Understanding Others’ Realities: Generational Shifts in Jewish Education

The Foundation is pleased to share reflections from participants at its recent convening of directors of Jewish educator training programs.

Pulling up to The Publishing House Bed and Breakfast in what appeared to be an old, deserted part of Chicago’s near West Side did not particularly allay my trepidation about the upcoming couple of days with my fellow grantees of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s Professional Development Initiative (PDI).  I walked around the building trying to figure out how to enter, eventually found the B & B’s small door and went inside.  No one was in the small foyer to greet me and it took me a while to determine that I needed to call someone’s cell phone who would then come to take care of check-in.  As I waited, I couldn’t help but wonder what I had gotten myself into – an inauspicious beginning to be sure.

And then I met the inn keeper and climbed the stairs into a magnificent, refurbished space that embodied the elegance and beauty of 110 years ago while reflecting the comforts and innovations of 2018.  I soon learned (and experienced for myself) that the near West Side of Chicago is far from deserted.  Rather, it is a quickly growing hotspot for Gen Z and Millennials, with housing construction on every street, restaurants, fragrant coffee shops and more.

These initial impressions of The Publishing House are a fitting metaphor for the experience we shared.  The ten PDI project directors represented a broadly diverse group, both in terms of settings served, roles and ages.  When considered individually each one of these characteristics opens up a world of difference between the participants, whether it be in how we work, our independence within our respective organizations and our generational experience of the world around us.  Taken together, they might have led to an insurmountable stumbling block.

Thanks to outstanding framing by the event organizers from Rosov Consulting, early on in the proceedings I began to understand the import and power of the experience, both in building relationships with colleagues who are engaged in the same, yet different, work and in gaining insight into the nature of the field of Jewish education in 2018.  These two pieces are inextricably connected: the directors of the ten PDI projects are playing an important role in shaping the field in the image of their vision and aspirations for Jewish learning in our time and in the future.

As someone well into the second half of my career, I spend a great deal of time considering how the field is changing in response to our changing world and how I can best leverage my experience in service of the future (much like The Publishing House has seamlessly woven the past into the present and future).  Indeed, I often wonder how I might gain more understanding of and insight into the realities and dreams of the next generation.  And so, the gift of two days with colleagues from multiple generations and settings, allowed me (and all of us) to more deeply understand each other’s realities and the contours of the field of Jewish education as it is emerging. 

During the gathering, four project directors (myself included) presented their projects.  The presentations by Laynie Solomon of Svara: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva and Dr. Josh Lambert of the Yiddish Book Center’s project crystalized in my mind the dramatic generational shifts in the field and the power of the learning and dialogue we were experiencing.  The PDI/Svara project seeks to raise up a generation of teachers who are “bold and courageous teachers, transformers, and transmitters of Jewish tradition.” while the Yiddish Book Center’s Great Books project uses 2018 technological capacities to bring literature of a very different time and place to a new generation of middle and high school teachers in Jewish day schools.  Robbie Gringras of Makom brought into focus in a particularly profound way the joys and challenges of marrying the ongoing work of Israel education with the world of Moishe House, serving young people in their 20’s.  Perhaps more than any project, Robbie is charged with adapting and shifting not only the nature of the learning to meet the needs of this age group but also the expectations of the fluid and often unpredictable engagement that typifies Millennials and Gen X.

As the director of HUC-JIR’s Executive MA program in Jewish education, a hybrid online/face-to-face learning experience for Jewish educators working in all aspects of the field, I, along with my HUC-JIR colleagues, am continuously trying to understand the evolving nature of the field, the people whom we educate and the leaders we prepare.  As I listened to and experienced the work of my colleagues and engaged in sustained conversations with other project directors not mentioned here, I felt a profound shift in my grasp of the world Jewish educators and learners inhabit today and will inhabit in the years ahead.  During the time of the gathering, our current HUC-JIR Executive MA students were beginning a sequence of courses entitled Educational Practices. The sequence begins by asking students to delve into the question of “who are our learners.”  The next set of questions they will be addressing ask, “What matters to our learners?” and “What does learning look like today?”  The PDI gathering in Chicago, without question, brought home for me just how dramatically our field is changing and the consequent demands made upon current and future leaders to respond to these changes while remaining firmly rooted in an ancient tradition and the successes of our past which in turn will have an impact on the content and framing of the course sequence.

In the years ahead, as Jim Joseph Foundation PDI program directors continue to collaborate and learn from one another, and as the world around us continues to change at what some would say is a breakneck pace, my hope is that we will not only understand but also be able to articulate with greater clarity the nature and concrete work entailed in ensuring a vibrant and ever-evolving field of Jewish education

Dr. Lesley Litman is the Director of the Executive MA program in Jewish Education at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion

 

 

Professional Development for Professional Development Providers

The Foundation is pleased to share reflections and learnings from its two recent convenings on Leadership Development and Educator Training (below), respectively, both of which stemmed from the Foundation’s first open RFP last year. 

In the last year, the Foundation has conducted an experiment of sorts with professional directors of ten programs focused on training Jewish educators. Stemming from the Foundation’s first open RFP, these ten programs offer compelling, creative, high quality, and dynamic cohort-based professional development experiences for Jewish educators across a diverse spectrum of content and audiences.  As part of the initiative’s Professional Learning Community (PLC), the Foundation convened these directors last month for the first time. Because we realized that success would lie in the synergy of the group, our risk was in not knowing quite what to expect.  What we learned and experienced may be helpful for other funders and participants considering engaging in similar communities and convenings.

The convening agenda developed by Rosov Consulting (who also are collaborating with the PLC to evaluate and provide timely learning about the initiative) provided space to 1) get to know each other and our strengths, 2) review the program participant survey results – what do the data  say about the field and each program, 3) explore and discuss a case study of one program, 4) experience a “Taste of” presentations by four programs, and 5) participate in an improv session led by Second City designed to broaden participants’ creativity in problem-solving.

Throughout these experiences, the Foundation and participants grew more comfortable and more open during our time together. The benefits of being together in-person were palpable. We could be our whole selves, committed to the moment. Contrast this sentiment with how you might be on a conference call; the difference is stark.

Here are some key insights we are thinking about and on which we are reflecting:

  • From Reticence to Openness: While participants were understandably somewhat reticent—would this time away from my work and my home be worthwhile?—they all came in with open minds and open hearts. Their approach in this vein was integral to the success of the convening, as it led to more honest and deep conversations and sessions about the work they are doing.
  • Diversity Leads to Learnings: The diversity of the individuals created substantial opportunities for learning. Young professionals and veteran professionals can each offer insights and important perspectives to the others. Participants from small organizations and those from large institutions can share experiences to inform the other’s approach. Even the fact that some participants were there more for personal growth, while others wanted to strengthen their professional skills, fostered healthy give-and-take.
  • 
And More Learnings: The diversity of the programs was quickly identified too – from delivery modes, to target audiences, to the content of the curricula. Even though this diversity may have originally been perceived as a barrier—what can I possibly learn from someone whose program is so different from mine?—it was eventually appreciated as Rosov Consulting brought relevant insights to the fore.
  • Commonalities are Powerful Connections: Among this group defined by differences noted above, commonalities among participants took longer to identify. But, this meant that the process of identifying commonalities was a powerful means to strengthen relationships among professionals as they realized their convening colleagues also worked in areas and/or settings such as Israel, day schools, institutional change, millennials, and more.
  • Opportunities for Continued Learning: Being together in such an immersive environment enabled the group to quickly identify areas for continued learning, such as how to support participants when they return into their work environments; the challenges of online learning and relationship building; and how different programs think about alumni support. Many convening participants noted the parallels to their own individual work. After all, these program directors form a learning cohort, just as they oversee their program’s learning cohort of educators. The irony was not lost on them that they face some of these same challenges.
  • Strengthening the Foundation and Grantees’ Relationship: The Foundation-grantee relationship building was important and energized by being together. As program officers, we were excited to have face to face time with the program directors to get to know them (and they us) both professionally and personally.
  • The Right Space: The space of the retreat was unique and set the tone for a few enjoyable days of reflecting, connecting with each other and connecting larger successes and challenges to individual programs, laughing and relaxing.
  • Now, We Wait: It was gratifying to hear some lament that a year was too long to wait to see each other in person again.

The PLC is an integral component of the Educator Training initiative—and the convening proved to be an essential part of the PLC thus far. From past experience, the Foundation understands that program directors often work in silos, do not view their work as part of a larger field of Jewish education, and would benefit from more shared learning and networking. We are excited about the promise of the PLC and the outcomes that come from being together, in-person, for consecutive days. Yes, our experiment was worth it. Our goal is for program directors to learn from each other, for the Foundation to learn about future grantmaking, and for the field to learn too.

More to come in years two and three!

Dawne Bear Novicoff is Chief Operating Officer of the Jim Joseph Foundation. Stacie Cherner is Senior Program Officer at the Foundation. Read the piece on the Leadership Development Convening here.

 

Creating Soulful Communities

When we at Ayeka began speaking about Soulful Education over a decade ago – and even dared to use the “G-word,” eyes rolled and conversations ended. Today, we see schools competing to bring their educators to our Soulful Education trainings where Ayeka helps teachers to focus on their inner lives, as a vital first step in transmitting Jewish values and teachings.

The outcomes are substantial:

  • More attentive listening; less posturing;
  • greater honesty and humility (“I’m a work in progress”);
  • more compassion and less jealousy (“Everyone else is a work in progress as well”);
  • improved teamwork and bonding – community progress can’t be achieved alone;
  • and the courage to keep daring and even fail.

Ten years on and there is less judgment, fear and in-fighting and more honesty, harmony and cooperation across a cadre of Ayeka-trained educators spanning the Jewish denominational spectrum. These educators view Jewish education from a more soulful, God-centered perspective in which their personal connection to Judaism matches or surpasses the breadth of their Jewish knowledge.

What if we replicate this result among Jewish leaders who are responsible for steering Jewish communal life? Could we foster greater respect, tolerance and cohesion in the Jewish communities in which we live and work?

We propose building ‘Soulful Communities’ in which Jewish leaders strengthen their efforts to work more closely together, without ego, to advance not only their own organization’s mission, but that of their community as well. Because it is ultimately on the communal level – and in the dynamic between organizations serving the community – that will define whether it is working cohesively, directing its resources to best serve local needs and the Jewish world at large.

Jewish communities face rampant assimilation, growing disinterest by Millenials, and a plethora of organizations pulling in different directions. In this environment, it is vital for organizational leaders to find common purpose and to pull together.

We believe that communities need to discover their souls as much as individuals do. The soul of a community longs for the integration of its constituent parts in the same way an individual’s soul needs the body’s parts to function harmoniously. Soulful communities seek common purpose and unity, even while acknowledging and respecting the differences of its various parts.

How do Jewish leaders create a soulful community?

Through bringing together community stakeholders to focus, individually and collectively, on their own inner lives. In cohorts, seminars and online forums, participants integrate Jewish spiritual principles and practices that facilitate personal growth which translate into improved cross-institutional relationships.

Supported by leading change-agents and funders in the educational arena, including AVI CHAI, Jim Joseph, Kohelet and Mayberg Foundations, Ayeka nurtures soulfulness at leading day schools and high schools across North America. We are also replicating this in the family sphere through our “Soulful Parenting” and “Soulful Individual” tracks.

We are confident that transforming a community into a Soulful Community will foster greater respect, tolerance and cohesion among today’s Jewish leaders.

To learn more, contact: [email protected]

David Kahn is Chairman of the Board of Ayeka.

Source: eJewishPhilanthropy

Avodah

Avodah is special because it is welcoming of people who have different levels of Jewish education and people with different levels of different experiences with social justice…by being in Avodah, I realized that not only do I belong in the Jewish community and that I have a right to be there, but that I can actually be a leader there and that has inspired me to be more of a leader following Avodah
– Ursula Wagner, Avodah Chicago Justice Fellowship ‘17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3c-EM6-guA

Ursula Wagner is a clinical social worker and union leader at Heartland Alliance where she works with individuals experiencing homelessness. She is just one of many young adults engaging in Jewish community and learning through Avodah and their passion for social justice.

With a central tenet that justice is a Jewish value, Avodah trains and supports Jewish leaders so they have the skills to advance social justice and have a deep understanding about how their values connect to their Jewish identities.

Avodah’s training, tools, and the intellectual, spiritual and communal framework sustains the work of Jewish leaders and their  lifelong commitment to social justice. Through its national Jewish Service Corps and Justice Fellowship programs, Avodah provides the gateway for new generations of leaders to find meaning and inspiration in their Judaism to create a better world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRuc2CSiOFw

When I finished college, I really wanted to continue down my path of social justice and I also really wanted to re engage with Judaism as an adult. Avodah offered both of those things exactly
– Danny Brown Avodah Jewish Service Corps Member DC ‘18, Danny Brown is currently spending his Avodah year as a digital literacy instructor at Byte Back, a nonprofit in DC that offers computer and tech training to adults entering or reentering the workforce.

Through Avodah, young Jewish leaders learn to connect their Jewish values to the most pressing issues today.

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Avodah’s service leadership programs.

 

JOFEE Fellowship: Learnings as the Field Grows

“This is the single most impactful Jewish experience of my life 
 I have probably never felt more empowered to go and help build the world we want to see.”
Henry Schmidt, Cohort 3, Shalom Institute

Three years ago, Rachel Binstock was ready for a change after close to two years at Eden Village Camp – a Jewish summer camp focused on nature experience and organic farm to table community – first as a farm apprentice and educator, then as assistant farm director. Wanting to continue growing her skills as a Jewish educator and professional, to move forward in her career, and to deepen her roots in community building and organizing, Rachel applied to the first cohort of the JOFEE Fellowship – an 11-month cohort-based certification and work-placement program bolstered by four weeks of intensive training throughout the year, with mentorship and peer support.

Rachel was the kind of young adult we had in mind in 2015 when we (representatives from Jim Joseph Foundation, Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah, and Wilderness Torah) created the JOFEE Fellowship in response to growing communal demand and an ever-larger crop of ambitious and talented early-career Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education (JOFEE) professionals. Rachel had experience in secular outdoor and environmental education, a strong Jewish background, and a series of immersive and inspiring JOFEE experiences at Eden Village and also at Hazon’s Food Conference and Teva Seminar programs. As she wrote in her JOFEE Fellowship application, Rachel hoped to expand her JOFEE skillset and “to bring the beauty and power of Eden’s experiential education into a community more directly 
 My dream is to build community around growing food.”

Full-time work experience at her JOFEE Fellowship placement at Urban Adamah in Berkeley, CA allowed Rachel to do exactly that. She was hired to stay on as full-time staff after the Fellowship and now, two years after beginning the Fellowship in May 2016, Rachel has just launched the Summer 2018 cohort of Urban Adamah‘s own three-month Fellowship in her new role as Fellowship Director.

Rachel’s JOFEE story is one of many. At just one year out from graduation of the first cohort, we see impact on the JOFEE field, and in communities, organizations, and fellows themselves. Here’s what Rachel Binstock and other JOFEE Fellows say about their experience in the program and the influence it has on their Jewish learning, engagement, and career ambitions.

A Field Evolving and Scaling

When we created this Fellowship the goals were around recruitment, field-wide growth, complementary fundraising, and low attrition. Hazon has been effective in accomplishing each of these. Through the completion of two full cohorts, only one person has fully left the Jewish and environmental fields and more than 70 percent remain fully employed to implement JOFEE programming. JOFEE programming also is now sustained at 90 percent of the host institutions, and more than 95 percent of organizations plan to continue or expand their JOFEE programming post-Fellowship. Several organizations have subsequently hired these educators as full-time professionals. Critically, built into the Fellowship model is a combination of funding support both through the Foundation and through local funders who provide support for Fellows’ salaries and to supplement Fellowship program costs.

Moreover, after two completed cohorts and a third launched in March 2018, the program’s impact is seen both in breadth and depth:

  • More than 50 aspiring educators have been trained in the Fellowship, led by Hazon’s hallmark Teva (nature) program; Camp Tawonga’s Jewish Outdoor Leadership Training (JOLT); Outward Bound; BEETLES: Better Environmental Education, Teaching, Learning, Expertise, and Sharing; and Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy.
  • Fellows have worked in 33 organizations around the country and have reached over 58,000 participants (and counting).
  • While 75 percent of the participants have been placed in JOFEE specific organizations (i.e. Hazon, Urban Adamah, Wilderness Torah) many have brought their learnings to more mainstream Jewish community organizations (Federations, JCCs, etc.).

In advance of the launch of the fourth cohort in late winter 2019 – host applications are currently open (through August 15) and Fellow applications will open in mid-August – we are reflecting on takeaways through both internal learning and external evaluation with consulting firm Informing Change. Their findings continue to inform the growth and evolution of the JOFEE field. As we reflect on strengths of the current model and opportunities for continued growth and evolution, we also hope to provide useful application for the broader field of Jewish education and communal engagement. Here’s what we’re seeing:

  • Career pathway found when Fellows align their interests and passions with their work

In all cases, fellows had personal passions for nature, outdoor pursuits, sustainability, and food and/or farming. The fellowship enabled them to integrate these passions with Jewish practice and offered tools, mentorship, and experience for Fellows to effectively lead JOFEE experiences for youth and young children. Blending their passions with space to practice as educators led to significant professional growth and helped Fellows envision a career pathway.

  • The most successful programs create hands–on opportunities to connect Jewish tradition to the outdoors, food, farming, and environment education

Jewish tradition is rooted in a collective relationship to nature, food, and soil. JOFEE Fellows developed vibrant new programs such as Torah Theater: Ancestral Wisdom in the Wilderness (Becca Heisler, Wilderness Torah); Shofar Stalk: Wandering to Freedom (Miki Levran, Pearlstone Center); and Shrinking Our Waste: Solar-Powered Shrinky Dinks (Margot Sands, Ekar Farm), among others.

  • Role of mentorship

Similarly, support from mentors with extensive experience in JOFEE and Jewish communal engagement was important for Fellows. Mentors provided both programmatic expertise and professional support in navigating the complexities of nonprofit workplaces. Mentors also benefited from seeing themselves as part of the larger field of JOFEE and broadening their exposure to JOFEE work happening around the country through interactions with fellows and through mentor training and collaboration opportunities both online and in-person at the annual JOFEE Network Gathering.

  • Length of Fellow’s time in the host organizations

Fellows spend the vast majority of their time directly working in the organization over an 11 month period. This added critical staff capacity which was vital to expanding the programming and the reach of host organizations. Even in large institutions, Fellows created opportunities to reach new demographics through fresh JOFEE programming and content. Many host organizations were able to hire fellows to continue post-fellowship as full-time salaried staff by leveraging the programmatic impact of the fellowship year.

Informing Change’s quantitative findings support the Fellowship’s model detailed above, and demonstrate genuine growth among professionals in the field:

  • 100% of Fellows found the orientation and training valuable
  • 90% of Fellows and nearly 90% of supervisors report Fellows are well-prepared or extremely well-prepared for JOFEE engagement according to core Fellowship metrics
  • 88% of participants completing the Fellowship now describe themselves as JOFEE professionals (45% described themselves as JOFEE professionals beforehand)
  • 88% of Fellows found the mentorship experience valuable
  • 75% of supervisors felt that Hazon’s professional development opportunities for Fellows helped their organizations.

Opportunities and the Future

We are eager to see how this emerging crop of professionals will grow and evolve not only JOFEE but the work of Jewish education broadly as they continue to actualize their personal passions into meaningful professional work. At the same time, we see opportunities to increase the diversity of Fellowship participants (who are disproportionately white and female), to broaden funding for JOFEE professionals at the local level, and to create an effective “transition year” model for both fellows and host organizations that seek to continue their efforts in the field. Addressing these and other opportunities are part of JOFEE’s story as the field evolves to encompass more professionals and more programs engaging people in Jewish life and learning in deeply meaningful ways.

Judith Belasco is Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer at Hazon.
Yoshi Silverstein is Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon.
Steven Green is Senior Director, Grants Management and Compliance for the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Jewish Emergent Network Prepares for First-Ever Conference

The Jewish Emergent Network is comprised of the leaders of seven path‐breaking Jewish communities from across the country: IKAR in Los Angeles, Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkan in Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York. They join in the spirit of collaboration to revitalize the field of Jewish engagement, with a commitment to both traditionally rooted and creative approaches that welcome people into rich and meaningful Jewish life.

Now the Network is preparing to gather with thought leaders from around North America June 1-3 for (RE)VISION: Experiments & Dreams From Emerging Jewish Communities, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the the Network organizations.

Registration for (RE)VISION is open to the public at at www.JewishEmergentNetwork.org.

The three full days of content will feature laboratories, galleries, interactive experiments, panels, guest speakers and other creative learning modules, with plenty of time built in for networking, davening, singing and creating community.

(RE)VISION will also be the official introduction of the Network’s second cohort of select, early career rabbinic fellows and the farewell sendoff for the first cohort. The goal of the Network’s hallmark Rabbinic Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, with the skills to initiate independent communities and who are valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues.

Joining this incredible Fellowship of rabbis and innovators has been the best possible kickoff to my rabbinic career.
-Rabbi Lauren Henderson, currently the Network Fellow at Mishkan in Chicago

https://vimeo.com/223676104


These rabbis who founded these emergent communities are my Jewish superheroes. They are redefining what is Jewish practice and Jewish life, and what Jewish community can really feel like. It can feel deeply welcoming and open but also, they are offering a Judaism that demands a lot of the people who walk in.
-Keilah Lebell, incoming second cohort Network Fellow at IKAR

Along with the Jim Joseph Foundation, additional support for the Network is provided by the William Davidson Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next two years.

Boulder ECE Educators Take Part in National Program

Boulder and Denver early learning educators from our Jewish Early Childhood Education (ECE) centers are sharing their talents and increasing their knowledge through a new Cross Community Learning Exchange to elevate the importance of Jewish ECE. Ten local ECE educators are taking part in a peer learning cohort with ten ECE educators from the Greater Chicago area to strengthen their teaching skills. The group met in Boulder in early April and will meet in Chicago later this year. Monthly virtual meetings will take place in between.

Jewish ECE is a key program area of JEWISHcolorado, supporting its mission of engaging the next generation in Jewish life. Studies point to the first five years of a child’s life as the most important years for building cognition, character and identity. With these developmental milestones in mind, Boulder and Denver Jewish early childhood educators strive to engage families and weave Jewish values and culture into daily experiences at ECE centers through top quality teaching.

JEWISHcolorado’s Director of Early Childhood Education, Judi Morosohk, said local educators are thrilled with this national recognition and excited to share their efforts with other communities. “Collaboration with others always provides a path to new insights and learning and we look forward to the impact this learning exchange will have on both of our communities and the overall field of Jewish ECE.”

The Community Learning Exchange is made possible by grants from The Jim Joseph Foundation and Rose Community Foundation. Rose Community Foundation Senior Program Officer Lisa Farber Miller shares, “Jewish ECE centers play an influential, yet often unrecognized, role in introducing children and their families to Jewish life and provide a venue for lasting Jewish friendships.”

Boulder and Denver Jewish ECE currently involves 220 educators teaching 1,100 children in 11 schools. “These educators are working to build healthy, successful learners and provide current and future Jewish engagement for Colorado families,” said Morosohk.

Michele Weingarden is the Communications Manager for JEWISHcolorado. Founded in 1946 and formerly known as Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado, JEWISHcolorado is the umbrella community organization focused on stewarding and strengthening Jewish community in Colorado, Israel and the world. JEWISHcolorado is a member of the Jewish Federations of North America, which is among the top ten charities on the continent. JEWISHcolorado raises and distributes funds in support of a wide variety of programs and partner organizations both locally and globally. For more information, visit www.JEWISHcolorado.org

Source: Boulder Jewish News

In an Increasingly Transactional Culture, Don’t Forget the Relational

Technology is spreading at ever increasing speeds.  It took the smartphone ten years to become a cultural norm, less than a third of the time that it took other everyday technologies to hit the mainstream. Other technologies like online food delivery and automated cars are expected to account for larger shares of their respective markets. The practical applications of these technologies seem limitless and save users inordinate amounts of time and energy.

Yet as technology is advancing, what is happening to human culture and interaction?  As more products are ordered from a computer or cellular device, and reliance on those devices is increasing to higher plateaus, there is less opportunity for meaningful human interaction. In 1995, Robert Putnam wrote his initial essay that led to the award-winning Bowling Alone. Putnam was able to point to a 43 percent drop in family dinners and a 35 percent reduction in having friends over in the preceding 25 years. This did not even account for the introduction of Amazon and eBay, in 1994 and 1995 respectively, or the progression of the more recent 23 years. Putnam further elucidated this point in his 2003 book Better Together: Restoring the American Community.  

Many of the daily functions that Americans undertake are reduced to transactions. While this often improves the customer’s stated satisfaction, it is arguably inhibiting the customer experience. Sitting in one’s home and ordering clothing, a kid’s toy, or food online can be efficient. But, that experience is vastly different than going into a store, particularly a neighborhood store, and engaging with a salesperson—maybe even establishing an ongoing relationship—before making a purchase.

There has been a treasure trove of literature on transactional vs. relational approaches to marketing, customer service, and, of most interest for our purposes, grantmaking.  “Transactional” is more professional, formal, singular, and direct.  “Relational” is more cordial, informal, multifaceted, and flexible.  Each can be useful at different times.

In a transactional approach to grantmaking, formality reigns supreme.  Success and failure are clearly defined, and dollars are doled out for one and rescinded for the other.  There is a clear beginning and endpoint, and the negotiation of terms is in the hands of the grantmakers rather than the grantee.  In a relational approach, there is a sacrifice of control on the part of the grantmaker that often leads to a greater mutual respect and partnership.  There can still be measurable outcomes, but as circumstances oscillate, these are subject to change as well.  Failure is also not as clearly defined as formative assessments in these instances, which can allow for mid-course corrections and pivots.

When are transactional grants appropriate?  Whenever there is a one-off approach to a particular problem with a relatively concrete solution and limited oversight, a transactional approach works. It is more efficient, clear cut, and defined.  The Jim Joseph Foundation, which fosters compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews, has made investments in this regard following natural disasters and other emergency situations (such as financial) where a grant can help people return to their daily lives, including Jewish learning for their families.

When are relational grants appropriate?  When a funder desires to establish a longer-term interactive approach with an organization or project and has the human capital to provide meaningful feedback and oversight, a relational approach works. Moreover, when a desirable outcome is the creation of a cohesive, ongoing, system of interactions, the relational approach is more likely than a transactional one to help create this environment. Simply, “Relational” is friendlier, iterative, and lasting.  For the Jim Joseph Foundation, relational grants with grantee-partners Hillel International, BBYO, Moishe House, Foundation for Jewish Camp, and others offer the right framework to share important lessons with each other and with the field over numerous initiatives and years. As a result of this approach, new initiatives are created, evaluated, and improved that advance the missions of all parties.

As technology brings new innovations at increasingly fast rates, the appeal of transactional experiences is likely to continue increasing as well. But, from a grantmaking perspective, we should not forsake the relational approach, even with its challenges and lack of immediate efficiencies. Depending on a funder and grantee’s goals and other organizational factors, both approaches should be considered as viable options that can serve both parties well.

Steven Green is Senior Director of Grant Management and Compliance at the Jim Joseph Foundation

cross-posted in GrantCraft

 

Registration Open For (RE)VISION Conference in Los Angeles

From June 1 – 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, the Jewish Emergent Network will gather with thought leaders from around North America for (RE)VISION: Experiments & Dreams From Emerging Jewish Communities, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the Jewish Emergent Network organizations: IKAR in L.A., Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkanin Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York.

“Conference participants can expect to encounter innovative approaches to ritual and prayer, experience a diverse spectrum of music, explore vibrant models of radically welcoming community engagement, develop strategies for navigating justice and moral leadership, and be immersed in the best practices of the Jewish Emergent Network communities and other pioneering Jewish organizations from around the country,” says Melissa Balaban, Chair of the Network and Executive Director of IKAR.

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

(RE)VISION will also be the official introduction of the Network’s second cohort of select, early career rabbinic fellows and the farewell sendoff for the first cohort. The goal of the Network’s hallmark Rabbinic Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, with the skills to initiate independent communities and who are valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues.

The second cohort will follow in the path of the first cohort to become steeped in the spirit and best practices of the Network organizations. Each will finish the two-year Fellowship poised to educate and serve an array of target populations, especially Jews not currently engaged in Jewish life, young adults and families with young children. While engrossed in the work of thriving Network communities, the Fellows will also receive in-depth training and immersive mentoring as part of a national cohort of creative, vision-driven rabbis eager to invest in the reanimation of North American Jewish life.

The just-hired cohort of Network Fellows includes: Keilah Lebell at IKAR in Los Angeles, Josh Weisman at Kavana in Seattle, Tarlan Rabizadeh at The Kitchen in San Francisco, Jeff Stombaugh at Mishkan in Chicago, Jesse Paikin at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Emily Cohen at Lab/Shul in New York. (You can see their bios, here.) The outgoing cohort includes Rabbi Nate DeGroot (IKAR), Rabbi Sydney Danziger (Kavana), Rabbi Jonathan Bubis (The Kitchen), Rabbi Lauren Henderson (Mishkan), Rabbi Suzy Stone (Sixth & I), Rabbi Kerry Chaplin (Lab/Shul), and Rabbi Joshua Buchin (Romemu).

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

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 William Davidson Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next two years.

Source: eJewishPhilanthropy

15 Years of the Jewish New Teacher Project

Well-trained and supported teachers are integral to high quality and effective Jewish Day Schools. They deserve opportunities to continuously refine and improve their skills, and, equally as important, must have a desire to remain at their schools.

Now in its 15th year, the Jewish New Teacher Project (JNTP) addresses both of these areas, helping Day Schools offer support to new and veteran teachers in Jewish and general studies through their intensive mentoring and mentor training programs.

With full conviction I can say that I would not have stayed in teaching if not for the mentoring I received through JNTP!
– Tamar Kaplan Appel, Assistant Principal, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
former JNTP new teacher; current JNTP mentor

What began with a select group of Jewish Day Schools in Metropolitan New York, JNTP now engages mentors and new teachers elsewhere in the east coast and Midwest. Over the past 15 years, JNTP has worked with more than 1,000 educators in Jewish day schools across North America, helping schools achieve teaching excellence by increasing teacher effectiveness and teacher retention and by bringing the language of teaching standards, collaboration and professional development into school culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcOHfWz4644

JNTP currently is training 154 mentors to work intensively with 174 new teachers from 69 schools across the country, with program hubs in New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Miami. JNTP also coaches early-career administrators and, between its Baltimore coaching cohort and one-on-one coaching work, has supported 47 new administrators in 25 schools. This year JNTP’s work is influencing the education experience of over 18,000 students in Jewish day schools.

JNTP’s model was adapted from the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz, California, which trains veteran teachers to provide two years of intensive mentoring to support new teachers in public schools across the country. JNTP’s efforts elevate teaching and learning in the world of Jewish education and enable schools to have more effective educators and school leaders positioned to help every student meets his or her potential.

The Jewish New Teacher Project started as a pilot program of The AVI CHAI Foundation in 2003. The Jim Joseph Foundation continues to invest in JNTP today.

Getting ready for summer

Foundation for Jewish Camp launches new safety program

Summer camp is an entirely immersive experience.

That is a jargon-y way of saying that when you are a child or a teenager or a young staff member, and you’re in camp, camp is your entire world. It surrounds you; you breathe it and you move through it and it coats your skin and it’s all you see and hear and touch and feel and know. While you’re at camp, nothing else matters except vaguely; if camp works for you as it does for so many campers, the rest of the year is a countdown toward camp.

Jewish summer camping is one of the most effective ways of teaching and socializing and orienting young Jews. During the time they’re at camp, Jewish campers at Jewish camps live entirely Jewishly. Their parents can choose from a range of Jewish camps — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Zionist, progressive, Yiddishist, artsy, sporty — and their children will come home with an understanding of that part of the Jewish world bonded at the molecular level.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp (not Camping, or Camps, just plain stark Camp) understands that and supports that range of Jewish camps. This week, the foundation held its seventh biennial conference, the Leaders Assembly; this year, it met in Baltimore.

Jeremy Fingerman (All photos courtesy FJC)

The camp leaders, educators, and foundation heads who met there explored the interplay of camp and the outside world, which waits right outside every camp’s borders. This year, “we had just shy of 800 people,” the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s executive director, Jeremy Fingerman of Englewood, said. “At this conference we unveiled a new initiative to prevent harassment and abuse and bullying and inappropriate language and behavior in camp communities.”

The Foundation plans to spend $100,000 on what it calls the Shmira Initiative, to “change camp culture on all levels, implementing a shift in staff programming, training, policy and enforcement around issues of gender, sex and power,” according to its press release.

Shmira means guard duty; in Jewish summer camps, it’s the counselors’ job, making sure that their charges are safe at night. The Foundation will take that term from the literal to the metaphoric level as it “embodies the social and individual responsibility every community member has to ensure a safe environment.”

So what does that mean?

“We believe that our mission at the Foundation is to help the field adapt to rapid, unprecedented change,” Mr. Fingerman said. “We are helping to create camp communities that reflect the best of Jewish values.

“Right now, in North America, we have been experiencing a breakthrough of consciousness of sex and gender and power and violence, and for sure there has been a new spotlight shining on power and exploitation,” he said. “These issues affect all our communities, and we have to address them. Working in partnership with parents and authorities and all our Jewish institutions, we believe that we really have a chance to define what prevention and response plans are, and to lead the discussion of cultural changes in our community.”

To begin, he continued, “We will raise the awareness of camps as they go through their staff programming to create camps that are caring and safe. This is something we have been talking about for a while.”

It is important to remember that the problems that the Shmira Initiative will address are not unique to camps, he added. They’re culturally pervasive, and to some extent they’re generational — millennials feel pressured in ways that their elders did not, and the generation below them, the iGen, as Mr. Fingerman called them, who are today’s campers and young staffers, feel that even more profoundly.

A panel discussion features, from left, Julie Beren Platt; Lisa Eisen, Barry Finestone, Rachel Garbow Monroe, and Deborah Meyer.

And although the problems the initiative is set to tackle are society-wide, “we had a panel, moderated by our board chair, of foundation heads, powerhouses in the Jewish world,” come to talk and to offer help. Those leaders included the Foundation’s own new board chair, Julie Beren Platt, Lisa Eisen, vice president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; Barry Finestone, president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation; Rachel Garbow Monroe, president and CEO of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation; and Deborah Meyer, CEO of Moving Traditions. (Irrelevant but totally fun fact — Ms. Platt is the mother of actor Ben Platt of Dear Evan Hansen, who has credited Camp Ramah in Ojai, California, as one of the places where he began to refine his craft. Don’t miss the YouTube video of him on Late Night with Seth Meyers, singing “Luck Be a Lady Tonight” from Guys and Dolls in Hebrew; he learned it, he said, by playing Sky Masterson at a Ramah production.)

“I am so proud they came to our conference,” Mr. Fingerman said. “I am so proud that they can see that we in the field of Jewish camp really want to step up and address this issue in an important way.”

Deborah Meyer

“Moving Traditions has been focused on moral development issues for a long time,” Ms. Meyer said. “How do we help understand who we are? We have been working with experts on healthy sexuality programs for years.”

Now, “we have gone to camps to train the staff, who are mainly teenagers or young adults, on issues of body image, bullying, sexuality, and the pressure to hook up,” Ms. Meyer said. It’s complicated.

For one thing, campers and counselors live in the outside world, they bring the attitudes they learn in that world, or online, with them to camp, Ms. Meyer said. For another, what she called “the pressure to hook up” often can be reframed as the communal desire to have young Jews date each other, which is in itself a good thing. “But on the other hand it can be inappropriate and problematic,” she said, insofar as it pushes often age-inappropriate sexuality on kids who are not yet ready for it. “We have come to understand that more in the last few years.”

Any kid — any person — who has access to a computer — in other words, just about everyone — sees deeply disturbing things that they cannot fit into their understanding of the world, and it can be warping. “Any kid who has a smart device today is seeing pornography, either looking for it or stumbling across it,” Ms. Meyer said. “And they are freaked out by it. We have had boys say, ‘Do I have to choke a girl?’ What they see is so aberrant.

“And girls don’t know that sex is something that they can enjoy. They learn online that sex is something that girls and women do for boys and men. They don’t know that it’s intimacy, that they do for and with each other, and they do it for love.

A scene from the Special Olympics at the JCC Camp Chi in Chicago.

“That is where Jewish values come in,” she said. “We don’t want to say that the body is bad.” And camp is embodied.” It’s physical; it’s not a disembodied intellectual experience. “You are living there, all summer long, inside your body. It’s an opportunity to teach the right values. “Sexuality is about intimacy,” she said. “You don’t get a kiss, or steal a kiss. You kiss with somebody.” It’s about choice and caring.

When Moving Traditions works with staffers, either as they get to camp to prepare for the summer or once camp has started, there is a two-step process. “The first part is when the staffers find out about the camp’s stated policies and the second part is when they talk about how things really happen,” Ms. Meyer said. “They find out that they have great policies and values but they are not always fulfilled.” Sometimes the language of teasing can be hurtful; “the words can be homophobic or gender stereotypes, and full of body image objectification. And it is not conscious.”

What does she mean? For example, campers often are encouraged to pair off for Shabbat walks; when a boy gets back to his bunk, his friends “might put a chair in the middle of the room, and he is asked to sit there and tell them exactly what happened on the walk.” Hand-holding, kissing, the sort of intimacy that is appropriate for teenagers but not meant to be shared with anyone else.

“It is not a conscious thing,” Ms. Meyer said. “It is not as if they are pushing boys to push girls to have sex. But it comes out of their tradition, out of the camp culture that has developed over many decades.

Campers at Ramah in the Poconos celebrate Israel Day.

“It is inappropriate,” she said. “This counselor may be a 19-year-old and this is what happened to him when he was in this camp. He might not remember that not all boys want to do this. It is not coming from a place of venality, or of consciously trying to pursue an agenda. He would have thought that it was funny and sweet.” But it’s not.

These exercises help the staff assess the differences between the camp’s beliefs, policies, and goals, and the reality of camp life. The fact that it falls short isn’t shocking — it’s a human institution — but pointing it out helps staffers keep their real goals and values in mind.

“We work with counselors to help them see the issues for themselves, and then we help them figure out how to approach the kids,” Ms. Meyer said.

“In the earlier grades, we find that crushes are kind of pushes. This is an unconscious agenda, not a planned curriculum, but somehow the culture fosters the ‘Who do you have a crush on? Who do you want to be a couple with?’ when you are 8 or 9. But you’re not necessarily interested then, so why push it? Even when the kids get older, how do we foster a healthy sexuality?

“When I say sexuality, I am not just talking about intercourse,” she added. “I am talking about feelings. Feeling interested. Feeling excited. For most people, this starts happening around puberty, and we want to be able to acknowledge it and celebrate it, and also set boundaries around what is ethical and what is normal and what is not.

“Judaism is about discerning differences and setting boundaries. It is about what is Shabbat and what is chol.”

Welcoming Shabbat at URJ Camp Harlam in Pennsylvania.

There is a balance that it is necessary to remember, Ms. Meyer added. It is easy, when you talk about the Shmira Initiative and the problems it has been established to counter, to forget the joys and overwhelming value of Jewish summer camp. That would be a huge mistake.

“We have aspects of our tradition that are so beautiful, and we can access the best of comprehensive secular sexuality education and social and emotional learning, and we can connect those things,” Ms. Meyer said. “That is what Moving Traditions does. Our approach to Jewish teaching and Jewish wisdom is to show Jewish counselors and Jewish educators how to bring this teaching, this understanding of what it means to be a Jewish person into the teenage years, and then young adulthood.”

In trying to help young Jewish campers and counselors deal with the issues of sexuality that the Me Too movement has unearthed, we must not overlook the value of camp. “The good news is that we are paying attention to these things,” Ms. Meyer said. “We are working with camps across the country that really want to do it right, to integrate a healthy way of looking at it. That’s because camp culture can be so positive. We are working with camps across the country to truly foster a very positive and healthy camp culture.

“The good news is that we are paying attention to these things. How wonderful for Jewish families who send their kids to camp, who are looking to address issues from our secular world that impact our children, whether they go to public school or day school. Camp is where kids really learn to be members of a community, which is such a good thing for the Jewish community.

“We are looking at how to create a community that is based on ethical, respectful, positive behavior.

“When you think about it, the role of Judaism is redemption,” Ms. Meyer said. “It is about bringing God into the world. When we pray, when we do acts of lovingkindness, we are tapping into the divine.

“At Jewish summer camp, we want to make more of that happen. We want to make it more and more clear that we are created b’zelem Elohim — in God’s image. So how fabulous — how excellent! — that the Jewish community is investing in creating a camp culture that allows us to greet each other b’zelem Elohim.”

Source: Joanne Palmer, New Jersey Jewish Standard

Reboot Readies for National Day of Unplugging

Founded 17 years ago, Reboot affirms the value of Jewish traditions and creates new ways for people to make them their own. Inspired by Jewish ritual and embracing the arts, humor, food, philosophy, and social justice, Reboot produces creative projects that spark the interest of young Jews and the larger community. Among Reboot’s productions are events, exhibitions, recordings, books, films, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) activity toolkits, and digital apps. Reboot also collaborates with local and national community partner organizations to adapt the resources to enrich their programming offerings for their own constituents. Since Reboot’s inception, 542 network members, over 1,000 community organization partners, and hundreds of thousands of people have looked to them to rekindle connections and re-imagine Jewish lives full of meaning, creativity, and joy.

Sign up to be a part of the 2018 National Day of Unplugging.

Last year’s annual National Day of Unplugging—the 24-hour respite from technology from sundown to sundown on the first Shabbat of March—had a record-breaking year, engaging over 45,000 individuals, with 275 programs. Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the National Day of Unplugging has reached over 136 million people (and has been covered by more than 930 online, broadcast and print media outlets). The 24 hours includes live events across the country – including yoga, indoor rock climbing, analog-only parties, and more – which all celebrate people’s commitment to be more thoughtful about unplugging with Reboot’s signature cell phone sleeping bags and “I Unplug To _ Signs.” Since its inception, the National Day of Unplugging has reached over 112,000 participants with more than 1,000 events.

It was so refreshing to spend an evening unplugged, and connecting with people. It was a great reminder that our technology can distract us from the wonderful people standing in front of us. After attending the unplugged party I made a point to tell my friends that we need to start putting our phones away when we are together. – UNPLUG LA participant, 20s, Venice

It’s not too late to sign up to host your own unplugging event in your community or take the personal pledge to unplug on the new website. As of this posting, there are already over 750 events set to take place around the world for this year’s National Day of Unplugging, a growth of over 275% from 2017. Reboot is also facilitating its own innovative unplugging experiences in the core cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Detroit – more information is available here.

Reboot is able to strike both a personal, communal and cultural chord through the do-it-yourself material it creates and distributes, and its tiered approach to programming. It produces signature events, such as large scale Unplugging parties or the construction of an experimental public “Sukkah City”, while also consulting with local and national community partner organizations to enrich their offerings with Reboot’s field-tested Jewish content. This includes everything from enhancing a local synagogue’s High Holiday program with an integrated 10Q experience, to helping a JCC launch a Jewish food festival that uses Beyond Bubbie’s programs of intergenerational exchange.

The event [reBar – an opportunity to reflect back to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah] was spectacular, interesting, meaningful, edgy a bit. I thought it was inclusive in a way that was really interesting to me. It is rare for me to go to an event which is a Jewish event, but where non-Jews are included. – reBar participant, 20s, East Bay

Reboot continues to look for new opportunities to fill a void in Jewish life. Reboot also is currently piloting Death Over Dinner – Jewish Edition in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, with partners IKAR and Death Over Dinner founder Michael Hebb, which works to break the culture taboos around death conversations and activate meaningful connection for people around their dinner tables through a Jewish lens.

Learn more about the many ways to engage in Jewish life through Reboot at Rebooters.net.