Healthy Arguments: For the Sake of Argument Is Ready for This Moment

Founded on the belief that healthy arguments can be an important tool for learning and social growth, For the Sake of Argument (FSA) helps leaders and educators engage learners in open, trusting educational experiences. FSA’s materials, tools, and training – currently focused on Israel – spark healthy arguments in various settings, including homes, workplaces, synagogues, schools, and campuses. In its first year, more than 2,000 people have participated in FSA’s in-person or online workshops and courses.

It can be really hard to have a healthy argument with my peers and my family. I think one of the things we might take from it is listening
Not just jumping on someone, not just listening to respond, but actually listening, to engage and try and understand the conversation. I think my peers and I could benefit from taking a step back from a heated argument and being able to look at it from all sides.
– Workshop Participant

As Israel faces deep internal divisions and political turmoil, FSA’s resources enable people to confront and discuss these challenges in  meaningful ways. Its book Stories for the Sake of Argument, includes 24 stories that provide opportunities to discuss some of the more controversial issues in Israel. FSA’s newest short story, Anything to Celebrate?, was released in advance of Yom Ha’atzmaut and grapples with the complexities of celebrating Israel at this time. Building on this, FSA will soon release a series of short stories that explore the proposed judicial reforms and the protests sweeping Israel. In the coming months, the organization also will release a short, theme-based curriculum for schools, youth movements, Hillels and other educational organizations to use in their settings and during their organization’s trips to Israel.

Many educators tend to stay clear of divisive issues so as not to cause unwanted conflict. But whether we like it or not, the topics of greatest interest today are also the most contentious. We lean into the arguments that arise when complexities are addressed rather than shying away from them. By harnessing the energy and passion contained in healthy arguments, we seek to create deep educational engagement.
–Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras, co-founders and co-directors of For the Sake of Argument

FSA offers many ways for educators and leaders to learn about this approach to education. A 90-minute introductory workshop models the FSA framework and tools, and in-depth courses for professionals provide a deeper mastery of engaging with contentious issues. FSA’s open online resource center has tips and specific language for healthy arguments, animated videos, and short written pieces sharing pertinent research. New stories cover all kinds of timely topics–Who is Welcome? delves into interfaith marriage and how different values affect family dynamics; Tweeting Israel covers the legitimacy of vocal criticism of Israeli politicians from Jewish leadership outside of Israel; and What is It All About? explores what Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day means to different groups within Israeli society. FSA also offers consultations with individuals and organizations thinking about the role of arguments and disagreements in their work.

The session helped me to envision how facilitated conversations on Israel might play out in select communities who we are now approaching about hosting similar conversations. These would be less about navigating disagreement, and more about toeing into hard conversations about Israel.
– Workshop Participant

While Israel education is the first subject matter on which FSA focuses, the organization may address others in the future, ranging from Jewish topics to broader non-sectarian issues. This year and next, FSA is researching the impact and educational effectiveness of different elements of its approach. As the research brings insights, FSA continues to hone its materials and tools and will structure and refine the ongoing direction and development of its work.

For more information, visit forthesakeofargument.org. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of For the Sake of Argument.

Atra—Formerly the Center for Rabbinic Innovation—Seeks to Support Rabbis in a Changing World

Atra is also trying to understand where the gaps are in training, especially for more experienced rabbis who are not recent seminary graduates.

While some rabbis are still associated with the traditional pulpit leadership model, serving in established synagogues or at educational institutions, today’s spiritual leaders serve various roles within their communities, across denominations and contexts. From fiery sermonizers to innovative educators, from community advisors to emergent community founders, the changing appearance of the rabbinate creates a need for Jewish spiritual leaders to receive additional investment and training — to meet contemporary communal needs and build a stronger national network of rabbis.

Launched more than six years ago as the Center for Rabbinic Innovation – a small, incubated program in the Office of Innovation, which is fiscally sponsored by Hillel International – Atra, as the organization is now known, trains and supports rabbinic leaders from all backgrounds to adapt their practice for the real world, to help them grow professionally and propel their leadership. During the pandemic, the organization also received a Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund grant to support the Rabbinic (re)Design Lab, which empowered clergy to imagine and pilot new approaches to engaging communities during the High Holy Days.

Atra’s new name invokes the Aramaic phrase “mara d’atra,” meaning the teacher or rabbi who serves a particular place, a hat tip to the modern ubiquity of places where rabbis can be found. Over the next three years, the organization expects to expand its outreach to rabbis and other Jewish spiritual leaders, as well as bring 45 organizational partners into the emerging conversation about what makes a rabbi, Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, Atra’s executive director, told eJewishPhilanthropy.

The organization’s strategic plan (available online here) calls for program expansion, establishing a field of rabbinic training, new research and a stronger national network among rabbis, and is supported by recent grants from Crown Family Philanthropies and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Those new grants, along with other donor contributions, total more than $2 million toward the organization’s $6 million strategic plan.

“We believe that rabbis are a key gateway, models and change agents for Jewish identity, meaning, ethics and practice for the Jewish people,” said Barry Finestone, president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “There’s a demonstrated need for more skilled rabbis as leaders in the North American Jewish community. Rabbinic training as a field has been under-resourced. Importantly, Atra has developed practical and effective ways to provide relevant, needed training for rabbinic leaders serving in the field across the denominational spectrum and in a range of settings.”

Atra has a current budget of $1.5 million, with four full-time and two part-time staff members. By 2025, the organization expects to launch as an independent 501(c)(3) and to expand to six full-time with a director of faculty and research faculty. The leadership has chosen not to invest in physical offices for the time being, instead renting program spaces as needed. Epstein said that the leadership is lining up strategic advisors and funders to help them grow.

“We know that rabbis engage people in all kinds of settings throughout people’s life stages and inflection points,” Finestone explained. “We need Jewish leaders who are equipped to transform the future of North American Judaism in the 21st century through learning and other experiences that have meaning and resonance in people’s lives.”

The Jim Joseph Foundation also funded Atra to conduct a study on the relationship between rabbis and Jewish Americans from the ages of 18-44. “Since rabbis engage young Jews in so many settings, it’s important to understand what factors make those interactions and experiences most meaningful and relevant in young people’s lives,” said Finestone regarding the study, which will be released in mid-March. Atra commissioned the research and managed the project; the foundation did not provide input on the questions.

One of Atra’s first tasks is to establish metrics around “excellence,” Epstein told eJP. “There really has been very little research on what a rabbi is, what a rabbi does and what it looks like when a rabbi is good at what they do. We don’t even have metrics for saying what makes us good rabbi. And if we’re going to help ensure that rabbis are excellent, we need to know what that means.”

The study being released in March is the first one in at least 30 years, Epstein noted, and anticipates that such research will happen every few years moving forward. The research should also “inform a conversation not just for us, but for everyone who’s trying to ensure that there’s excellence in rabbinic leadership,” she explained.

With different seminaries preparing rabbis differently for their work, Atra is also trying to understand where the gaps are in training, especially for more experienced rabbis who went to seminaries somewhere between one and four decades ago. These gaps might include updating their social media or technology fluency, improving their management or communication skills, and using community organizing principles to activate their communities, Epstein and Ariel Moritz, the director of program operations at Atra, told eJP.

“We know that the locus of authority has changed and people are often looking at influencers, not at authority. So how do rabbis learn how to communicate as skilled, knowledgeable, effective leaders with a group of people who are not necessarily listening to a sermon. They want to have a reciprocal relationship with their rabbi,” Epstein said. “The rabbi needs to learn where that person is.”

While some rabbis may be starting a new community to fill a demographic or cultural gap in the community, they may not have training on management or how to create a startup, Moritz said. “So they find themselves wearing a whole bunch of hats and will often turn to us to figure out how to do that work.”

The grant will enable Atra to expand its programs such as its rabbinic entrepreneur fellowship, Troubleshooting the Chagim and the Rabbinic (re)Design Lab. While many Jewish organizations have adopted the Design Thinking approach to idea and program development, Atra uses the Lean Startup method. In addition to being less time-consuming than Design Thinking, Lean Startup includes identifying a problem or challenge and then developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to test. In the case of rabbinic training, Epstein said, “You have an idea, you have an audience that you know exists that you are talking and listening to, you have a question and an idea for what might serve them. You test it with a small test, and then you learn and then you iterate.”

CRI had been serving mostly early-career rabbis, as well as mid-career rabbis seeking to expand their skill sets prior to the pandemic. But after 2020, synagogues and rabbis “could not pretend that they knew how to deal with the changed reality,” said Epstein. “Everybody already needed new skills. We recognized that we had tools that we had been teaching that would be really useful.” The large grant from JCRIF helped them to launch new programs in response to what the movements’ rabbinic organizations told CRI their rabbis needed. While some CRI cohorts were by denomination — the Reform Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, for example — most of the participants wanted programs that are pluralistic, as most CRI programs are.

Atra is now moving into a regional strategy, building cohorts in specific cities to be announced at a later date. Epstein expects at least one city to launch in the next year, and notes that even if all rabbis want to learn new skills, Atra programs differ between cities, “because every city or region’s Jewish community, and current communal infrastructure is a little bit different
When we look at a region [we ask] what is the Jewish need here, how might we work with these rabbis to address that need,” she said. “We’re trying to go slowly enough to actually build what’s necessary.”

Part of that process is strengthening the network — establishing partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, such as the Jewish Education Project and the Association for Reform Jewish Educators — and developing critical infrastructure toward greater independence in 2025.

“I also think it’s really exciting how many people are investing in rabbinic leadership and how many philanthropies and Jewish foundations are renewing their look at rabbinic leadership,” Epstein said. She added that The Aviv Foundation, Maimonides Fund, Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Natan and UJA-Federation of New York are among the grantmakers that have started funding the field.

Over the next few months, Atra will release the report from its research study and launch a new website in April to grow its network and make its programs and resources more accessible. In the interim the strategic plan is available and the organization is actively recruiting for its programs.

Another part of Atra’s job is to help rabbis figure out the best model for sustainability, both of the larger Jewish community and also on the practical level, determining revenue structure, considering whether or not to have membership dues. Jewish philanthropy will continue to generate some of the support for Atra. “We want to be excellent stewards of tzedakah,” Epstein said, adding that the organization plans to grow its infrastructure thoughtfully and methodically. “We believe that, as we do that well, people will know that if they want to invest in excellent rabbinic leadership, we’ll be able to use their tzedakah to make that happen.”

The organization is also looking at different fee-for-service opportunities, especially since most rabbis don’t really have large amounts of money designated for their own career development and training. It also has a small pilot program to connect excellent innovative rabbis with philanthropists who want to invest in their projects. Along with this comes helping rabbis to understand how to measure their work’s impact, ask for financial support and report to donors on their investment.

“Rabbis need a lot of help and support,” Epstein said. “We need their careers to be sustainable, we need them to be excellent for a long time.”

“Atra—formerly the Center for Rabbinic Innovation—seeks to support rabbis in a changing world,” eJewish Philanthropy, March 1, 2023

Shmita-Scale Learning: JOFEE Leaders Reflect on the Past Seven Years

This piece from Jakir Manela, CEO of Hazon & Pearlstone, with contributions from Rabbi Zelig Golden, Executive Director of Wilderness Torah, and Adam Weisberg, Executive Director of Urban Adamah, shares lessons learned from JOFEE leadership during the recently completed three-year period of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s general operating grant to Hazon, as well as lessons learned over the last ten years of the Foundation’s support to the field.

At Hazon and Pearlstone, we believe in the centrality of adam and adamah, people and planet. Our mission is to cultivate vibrant Jewish life in deep connection with the earth, catalyzing culture change and systemic change through immersive retreats, Jewish environmental education, and climate action.

The parallel issues of declining Jewish affiliation and the global climate crisis are not unrelated. Climate grief and anxiety are now diagnosable mental health crises that impact young people across the Jewish world. Young Jews tend to care more about climate and sustainability than older generations, and they are also less likely than older generations to affiliate with Jewish institutions. For many, what keeps them up at night is not Jewish survival, but human survival.

It was almost 10 years ago that the term JOFEE (Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming, and Environmental Education) was coined by a group of funders. Collectively, the Jim Joseph Foundation, Leichtag Foundation, The Morningstar Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and UJA – Federation of New York invested in the Seeds of Opportunity JOFEE report. They discovered—through robust third-party research—a movement that was making a significant impact across the Jewish world. Since then, the Jim Joseph Foundation investments focused on supporting the four largest JOFEE organizations — Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah, and Wilderness Torah—and launching the JOFEE Fellowship in order to both professionalize and expand career opportunities across the field.

Over four years, the JOFEE Fellowship trained more than 60 young adults as educators, placing them at Jewish organizations including JCCs, federations, summer camps, and more. For fellows, the chance to create change by bridging their environmental concerns with their Jewish identities was a key motivation for joining the program:

“I was sick of being Jewish for the sake of being Jewish,” one wrote. “I’m here because I think being Jewish really matters in the world.”

In 2019, the Jim Joseph Foundation further invested in these organizations for an additional three years. Over these years, we learned lessons and gathered insights as our field grew and evolved.

The Growth and Diversification of the Community of People Engaging in JOFEE
As the pandemic unfolded, Jewish outdoor education quickly became a go-to for communities. Programs have grown both in the number and type of participants they’re engaging—including wider age ranges, geographies, and affiliation levels. Both the accelerated adoption of virtual programming, and the desire of people to re-engage in in-person programming as the world reopens, means that we have so far maintained new program growth, and expect to continue to do so into the future. As a result, JOFEE now reaches a broader audience.

Reflecting this growth, Wilderness Torah and Camp Newman will create the Center for Earth Based Judaism, a learning center for all segments of the community, and focus on earth care and climate resiliency. As Wilderness Torah builds regionally, it also is scaling nationally with programs such as Neshama (Soul) Quest and Jewish backpacking trips. And while its festivals are transformational, the organization has identified a need for smaller bite-sized programs across urban areas to increase participation: after going to two to three small programs, people begin to attend larger events.

As for Hazon and Pearlstone, in 2023 the two organizations are merging into the largest Jewish environmental non-profit outside of Israel. Our two retreat centers (Isabella Freedman in CT, and Pearlstone Center in MD) were hit hard by the pandemic, but we also saw tremendous growth in our programmatic impact. In the words of one parent whose child was in a weekly program: “While the children are busy feeling free and happy and honing their favorite skills, our parental spirits are soaring because we know [they’re being guided] toward full aliveness, sensitivity, and responsibility to the world around them.”

Nature is a Profound Driver of Reconnection to Jewish Life
In this age of digital overload and hesitancy surrounding indoor gatherings, a nature-connected, outdoor Judaism speaks directly to what we need in mind and body, heart and soul. Despite myriad online opportunities, people continue to seek the authentic sense of purpose and connection that can be found through engaging with the more-than-human world.

A Wilderness Torah participant commented:

“I experienced a profound healing in the part of my soul that has been searching for a tribe and embodied Jewish community. My Jewish heart and connection to my ancestors has opened. I have found my home as a Jew.”

We have also witnessed JOFEE’s ability to connect youth to wider Jewish communal life. If we provide meaningful experiences, youth can and do stay engaged. We need to ask ourselves: How do we authentically connect with who we are at our rooted core, to the obligations and responsibilities of what it means to be a human on planet earth?

Jewish Youth and Young Adults are Seeking Opportunities to Lead on Environmental Issues – Whether in the Jewish Community or Not
Perhaps one of the biggest lessons learned over the past years is the growing demand from and for Jewish youth to be empowered as their own leaders and educators in environmental work and action. Hazon’s Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) was launched in 2020 and in just over two years blossomed into over 44 Kvutzot (chapters) nationwide, each with 10-30 members — a strong indicator of the need for these kinds of outlets. Efforts run by the teens themselves reach about 10,000 more people each year. These chapters are not just powerful Jewish engagement opportunities; they are also a safe space for young people who may not feel accepted with their full Jewish identities amid some elements of anti-Zionism and antisemitism in the secular climate justice movement.

One teen commented:

“Previous to my engagement in JYCM, I was in a youth-led movement that
taught me a lot about the climate crisis and how to organize…However, at times it felt as if I had to choose between my Jewish identity and organizing as the movement had been involved in some anti-Semitic activity and my specific chapter was unwilling to publicly condemn it.”

We see college campuses as an area of critical growth on the horizon, as Hillels have been among the most active participants in Hazon’s climate action and sustainability programs to date. As young adults seek ways to get involved, many look for hands-on experiences. For example, Urban Adamah runs an alternative spring break experience combining sustainable agriculture and Jewish community building.

A theme among these programs is participants’ desire to make a difference in the world overall, not just within the Jewish world. As such, JOFEE programs are increasingly welcoming young adults’ non-Jewish friends and family members. This helps to foster participation and widens the tents of involvement and belonging for those wishing to become active in community building and organizing.

Jewish Communal Interest and Action on Sustainability is Growing, Presenting New Opportunities for Collaboration within the Wider Jewish World
For many of the JOFEE field’s participants, the climate crisis is an overarching emotional and spiritual theme, present in their daily lives. And Jewish tradition has a direct, powerful, and unique response to these concerns.  For over 20 years, we have unpacked Jewish ecological wisdom to connect people with their own inspiration, and an empowered community of peers to build with. Moving forward, we aim to interweave Hazon and Pearlstone’s programs in order to facilitate greater networking, collaboration, and leadership among participants.

Hazon’s growing national portfolio of virtual and in-person programs provide options for pop-up collaborations. At the same time, Jewish youth are increasingly seeking leadership opportunities within JOFEE — a useful avenue for them to create meaningful experiences while also building a network of peers. We approach the end of 2022 with a new and diverse set of programs and participants, including a network of hundreds of Jewish teen activists across the country via JYCM; a newly launched Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition with over 120 Jewish organizations, three major national community hubs engaging tens of thousands of people a year in Baltimore, New York/Connecticut, and Detroit; and a programmatic framework that enables seamless online and in-person fusions. With Wilderness Torah and Urban Adamah also scaling programs to a national level, as well as increasing their regional impact, it is increasingly possible for young Jewish individuals to find their place in a Jewish community that shares their environmental values.

As we expand our ability to engage youth and young adults on the issues that matter most to them, we also renew Jewish communal life by empowering them to build their own communities of meaning, purpose, and connection.

Jakir Manela is CEO of Hazon & Pearlstone, which cultivates a vibrant Jewish life in deep connection with the earth. Rabbi Zelig Golden is Executive Director of Wilderness Torah, which promotes healing, belonging, and resilience by awakening and celebrating earth-based Jewish traditions. Adam Weisberg is Executive Director of Urban Adamah, an educational farm and community center in Berkeley, California that integrates the practices of Jewish tradition, mindfulness, sustainable agriculture, and social action.

 

RootOne: Changing the Landscape of Teen Travel to Israel

Going on this Israel trip was the best experience of my life. I made new friends and strengthened relationships with old ones, all while discovering the deep religious and personal connection I have with the land of Israel.
– RootOne Teen

After just two summers, RootOne LLC at The Jewish Education Project is changing the landscape of teen travel to Israel. Last summer alone, more than 5,000 American teens received $3,000 towards travel to Israel on immersive summer programs with RootOne-affiliated trip providers. Every one of these participants spent hours learning about Israel through RootOne’s online learning portal before stepping foot on the plane, and returned home to a  comprehensive set of Israel-based opportunities designed to deepen their connection to Israel.  The RootOne initiative is not just maximizing the number of Jewish teens participating in meaningful Israel summer experiences, it is ensuring that these experiences have a lifelong impact.

From the moment they register with one of 40 RootOne affiliated trip provider partners, teens embark on an educational journey. This journey is rich in content, completely interactive, and connects what they learn pre-trip with what they experience in Israel and upon their return. As an example, through RootOne’s partnership with the Israeli organization ENTER Peoplehood, 1,500 American and 1,500 Israeli teens are matched in one-on-one online conversations over the course of five weeks before the summer begins, as part of the One2One program. American teens forge personal connections and friendships with their Israeli counterparts, and gain a better understanding of what it means to be a teenager in Israel today. Some teens even met up with their new Israeli friends in person over the summer, something RootOne aims to grow and expand.

Beyond One2One, teens can select from dozens of learning experiences on RootOne’s teen portal in order to complete 18 “nekudot”, or credits, toward their travel voucher.  In 2022, 98 percent of the more than 5,000 Jewish teens completed an average of 14 hours of learning prior to boarding the plane to Israel — over 68,000 hours of online Jewish learning on one platform.

Once in Israel, RootOne affiliated trips integrate Israeli teens into their daily activities as full participants, a new take on the traditional “mifgash.”  Teens experience itineraries that are crafted with RootOne’s eighteen stated outcomes, which are informed by the most recent research on North American Jewish teens. These outcomes include crucial developmental milestones such as gaining the confidence to engage in informed conversations about Israel with their peers upon returning; better understanding the significance of the State of Israel in Jewish history; better understanding the multiplicity of voices and perspectives, needs, and desires of all the peoples living in Israel; and feeling a greater sense of pride in being Jewish.

A seminal moment of summer 2022 was the Big Tent that brought together 2,300 teens in Rishon LeZion for a massive celebration with music, activities, performances, and rallying speeches. The Big Tent event will be a hallmark of future RootOne summer experiences.

https://youtu.be/dcCGHeUXH7U

 

This moment belongs to us
.it’s our time to be heard, and to listen…it’s our time to feel like we’re part of something bigger – much bigger – and it’s our time to feel like we’re not alone. – Levi Fox, senior from BBYO, at Big Tent event 

After returning home, teens have a range of opportunities for continued engagement in Israel and in Jewish life, fueled by their trip providers on a local and regional level, and complemented by RootOne on a national level. RootOne’s Teen Advisory Committee meets regularly to shape post-trip experiences, which includes ongoing exclusive access to certain courses and programs, and teens can choose to continue their participation in the One2One program, meeting with and learning from Israeli teens during the rest of the year.

After two summers, RootOne feels it has arrived. Taken together, the number of teen travelers and the number of their educational hours shows the power and scale of this engagement model. More than 9,000 Jewish teens in those summers traveled to Israel through its partner trip providers — double the number who would have gone to Israel without RootOne vouchers.

Moving forward, RootOne’s ambitious plans for growth include new partnerships to ensure that all Jewish teens are given the opportunity to travel to Israel, regardless of affiliations or access to existing Youth Serving Organizations. Soon, more teens will arrive on college campuses with stronger connections to Israel and the confidence and desire to build a meaningful community of peers.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of RootOne. Learn more about the impact of RootOne here. Learn more at rootone.org.

RootOne LLC, an ambitious initiative seeded by a generous gift from The Marcus Foundation, is a Delaware limited liability company, whose sole member is the Board of Jewish Education, Inc. d/b/a The Jewish Education Project, a New York not-for-profit corporation. 

The Center for Values in Action: A New Initiative from MÂČ

How can examining challenging issues through the lens of Jewish values be both clarifying and activating? 

Change, self-discovery, and growth most often happen when people are confronted with challenging situations and issues.  Difficult circumstances and disruptive events prompt people to examine what’s important to them and how they want to move forward in response. Today’s learners are often compelled to respond to a range of issues, from climate change, food insecurity, social pressures, increased antisemitism, and more. To help them navigate challenges and be inspired to take action, MÂČ: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education is launching the Center for Values in Action, which will partner with major organizations to support Jewish educators, community builders, and leaders across the country.   

“While growth happens when we are challenged, it’s not easy, nor is it a linear process. When confronted with challenging issues, we tend to feel first – we get caught up with strong emotions, become overwhelmed, anxious or stuck.  We may react impulsively.  Sometimes it becomes so overwhelming we shut down – literally pulling the hoodie over our head and tuning it all out.  These are all very normal, in fact, very human responses.” 
– Debbi Cooper, Senior Director, Center for Values in Action, MÂČ: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education

Understanding these initial human responses, the Center will provide training for thousands of educators, offering content, pedagogies, and resources to ensure that Jewish values can mediate and illuminate some of today’s most pressing challenges. Grounded in Jewish wisdom while including a diversity of perspectives, the Center will make sure that educators are equipped to help their learners find meaning in today’s challenges and live a more fulfilled life in line with universal and Jewish values. 

Taking action grounded in a commitment to values will nurture learners’ identities, help them find personal meaning, and recognize the relevance of Jewish ideas and perspectives. In fact, examining challenging issues through the lens of Jewish values can be both clarifying and activating. This approach often enables educators and learners to move beyond buzzwords and soundbites, illuminating how the issue impacts them personally. They can narrow the focus of an issue that feels unwieldy and overwhelming, while also navigating alternative narratives or perspectives. And this lens of Jewish values can provide a “pause” moment to reframe and collect thoughts, and then to examine what truly matters to the learner.

The Center for Values in Action includes a 10-hour Certificate Course for hundreds of educators, engagers, community builders, organizational leaders and program facilitators.  Once these professionals have participated in the Course, they will have access to dozens of “grab and go” resources designed to move learners through the Values in Action approach, using experiential learning modalities and exploration of a variety of Jewish sources to support their experience. While the Center’s many resources are customized to the needs and realities of partner organizations, they all share the same DNA and underlying structure. The “Values in Action” approach will help educators: 

  • Frame contemporary issues (such as climate change) for learners, giving them a chance to weigh in on how the issue is impacting them/their lives.
  • Anchor the issue in a Jewish value (such as responsibility) that can be helpful to educators as they contend with the issue and determine how they can respond.
  • Examine the issue in core Jewish or secular texts, meaningful ideas, and lived experiences.
  • Lead an experiential activity to deepen learners’ understanding of the value, examining the complexity of the value and identifying what’s hard – and grounding – about enacting it.
  • Provide learners with opportunities to make meaning of the experiential activity, drawing out how the activity helped them to reframe their understanding of the value.
  • Prompt learners to consider how they might take action as they respond to the issue.

MÂČ is excited to debut the Center for Values in Action in November, training hundreds of community builders throughout all of 2022 with its first organizational partner, and then introducing a second organizational partner in early 2023. MÂČ has retained an independent evaluator to work with the MÂČ team to identify opportunities for strengthening or refining its offering and/or delivery and to assess the impact on both the educator as well as the organization. 

As a society, it is imperative that we begin having conversations about the difficult topics of the day, with a focus on agency; how we can move past stagnation and take active steps toward creating a more just, kind and compassionate world. An exploration of values can help us clarify our next steps and our tradition’s wisdom can guide us to new understandings of ourselves. We’re eager to get started!
– Kiva Rabinsky, Chief Program Officer, MÂČ: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of MÂČ. To learn more about MÂČ, visit URL www.ieje.org. To learn more about partnering with the Center for Values in Action, reach out to Debbi Cooper, [email protected]. Photos above are of MÂČ professional staff and thought partners in April 2022 at “ThinkLab” – a thoughtful and experiential gathering to prototype the approach and resources for Values in Action.

Achieving Collective Impact through Scaling

The word “innovation” often conjures images of a lightbulb above a head — an instant spark of an idea that has the power to change the world. Yet real progress — forward motion, sustainable change — also requires the effective implementation of bright ideas.

In our experience, scaling means bringing an idea or program model that has worked in one place somewhere new, sometimes adapting the idea to meet local needs. Why doesn’t this happen more often? Understandably, there’s an excitement that comes with something new, and a tendency to focus on igniting our own lightbulb. We know through our experience as funder representatives and leaders that new ideas and innovations are an important part of the social impact equation. But the part of the equation that we want to elevate here is the power of amplifying something borrowed.

With that in mind, along with supporting new light bulbs, what if we widen the aperture and expand our notion of innovation to include concepts like customizing and adapting proven models too, helping existing light bulbs shine even brighter and in more places? With this mindset, we can see how scaling and innovation go hand-in-hand for greater impact.

Ten years after its founding, the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative (the Funder Collaborative), powered by The Jewish Federations of North America, is further embracing scaling as an integral strategy. Early on, scaling was baked into the DNA of the Funder Collaborative, an innovative philanthropic experiment uniting national and local funders and practitioners to create, nurture, sustain and scale contemporary approaches to Jewish teen education and growth. Successful ideas and learnings were highlighted and designed to spread across the network of ten FC communities across the country. The Jim Joseph Foundation and the Funder Collaborative have seen impactful programs launched in one community and adapted by another — or brought to a broader audience through the efforts of the Funder Collaborative itself.  Scaled efforts were more efficient to deliver, carried less financial risks and mitigated risks around achieving outcomes. With this track record of success spreading key programs and methodologies, the Funder Collaborative is eager to unpack and demystify pathways to scale for others, working in any demographic.

To do this, we are setting out to elevate the powerful and effective work of any originator (those who first started a program) to help adaptors (those looking to bring an existing program to their community) implement extraordinary programs that are right for them, ultimately advancing teen education and engagement across the Jewish community. The Foundation knows that this approach has the potential to profoundly amplify successful program models and impact the engagement landscape nationally, just as the Funder Collaborative already has changed the teen education and engagement landscape.

The Copycat Advantage

In partnership with Spring Impact, a global organization which specializes in scaling social impact, the Funder Collaborative developed a methodology for scaling in the Jewish community. This methodology involves five concrete steps the originator of any engagement program can follow:  

1) Prove: assessing whether a solution is ready to replicate elsewhere

2) Design and 3) Systemize: laying the groundwork in a new community and tweaking the existing model if needed

4) Piloting and 5) Scaling: bringing the model to life in a new setting through operations manuals, trainings, or modules.

Years of Spring Impact’s consulting efforts, and the Funder Collaborative’s experience, has shown this approach works.

In the teen engagement landscape alone, models focused on peer-to-peer engagement, service learning, microgrant programs and more started in one community and successfully expanded to others when the program model originators shared lessons learned and design and implementation information with model adaptors. Adaptors can access program models at no-cost, with less risk involved than if they were the program creators and first-time implementers. Often, the research, proof of concept and impact evaluation have already been completed by the time an adaptor decides to bring the program to their community. In some cases, adaptors can opt-in to a network of people already running a similar program or initiative, for support and brainstorming. As a result, they get to focus on delivering a great product and tailoring it for their audience — often their strength — as opposed to having to focus on developing the product.

A Closer Look

The Peer Leadership Fellows (PLF) Program, which utilizes a relational strategy to identify and connect with unengaged teens, was first created and launched by the Boston Jewish Teen Initiative. To deepen our understanding of why the program achieved its outcomes, the Funder Collaborative and the Jim Joseph Foundation partnered with Informing Change to map its model and uncover core strengths and opportunities to optimize. Using this model map of program delivery and shared learnings, several communities adapted and customized the teen relational program to meet their needs, with two communities opting to train professionals in the relational methodology. Each community shared certain commitments, while tailoring community-specific aspects for teen and professional participants. This evolution and spread of the methodology coalesced with the Funder Collaborative convening a relational Community of Practice (CoP), which brings adaptors together to share successes and challenges, and to become champions and advocates of relational engagement. This community learning approach generated more interest in the methodology and also uncovered a need for additional scaffolding to strengthen delivery — as a result, the Funder Collaborative is developing a common curriculum and shared training playbook. Click here to learn more about joining the relational CoP or relational training.

The Emotional Side of Scale

Both the Funder Collaborative and the Foundation have learned that scaling requires an embrace of a new mindset: radical generosity.

In the Funder Collaborative, one community’s success means greater potential success across the network because of a commitment by all communities involved to work together. High-fidelity replication — maintaining the most vital aspects of a model in a scaled version of it — is difficult but worthwhile. Originators must think through how they will share information and provide training and support to others. Adaptors must understand their audience, be willing to learn and implement the essential elements of the original program model. For originators, effective scaling is about more than sharing models: it’s about adopting a new mindset, skills and capacity to unpack models with deep learning, toolkits and trainings. Originators transcend from ‘doer’ to “teacher,” or “ambassador” or “champion.”  The above case study showcases the Boston Teen Initiative’s role of originator and how their efforts, and those of others, unlocked a new pathway for engagement.

Successful scaling needs detailed planning — plus investment —to make it happen. Sometimes the right person to bring an innovation to scale isn’t the originator, and the Funder Collaborative can step in as it did for the PLF — helping to adjust the program for a national audience and amplifying its reach.

A Closer Look

As an example, the  Virtual College Road Trip, was first inspired by a local community in the throes of the pandemic. With travel limitations in place, teens and their families were eager to ‘jump on the bus’ to explore colleges across the country and  imagine themselves engaging Jewishly on campus. This online platform made this experience possible for thousands of students, regardless of geography, and created intimate experiences with first-person student-created insider videos and behind-the-scenes access to admissions professionals. The diversity of the offerings held wide appeal and the program quickly went viral. Demand — and the growth possibilities — required more capacity than the originating community had to amplify its reach, and so the Funder Collaborative centralized and further developed the road trip; it is now one of its signature programs.

How Originators, Adaptors and Funders Can Get Involved

There is more than one pathway to amplify impact through scaling and many opportunities to join us on this journey. Leveraging our early learnings and expertise scaling teen programs, the FC is positioned to help the exponential growth of Jewish programs targeting any demographic, from early childhood to older adults.

For Creators and Program Originators

  • Sign up for a series of three Masterclasses and individual coaching to learn these skillsets for originators reaching any demographic: ECE, youth, college students or young adults – register your interest here.
  • Explore the ‘readiness assessment’ to help determine whether your program is poised for adaptation, and conduct a ‘rigor testing’ to help you select the right partners to adapt your program.
  • Creatively package your ‘scale ready’ program and make it attractive to potential adaptors.

For Adaptors

  • Make It Yours. Find inventive and effective programs that any community or organization can adapt or inspire change.  Sometimes the step-by-step tool kit we provide is all that is needed, or the Funder Collaborative can make connections to program originators for additional training or support.
  • Community Landscape Scan Support. We offer tools to conduct your own local landscape scan and interviews and focus groups with community members to help determine gaps in local programs and, thus, innovations that might be right to bring to your community.
  • Proven Impact Measurement Tools. We freely offer surveys and measurement tools, co-created with Rosov Consulting, to ensure teen programs are having the desired effects. We offer consulting on both how to field and analyze the tools, as well as a detailed guidebook to help you each step of the way, found here.

For Funders

  • Partner with the Funder Collaborative. Look beyond your four walls. Any grantee-partner or community is invited to partner with the Funder Collaborative. Our team is available to present on key learnings and the engagement landscape, as well as consulting.  We are eager to help others design effective engagement strategies and explore customizing existing programs – of any size or budget.
  • Embrace the concept of adaptation as innovation. Scaling is more than simply transplanting existing programs; it’s narrowing in on the essential elements of programs to achieve desired outcomes. By encouraging boards and partners to weigh impact over innovation, we can dramatically accelerate the spread of good models, offering more people even more ways to meaningfully connect to Jewish life.

We know the benefits of  looking for new light bulbs, and we understand scaling isn’t a simple task. Yet with more organizations across the country understanding the benefits of scaling as an alternative pathway — and with the Funder Collaborative poised to help — we can dramatically increase our collective impact. Now housed at Jewish Federations of North America, the Funder Collaborative is a resource for any education and engagement program seeking to extend its impact, with a national platform to champion scale and provide the resources, skills, and relationships to make this  possible.

We have the opportunity to see our community’s most groundbreaking innovations spread to more communities. In no way does this approach negate the work of trailblazers investing time and resources in new innovations. Rather, these approaches go hand-in-hand. By shining a light on successful models and helping them take root somewhere new, the Funder Collaborative is using its expertise to help the Jewish community embrace both sides of the scaling equation, leading to even greater impact.

Sara Allen is executive director of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative powered by Jewish Federations of North America. Rachel Shamash Schneider is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

originally published in eJewish Philanthropy

IYUN: Building Connections Through Torah Study

When people study Torah together in groups, they build powerful, lasting social bonds. That’s the premise of IYUN, a new(ish) project that helps educators, lay leaders, and organizations build and lead multi-week Torah learning circles. IYUN’s curricula are not just a sheet of sources, but rather a highly choreographed, step-by-step model to run a successful multi-week cohort experience for 8-20 adults through a specific educational arc. While experts and rabbis are more accessible than ever through online lectures and public events, IYUN focuses as much on the social design as it does on the Torah content to build a highly connected chevra of people who “share their lives together, knowing that we’re all in the same boat out here, and we need to show up for each other if we’re ever going to reach land (just ask Noah).”

This has been an incredibly enriching and wonderful experience for me. I’ve made so many new friends and we’ve bonded in a way few groups do (in my experience). I’ve loved expanding my Jewish knowledge, gleaned not only from the texts–loved those–but also from my fellow learners. We each are so different, but together we grew so fond of each other and created a Jewish group consciousness. I really looked forward to our sessions each week not only for the learning but to see my new friends again!
– IYUN participant 

Adults need the space and “the right folk” to have big conversations together. This is especially true during liminal life moments, when people often engage with IYUN as they are searching, exploring, and seeking meaningful connections. The years when someone leaves their childhood home, for example, but before they set down roots in a new family home, are opportune times to encounter deep jewish living.

Whether partnering with congregations, individuals, JCCs, Moishe Houses, and beyond, IYUN helps leaders each step of the way as they craft their multi-week Torah learning cohort—from curricular content, participant recruitment, marketing materials, group dynamics, teacher training, and ongoing Help Desk support. IYUN staff teach educators how to prepare and successfully execute each session and are always available to troubleshoot, answer questions, listen, and support group leaders quickly and in real time. With this support, IYUN’s facilitators “know how to read a room and get people talking.”

Somewhere in the whirlwind that is this COVID pandemic, I started running out of steam as an educator. No matter how interesting I thought the topics were, my lesson plans began to feel a bit stale. The IYUN program and their team of educators saved me from this difficulty
 Thanks to IYUN’s onboarding process and educator training, something magical happened when I began teaching their material to my students. They reminded me that I was not teaching alone
 The joy of Jewish learning is that it can be experienced in dialogue, in argument, in community. Being a part of IYUN reminded me of this joy.  Anyone who teaches is never alone. We are connected to those who taught, those who teach, and those who will teach. IYUN rekindled a spark that was dwindling a bit within me.
– Rabbi Jason Bonder, Congregation Beth Or

In just its first year, IYUN engaged over 1,000 adult learners in more than 70 learning circles. This coincided with the pandemic where more Jews asked big questions about their life and purpose, as they sought meaning, community, and connection. Building on the project’s initial success, IYUN’s leaders, Rabbi Daniel Smokler and Erica Frankel, see a unique opening to engage many thousands of adults in big conversations through Torah. This opportunity they say is due in part to the fruits of decades of outstanding work in Jewish education, making the case in thought and practice for the importance of widespread Torah study. Their previous work growing Hillel’s Jewish Learning Fellowship—now on 200+ campuses with over 20,000 alumni—demonstrates that Torah study, once an afterthought among Jewish college students, is an integral part of the Hillel experience. Those college alumni are the adults now ready to lead and engage in Jewish communal life. And IYUN’s leaders are capitalizing on a chance—perhaps once in a generation or more—to reach beyond those who are currently studying and immediately adjacent to the next levels of Jewish life. With this approach, more adults at inflection points will experience new friendships, meaningful space for thought and reflections, and will develop a lasting love engagement with Torah and Jewish life.  

Big Questions Bring Us Together
“Everyone’s welcome, everything’s on the table.” In the rapidly growing IYUN community of practice, educators share hard-fought operational intelligence, commiseration, celebration, and opportunities. IYUN welcomes more congregations, groups of friends, boards, school leaders, JCCs, federations, or giving circles into its community.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of IYUN. Learn more at iyun.us.

 

At The Well: Engaging More Women at the Intersection of Jewish Practice, Mental Health, and Wellness

Since 2015, At The Well has addressed women’s mental health and wellness using Jewish rituals that have always existed—but were never widely taught or invested in. Today, amid the growing challenges of disconnection and isolation, ATW’s collaborative model delivers Jewish wisdom directly into the hands of women who want to claim it. Many of these women seek wellness in a spiritual context, outside of a more traditional Jewish context. ATW offers a pathway into these experiences, helping women learn, create new practices and rituals, and then lead others to access ancient Jewish ritual and adapt it for modern times. Through its resources, large-scale events, and Well Circles around the country, women take ownership of their journey toward meaningful transformation for themselves and their community.

Over the past year especially, more women sought out At The Well’s resources and engaged in its Well Circles—independently-run groups of 6-12 women who meet every month to story-tell, support each other, and share spiritual experiences. As a result of this community care model for wellness, women in Well Circles report significant growth in relationships with themselves, their community, and their Judaism, and in their leadership skills and confidence to help their family and peers lead Jewish lives. For some people, Well Circles are the first and only Jewish space where they feel comfortable participating in Jewish community.

I’ve been going through a journey of reclamation and finding my Judaism, as opposed to the Judaism that I learned as a child. I’m owning it for myself and rediscovering amazing things about Judaism. That process didn’t start with ATW but ATW is definitely part of it. Learning about the lunar calendar and Rosh Chodesh and the meaning of the months has been really inspiring. It adds to this journey that I’ve been on. It also has a lovely feminist slant which helps me connect with Judaism. 

Beyond Well Circles, ATW’s other offerings make learning around Jewish time and embodied spiritual practices accessible for all—both enhancing the Well Circle experience and engaging new participants. Big Gathers, for example, are bi-monthly, donation-based, online events designed to serve as an entry-point for a Rosh Chodesh practice. These gatherings attract about 100 participants, many of whom serve as co-hosts, modeling ATW’s collaborative leadership approach. The Big Gathers provide a taste of the Rosh Chodesh ritual and a broader sense of community among people in the ATW network.

Another resource, Moon Manuals, are digital guides with themes, activities, and rituals related to each Hebrew month. Moon Manuals are written by At The Well’s staff with contributions from network members, many of whom come from communities that historically have not been centered. Moon Manual contributors work with ATW’s Scholar in Residence and experience a learning journey of self discovery and Jewish inquiry as they create content for the diverse ATW community. In this way, they become leaders for others,  helping to create sacred space through writing exercises, singing, intention-setting, and movement. This year alone, more than 1,700 women have engaged in Well Circles and more than 1,800 are using Moon Manual Readers.

My Well Circle showed me how ritual and an intimate Jewish community have supported my own resilience. At work, I am now hosting conversation circles about spiritual resilience and how Jewish ritual can support us in times of change, conflict, and challenge. I would not have gotten to that topic without the learning I’ve done through ATW.

The pandemic only exacerbated feelings of loneliness and isolation that ATW helps fill. According to a 2021 survey by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “one-third of Americans described themselves as seriously lonely–up from one-fifth before the COVID pandemic.” In response, ATW quickly scaled its approach and reach to broaden its audience. They created more virtual offerings, in addition to Big Gathers, to meet the moment and provided opportunities for deep connection when it was needed most, including:

  • Launching a monthly Biblical Babes program, with a co-sponsored event with the Jewish Fertility Foundation and Biblical Babes en Español on June 15.
  • Relaunching Rosh Chodesh coaching that connects new network members to volunteer coaches who can either help them launch a Well Circle or create a Rosh Chodesh ritual practice of their own.
  • Sending daily text messages to 850 people with reflections for each day of the Omer through My Moon Message.

As more and more women yearn for wholeness and connection—looking for ways to bolster their well-being and seeking to learn and practice Judaism in relevant and meaningful ways—At The Well is poised for greater growth and impact through its proven approach to:

  1. Support Jewish Learning through the creation of relevant content and tools, rooted in Jewish wisdom;
  2. Foster Belonging by inviting women into structures and spaces that enable them to connect with themselves and others in meaningful ways; and
  3. Encourage Leadership through co-ownership and a rotating leadership model in which women facilitate Well Circles, co-host public programs, contribute to the shared resources online, and coach other women on how to develop a Rosh Chodesh practice in their homes or start a Well Circle of their own.

Enhanced well-being has a strong ripple effect on a person’s own life and on a society’s soul. At The Well is committed to connecting women to themselves, their communities and their Judaism. The next three years of our strategic plan will enable the creation of a strong foundation. We are building a legacy for future generations to be energized by the power of ancient Jewish practices — and to see these practices as welcoming paths to enhanced well-being and spirituality, accessible to all.
– At The Well Strategic Plan

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of At The Well. Learn more at atthewellproject.com

Research and Evaluation on Educator Professional Development Initiatives

Educator professional development initiatives are an integral part of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s strategic philanthropy. Following an open RFP in 2017 to create more professional development opportunities for educators, the Foundation invested in ten new programs. Since that initial investment, the Foundation has commissioned extensive research and evaluation conducted by Rosov Consulting to learn about these specific educator training programs and to more deeply understand other programs across the Foundation’s professional development initiatives portfolio.

Stacie Cherner, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Alex Pomson, Principal and Managing Director at Rosov Consulting, shared key learnings in eJewish Philanthropy on designing and measuring high-quality educator training programs. On the Foundation’s blog, Kiva Rabinsky, Chief Program Officer at MÂČ: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, shared how learnings from the report influence how MÂČ balances work and play in their design of professional development experiences. And, Robbie Gringras and Abi Dauber Sterne, both formerly of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom, shared how a new Israel education initiative came out of the PDI. 

Jim Joseph Foundation Professional Development Initiative

Taking Stock and Offering Thanks: Year 4 Learnings (full report) This report shows that the PDI programs fulfilled their core goals:

  • Shared Outcomes Survey data indicate that, overall, the programs helped participants become much more knowledge about and more accomplished in performing the professional tasks for which they are responsible, what we called “ways of thinking and doing.”
  • Clinical interview data indicate that these professional outcomes have been quite durable, although with the passage of time interviewees found it increasingly difficult to draw causal links between what they know and can do today and what they gained from their programs.
  • Survey data also show that, taken together, the programs have socialized participants into professional communities that the participants very much value. Again, interview data depict how important these communities have been, especially since the start of the pandemic, and how, in the words of one interviewee, “relationships have become partnerships.”
  • Finally, survey data reveal the degree to which those program participants who started out with less intensive Jewish backgrounds have had an opportunity to grow and feel more confident as Jewish educators.

A Picture of Learning Coming Together: Year 3 Learnings (full report) This report includes the following sections:

Case Studies on Peak Moments of Educator Professional Development Programs  

How Educator Professional Development Programs Pivoted During the Pandemic

Research Supported by CASJE on the Career Arc of Jewish Educators

 

Institute for Jewish Spirituality: Creating Thriving Communities With Rich Spiritual Lives

For more than 20 years, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) has developed and taught Jewish spiritual practices to help individuals and communities experience greater awareness, purpose, and interconnection. This work takes on even greater importance today as young people encounter life’s unprecedented challenges and struggle with mental health. In this environment, IJS can be a vital source of support, engaging people through Jewish spiritual practices across the country, around the world, and online at any time of day.

In the past year, more than 10,000 people participated in IJS’s offerings—from online courses on Jewish mindfulness meditation, Tikkun Middot, and prayer as personal practice, to master teachers leading the daily sit, weekly Torah study, and online Yoga studio. IJS also offered specialized training for more than 300 JCC professionals and reached thousands more through its podcast, online retreats, and numerous other programs. These efforts are proven to have positive outcomes. 94 percent of participants in IJS programs say they are more emotionally resilient. And 87 percent of participants say that Jewish spiritual practice deepened their connection with their Jewishness.

At a time of anxiety and isolation for so many young people, this virtual fellowship enabled the students to connect with each other as writers, friends, and spiritual chavrutot (learning partners). Together, we built a remarkable community that spoke to the spiritual experience of writing, gaining a new understanding of the relationship between our bodies and our creative process. For Jewish writers in particular, this isn’t always an easy relationship.
– New Voices Editor-in-Chief Rena Yehuda Newman on the “Resilient Writers Fellowship, an eight-week cohort program from IJS and New Voices Magazine that brings together college-age writers in a virtual community to cultivate a Torah of creative, embodied Jewish spiritual practice. 

Integral to IJS’s broad reach is its work with clergy—more than 500 rabbis and cantors have engaged with IJS programs. They in turn engage more than 250,000 people. The Clergy Leadership Program (CLP), an 18-month fellowship experience, and Hevraya, which provides ongoing support for CLP alums help clergy reenergize and deepen their spiritual lives.

It’s essential that Jewish leaders provide our communities with offerings that are fully authentic, alive, and responsive to congregants’ needs as human beings in the world today. IJS helps us learn how to do this. What IJS has given me is invaluable—infusing my Jewish practice and my leadership with mindfulness, a deep connection to my body, and the understanding and language to draw others into contemplative practice. This matters because Jewish communal life must connect to our inner lives.
– Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a CLP graduate, an active participant in Hevraya, and a graduate of IJS’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, which she credits with enabling her to lead online meditations for her congregation.

Now, IJS is positioned to grow and create even more thriving multigenerational communities with rich spiritual lives. Building on its success and proven outcomes, and drawing on the deep well of Jewish texts, rituals, and traditions, over the next few years IJS will expand efforts to:

  1. Reach Young People. Through strategic partnerships with youth-serving organizations, IJS will help tens of thousands of young people develop greater emotional resilience and a deeper sense of belonging in Jewish life. 
  2. Develop New Leaders. While continuing to support the vital role of clergy in the spiritual lives of American Jews, IJS will launch cohort programs for activists, community leaders, and agency executives to deepen their own leadership and become champions of Jewish spiritual practice. 
  3. Become the Platform for Jewish Spirituality. IJS will power the development of a network of organizations, individuals, researchers, and funders to create research, develop media channels, host convenings, and train a new generation of teachers of Jewish spirituality.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/674449491?h=4f92272c70

Through this work, IJS aims to lead the Jewish community in making spiritual practice a vital part of meaningful Jewish life, increasing the resiliency and compassion of individuals and communities. 

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Visit jewishspirituality.org to learn more. 

 

Jewish Wisdom and Strategic Decision Making Amid Changing Times

In recent years, my chevrutah (study partner) and I have enjoyed studying musar – a body of Jewish thought focused on human character development and the many middot / character traits an individual can cultivate throughout their lifetime. Menachem Mendel Lefin of Satanov dedicates an entire chapter of his book Cheshbon HaNefesh (1808) to the middah of charitzut / decisiveness. He states, “All your acts should be preceded by deliberation; when you have reached a decision, act without hesitation.” This important advice is meant to empower the learner to avoid the pitfalls of decision paralysis, inviting them to develop plans and stick with them.

But like many teachings in musar (and in life) there are equally compelling lessons that stand in opposition to Lefin’s teachings. One Talmudic source, in Taainit 20b, explains that a person should be rach k’kaneh, “soft like a reed, not be stiff like a cedar.” This text teaches that we need to bend our plans when new information challenges our assumptions.

So which is it? Be decisive or be flexible? Navigating paradoxes like this are at the core of musar practice—acknowledging contradictory truths and becoming adept at knowing when to rely on one or the other. Contemporary leadership theorists also explore this same notion using the language of “polarity thinking.” Doctors Valerie Erhlich and Brendan Newlon summarized this in their May 2019 report for the Jim Joseph Foundation stating:

Polarity thinking is about navigating a set of two qualities that are both beneficial, yet they exist in tension with one another
 Managing that tension effectively can be challenging, because the most appropriate response to a specific circumstance might be an expression that favors one or another of the pair – maintaining a simple balance between the two might be impossible or undesirable.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we navigate these dynamics as we continuously shape, implement, and reflect on the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy. A persistent challenge in grantmaking work—especially these past two years—is to determine how and when should we stay firm and how and when should we be flexible amid constantly changing circumstances.

This piece explores our attempts to shape and re-shape our grantmaking plans in recent years—pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and this current period of emerging (we hope) into a post-pandemic world. In examining our journey through the lens of this polarity—being firm and being flexible—we hope to offer insights on this ongoing internal decision-making process. We welcome a dialogue about whether this story sounds familiar, or not, as you reflect on how the organization you are connected to made its own decisions during this tumultuous time.

Chapter 1: Pre-pandemic
In 2017 the Jim Joseph Foundation entered a two-year process to develop a new strategic framework for its grantmaking. We began with fundamental questions:

  • What had we learned in the years since the Foundation began?
  • How has Jewish education in the United States (which is the core focus of our funding) evolved?
  • What could we uniquely contribute to this field during the next phase of our work?

These questions guided our dialogue with external partners, professional staff, and our board. Eventually, we arrived at a new theory of change that included core assumptions, guiding principles, long-term outcomes, and a set of three strategic priorities to invest in (1) powerful Jewish learning experiences, (2) exceptional Jewish leaders and educators, and (3) R&D for the future of Jewish learning. To accompany this Theory of Change, we also developed logic models, grant categories, and a detailed five year implementation plan. All of this was based on careful thinking, assumptions about where the sector was headed, and how we believed we could be a positive influence.

By January of 2020, after reviewing these plans with each of our key stakeholders, we were excited to implement our new strategies and to determine how to measure our progress. Yet, as the old Yiddish adage goes, “mann tracht, un Gott lacht”—we humans plan, and God laughs.

Chapter 2: During the Pandemic
When the world turned upside-down in March of 2020, like everyone, we recognized the need to be rach k’kaneh – soft like a reed – in the face of uncertainty:

Another important focus was taking a more proactive stance around learning and sharing about the pandemic’s effects on Jewish education.

  • We built our expertise in emerging areas of need: strategic restructuring, unemployment, stress and anxiety, increased interest in online learning/digital engagement, growing interest in home-based and do-it-yourself Judaism, and rising communal desire to address systemic racism within Jewish education.
  • We funded research to better understand how young Jews, educators, and funders were responding to the crisis; what solutions were and weren’t working; and what creative adaptations might be worth sustaining long-term.
  • We increased efforts to share these learnings through published reports, presentations, and small group conversations.

As we dedicated time and resources to these new priorities, we made difficult choices about scaling back in other areas. We postponed some of the new grantmaking programs from our pre-pandemic implementation plans, recognizing they would need to wait until we, and our grantee partners, had enough bandwidth to design and implement them. We also temporarily moved from multi-year to one-year grants to retain greater flexibility for the Foundation and our grantee partners. This was particularly difficult since we knew that it would introduce additional uncertainty for grantee partners who had previously planned for a longer-term commitment from the Foundation.

Working in this more flexible way was unfamiliar territory for the Jim Joseph Foundation team (and counter-cultural for many who work in institutional philanthropy) but we recognized the need and opportunity to practice being rach k’kaneh, soft like a reed.

Chapter 3: Emerging (we hope) into a post-pandemic world
In recent months, as the world is moving cautiously back to in-person gatherings, our team has begun to methodically revisit the long-term plans we designed prior to the pandemic. While the world has changed, we are encouraged that some of our previous assumptions about the evolution of Jewish education hold true, in some cases even more so than before.

Because our core strategies were built around fundamentals like building organizational capacity and investing in talent, the basic framework of our plans still serves us well. Similarly, the opportunity for increased investment in R&D remains unchanged and, within a context of such rapid change and possibilities, is perhaps more pronounced than ever.

At the same time, as we get into the details of the implementation plans we previously designed, we see the need to update them with a new grantmaking mindset and a new understanding of what is important to and needed by our beneficiaries. That in mind, we are:

  • Updating what was previously planned. As we begin to launch new programs mapped out in 2019, we are redesigning them for increased flexibility and new features such as integrated online and in-person learning, a greater emphasis on wellness, and centering more diverse voices and partners.
  • Returning to our best practices. Starting in April 2021, we gratefully returned to multi-year grantmaking, working with our grantee partners to make sure that their plans remain both relevant and flexible in the face of new realities and continued uncertainty. In some cases, we are continuing with shorter-term investments to support our grantee partners to spend additional time rewriting their multi-year plans.
  • Maintaining new collaborations. Working with the coalitions we joined to engage in emergency grantmaking, we are exploring ways to sustain new collaborative investing practices such as joint proposal invitations and coordinated, rapid response grantmaking.
  • Doubling down on what we know is needed. The pandemic has also sharpened our understanding of the importance of R&D as a strategy to address shifting societal and marketplace trends to guard against organizational stagnation and pursue new opportunities.

As much as our Foundation team always valued and found comfort in a highly structured framework for our work, we now have a deep appreciation of the need to balance our dedication to well-laid plans with a readiness to remain nimble as new opportunities and realities emerge.

Contemporary musar teachers advise learners to write their own “spiritual curriculum” – choosing middot to focus on based on their own unique circumstances and needs. Embedded in the whole musar framework is an ongoing process of hitlamdut – learning and reflection. This is one of our Foundation staff values, an acknowledgment that we will always have room to learn and improve. The goal is not perfection, the goal is to stay on the path.

Looking back with 20-20 hindsight we can always see our own imperfections – the moments over the years when the Foundation was unnecessarily inflexible, and other places where the opposite was true. As a result of the challenges of the past 18 months, we move forward as a team, better understanding when to embrace charitzut and when to be rach k’kaneh. This is wisdom we hope to apply in the future.

Josh Miller is Chief Program Officer of the Jim Joseph Foundation. 

A Jewish Education Marketplace for All

By Susan Wachsstock

While we have always known the power of technology, it took a pandemic for many of us to fully realize the power that technology could have. During these last 18 months, a great deal of communal commitment and creativity resulted in myriad new ways to virtually connect to Jewish life.

Mid-pandemic, in May of 2021, Pew released its most recent study on the Jewish community. It once again highlighted that how people Jewishly identify is different than in previous generations, devoting the first five chapters of the report speaking to identity and affiliation. Reflecting on this research, we as communal leaders must acknowledge that Jewish identity is complex and the composition of the Jewish family is more complex than in the past. The proliferation of Jewish opportunities online amplifies and underscores Pew’s message: Today, people connect to Jewish life, belief and practice in different ways.

The Jewish Education Project has always sought to create meaningful Jewish learning experiences that transform the lives of young Jews and their families. And so, putting these two big ideas together—ubiquitous use of technology and the changing nature of Jewish community—it is both timely and necessary that we are launching Truvie, our online Jewish learning platform, to reach as many of today’s Jews through the medium that they are so familiar with.

When we look at the shape and structure of how, where, and when Jewish education happens, it does not look so different than when I was a child in the 1970s/80s. If you want any sort of “formal” Jewish education you can, generally, choose from a day school or a Hebrew school, the vast majority of which are associated with congregations. For many children and families this model not only works but helps learners thrive within a life-long supportive community.

But this does not work for everyone. We know from a study conducted by the Steinhardt Foundation that only 50% of Jewish youth are engaged in religious school or day school[1]. Simply, this statistic means we are not offering educational experiences that speak to the needs and realities of all members of our community.

How can we shape a community and offer Jewish educational opportunities that engage and inspire Jews with diverse identities? How can we become comfortable with the idea that we can, we must, encourage connection and Jewish education in the ways we have for decades and in ways that are new and relevant to those who do not feel reflected in our current landscape? How do we foster numerous doorways (and windows) as gateways to Jewish education and engagement?

COVID accelerated our search for these answers, forcing us to become better acquainted with online educational approaches. As part of this learning, we spent the last year exploring various educational marketplaces such as Outschool, Kahn Academy, and Masterclass. While each provides something different, each is also designed around a shared value: the consumer will choose what works for them. We wondered if we could design a Jewish educational marketplace that similarly supported the level of choice, convenience, and flexibility embedded within these platforms. We also considered how to do this in the context of Jewish education so the resulting marketplace supported pluralism, excellence, and diversity. We learned that online engagement does not mirror the qualities of in-person educational experiences, but that online learning can provide meaningful, creative and engaging educational experiences.

So, we set out to develop a Jewish educational marketplace that makes it easy for families to “choose their own adventure.” The result of this work and experimentation is Truvie (a play on Lucky Find in French.) Launching with a three-month beta period on October 18, and an initial focus on 3rd – 8th graders, this new learning marketplace will allow both individual educators and organizations to offer short (aka learners register for a series of weeks rather than for a full school year or semester) synchronous courses. Teachers will have the freedom to create the courses and content they wish to teach, at the time they wish to teach it, at the price point they suggest. Parents will be empowered to chart their child’s unique Jewish journeys, encompassing the full spectrum of their vibrant and varied interests. For children and families with unique passions and pursuits, Truvie will (following the beta period) allow learners to engage in continuous learning while pursuing their passions (think specialty camping year-round.) Truvie will live at the intersection of identity and innovation, providing content-rich, hands-on experiences infused with Jewish spirit and culture from accomplished educators. Truvie will allow for Jewish learning—and Jewish teaching—from a kitchen table, a family room, from Portland, Dallas, and Topeka. Wherever there’s Wifi in North America (for now) Truvie will be accessible.

Through the ideation and development process, we recognized that Truvie can be an open marketplace
and a valuable tool to organizations seeking to offer their community additional or different virtual content. (The site will allow for private, co-branded spaces accessible only to organizational community members.) So Truvie will also offer a unique set of features for camps, congregations, JCC’s and others that seek to leverage the technology and the open marketplace.

At the heart of Jewish education is joy and the belief that Judaism – however you connect with it and identify—enhances your life, helps you be a better person, and enriches your understanding of the world. As we emerge from the joyous month of Tishrei, what better way to renew our commitment to Jewish life, history, peoplehood, practice, culture
. than to foster new means for our youth to discover the beauty and joy of Jewish life.

Susan Wachsstock is chief program officer at The Jewish Education Project. Truvie is partially funded by the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF).

[1] These numbers were derived from a statistical analysis of the landscape conducted 4 years ago by the Steinhardt Foundation. Based on communal studies it was estimated that there were approximately 85,000 students in each cohort, 68,891 who are non-Orthodox. Based on enrolment in 6th grade at the time 26,334 of these non-Orthodox youth were engaged in supplementary schools (38.2%), 2,509 in day schools (3.6%) and 39,281 (58.1%) engaged in neither form of formal education.

originally published in eJewishPhilanthropy