A fourth cohort of Lekhu Lakhem, a program that prepares JCC-affiliated and independent Jewish camp directors as Jewish educational leaders launched on Monday, Sept. 19th. Lekhu Lakhem, a program of JCC Association and the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is a two-and-a-half year professional development program for Jewish camp directors (and selected assistant directors) jointly sponsored by the two organizations and funded through a generous grant from The AVI CHAI Foundation. "Lekhu Lakhem differs from most Jewish educational leadership programs in its focus on the process of establishing values and goals rather than acquiring a specific set of tools,” says Dr. David Ackerman, JCC Association senior vice president and director of Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Jewish Education. … [Read more...]
FJC’s Incubator III to Launch 5 New Specialty Camps
Building on the success of its previous two Incubators, the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) has announced support of five new specialty camps as part of Incubator III. The new camps will open their doors for the summer of 2018. Incubator III is made possible by a combined grant of up to $12 million jointly funded by The Jim Joseph Foundation and AVI CHAI Foundation. Since 2010, the nine Specialty Camps incubated have served over 6,000 campers - with nearly half reporting that they had never attended a Jewish camp before. The camps continue to surpass enrollment and retention goals, proving the demand for Jewish specialty options in the summer camp marketplace. FJC expects that each of these new specialty camps will serve approximately 300 campers and 40 college-aged counselors per summer with … [Read more...]
From Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism: An Educators Conference
By Rachel Fish, PhD. When Rachel Beyda, an undergraduate economics major at the University of California, Los Angeles, was nominated for the Judicial Board, she did not anticipate being castigated by her peers for her Jewish identity and affiliations with Jewish campus organizations, such as Hillel and her sorority. Never could Beyda have imagined that, in the year 2015, her ability to remain unbiased so as to address sensitive governance matters would be called into question. Meanwhile, at Brown University, Hillel students, along with other progressive student organizations on campus, such as Students for Color, LGBTQ Center, Women’s Center, and the Dean’s Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, co-sponsored the speaking invitation of transgender Black female activist, Janet Mock. Soon … [Read more...]
A Look Back at Nadiv – What Have We Learned for the Future?
By Ramie Arian, Leah Nadich Meir, and Steven Green Five years ago, the Nadiv program was launched as an innovative pilot program involving six camp-school partnerships whose primary objective was enhancing and deepening the quality of Jewish education at the camps and enriching experiential education at the schools while building a mutually beneficial and sustainable camp-school model. The Nadiv model created six new full-time positions for experiential Jewish educators, each shared by a camp and a school in geographic proximity to each other. The educators, whose responsibilities were defined by each camp and school based on its needs, toggled their responsibilities between them. In most cases, this meant spending four days in the school during the academic year with one day devoted to planning … [Read more...]
Yeshiva University and AVI CHAI Foundation Launch CollegeNOW
Yeshiva University and The AVI CHAI Foundation have launched a new online program called CollegeNOW, which will offer high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to deepen their Jewish learning for college course credit. Designed and taught by nationally-recognized experts from Yeshiva University, the first three course offerings - set to begin this fall - will focus on Jewish law, philosophy and history. Students will be eligible to receive three college credits per completed course at a significantly reduced tuition rate, thanks to the generous support of The AVI CHAI Foundation. To apply or for more information, please visit www.yu.edu/college-now. … [Read more...]
Paul Bernstein named Founding CEO of New Jewish Day School Org
New York, May 19, 2017 - The new Jewish day school organization (NewOrg) has selected Paul Bernstein as the organization’s founding Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Bernstein will drive NewOrg’s mission of unifying and strengthening the Jewish day school field following the combination of five organizations currently serving the field nationally. Mr. Bernstein brings a wealth of experience both in philanthropy and the commercial sector, having led and funded innovative high-impact organizations in the education and healthcare fields, among others. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of The Pershing Square Foundation (PSF) and as Global Managing Director of Absolute Return for Kids (ARK). An alumnus of the Rosh Pinah Day School in the United Kingdom, Mr. Bernstein’s lifelong commitment to … [Read more...]
Hiddur: Deepening Jewish Experiences at Summer Camp
By Joel Einleger, Aaron Saxe and Aimee Weiss Think for a moment of nearly any activity you associate with Jewish camp. Whatever comes to mind, chances are that the experience is communal, engaging, and fun. Now, more camps increasingly recognize that any camp experience can also be a quality Jewish experience for their campers and staff - if designed in a thoughtful, intentional way. Over the last decade, multiple investments by different funders have focused on developing the Jewish experience at camp, and camps now have a wide range of professional development and training opportunities with this focus available to their seasonal and year-round staff. The field’s enthusiastic reception of these offerings has shown a steady appetite for learning how to deliver a better Jewish program. Now, … [Read more...]
Excelling at Alumni Engagement: Lessons from Reshet Ramah
Jewish camps are uniquely poised to excel at alumni engagement. The emotional bonds with a beloved camp are strong and deep, and the desire to reconnect later in life is real. By Rabbi Abigail Treu [This piece is a response to the series highlighting the community case studies featured in the Alumni Playbook, an online resource from the Schusterman Family Foundation designed to help community initiators build robust alumni networks.] The recent publication by the Schusterman Family Foundation of the Alumni Playbook is a terrific addition to the field of alumni engagement. Writing from the helm of Reshet Ramah, the National Ramah Commission’s alumni engagement initiative, I would like to share about my experiences in this arena. I hope it might be informative to others looking to build … [Read more...]
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