by Ross Bloom 2012 has seen the release of a number of regional Jewish day school tuition grant programs. While these programs vary in terms of how they’re funded, who qualifies, and what percentage of tuition is being paid for, they all aim to transform the affordability issue from a liability into a way to welcome new families. They also give schools a chance to promote their value and connect with the community in meaningful ways. Schools and communities have used many tactics to address the affordability issue, but the regional approach is one that has been gaining traction in recent years. Here are a few examples of communities that are implementing tuition grant programs: Milwaukee. Milwaukee Jewish Day School recently announced an anonymous donation that is funding tuition … Continue Reading

How do you teach Sefer Yeshayahu [Book of Isaiah]? Fourteen yeshiva high school teachers came together on Yeshiva University’s Wilf Campus in late March to ask each other and themselves that question, under the auspices of YU’s Institute for University-School Partnership. Hailing from a range of schools across the tri-state area, the teachers were united by the subject they all taught (Navi, or The Prophets), their desire to enhance their own approach, and the opportunity to learn from others. “The purpose is to expand teachers’ thinking about what’s possible in the classroom and to help them clarify their own particular focus,” said Dr. Scott Goldberg, director of the YU School Partnership. “Even though their individual schools are so different, it’s productive and important … Continue Reading

by Ken Gordon You - that is, you Board Members, teachers, Heads of School, parents, prospective parents, development professionals, grandparents, communications people, volunteers, admission officers, marketers, literary high school students, funders, would-be funders, alumni, and curious federation heads - must read Cynthia Ozick’s underappreciated 1983 novel, The Cannibal Galaxy. This slim volume of fiction is perhaps the only work by a major American writer to be set in a Jewish day school. Reading it is a great way for the day school field to celebrate the outspoken Ozick’s recent birthday on April 17. Dive into the 161 pages of Ozickian prose and you won’t want to climb out until your fingers are good and pruney. The fact that this great writer devoted a whole book to our world … Continue Reading

by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz For centuries there has been an ongoing debate as to where ethics are grounded as universal attributes in the human condition. The philosopher Immanuel Kant grounded ethics in reason, whereas David Hume looked toward emotions such as sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Today, neuroimaging may offer a new way to resolve this issue. Brain scans reveal that when participants are engaged in moral reasoning, there is significant activation in areas crucial to emotional processing (a circuit running from the frontal lobes to the limbic system). This supports the argument of researcher Martin Hoffman that the roots of morality are located in empathy. Thus, people learn to follow certain moral principles when they can put themselves in another’s place. These findings also … Continue Reading

by Rabbi Dr Michael Shire In 1996 I took the opportunity to meet the Rev. Jerome Berryman at Christchurch Cathedral with his Godly Play classroom. I had read about Jerome’s method of attempting to explicitly nurture the spiritual life of very young children in a Montessiori based educational format. Sitting on the floor in that classroom, I was transformed by the wonderous and spiritual experience of a Godly Play lesson. But even more significant was the time spent discussing the theological approach that Jerome Berryman, an Episcopal Priest, was advocating for terminally ill children in hospital, special needs children and children inured to openness about wonderment and awareness of the world around them. Godly Play is an innovative approach to religious education that seeks not so much to … Continue Reading