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...]
New Integrated North American Jewish Day School Organization Launches
Day Schools of Reform Judaism (PARDES), The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), RAVSAK (The Jewish Community Day School Network), the Schechter Day School Network (Schechter), and the Yeshiva University School Partnership (YUSP) have all agreed to move forward towards the formation of a new, integrated North American Jewish day school organization. This new organization, which is temporarily being called "NewOrg," is committed to supporting and enabling financial vitality and educational excellence in Jewish day schools, and to building and strengthening a vibrant, visible and connected Jewish day school field. By pooling the talent, expertise and resources that have been dispersed among the various organizations, NewOrg will be able to offer an expanded set of programs, … [Read more...]
Hebrew Immersion in Camp
[This essay is from Contact, a publication of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. Reprinted with permission.] By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt There’s a small buzzing slice of Israeli culture right in the heart of Rockland County. Up the winding country roads of Nyack, on a sprawling green estate, it’s 8:30 AM, and Israeli music is blasting. Hundreds of children in colorful T-shirts, shorts and sandals are running towards the central field to dance to Tel Aviv’s latest hits. Welcome to Sha’ar, Camp Ramah’s Areivim Hebrew at Camp program: seven weeks designed to instill Hebrew language fluency in young children through full language immersion. Here, roughly half of the campers are from day school, half are from public school, and some are from charter schools. Their knowledge of Hebrew is … [Read more...]
Bringing New Young Families Into Our Day Schools
By Nili Simhai What does it take for someone to feel welcome in a new space? What does it take for someone to think of themselves as part of a new social circle? These questions may not seem relevant to the issue of growing day school enrollment, but they are at the heart of a new collaborative initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and AVI CHAI. Leveraging the wisdom and experience of the PJ Library and its many engagement programs, the two foundations launched a new effort this year called the PJ Library Day School Enrollment and Engagement (DSEE) initiative. Sixteen day schools in four different communities are currently working with an experienced PJ Library professional in their community to create engagement programs. The goal is to bring new families into the orbit of their … [Read more...]
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