The Mayberg Family Charitable Foundation announced today the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), a grant initiative designed to stimulate and reward innovation in Jewish middle and high school education in North America.

The JEIC is built on the belief that Orthodox Jewish schools are frequently built on a model of education that is not only ineffective at transmitting the values and beauty of Torah, but is also inconsistent with Jewish tradition itself. The grant program is structured as a contest, challenging educators to design creative pilot projects that can be implemented in their own schools and replicated by others.

The program is structured in three separate phases, with increasing cash awards to proposals that pass through each phase. The top grant will be for $50,000. Letters of intent for phase one are due March 1, 2013. For detailed information about the JEIC and how to secure funding, visit jewishchallenge.org.

The Jewish Education Innovation Challenge is a program of the Mayberg Family Charitable Foundation, with the charitable purpose of encouraging and incentivizing the next wave of social and educational progress in Orthodox Jewish high schools and middle schools.