the B’Yadenu Model
To better understand B’Yadenu’s potential impact, we need first to consider how uncommon (read: countercultural) the initiative is in the world of education, generally, and Jewish day schools, specifically.

Most schools operate largely under the influence of two powerful forces: urgency and inertia. Taking each of these in turn, consider urgency. Too rarely do day schools address underlying causes or adopt more methodical or systematic approaches to ameliorate challenges. “Fix the problem as quickly as possible,” is the order of the day. The second force is somewhat oppositional to the first. Much of what takes place in schools—from specific lessons to curricular expectations to the daily schedule—results from inertia. Educators tend not to change practice from year to year because when a problem does not emerge (i.e., does not need to be addressed urgently), they see no compelling reason to do so.

At base, B’Yadenu is an effort to break the hold of both of these forces at once.  In terms of urgency, B’Yadenu presses administrators and faculty to consider questions that are deliberately non-reactive in nature like “How can we address the root causes of this problem?” or “How can we institute practices that are most effective, even if they will take many months or years to implement fully?”  At the other end of the spectrum, B’Yadenu aims to open the eyes of school staff to alternative possibilities that they had not considered simply because they were not pushed to do so. Through B’Yadenu, educators are prodded to ask themselves questions like: “What would our school look like if we did curriculum or scheduling or professional development differently?” and “Why do we have to teach this way?”

For school personnel to consider these questions is not only rare, the task is exceedingly difficult, and, of course, the difficulty stems in part from their rarity in being asked. For anyone—educators or not—to examine one’s own habits and assumptions takes candor and care and trust.  That is, deep reflection into how to change current behavior in order to do better requires, first, that we are honest with ourselves and our peers. Second, such inquiry should not be addressed haphazardly, but rather done within the context of a methodical and consistent self-assessment. Finally, the entire exercise of self-reflection must be rooted in an environment of good will and mutual respect.  B’Yadenu revolves around these three principles and seeks to guide school teams to abide by them.

What it Takes for B’Yadenu to Succeed
Engaging in B’Yadenu certainly provides a path toward overcoming norms that tend to be short-sighted. But progress is far from guaranteed. As such, below is a brief consideration of some factors that must be in place to make success more likely.

  1. Controlling role of leaders in the process. Absent heads of school and/or principals within the school consistently and forthrightly insisting that faculty and all staff commit to serious, substantive, and often challenging change at many levels, such change will simply not happen.  Only leaders have the power to say to teachers, “Don’t be concerned about addressing this problem right now. Only be concerned that you address it well.” Once teachers begin to undertake that process of self-reflection, they are far more likely to take on the burden of change and to do so with a deeper sense of the rationale behind their need to change.
  2. Belief in the value of external expertise to help the school do things differently. It simply is not feasible to expect teachers and others in the school to implement new practices without first holding up what these new practices might look like. When outside professional consultants or coaches offer novel approaches or, perhaps equally important, validation for current methods that are sound, they effectively provide faculty with a road map or, at the least, some milestones along the way toward improved practice.
  3. Shared willingness among all involved to allow for change to take place on a relatively gradual scale. If teachers are really going to be overhauling their pedagogy, they cannot be expected to do so at the snap of their fingers. They must navigate through an extended period of trial and error, so that they fully appreciate what works best to elevate their students’ learning. In schools that have been most successful, the transformation in educational practice has taken place over the course of years.
  4. An abiding willingness to change. Perhaps it is obvious to say so, but absent a deep commitment from teachers, learning support staff, administrators and, of course, school leaders that they want to engage in the process, transformation is simply impossible. To undertake the complex process of self-reflection, to learn from external experts, and to persist through the experimentation and honing process is a test of endurance and will. Sustaining that desire to change through the inevitable wrong turns or competing agendas is challenging, but without this uniform and consistent ambition to generate real change, nothing sustainable will occur.

These latter two characteristics together form a healthy tension within successful schools. Striking the balance between these two ends of the spectrum—a demonstrated patience and methodical approach on one side; an incessant drive for improvement on the other—is what ultimately generates enduring and real change.

What Does “Success” Look Like?
What does it actually mean to “transform teaching and learning”? As the question itself implies, there is no single construct that defines transformation. Rather, the change exhibits certain characteristics that, in some combination, can be said to have met the ultimate objective: the evolution of a school toward an institution that meets all learners’ needs and where all learners can thrive. We consider four characteristics of schools that successfully educate diverse learners:

  1. Primacy of adult learning. If a school is to live up to its goal of nurturing in children a lifelong love of learning and continual development toward a better version of the self, teachers must harbor this love, as well and continually practiced in systematic ways.  A sound B’Yadenu school is one that features regular times for teachers to collaborate and learn from one another, as well as some form of formal and actionable feedback that structures their learning about their own teaching.
  2. Widespread belief that all students can and should succeed academically and socially. This should not mean that a day school should be expected to educate absolutely any child that seeks to be a student there. Rather, the notion means that for all students that are currently at the school—and for others who are seeking to attend—the presumption should be that the school can successfully educate them. Teachers must continually search for ways to tailor the educational experience to the specific needs of each child and focus on what each child is learning, not what the teacher is teaching.
  3. Steeped in data about student learning and behavior, such that faculty and administrators have concrete evidence about what those “better contexts” are for each student. So, for example, if a teacher wants to know if a student learns more effectively with a certain reading program or another, she will have data to back up when that student is making more progress. Then, armed with that data, the teacher can structure that child’s learning environment that will promote the greatest amount of learning.
  4. School leaders insist that all staff align to the values of high-quality schools, namely the previous three elements: committing to professional growth, nurturing the potential success of all learners, and appreciating how data is essential to identify student needs. This commitment to fill the building with adults who harbor these inclinations is the surest way to build sustainability. With the right people on board, the right practices are sure to follow for the foreseeable future.

One final aspect worth noting. Though each successful B’Yadenu effort exhibited these four components, the schools differed from each other meaningfully in both the particular challenges they were trying to address and the ways in which they addressed them. What matters less, then, is the what of the B’yadenu process, but rather the how by which each school brought about sought after change.

The Future of B’Yadenu
Taking into account what we have learned over the last eight years, what can we say about how the day school universe overall might take on B’Yadenu and what Gateways can do to encourage more schools to become schools that embody the four characteristics of schools that successfully educate diverse learners outlined above?

The approach to seeding more B’Yadenu schools must focus on how to draw out the potential readiness of schools and cultivate that potential into genuine platforms for transformation. If we can locate those schools that acknowledge that their current educational program is unable to consistently address the needs of all students, then these educators are on the cusp of developing one of the foundational aspects of readiness: willingness to change.

In our experience, schools can be effectively steered toward being ready to take on the challenges of whole-school change through an honest analysis of current teaching and learning practices and how they serve as impediments to all students succeeding.  In so doing, school leaders and faculty can be enlightened to three of the four conditions needed for whole-school transformation (desire for change, insight into its evolutionary nature, and the value for external expertise).  With these cultural qualities taking root, the school community is then far more prepared to tackle the complicated, but rewarding, work imagined by the B’Yadenu process.

As for the fourth characteristic of strong leadership—which actually stands first in terms of its importance—the very act of organizing a candid assessment is a sign of the school leader’s commitment and vision.

Understanding what characteristics should be prominent in any given school community in order to take on the hard work of B’Yadenu and, in turn, what values we should be aiming to embed to ensure lasting change, we believe the field is better poised  to bring about more widespread success in B’Yadenu projects (or any large-scale school improvement initiative). At Gateways, we will use these lessons to continue to guide and model and plan and strategize and prod more Jewish day schools to become places where all learners, regardless of their abilities or needs, can receive the education they so richly deserve.

Access the B’Yadenu Toolkit here.

 

 

Coming soon: A new leadership pipeline for Jews of color

Is the leadership of major Jewish institutions too white?

The short answer is yes, according to a number of Jewish activists and nonprofit leaders, who are launching a new program designed to help change the status quo.

Project Shamash: Sparking the Leadership of East Bay Jews of Color, scheduled to begin later this year, will aim to propel more Jews of color into positions on Jewish boards of directors, into nonprofit executive suites and other influential staff positions within Jewish community institutions.

Announced in mid-January, the project will be part of the Bay Area chapter of Bend the Arc, a national organization advocating for progressive causes from a Jewish perspective. It will launch as a three-year pilot program and is funded in large part by the East Bay-based Rodan Family Foundation.

The program’s key grant is for “up to” $1 million over three years, Bend the Arc said. The Rodan foundation is continuing to seek other funding partners. Bend the Arc plans to hire a program director and a program assistant to help run the program out of the organization’s Bay Area branch offices.

The Bay Area “has one of the most diverse Jewish communities in the country,” said Ginna Green, chief strategy officer at Bend the Arc, a national organization that advocates for progressive causes from a Jewish perspective. “We want Jewish institutions to actually reflect the diversity and vibrancy of our community.”

Green said Jews of color, or “JOCs” in today’s parlance, often are “inundated with questions” or face “disbelief” in synagogues and other Jewish spaces. Many JOCs feel unwelcome in the Jewish community, and as a result have “retreated from Jewish life,” or never participated to begin with.

Naturally, “it’s hard to be a leader in a place where you don’t feel welcome,” Green said.

Project Shamash is slated to launch before the end of the year in the East Bay. It will run alongside the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, a Berkeley-based program that also aims to build and advance the professional and communal aspirations of nonwhite Jews.

The JCFBI — founded in 2018 with support from the S.F.-based Jim Joseph Foundation, the Schusterman Family Foundation and a number of other organizations — makes grants, conducts research and runs community education events dedicated to supporting Jews of color.

Executive director Ilana Kaufman said JCFBI will serve as an “adviser and partner” of the Bend the Arc project.

Ilana Kaufman
Ilana Kaufman

“There is a constant need to see Jews of color in leadership roles, particularly in senior roles” within Jewish organizations, Kaufman said. “Any initiative trying to help develop Jews of color who want to be leaders in the community is wonderful.”

Headquartered in New York, Bend the Arc in recent years has been on the front lines of political debates and protests advancing progressive policy aims. In 2015, it launched a political action committee that last year raised about $209,000 mostly for Democratic candidates.

The organization also spearheads protests and mobilizes support against conservative policies and politicians. In October, for example, a group of activists that included Stosh Cotler, the CEO, were arrested in Pittsburgh for blocking the road during a visit by President Donald Trump, who was to speak at a pro-fracking energy conference.

Green said the new program will focus on the East Bay, but organizers hope it will become a national model. Part of the aim, Green said, is for Jewish institutions to “become places where Jews of color can actually work, lead and thrive.”

JOCs represent a growing percentage of the overall American Jewish population, but the exact number is hard to determine. That’s partly because demographers have not asked the right questions, according to some. Studies designed to learn about Jewish communities often leave out questions about race and ethnicity entirely, or ask them in confusing ways that are not uniform and do not lead to broad insights, according to a recent research paper commissioned by the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative and prepared by four Bay Area academics at Stanford and the University of San Francisco.

It’s hard to be a leader in a place where you don’t feel welcome.

Released in May, “Counting Inconsistencies” approximated that Jews of color (“anyone who identified as nonwhite”) represent “at least 12-15 percent of American Jews.” And since more younger Jews identify as nonwhite than do older Jews, the study found, American Jewry is expected to continue to change shades in the years ahead.

A 2015 demographic study by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University estimated that 11.2 percent of American Jews were nonwhite, compared with 35 percent nonwhite in the overall U.S. population.

The Bay Area’s Jewish population is particularly diverse. According to a landmark population study commissioned by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and published in 2018, 25 percent of Bay Area Jews said their household included a person of color, defined as “Hispanic, Asian American, African American, or of mixed or other ethnic or racial background (other than white).”

And, yet, many community leaders do not see the Bay Area’s diversity reflected in positions of leadership atop Jewish organizations — such as federations, day schools, synagogue boards and a patchwork of other Jewish institutions that hold sway in setting priorities for the Bay Area Jewish community at large.

“As a Jew of color myself, with four JOC children, I have had a tremendous experience in the Jewish community, with lots of options and opportunities made available for me,” Green said. “But I also know that’s not the norm for JOCs. The norm is for JOCs to feel excluded as participants in Jewish life. And if you feel excluded as a participant, there’s little chance you’re going to feel empowered to be a leader.”

Acknowledging that the program is still in the planning stages, Green was able to disclose that it will have three prongs.

The first will be to organize “JOC-led programming” and events. The second will involve a “fellowship” or a “cohort” of Jews of color who are determined to be a good fit for the program.

“Where are they in their career path? What are the skills and talents they bring to the table?” Green said, of how potential participants would be assessed. “We’ll make sure we are putting JOCs in situations where they can succeed.”

The third prong likely will involve working with Jewish organizations to make them more hospitable to Jews of color. In other words, Green said, “preparing historically white-led Jewish institutions to be places where JOCs can thrive.”

The Rodan Family Foundation doesn’t give exclusively to Jewish organizations, but does make significant contributions to the East Bay’s Jewish community. Since its establishment in 2018, it has made grants to dozens of Jewish nonprofits including the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, PJ Library (a children’s book and reading program) and Moishe House (communal living for young, Jewish adults).

The foundation was started by Katie and Amnon Rodan; Katie is a dermatologist and entrepreneur who co-founded Rodan + Fields and the acne product Proactiv, one of the most popular skin-care brands of all time.

Elana Rodan Schuldt, president and CEO, said the foundation wants to fund programs that “strengthen the East Bay Jewish community for the next generation.” Saying that Jews of color continue to be overlooked by some Jewish organizations, Schuldt added, “We just felt like this is long overdue.”

Source: “Coming soon: A new leadership pipeline for Jews of color,” Gabe Stutman, The Jewish News of Northern California, February 3, 2020

Hebrew becomes hip in American schools as a boon for kids and communities

Along with its increasing popularity come some significant challenges, such as finding qualified educators to run classes and programs.

 For many students, taking a second language used to mean choosing between French and Spanish, and even then not until high school. These days, however, more students have been signing up for Hebrew in public and charter schools—and at much younger ages.

More than 6,600 students were learning Hebrew in a public-school or charter-school setting in 2018, according to a report issued by CASJE, the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

The report, “Mapping Hebrew Education in Public Schools: A Resource for Hebrew Educators,” further noted that 35 schools were offering Hebrew-language classes. Of that number, 17 schools serve students in either elementary or middle school, while 18 serve grades nine through 12. And, according to the survey, 19 of the schools reported increased enrollment in Hebrew classes with only 1 school reporting a decline in the last five to 10 years.

“We really had no idea what we would find; we just had a sense that there were schools out there,” said Sharon Avni, who co-wrote the report with Avital Karpman. “I think the biggest surprise is that there are 2,000 students in traditional public schools studying Hebrew language.”

“It’s sort of a startup experiment, it’s so diverse,” added Karpman. “You do have some charter-school networks,” like Ben Gamla Charter Schools in Southeast Florida and the Hebrew Public Charter Schools for Global Citizens, but, otherwise, “every individual community we spoke to had different reasons and different communities of students. There isn’t a thread running through all these Hebrew programs.”

There are the Hebrew charter schools in cities like New York and Washington, where parents aren’t necessarily looking for Hebrew-language education, but are drawn to the perceived higher quality of education offered than in inner-city public schools. The student populations of these schools are often different than those run by the Ben Gamla Charter School Foundation in Florida or the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School in East Brunswick, N.J., both in areas with a significant Jewish populations.

Children at the Kavod Charter School in San Diego, which started seven years ago with just 55 students, has since grown to 350 students. Most of the day’s classes are taught in Hebrew. Source: Kavod Charter School via Facebook.

The enrollment increase in Hebrew classes is being felt at the Kavod Charter School in San Diego, which started seven years ago with just 55 students and has grown to 350 students. This year the school added two sixth-grade classes. Some students are from Israeli families now working and living in Southern California, and others are there because they want their child to learn a second language.

“It’s a public school with the mentality of a private school,” said Ronit Ron-Yerushalmi, language and global-studies director at Kavod. “Our classes are smaller, and we have more resources.”

While math, reading and writing are taught in English, much of the rest of the school day—from morning meeting to art class to physical education and even recess are conducted in Hebrew.

‘It creates opportunities in the future’

Ron-Yerushalmi spoke with JNS during the seventh annual “Hebrew in North America Conference,” which was held in mid-November in Newark, N.J., and sponsored by the World Zionist Organization’s Department of Education and the Council for Hebrew Language and Culture in North America. As many as 400 people attended the two-day conference.

Ronit Ron-Yerushalmi, language and global-studies director at Kavod. Credit: Courtesy.

While the interest in Hebrew-language classes and charter schools definitely benefit Jewish communal interests, plenty of academic research suggests that learning a second language is beneficial to children’s cognitive growth, results in higher testing skills and makes them more empathetic to others, as language and related concepts allow them to see people from a different perspective.

“I think this is one of the main marketing points that Hebrew charter schools make to non-Jewish families—that it’s good for your children to learn another language, that it’s good for the brain development, and it creates opportunities in the future,” suggested Rabbi Andrew Ergas, chair of the Council for Hebrew Language and Culture in North America.

For Jewish families, he continued, having Hebrew in public schools meets the students where they are. It gives them a connection to their heritage and, oftentimes, other Jewish students while aligning with their educational needs.

“It’s not religious, not political,” said Ergas. “Instead of Spanish, you are taking Hebrew.”

The academic and cognitive benefits of Hebrew, as with other languages, is why the focus is shifting to growing a population of Hebrew-language educators who cannot merely speak the language, as has been the case before, but who are experts in teaching a second language and ensuring that students met recognized standards of understanding as they would if they were taking Spanish.

Rabbi Andrew Ergas, chair of the Council for Hebrew Language and Culture in North America. Credit: The Council for Hebrew Language and Culture.

“We are in a moment in American society,” said Avni. “People think we are less inclusive, but multilingual and bilingual are seen as a great thing … and families are interested in having their children learn more languages.”

Finding teachers ‘is the hardest challenge’

Despite the increase in interest, the total number of schools and students with Hebrew education remains relatively small compared to the number of Jewish students in the public-school sphere. Experts believe that could change if one deficiency was rectified: the lack of qualified, accredited Hebrew-language teachers.

For years, say those in the field, Jewish schools relied on people who were simply fluent Hebrew speakers to teach Hebrew-language lessons, regardless of whether or not they were experienced teachers; understood educational pedagogy surrounding teaching as a second language; or even knew about classroom management and assessments. Such ad hoc education would not be welcome in most public-school systems.

“I get calls all the time from schools in all different areas of the country that say, ‘We can’t continue our Hebrew program’ or ‘Our students want a [Hebrew] program,’ ” reported Karpman, noting that it’s difficult to staff these programs, especially if they are in smaller communities. “There’s a need out there, but we don’t have people going there.”

She noted that in some cases, teachers who could be retiring are staying because there is no one qualified to take over. In other cases, such as in Closter, N.J., where there is a strong Israeli ex-patriate community, families asked for a Hebrew-language class in the public schools, but the district reportedly couldn’t find a certified teacher to staff it.

Finding teachers is “the hardest and biggest challenge,” declared Ron-Yerushalmi, who noted that even experienced teachers from Israel may not succeed as Hebrew teachers in U.S. public or charter schools. “What is expected as teachers in Israel is very different than what is expected here.”

Those expectations include communication with parents and writing lesson plans, along with cultural differences and a language barrier.

To ensure that teachers of Hebrew language have the proper tools to be effective educators, the School of Hebrew at Middlebury College in Vermont offers a master’s degree in teaching Hebrew as a second language.

“We want to professionalize the skills of teachers, and a way to do it is for them to learn more about second-language acquisition,” said Vardit Ringvald, director of the School of Hebrew at Middlebury. “Teaching language is a discipline, and we need to professionalize that discipline. … I had adults in their 40s and 50s who have come to my classes and were crying because they saw that they weren’t doing things right—and they are frustrated.”

To recruit new students to the teachers’ program, she and her colleagues set up an information table at the Hebrew conference in Newark in November; more than two-dozen people applied for the program on the spot.

‘It’s a language people are using’

Veteran Hebrew teacher Binnie Swislow knows there are great educators out there who are passionate about the language, but that it’s important they also have the pedagogical tools to meet the needs of today’s schools and students.

“I’m not fighting the battle of ‘Can you be an excellent teacher?’ That’s not what this is about,” said Swislow, who taught in Chicago-area public schools and is a founding member of the Council for Hebrew Language and co-founder of the National Association of Hebrew Teachers. “This is about a system. It is about following the same methods that all the other languages that are being taught.”

A collection of some of the materials available for educators at the Hebrew conference in Newark. N.J.

Swislow is a consultant at The iCenter for Israel Education in Northbrook, Ill., which bills itself as the North American hub for Israel education. It’s located at what may be considered the epicenter of Hebrew education in the public-school sphere, as more than 600 students in Chicago-area schools are enrolled in Hebrew classes.

One of those previous students is Dan Tatar, director of communications and outreach at iCenter. He knows firsthand how impactful Hebrew-language classes can be, especially with the right teacher.

Yes, Tatar learned how to conjugate words in Hebrew, but that wasn’t what brought the language to life for him. Rather, it was how their teacher connected them to Israel, he said, “through news stories and video or events.”

“It became real,” he said. “It’s a language people are using, and it connected me to something deeper. We see that with students today.”

For educators of Hebrew in the public sphere, communal concerns about the role of religion seem to come up more frequently than in other languages, though experts say teachers know not endorse Judaism.

Charter schools, reported Avni, “have demonstrated that it is possible to have Hebrew in public schools. They are the proof of concept. They’ve shown you can do it and not run afoul of constitutional issues, and that there’s a demand for it.”

She went on to say that “language is never devoid from culture.” In a Spanish class, students might learn about Catholic holidays because most Spanish countries are primarily Catholic. “It is a spoken language, and in schools is part of world-culture curriculums. Hebrew is a bit more complicated because there’s only one place with native Hebrew speakers,” and that is Israel.

“But what we saw in our observations and what teachers tell us is that they teach Hebrew, and also about Israel and Jewish culture, but not in a way that’s promoting or proselytizing,” she continued. “They find a space to teach about the language and the people who speak that language without crossing the line of separation between church and state.”

Source: “Hebrew becomes hip in American schools as a boon for kids and communities,” Faygie Holt, Jewish News Syndicate, February 4, 2020