by Jonathan Woocher The 20th century Jewish sage Stan Lee taught us that with great power comes great responsibility. It is equally true, I believe, that with great challenge comes great opportunity. This is a moment of enormous opportunity for Jewish education. Yes, there are real challenges out there (we’ll get to those), but we have never been in a better position to create a panoply of opportunities for Jewish learning that are engaging, inspiring, and impactful, even - and perhaps especially - for those who have been disappointed by or suspicious of what they perceive “Jewish education” to have been in the past. Reading through the series of articles that have comprised the Roundtable on Growing Jewish Education, I am struck first by the sense of possibility they evoke and the … Continue Reading

by Adena Raub As Jews, we are living in an era of unprecedented freedom and choice. Jewish families now have the opportunity to choose how to educate their children in both secular and Jewish studies. Our children are no longer assigned to specific schools based on religious background. Rather than treat the decision as a burden, we should be grateful for the ability to make such a choice. Educational choice is a blessing. All of the choices of Jewish education: day school, complementary school, homeshuling, camps, etc… are simply that- choices- the “media” through which we choose to extend a similar message: thousands of years of Jewish culture, religious beliefs, history and language. Regardless of which medium is chosen, if the message is transmitted engagingly enough, with family … Continue Reading

by Dr. Eli Gottlieb I’ve been reading this series with great interest. It’s generated some provocative analyses and creative suggestions. But it’s also left me with a nagging doubt that I’ve been struggling to put into words. What it comes down to, I think, is an intuitive resistance to the terms in which the debate has been cast. It would be perverse to argue that the economic crisis has not put enormous pressure on our communal structures. But I am not sure that the challenges we are facing are fundamentally different from challenges we’ve faced before or challenges we’ll have to face again. We Jews (especially we professional Jews) have a penchant for crisis rhetoric and self-dramatization. We’re the ever-vanishing people, the last remnant, perched forever at the edge of the … Continue Reading

by Yonatan Ariel How do we make the Jewish journey compelling? I believe we need to reconfigure the art of Jewish conversation. We need to encourage exploratory, open conversation aimed at strengthening and deepening the foundations of one’s connections to Judaism in the world. For me one of the great treasures of conversation is the unexpected. Not the outrageous, nor the gaudy, but the comment that is the produce of a fertile mind absorbed in the messiness of reality. A sharp observation enriches me - even as I weigh its efficacy. Between whom should these conversations be taking place? And about what? There is a famous description in Jewish tradition of two types of relationship that people have: between humans and God (Bein Adam l’Makom), and between humans and their fellows (Bein Adam … Continue Reading

by David Bryfman Historically speaking there are many characteristics of a revolution. Archetypal revolutions involve transformation brought about by a major groundswell of people. Most revolutions have a central leader (or leaders), and almost all have a clear and articulated vision. The Jewish world has gone through several revolutions. Exemplars of Jewish revolutions include the establishment of Yavneh as a center of Jewish learning after the destruction of the Second Temple; the Haskalah (Enlightenment) and its various offshoot movements in 18th century Europe; and Zionism. It is my contention that we are now in the midst of another major revolution in Jewish life. Unlike classic revolutions there is no single leader or even a few leading figures. It is however lead by masses of people, … Continue Reading

by Adam Gaynor Most American Jews choose to live, work, and socialize in modern, diverse communities; consequently, most Jewish teens attend schools, camps, and extracurricular activities that are ethnically and religiously diverse (even when their parents can afford the exorbitant tuitions of comparable Jewish options). Given that the peer groups of most Jewish teens are diverse, and that adolescence is a time of identity formation within the context of the peer group, it is understandable that most American Jewish teens are not interested in participating in Jewish education that places them in exclusively Jewish silos. However, recent research has amply demonstrated that the most Jewishly committed adults participated in intensive Jewish education as children, in exclusively Jewish settings … Continue Reading

by Andrew Silow-Carroll Is it day school or nothing? Earlier this year, at a day school conference in New Jersey, one of its organizers suggested as much. “There is no alternative to day school,” he said. “There’s day school and there’s not day school. Day school is the most effective means of keeping the community vibrant. Other things will come along that will contribute to the perpetuity of the Jewish people, but they’re not [as good as] day school.” Since I’m the father of three day school kids, you’d imagine that I agree with him. Our choice to send our children to day school was a statement that we didn’t consider the Jewish educational alternatives (namely, Hebrew school) as “effective” as day school. I feel day schools gave my kids a deeper, thicker … Continue Reading

by Renee Rubin Ross, PhD It is a cliché in education, and in Jewish education as well, that we’d like to get parents more involved. We’d like to see more parents volunteering for our schools, more parents fundraising for our schools, more parents standing behind, and with, the important work that our schools are doing. But what factors actually contribute to parent involvement? I attempted to answer this question in my dissertation research, exploring parents’ involvement in three elementary schools, a Jewish day school, a Catholic school, and independent “secular” private school, in a large Northeastern urban area. Through observations and interviews with parents, administrators, and teachers, I looked at how parents were involved at each school and how they explained their … Continue Reading

by Pat Bidol Padva Among all forms of Jewish education, early childhood education may provide the best opportunity for strengthening the viability of North American Jewry. Families of young Jewish children are in transition, looking for connection and open to new life paths. However, too often they either miss the opportunity to participate in Jewish early childhood programs; or, even when they do enroll, the schools fail to engage them in a significant way Jewishly. How can we address that challenge - and realize this promise? Six years ago, a group of leading Jewish philanthropists formed JECEI, the Jewish Early Childhood Initiative, with that mission in mind. Working in seven different metropolitan areas across the country, JECEI offers a whole school change approach that is transforming … Continue Reading