JEWISH LEARNINGWORKS AND THE JIM JOSEPH FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE THE LAUNCH OF WWW.BASISIsraeleducation.ORG

New website offers toolkit for Israel education and documents a 4 year, community-wide Israel Education Initiative designed to forge enduring connections between American Jewish students, schools and educators, and Israel.

SAN FRANCISCO – Jewish LearningWorks and the Jim Joseph Foundation today announce the launch of a new website (BASISIsraeleducation.org) documenting BASIS –– the Israel Education Day School project. BASIS, a four year Israel Education initiative, was piloted in the Bay Area.  This model of Israel education provides schools techniques and tools to integrate Israel education across a school curriculum.  Schools in the BASIS project successfully aligned Israel education with the school mission and embedded it at the core of their community and culture.

The San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation provided $7 million in funding for the first BASIS initiative, which brought together 11 Bay Area Jewish Day Schools, from Sacramento to San Jose, and reached over 2000 students. These schools and their educators devoted four years to making Israel education both a formal and integral part of student learning in their own communities.

Jewish LearningWorks (formerly the San Francisco Bureau of Jewish Education) led the initiative. The iCenter, a national hub supporting Israel education, partnered with Jewish LearningWorks and provided technical support. While the funded initiative is completed, the educational work and innovation continue at each school. The new website documents BASIS, its methods, achievements and lessons learned.  The site is designed as a guide for educators and others interested in advancing effective Israel education.

“We are grateful for the vision of the Jim Joseph Foundation in catalyzing this initiative and for the expert assistance we received from iCenter, enabling us to offer our schools the opportunity to re-imagine what Israel education might look like,” said David Waksberg, Chief Executive Officer of Jewish LearningWorks. “This website is the culmination of months of assessment, reflection, and analysis – of what worked well and what key design elements educators should consider in developing programs that help the learner develop a personal and meaningful relationship with Israel.”

BASIS provides a framework that supports students, educators and the greater school community in building personal, enduring connections to Israel and the Israeli people. BASIS employs several strategies for building these connections: arts and culture, travel, twinning and more.  A network of consultants, advisors and experts in specific fields work with each school to help them build an Israel Education Program that is woven into the fabric of the school.  Educators acquire a deeper knowledge of Israel content and pedagogic skills.  Participating schools join together to build both a local and Israeli network of Israel education professionals.  BASIS methodologies allow students to engage directly with Israel and the Israeli people, which positively impacts their knowledge of, and attitudes toward, Israel.

“The BASIS model is a powerful model of effective Israel education,” says Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “BASIS helped the pilot schools make Israel a focal point of their students’ lives and Jewish identities by creating learning experiences enabling students and faculty to develop relationships with Israel based on deep and meaningful personal connections. Jewish LearningWorks and the iCenter worked together in concert with the participating schools to identify strategies that have now been proven effective.”

“The iCenter sees BASIS as a groundbreaking initiative for deepening the engagement of Jewish day schools with Israel education,” says Anne Lanski, Executive Director of the iCenter. “The tools found on the website are a wonderful starting point for any Jewish day school or educational setting to begin a process of examining and enriching current practice around Israel education. Yasher Koach to Jewish LearningWorks for helping Israel Education in Jewish day schools reach this important milestone.”

“We are excited to share the model and lessons learned with others in the field,” adds Edelsberg. “With the entire BASIS story accessible on the new website, communities throughout the country will have the tools and knowledge to apply this in their day schools as well.”

About JewishLearningWorks:

Jewish LearningWorks is changing the way that Jewish learning works. Every day we reach, teach and ignite a passion for Jewish learning in Jews of all ages and backgrounds, because we believe Jewish learning is fundamental to Jewish life and helps us deepen our impact on the world. www.jewishlearningworks.org

About the Jim Joseph Foundation

By investing in promising Jewish education grant initiatives, the Jim Joseph Foundation seeks to foster compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews in the United States. Established in 2006, the Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded $270 million in grants to engage, educate, and inspire young Jewish minds to discover the joy of living vibrant Jewish lives. www.jimjosephfoundation.org

About the iCenter

The iCenter works to advance high-quality, meaningful and innovative Israel education by serving as the national hub and catalyst for building, shaping and supporting the field, with a significant focus on nurturing Jewish educators in all settings. The iCenter envisions generations of young North American Jews for whom contemporary Israel is an integral and vibrant part of their personal and collective Jewish identity. This vision includes a pre-K through grade 12 Jewish educational system in North America that fully incorporates Israel – people, land, history, language and culture – into the very fiber of its overall mission. www.theicenter.org