Millennials want to serve. Jewish tradition tells them how

JTA-logo(JTA) — When lowering my shoulder, planting my feet and pushing hard to make something happen, I love to reflect on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s exhortation to act with “the fierce urgency of now.”

My feelings in those moments are usually not very MLK-like — self-righteousness, self-satisfaction and just a touch of self-pity make me feel both impatient and smug. Over the last month, however, “the fierce urgency of now” has challenged me in a new way, as I struggle to process the violence, oppression, naked fear, hatred and cynicism that is dominating our national news and politics and spilling into our communities.

The sense of urgency and the desire to act right now collides with two simple questions: What should I do?  What can I do?

From conversations with friends and colleagues at other Jewish and secular organizations, especially those engaged in volunteering and service, I know I’m not alone either in feeling a sense of urgency or in asking these questions. At Repair the World, we approach this challenge by focusing on our simplest premise: Jewish life and Jewish values offer not just the inspiration and imperative to heal what’s broken in our world, but also give us guidance about how to do it.

Here are four foundational lessons, grounded in Jewish principles, which have been tested and verified by Repair the World and others as best practices for service engagement — that is, inspiring individuals and organizations, especially millennials, to serve their communities, society and the world. Whether their intention is to pack and deliver food boxes to the needs or teach inner-city girls how to write computer code, these practices provide bedrock stability from which they — we — can lean into the challenging issues of our times.

Repair the World Fellows marching against climate change in New York City.

Use your hands, head and heart: The secular service world teaches that transformative service requires three elements: hands-on volunteering, contextual education and personal reflection. These elements echo the beginning of Pirkei Avot, the Jewish wisdom collection also know as Ethics of Our Ancestors: “The world rests on three pillars: Torah [study/education]; service of God [spiritual reflection]; and deeds of kindness.” (1:2) These pillars bring balance and therefore strength to the most difficult kind of work; these are the tools that enable Jewish young adults to stay resolved and grow when they confront deeply troubling issues in local communities.

Be real, even (especially) when it’s uncomfortable: Authenticity and discomfort win over spin and polish every time. The most essential way to perform authentic service is also the most difficult thing to do: addressing the actual, self-expressed needs of the community that you are serving. Pirkei Avot suggests there are 48 ways to learn, which include “a listening ear,” “deliberation in study,” “asking and answering,” “listening and illuminating” and “learning in order to teach.” (6:6) If we don’t listen to those we intend to serve, we contribute to injustice for others.

Temper urgency with curiosity: It’s easy to be lost in the urgent need to act, especially when human lives (or souls) are on the line. We make a terrible error, however, when we become too emotionally invested in the action. When an organization says its doesn’t have the time, energy or money to learn more about the hypotheses underlying its model, it is a sign of too much emotional investment. Again, Pirkei Avot: “If there is no Torah study, there is no ‘derech eretz’; if there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah.” That is, “If there is no applied knowledge, there is no analytical knowledge. If there is no analytical knowledge, there is no applied knowledge.” (3:2) From the entrepreneurial revolution of the last two decades we know whoever learns the fastest has the highest likelihood of success. This is no less true in the nonprofit sector. 

Be an ally, not a superhero: Jewish young adults feel most gratified and empowered when they are able to build meaningful relationships both with people like them and with people unlike them who experience oppression in a more personal way. This is probably what Ben Zoma, quoted in Pirkei Avot, meant in saying, “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” (4:1) Peer-to-peer engagement is a critical first step in building close bonds and new community through powerful shared experiences.

These Jewish values not only make service more meaningful and more effective, but they make it more likely that more young Jews will engage seriously with the programs and be part of a community around them.

Many organizations and communities that are doing this important work are joining in the inaugural “Service Matters: A Summit on Jewish Service” in New York on Sept. 15. With Repair the World serving as convener, a diverse group of professionals, social entrepreneurs, current and prospective funders, Jewish educators and others will explore ways of working to engage people — especially Jewish millennials — in meaningful service through a Jewish lens.

The summit will be an opportunity to elevate meaningful service in Jewish life, strengthen the bond between Jewish values and engaging young Jews, and wrestling with our responses as Jews and human beings to the issues of our time. Together, with urgency, we can bring the change, be the change, that all of us wish to see.

(David Eisner is CEO of Repair the World. Learn more about the upcoming “Service Matters: A Summit on Jewish Service.”)

Source: “Millennials want to serve. Jewish tradition tells them how,” David Eisner, JTA, September 5, 2016

The Earth Moved For Them — Did It Move For You?

The ForwardThe Louisville Jewish Community Center has had a garden for years, but never the staff to make the most of it. For Michael Fraade, a member of the first cohort of Hazon’s JOFEE Fellowship who is spending the year working on the JCC’s environmental programming, that garden has the potential to change the ways in which members of the community understand the rich relationship between the earth and Judaism.

“We’ve got summer camp kids at the JCC’s day camp who come in for programs,” Fraade said. “Seeing some of the kids’ faces light up when they realize that’s a mint plant and they can take a leaf and eat it and it tastes like mint, or hearing that that yellow flower is going to eventually turn into squash – making those connections is really gratifying.”

The JOFEE Fellowship is the first standardized professional training program for aspiring educators in the field of Jewish Outdoor Food, Farming and Environmental Education (JOFEE). Funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the fellowship is run through Hazon in partnership with the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, Urban Adamah, Pearlstone Center, and Wilderness Torah. (The last three, along with Hazon, form a group called the J4.)

That collaboration emerged after the 2014 publication of the JOFEE Report, the first professionalized report on the state of the field. The report was based on interviews with JOFEE stakeholders, a survey of 655 adults who’d participated in immersive JOFEE experiences, and program histories from JOFEE organizations. While the report painted an impressive picture of the field’s achievements and growth – it grew from 6 immersive programs in 2000 to 41 in 2012; 63% of the study’s participants had at some point felt disconnected from Jewish life, and for 32% of them, a JOFEE experience proved their primary means of reconnection – it revealed some striking gaps.

The immersive experiences studied in the report included programs like the Adamah and Urban Adamah fellowships, 3-month long residencies for students and young professionals that introduce them to subjects like organic agriculture, urban farming, and food justice in a Jewish framework. Those programs tended to spark a passion for JOFEE in their participants. “These very talented, intelligent, great, creative people were coming into JOFEE through these opening programs,” said Yoshi Silverstein, the director of the JOFEE fellowship “but then would have some difficulty knowing exactly what happened next.”

The answer was the JOFEE Fellowship. A yearlong program that provides its participants with extensive experiential and pedagogical training, a living stipend, one-on-one training and a JOFEE position at a Jewish organization, it’s a first step in addressing the lack of clear professional paths in JOFEE. It’s also an elegant means of addressing two other issues: the need to strengthen and professionalize the field, which has until now lacked a standardized, articulated set of fundamentals for educators, and to expand its reach in Jewish communities.

“In the Jewish community, experiential education is not the dominant norm,” explained Jakir Manela, the executive director of Pearlstone Center in Baltimore. “It’s not deeply integrated across the Jewish community yet.”

At the Louisville JCC, Fraade is working toward achieving that integration. He helps run the Center’s garden, provides educational programming to everyone from preschool students to participants in adult education programs, and works on building community partnerships. Among those is a partnership with New Roots, a food justice organization that provides organic local produce to more than 1,000 Louisville families. It’s been operating since 2009, when a few friends founded the group to help address food disparity within the city.

For Fraade, who will help integrate the JCC’s food justice efforts with those of New Roots, the New Roots story helps illuminate the importance of JOFEE education. “One staff member of an organization or a committed group of volunteers can create something that really flourishes over time,” he said.

The Pearlstone Center’s Manela imagines those grassroots efforts, as a collective, having an enormous impact. He sees JOFEE as a means for American Jews, as well as those in other countries, to adopt more responsibility for the planet, live more sustainably and create a more inhabitable world for future generations.

That’s a lesson Zelig Golden is imparting to Wilderness Torah’s JOFEE fellow Daniella Aboody, who has joined the organization’s youth programming team. Every JOFEE fellow is paired with a professional mentor at their organization; Golden is Aboody’s mentor. Although their professional relationship just began, Aboody’s first connection to the world of Jewish environmentalism was a Wilderness Torah experience; in some ways, Golden, the organization’s founding director, has been a mentor to her for years.

Aboody spoke passionately about the impact of JOFEE on her ability to relate to Judaism. “I felt like I found my tribe that I didn’t even know I was looking for,” she said of attending one of Wilderness Torah’s signature Earth-based Judaism festivals in the spring of 2013.

Aboody has been in the JOFEE field since then, working in the Bay Area with Urban Adamah The Kitchen, a Jewish life startup. When she heard about the JOFEE Fellowship, she was committed to both the field and the Bay Area, but couldn’t see how to move forward in her career.

The fellowship didn’t just give her the forward momentum she was looking for; it also let her become a part of Wilderness Torah, which felt, in a way, like coming full circle. As a member of Wilderness Torah’s staff, Aboody is helping coordinate the center’s yearlong youth programs for grades K-5 and 6-7. She’s also helping design youth programming for some of the organization’s festivals, including this fall’s Sukkot on the Farm Festival.

Like Aboody, many of the fellows had a moment of clarity during a JOFEE experience – half spiritual, half vocational – that made them feel a powerful bond with the field.

“I spent time studying in Israel, and that was where I made the connection between my religion and the earth,” said Jessica Berlin, a fellow at Hazon’s Isabella Freedman Center in Connecticut. “I have this memory of harvesting hyssop to make za’atar, and I had this crazy moment when I realized that was the exact herb that was once offered as a sacrifice in the temple. Judaism became totally live and relevant to me in that moment.”

Adam Berman, the executive director of Urban Adamah, thinks those kinds of experiences are at the heart of JOFEE. “The long term goals of JOFEE are to make Judaism relevant, alive and compelling to humans on our planet in ever-deepening ways,” he said.

“Our relationship with the natural world and with all of creation is a primary part of who we are as Jews,” Manela said. As Fraade emphasized, agriculture and farming was central to ancient Jewish communities, and values and practices rooted in those communities are still central to the religion today. For both Manela and Fraade, JOFEE provides a tangible way to incorporate the spiritual environment of Judaism’s past with the American Judaism of today.

The JOFEE Fellowship, which began in June, will undergo extensive professional evaluation in its first year. Anecdotally, though, the fellows are already starting to understand what that might look like.

“A few weeks ago, I did a farm tour with a group of young Jewish professionals from New York City, and for a lot of them, it was the first time they ever saw food growing,” Berlin said. “It was so cool to see their eyes like light up when they really made that connection of the thing that they’re eating and the way that it grows.”

Talya Zax is the Forward’s summer culture fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax

Source: “The Earth Moved For Them — Did It Move For You?,” The Forward, August 28, 2016

The Benefits of Making Field Building a Team Sport

I realize that one of the first rules in communications is, “Don’t bury the lead!”  And yet, I feel compelled to begin with a bit of context before actualizing my metaphor.  As a five-year transplant to the Bay Area, to say that I entered Warriors fandom in the good years would be a drastic understatement.  Stephen Curry, ½ of the Splash Brothers, completed his 2nd MVP season; the Warriors took home the Championship in 2015 for the first time in 40 years following that with the first ever 73-win NBA season; and the ‘Dubs’ claim three All-Stars for the first time since 1976.  The fact that the team is owned by a distant cousin who I have never met is not even a factor in my infatuation. With that in mind, it makes sense that my reading over the past weeks has been limited to FiveThirtyEight and ESPN’s plentiful array of exposés on Kevin Durant’s departure from Oklahoma City to Golden State for the 2016-2017 season. Gathering 2

This may seem like a lot of effort to make a basketball metaphor for philanthropy, and it is.  A month ago, at the first ever Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming, and Environmental Education (JOFEE) gathering at Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, a group of practitioners and foundation professionals came together around the shared purposed of building the field. The Jim Joseph Foundation already shared some of the innovative learning and professional development that occurred, which certainly will help the field grow and mature. But another aspect of this gathering warrants an examination, because while at face value this type of gathering is not unique, a gathering that included such different funders is. Moreover, we were not there merely as listeners to a speaker or as observers of a conference; these varied funders, which included the Jim Joseph Foundation, joined with practitioners for focused and deliberate visioning and networking conversations.

The Gathering included representatives from the Atlanta Jewish Federation, Emanuel J. Friedman Philanthropies, Gendler Grapevine, the Leichtag Foundation, the Lucious Littauer Foundation, Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah, and Wilderness Torah.  Just as each practitioner represented a different organization in this space—all of which complimented each other while not entirely duplicating efforts—each of the funders had a unique justification for its funding in this space.  So how did we all end up there together?

As a starting point, the acronym—and the fact that the field itself is an acronym—presents opportunities for different funders. While the J O F E and E are certainly related in this context, they also are separate spaces unto themselves. Inherently, while all the organizations at that first meeting to some degree address farming, food justice, the environment, and other kinds of Jewish outdoor educational interventions, there are important strategic differences to recognize. Whereas the Emanuel J. Friedman Philanthropies (founders of Jewish Initiative for Animals) and the Leichtag Foundation (founders of the Coastal Roots Farm) see JOFEE funding as an end unto itself, for example, the Jim Joseph Foundation sees this investment as a means to funding its strategic priorities of educating Jewish educators and expanding opportunities for effective Jewish learning.

By making space for funders with different strategies and missions to come together, the field displayed a strength (and a potential for even greater strength) only possible by bringing together all of the letters of JOFEE. In this context, field leaders can engage more people in Jewish learning and life experiences; an individual will opt in even if just one part of JOFEE resonates with her or him. Yet, once they do, they open themselves up to other elements of JOFEE that may pique their interest and offer new ways to engage Jewishly. Additionally, since JOFEE essentially brings together even smaller, more narrow fields under one umbrella, the environment is ripe for experimentation, creativity, and collaborative Jewish education and engagement efforts.

A field with these organizing principles helps to overcome the issue of funders and practitioners being siloed based on specific foci that do not equate to the exact priorities of others in a similar space of the same field. Instead, the Gathering’s diverse group of funders and practitioners hypothesized together about a shared set of outcomes that were part of a 2022 Visioning Statement for the JOFEE field. As part of this process, each funder understood individual foundation priorities are part of a larger vision that could increase the overall influence that the organizations in that room have on the broader community. The result was a cohesive first conversation.  Despite the differences in the organizations represented, each of the individuals in the room felt vested in the ultimate well-being of both the Jewish community and the underlying eco-concerns.

Gathering 3As the Jim Joseph Foundation has discussed, collaboration comes with real challenges. Yet time and again we see that the benefits—creative initiatives; greater reach; more opportunities to scale and to become sustainable—outweigh these challenges. It is not unlike a basketball team where superstars come together, perhaps giving up solo fame and the chance to each score more, for the singular focus of winning a championship, which everyone on the Warriors wants to accomplish again, especially after a particularly disappointing Game 7 loss on June 19th (yes, I remember the date). The recruitment of Kevin Durant was not a singular coach speaking with a player. Amidst many dealmakers on both sides of the negotiation table, four long-tenured Warriors were all a part of the process and the effort to recruit Durant.  Each of them knew that bringing him to the Bay Area would greatly increase their chances at another championship season while as a counter-point acknowledging that bringing this addition would likely reduce the shot attempts and general production value of several if not all of these four players.

Whether in the nonprofit world or the basketball world, a single funder or a single player has a ceiling on the amount of long-term success they achieve on their own. I am grateful to have been included in this initial gathering on behalf of the Jim Joseph Foundation, and to Hazon for assembling this group (which still is only a subset of the greater field). The field is stronger as a result.

Cross-posted in eJewishPhilanthropy

Jewish Learning: Between Passion and Career

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the fourth in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs (read the first, second, and third blogs)–is from Erin Dreyfuss, a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center.

Almost all of my Jewish education has been experiential. As a convert to Judaism, I have learned Judaism and created a Jewish identity by doing, celebrating, schmoozing, eating, and absorbing everything around me. Through that process, I have come to appreciate the power of experiences to shape identity and I was hopeful that I could find a career that would allow me to create meaningful Jewish experiences for others. It was with this goal that I joined the inaugural cohort of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts (EEJCA) at The George Washington University in the summer of 2014.

During our EEJCA orientation, we received this piece of advice from Carole Zawatsky, the CEO of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center (EDCJCC): “Your passion is your career path.” In the two years that followed, the EEJCA program, supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation, blazed a trail between passion and career for my fellow educators and me. Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum that combines the arts, education, Jewish history, and museum management, the EEJCA program prepares its students to create innovative and engaging programs that enrich contemporary Jewish life and strengthen Jewish identities. I am extremely fortunate to have learned from community leaders and my students and co-workers in fellowships with the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital and the EDCJCC’s Washington Jewish Music Festival. Each of these experiences was contextualized by classes that ranged in scope from the history of Jewish music to the implementation of organizational change.

My extracurricular involvement in Jewish life has grown right alongside my professional development; I continue my annual tradition of personal reflection by counting the omer on my blog dedicated to Jewish learning and I recently joined my synagogue’s Board of Directors. These commitments reflect perhaps the most important lesson that I learned during my time in the EEJCA program – that my passion can be my career path and more.

Erin Dreyfuss is a graduate of the Program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts at The George Washington University. She is turning her passion into a career as the Development Associate at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center. Follow her blog at GoAndLearnIt.blogspot.com.

JCF raises $22 million in donations, launches study of Bay Area Jews

jweekly_logoThe S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation raised $22.1 million in philanthropic gifts during its 2015-2016 fiscal year, funds that will provide services and programs focusing on Jewish life locally and internationally.

The Federation plans to invest more than $23 million in the Bay Area and global Jewish communities in the coming year through its own programs and direct grants to other organizations — including scholarships for Jewish camps, preschools, day schools and youth Israel trips, senior services, programs for children with special needs and community engagement programs within Israel.The Federation supports Birthright Israel and PJ Library of the San Francisco region, which sends free Jewish-themed books to children monthly. It is working to launch a teen engagement initiative, and with Hillel International is forming the Campus Initiative on Israel Engagement to counterbalance the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement on college campuses.

Last year, the Federation provided consulting for more than 80 Jewish organizations to increase productivity and impact, and advised leaders at 22 synagogues on leadership, growth and financial sustainability.

“Thanks to a truly communal effort, we are able to holistically support Jewish life in the Bay Area, Israel and globally,” Federation CEO Danny Grossman said.

The Federation also announced that it is commissioning a large-scale population study of the Bay Area Jewish community that will assess needs and aspects of Jewish life, literacy and engagement.The Federation’s last such study, released in 2004, did not include the East Bay; the Jewish Federation of the East Bay did its last study in 2011. This will be the first time the entire Bay Area is included in one demographic survey. It will focus on Jewish households in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano, Napa and Santa Cruz counties.

The study will include the size, geographic distribution, socioeconomic data and social service needs of the Bay Area Jewish population, and will be used by agencies and philanthropists to better serve the community. Led by a team of researchers, the study, titled “A Portrait of Bay Area Jewish Life and Communities,” will begin this year and be released in late 2017.

Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist and research professor at Hebrew Union College and director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at Stanford University, will oversee the study. According to Grossman, it will be the first “geographically integrated study of the Bay Area’s Jewish population, and the first to include longitudinal data collection to help track progress toward deepening Jewish engagement over the next decade.”

Also funding the study will be the Jim Joseph Foundation, Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, Koret Foundation, Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust, Levine-Lent Family Foundation, Lisa & John Pritzker Family Fund, Taube Philanthropies, Sinai Memorial Chapel and individual donors.

“The data will inform and advance the work of the region’s broad array of Jewish institutions, philanthropists, innovators and activists in creating vibrant, diverse, inclusive and secure Jewish communities for years to come,” Grossman said.

Source: “JCF raises $22 million in donations, launches study of Bay Area Jews,” J Weekly, August 4, 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jewish Emergent Network Gathers in New York City

E-Jewish-philanthropyFrom today through Monday, the Jewish Emergent Network – a collaboration between seven Jewish organizations from across the United States – is kicking off its inaugural project, the Rabbinic Fellowship, with a dynamic, content-rich Shabbat-based New York City convening to welcome its first cohort of rabbinic fellows. The convening will be hosted by Romemu, one of the Network’s New York-based organizations. Kabbalat Shabbat and Shabbat morning services will be held at Romemu and open to the broader Jewish community.

The goal of the Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, whose skills will equally prepare them to initiate independent communities and be valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues. Each fellow will be steeped in the spirit and best practices of the Network organizations and poised to educate, engage, and serve an array of target populations, especially young adults and families with young children. During the convening, the Fellows will be engaged in programming focused on God, rabbinic skills, davening, program design, self-assessment and more. Through curriculum designed by the Network and consultant group ChangeCraft and facilitated by a variety of teachers, fellows will experience case studies, immersive sessions, group conversations, music, and prayer side by side with the clergy and leadership of the seven communities. A core component of the convening will be a multi-session deep dive into the Romemu community and how it crafted and implements its vibrant services.

JEWISH EMERGENT NETWORK

The first cohort of Network fellows includes: Rabbi Nate DeGroot at IKAR in Los Angeles, Rabbi Sydney Danziger at Kavana in Seattle, Rabbi Jonathan Bubis at The Kitchen in San Francisco, Rabbi Lauren Henderson at Mishkan in Chicago, Rabbi Suzy Stone at Sixth & I in Washington, DC, Rabbi Kerry Chaplin at Lab/Shul in New York City, and Rabbi Joshua Buchin at host community Romemu, also in New York City.

The Fellowship placed these select, early-career rabbis into each of the seven participating Network organizations for a two-year period, in order to train the next generation of enterprising rabbis to take on the challenges and realities of 21st-century Jewish life in America in a variety of settings. The seven organizations in the Network are all devoted to revitalizing the field of Jewish engagement. While each community is different in form and organizational structure, all have taken an entrepreneurial approach to this shared vision, operating outside of traditional institutional models and rethinking basic assumptions about US Jewish communities with regard to prayer, membership models, staff structures, the religious/cultural divide, and physical space.

The Fellows have been embedded in their new communities since July 1st. Each Fellow will take on a variety of independent rabbinic tasks and will receive weekly supervision and support from leaders within the host organization. Throughout the two-year program, fellows will meet seven times as a fully assembled cohort, including the inaugural convening, traveling to each of the seven Network organizations for intensive site visits at which they will learn from Network and non-Network rabbis, teachers and other experts from around the country. The final site visit, planned for the first Shabbatof June 2018 at IKAR in Los Angeles, will also include a public-facing conference that welcomes clergy, staff, and lay leaders from across the country to engage with the fellows and share best practices of innovation and creativity with regard to Jewish community building. Towards the end of the first cohort, a second cohort of rabbinic fellows will be selected and placed.

Seed funding for the first four years of this program has been generously provided through a grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next four years.

Source: “Jewish Emergent Network Gathers in New York City,” eJewishPhilanthropy, August 4, 2016

The Importance of Individualized Identities

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the second in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs–is from Michael Kay, Head of School at Solomon Schechter of Westchester, who received his Ph.D. at New York University’s program in education and Judaic studies.

During the summer of 2014, a recent graduate of our High School experienced one of the preeminent rites of passage of those pre-college months: learning the identity of his soon-to-be-roommate. The excitement of the moment wore off quickly, however, as our graduate looked up his roommate on Facebook and found that his page was full of virulent anti-Israel rhetoric. One might have expected that such a discovery would bring about extraordinary anxiety or even paralysis in a student who was entering a diverse university after 13 years in the nurturing environment of a Jewish day school.

In fact, the opposite was the case. Our graduate confidently picked up the phone to introduce himself to his roommate. He explained who he was, what values were important to him, and why. He noted that an important part of his identity was his connection with the people, land, and State of Israel, having traveled there twice during his Middle School and High School years. In a self-assured but non-threatening manner, he asked the roommate about his own views and what motivated them. This profound conversation set the stage for a fruitful, intellectually vibrant relationship—and even led the roommate to reconsider his position and take down his incendiary postings.

A week later, I asked our student what prepared him to engage in such a sensitive, powerful conversation with a person whom he had only just met. He cited two particular elements of his Jewish day school experience. For one, his detailed knowledge of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian relationship equipped him to provide a factual basis for his own perspectives. But even more importantly, his experience in Judaic studies classes endowed him with what I call the skill of diversity: the comfort and wisdom to develop a strong, individualized viewpoint; articulate this view in a constructive, compelling manner; listen open-mindedly to people who represent different opinions; challenge when appropriate; and ultimately build positive connections with these people—even if they may never agree.

This conversation with our graduate brought into focus for me the practical benefits of my years of study in New York University’s PhD program in education and Judaic studies. My work during this time focused on defining and enacting pluralism in Jewish education, and I wrote my dissertation on leadership and community-building in ideologically pluralistic Jewish high schools. I studied theories of pluralism in the realms of philosophy and general education and sought in my field research to apply them to the very practical world of North American Jewish day schools. For me, my years at NYU turned out to be the perfect marriage of theory and practice, preparing me both to develop a philosophical vision of leadership in pluralistic settings and to implement it in real-world situations of curriculum-development and conflict in schools.

It has been clearly documented in research both outside and inside the Jewish community that learning in an environment that highlights exposure to multiple perspectives promotes—perhaps counterintuitively—the development of both robust individual identity and strong communal sentiment. This understanding, which was affirmed by my own qualitative dissertation research in the field, has played a significant role in shaping my practice through ten years of leadership positions in both denominationally-affiliated and non-affiliated schools.

One of the most prevalent critiques of Jewish day schools is that they are lacking in “diversity.” In fact, little could be further from the truth. In order for the concept of diversity to have significance, it must be understood not merely as aesthetic variety, but rather as an opportunity for people of divergent perspectives to interact in meaningful ways and craft community with one another without seeking homogeneity. This is a competence that can be taught and practiced, and there are few institutions in the world better equipped to teach it than Jewish day schools—after all, such vibrant, respectful articulation of strongly held viewpoints has been a hallmark of Jewish tradition for over 2000 years.

There may be no more important skill that we can impart to our students to prepare them for success in the 21st century than the ability to develop individualized identities, articulate them eloquently, and engage constructively with people who think and act differently. Through my graduate school experience—in the seminar room, in the library, and at case-study sites—I became convinced that Jewish day schools are uniquely well suited to provide this training. And my years in the field have served only to embolden me further in this conviction about the value of our institutions—just ask our graduate who was confronted with a seemingly anti-Israel roommate.

Michael Kay is Head of School at Solomon Schechter of Westchester. He received his Ph.D. at New York University’s program in education and Judaic studies.

Read the first blog in this series from Ilana Horwitz, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education

 

 

The fluidity of Jewishness

Editor’s Note: The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Jewish educator training programs at institutions of higher education around the country. These programs help develop educators and education leaders with the skills to succeed in a variety of settings. This blog–the first in a series of reflections from participants in these training programs–is from Ilana M. Horwitz, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education. Ilana also is a Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar.

“This is Rebecca. She’s Jewish.” This was often how Rebecca’s high-school friend introduced her to new people in their small New York town where few Jews lived. In these brief encounters with others, Rebecca’s Jewishness made her different. It made her uncomfortable. Self-conscious. Teens usually want to blend in, not stand out. Now, in her twenties, Rebecca remembers those moments of difference when she recounts her life story. It was in those moments that Rebecca felt most keenly aware of her Jewish identity.

Rebecca’s story was one of 57 life narratives I collected as part of a research project in Stanford’s Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies. We wanted to understand how Jewishness fit into people’s overall life stories without asking them explicitly about their involvement in Jewish organizations, how many Jewish friends they had, or how often they lit Shabbat candles. When we started the project, I was a new doctoral student in the Education & Jewish Studies concentration at Stanford University. I realized fairly quickly that the concept of identity was far more complicated than I understood. After all, cultivating, strengthening, or enhancing “Jewish identity” was the goal of countless Jewish organizations and it had become part of my own lexicon. As I thought about other aspects of my life and realized that I might say I have a “White” identity or a “female” identity or a “Jewish” identity, but that the relationship between those social categories and myself was not at all stable.

Three years and multiple sociology classes later, I finally understand why it’s problematic to talk about strengthening Jewish identity. Jewishness, like ‘race’ and ethnicity are not stable and static qualities that inhere in individuals. Instead, ‘race’ and ethnicity are something constructed, negotiated, and reaffirmed through ongoing social interactions. I stopped thinking of ‘racial’/ethnic group membership as based on a relatively fixed ‘presumed identity’ and began seeing it as a dynamic and complex social phenomenon that ‘can change according to variations in the situations and audiences encountered’ (Nagel, 1994: 154).

I realize that this explanation sounds very academic, so let me illustrate with another story from the aforementioned research project. The key point I want to highlight is how the salience of our Jewishness changes based on our social situations and the audiences we encounter. Meet Dalia, who grew up in a highly Jewish area of New York and attended Jewish day school. She never felt particularly Jewish because many people around her were more observant or more engaged in Jewish organizations. In her twenties, Dalia moved to Texas and became a minority. Her curly dark hair was no longer the norm, but rather a feature that distinguished her from other people. But this difference was not an objective fact— her difference only became apparent when she came into contact with other people. And it was not just her appearance. Dalia’s Texan friends referred to her as the “rabbi,” a stark contrast to how Dalia perceived herself in New York where many people were more knowledgeable than her. Dalia felt obliged to educate others about Judaism and began hosting Shabbat dinners. By moving to Texas, Dalia’s sense of Jewishness moved into the foreground of her life, not the background. Her level of observance or belief may not have changed between living in New York and Texas, but her sense of Jewishness certainly became more salient. Being Jewish was not a stable and static quality that Dalia possessed, but was something she became more aware of because of her social situation.

If Jewish identity is socially dependent, what are implications for the Jewish education field? For social scientists and evaluators, one question is how to measure Jewish identity given its social nature. Surveys need to take into account the social and contextual factors that affect how Jews see themselves, and should ideally measure how one’s sense of Jewishness fluctuates over time. Meanwhile, practitioners may need to re-imagine how they affect and interact with program participants. Perhaps cultivating or strengthening levels of Jewish engagement (which relates to behaviors and participation in activities) may be more productive. Funders, who drive and support much of the work going on in the Jewish education field, would also have to adapt their mindsets and strategies to reflect the social—not fixed and inherent— nature of identity. And we should all remember that Jews are not vessels to be filled up with Judaism. Rather, they are dynamic beings who are shaped by the people they encounter, the places they live, and the myriad social situations they find themselves in everyday.

Sources:
Nagel, J. (1994) ‘Constructing Ethnicity’, Social Problems 41(1): 152–76.

Ilana M. Horwitz is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Stanford Graduate School of Education Concentration in Education & Jewish Studies, with a focus on Sociology of Education. She also is a Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar.

Jewish Journey Project – From Innovation to Self-Sustaining

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

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

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

—Lisa Fleisher, parent of JJP student

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

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

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

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

The Wexner Field Fellowship

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

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

New models focus on the ‘I’ in Israel education

JNSEarlier this year, Barry Chazan, professor emeritus of education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, penned an op-ed for the New York Jewish Week in which he discussed the 21st-century shift toward personalization and customization.

“Mattresses, automobiles and worldviews that speak to ‘my’ tastes, desires, interests, schedule, and way of thinking and living in the world,” wrote Chazan.

His argument was that up until now, the focus of Israel education has been on what is good for Israel, the Jews, and Jewish continuity. Today, however, the way we teach Israel has shifted with the way we teach and experience everything else.

“Israel is not the subject of Israel education—rather it is the one learning about Israel,” Chazan wrote. “The content of Israel education is not Israel—but rather the relationship with Israel. The aim of Israel education is not Israel—but rather finding a meaningful role for Israel in our lives.”

Chazan’s outlook is the same one that served as a spark for the formation of the innovative iCenter program, which invests in Israel-focused professional development opportunities for educators that work at camps, day schools, synagogues, on Taglit Birthright trips, and more. The iCenter, according to its website, is a national hub and catalyst for building, shaping, and supporting the field of Israel education.

“We support educators across all settings and provide the tools to bring Israel into their students’ lives,” the website says.

Anne Lanski, executive director of iCenter, told JNS.org that her team is working to shift educators’ mindset from one of curriculum and information to a focus on the learner—so that students begin to understand Israel and information about it “in the context of something relevant and meaningful to them.”

Lanski said that when education focuses on an issue—the people of Israel, the issue of Israel, how to deal with that issue—it turns Israel into a “subject” and too often not even a positive one. The iCenter’s “Aleph Bet of Israel Education,” therefore, offers a set of core principles, approaches to content, and pedagogies that the center hopes constitute the building blocks for the new-age field of Israel education. The goal is to change Israel education into an experience that becomes integrated into everywhere that Jewish kids are today.

“We used to say, ‘In what grade did you teach Israel?’ or, ‘Where does Israel live in your school?’ The answer would be like 6th grade, second semester,” said Lanski. “Now there is an understanding of the need for identity development and excellent education and a learner-centered education, and meaning that allows Israel to live organically in the lives of young Jewish kids in a way it didn’t before.”

One way the iCenter is fostering this transformation is through its iFellows Master Concentration in Israel Education, which to date has equipped more than 150 educators with the tools to employ a learner-focused approach to Israel education. The program includes rigorous academic study, ongoing mentorship, learning opportunities in Israel, and the creation of a final Israel education project. Following graduation, students join an alumni network through which the iCenter ensures the ongoing ability to share ideas, resources, and experiences.

Similarly, the iCenter’s Birthright Israel Fellows leadership program offers a growing network of young leaders who staff Birthright trips the opportunity to explore their own Israel stories, in order to ignite the passion they share for the Jewish state in their young travelers. Participants learn how to bring their stories to life.

Yaniv Havusha participated in a Birthright Israel Fellows seminar in March 2016. He said he learned how to share his personal Israel story, which centers on his parents—a mother who is an American immigrant and an Israeli father. The couple met just before the Yom Kippur War in 1973. As an American, Havusha’s mother faced a dilemma: stay in war-torn Israel with the man she loves, or return to safety in the U.S. Ultimately, she stuck it out in Israel. The couple made it through the war and later moved together to America, where Havusha was raised.

When Birthright groups visit Mount Bental, which overlooks Syria, Havusha now knows how to tell the story the way he sees it in his head: tanks, live action, and love. He shares pictures and letters written by his parents during that time and brings the circumstances to life.

“The goal is not have them (Birthright participants) become cheerleaders for Israel,” said Havusha. “It is just to start that ball rolling, to connect, to help them know what is [in Israel] and the impact it can continue to have on them when they return.”

At the Jerusalem U non-profit, Zeev Ben-Shachar’s role as director of Israel education has him using similar techniques to those of educators trained through the iCenter. Ben-Shachar is involved in developing Jerusalem U films about Jewish identity and Israel.

“We learned a long time ago, if you want students to connect, you have to connect to their minds and hearts,” said Ben-Shachar.

Caption: An event of the iCenter’s Birthright Israel Fellows leadership
program, which offers a growing network of young leaders who staff
Birthright trips the opportunity to explore their own Israel stories. Credit: Courtesy of the iCenter.

On such film is “Beneath the Helmet,” which tells a personalized story about the Israeli military through the eyes of combat soldiers on the ground, rather than only delivering the facts. “Inside Israel,” meanwhile, offers the tale of Israel as the so-called “start-up nation”—but rather than presenting a laundry list of key accomplishments and technologies, it demonstrates how the Jewish state has leveraged those technologies to make the world better, as seen through the eyes of the entrepreneurs themselves.

The other methodology employed by Jerusalem U is conveying critical-thinking skills to its students. Rather than exclusively promoting an Israel advocacy agenda, this approach centers on engagement and education, explained Ben-Shachar. His strategy is to provide students with all of the information they need, against the backdrop of a plan to transform them into pro-Israel advocates by educating about the difference between history and narrative as well as by teaching them best practices for unpacking the sometimes-biased news coverage on Israel.

“I believe that to support Israel is to have truth and justice on our side,” Ben-Shachar said.

The new LINK – Discovering Your Israel Connection curriculum of the pro-Israel education organization StandWithUs seeks to empower students to establish their own unique, modern connection to Israel by introducing them to the Jewish state in ways they could not experience through traditional Jewish education models, said Mina Rush, director of community engagement for StandWithUs.

“If the only Israel connection students are given is kachol v’lavan (the Israeli flag’s colors of blue and white) and falafel on Yom Ha’atzamaut (Israeli Independence Day), how can we expect them to meaningfully discern between clearly anti-Israel bias and the facts?” Rush asked. “The love, connection, and pride students should feel towards Israel must go beyond the superficialities of ‘feel-good Israel.’ What better way than to expose them to the best of what a nation built on Jewish values looks like? LINK addresses this through lessons on diversity, humanitarian aid within and without Israel, innovation and technology that improves the lives of people everywhere—all delivered with cutting-edge, interactive technology. The intent is to not whitewash some of the more complicated realities, but to first build a strong foundation of respect, connection, and pride before tackling them.”

The LINK curriculum is both project-based and experiential, using the same best practices recommended by the iCenter. It also adaptable, utilizing the latest technologies and devices as they emerge.

“School by school, camp by camp, community by community, we are embarking on a process of helping educators think intentionally and meaningfully about how they integrate Israel into what they are doing,” said the iCenter’s Lanski. “We think that after a decade, Israel will be experienced by the next generation like never before.”

“New models focus on the ‘I’ in Israel education,” JNS, July 7, 2016