JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute would like to invite you to the launch of JE3, a new website devoted to the growing impact of technology on Jewish learning and teaching.

The JE3 (Jewish Education 3.0) website grows out of a year-long process in which thought leaders, visionaries, and activists in the burgeoning world of Jewish educational technology met together both face-to-face and virtually to share ideas about the future of Jewish education in the age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Web 2.0, and beyond. Contributors to the site include individuals like My Jewish Learning.com’s Daniel Septimus; Rabbi and author of thelordismyshepard.com: Seeking God in Cyberspace Joshua Hammerman; Jewish Television Network founder and Los Angeles Jewish Federation CEO Jay Sanderson, and Darim Online founder Lisa Colton.

Together with more than a dozen of these leaders, they have put together in JE3 the first digital, open-source publication for the field of Jewish education on technology.

Continue reading at www.ejewishphilanthropy.com.

The race to establish a national Hebrew charter schools movement has officially begun, igniting a growing, and fierce, debate about the vision and purpose of schools that could potentially revolutionize the American Jewish education landscape.

While only three Hebrew charter schools exist right now, and the oldest — the first of two “Ben Gamla” schools in South Florida — is just in its third year, a new effort backed by a partnership of major Jewish philanthropists such as heavy-hitters Michael Steinhardt and Harold Grinspoon plans to see at least 20 additional Hebrew charter schools starting up by 2015.

What the demographic balance between Jewish and non-Jewish students will be in these publicly funded (but philanthropically supplemented) schools — and whether  they could lure large numbers of students from Jewish day schools, as some fear — is an open question.

Continue reading at www.JewishWeek.com.

If you are a Jewish parent thinking about private school for your son or daughter, you will probably want to consider sending your child to a Jewish school. Of course, much depends on how observant a Jew you are or consider yourself to be. That will influence your decision in many ways, some subtle, some more obvious.
Many questions will surface at this point. Here are some which you should answer before proceeding with a more detailed search for the right school. As you think of other questions which need answering, add them to the list.

• Why should your child attend a Jewish school?
• When should your child attend a Jewish school?
• How should your child be taught?
• What should your child be taught?
• Where should your child go to school?

Originally posted at www.Privateschoolreview.com.

In a time of economic uncertainty, when fund-raising campaigns are down and school tuitions are up, members of the North American day school community crossed denominational lines to come together for one big powwow.

The three-day North American Jewish Day School Conference here that wrapped up Tuesday was the product of a year of planning by the heads of four major day school networks -- Ravsak: The Jewish Community Day School Network, the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, and Pardes: The Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools.

The conference at the Marriott at Glenpointe drew more than 550 participants from across the continent, surprising organizers who expected a much smaller turnout because of the economy. Some 200 participants received subsidies of 50 percent from the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, the Covenant Foundation and the Kohelet Foundation.

“We’re all dealing with the same challenges of trying to make quality Jewish educational experiences for children,” said Scott Goldberg, director of the Institute for University-School Partnership. “That commonality drove our programming from the macro-level -- needing to do more with less and really forcing us to reassess how we do things.”

Continue reading at www.JTA.org.

A little-known foundation based in the Philadelphia suburbs is piloting an adult Jewish education program for parents of local day school students, one that aims to increase parental buy-in for the day school system while also easing some of the tuition burden.
The Kohelet Fellowship is providing a tuition credit of $1,000 for individual parents and $1,500 for couples at four Jewish day schools in the Delaware Valley in return for participation in 16 weekly phone sessions with a Partners-in-Torah mentor over the course of the school year.

The program doubles as “an opportunity for the school to fundraise,” said Holly Cohen, associate director of The Kohelet Foundation. “For the parents of means who don’t need the incentive, schools an ask parents to donate the money back to your school.”

Continue reading at www.thejewishweek.com.

In a time of economic uncertainty, when fund-raising campaigns are down and school tuitions are up, members of the North American day school community crossed denominational lines to come together for one big powwow.

The three-day North American Jewish Day School Conference here that wrapped up Tuesday was the product of a year of planning by the heads of four major day school networks -- Ravsak: The Jewish Community Day School Network, the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, and Pardes: The Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools.

The conference at the Marriott at Glenpointe drew more than 550 participants from across the continent, surprising organizers who expected a much smaller turnout because of the economy. Some 200 participants received subsidies of 50 percent from the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, the Covenant Foundation and the Kohelet Foundation.

“We’re all dealing with the same challenges of trying to make quality Jewish educational experiences for children,” said Scott Goldberg, director of the Institute for University-School Partnership. “That commonality drove our programming from the macro-level -- needing to do more with less and really forcing us to reassess how we do things.”

Continue reading at www.JTA.org.

Southern California is poised to be the next region in which the fledgling Hebrew charter school movement plants its flag.

Following in the footsteps of the newly opened Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn, the two-year-old Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Fla., and Hatikvah International Academy Charter School, which is slated to open this fall in East Brunswick, N.J., a Reform rabbi is leading efforts to establish the Albert Einstein Academy in Santa Clarita, a suburb north of Los Angeles.

If approved by the William S. Hart Union High School District, which is scheduled to vote on the matter Jan. 20, Einstein will be the first Hebrew-language charter that serves high school students; Ben Gamla is K-8, while HLA and Hatikvah are K-5 only.

Continue reading at www.TheJewishWeek.com.

The National Yiddish Book Center has received an unexpected gift of $3 million from comedy writer Mickey Ross, who died in May.

The gift from Ross, who worked on television shows such as "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Three's Company," was a surprise and is the largest in the 30-year-old Book Center's history.

"As far as we know, Mickey Ross never visited here and we never met face-to-face," said Aaron J. Lansky, founder and president of the center, 1021 West St.

Nancy L. Sherman, the center's executive vice president, said center officials had learned several months ago that it had been named in Ross's will, but it was not until recently they learned the amount of the gift.

"Until the check arrived, we didn't know how large it was going to be," Sherman said.

The center was aware of Ross because he was known as a Jewish philanthropist with an interest in Yiddish language and culture, she said.

"There aren't many people like that around," Sherman said.

The gift will go directly to the center's endowment, providing financial stability and program support as the organization expands its work from book rescue to education. The center's current endowment was approximately $8 million and it grew to $11 million with the gift, Sherman said. Its annual budget is about $3.5 million. Continue reading here.

The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, Israel, a non-profit educational organization offering Jewish education, curriculum, and rabbinic training to Jews throughout Israel, Europe and the former Soviet Union through four programs, announces a six-lecture series, “LA Goes the Distance,” conducted via live video conference from Israel and featuring the distinguished faculty of the Schechter Institute. Prominent Los Angeles rabbis are hosting the series at the American Jewish Committee’s L.A. headquarters, and will moderate a real-time dialogue between the Schechter professor in Israel and the participants in LA. Each lecture explores a particular issue affecting contemporary Jewish life, utilizing both ancient and modern texts.

“Video conferencing enables Schechter scholars to teach anywhere,” explains Lou Miller, Co-Chairman of the Los Angeles Friends of Schechter. “We developed ‘LA Goes the Distance’ to bring together great minds from across the globe to engage in discourse, creating a dynamic, relevant learning experience.”

Bruce Whizin, Co-Chairman, enthusiastically adds, “With interactive long distance learning, the L.A. Jewish community can enjoy one Sunday morning each month studying with one of Schechter’s renowned scholars. Coming together as Jews to exchange ideas strengthens our connections – to each other in our large L.A. community and to Israel.”

Continue reading at www.earthtimes.org.

The dawn of a new decade has brought with it a flurry of retrospectives assessing the first ten years of the 21^st century.  Clearly, there’s been much to cause discouragement, anxiety, and concern.  But, as we at JESNA look back on the past decade in Jewish education, we also find much to celebrate.  In fact, it’s been a pretty good decade for Jewish learning, not without its challenges and disappointments, but one marked by many exciting developments, new ideas, and promising directions.

So, in the spirit of the new decade, with perhaps a touch of the Oscars thrown in, here is our JESNA “Top Ten” list of achievements, developments, ideas, and trends in Jewish education worthy of note and gratification (in no special order).  And, since we’re Jewish, we decided to be  generous and throw in an 11^th just for good measure.

Please feel free to share your own list and let us know what you think of ours. [contact Rika Levin at rlevin@JESNA.ORG ]

• Birthright Israel – Birthright Israel has demonstrated that big ideas can generate big successes:  200,000+ young people encountering Israel for the first time in an experience that for many has been life changing.  The “home run” that all new program initiatives seek to emulate.
• Funding Partnerships to transform critical sectors of Jewish education – Beginning with the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), the decade saw the coming to the fore of funder-driven initiatives to bring new ideas and energy to arenas such as day school, early childhood education, complementary education, camps, and Jewish innovation.
• Consumer-centric education – This is the age of choice in Jewish education: individuals and families choosing among multiple options to find the most meaningful and appropriate educational experiences.  This imposes new demands on our institutional infra-structure to place education’s “consumers” at the center of their thinking and to put in place concrete mechanisms, like the Los Angeles BJE’s Jewish Education Concierges, to assist and guide these consumers in making choices that work for them.
• The rise of the innovation sector – The past decade has seen an explosion of innovative people, projects, and organizations creating new modes and venues for Jewish learning and engagement.  Equally important, endeavors like Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas and a growing number of others have emerged to nurture and support this innovation sector.
• Congregational educational change initiatives – It’s definitely not your father’s (or mother’s) Hebrew school any longer, as more than a dozen national, regional, and local initiatives involving hundreds of synagogues collectively have begun to transform the landscape of supplementary education, bringing new vision, energy, and leadership to an often disparaged arena.
• The revitalization of Jewish camps – Cognoscenti have long recognized the unique power of Jewish camps to nurture lifelong Jewish engagement.  In the past decade this power was rediscovered, and new investment, spearheaded by organizations like the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Grinspoon and Avi Chai Foundations, has elevated the prominence and performance of Jewish camps and spurred growth and innovation across the field.
• Online Jewish learning – Technology is transforming how we work, play, communicate, and learn, and Jewish learning is no exception.  From MyJewishLearning.com to Twitter, the technological revolution is coming to Jewish education, empowering learners, challenging teachers, putting new resources at our finger tips, connecting far-flung classrooms, and bridging time and space.
• PJ Library – Educators have long known that the family is our first and most powerful teacher.  With the simple idea of giving Jewish families books to read to young children at bedtime, The Grinspoon Foundation’s PJ Library program has brought a seminal Jewish experience into tens of thousands of Jewish homes and spurred communities to invent new programs to help these families continue their Jewish journeys.
• Jewish service learning – Today’s young people want to be “hands on” when it comes to repairing the world.  Jewish service learning programs for teens and young adults have blossomed to build the bridge between Jewish activism and Jewish education.  AJWS, Avodah: the Jewish Service Corps, Panim, Jewish Funds for Justice, Areyvut and a host of others are helping young people to learn and apply Jewish values to make a better world.
• “Public Space” Jewish education – If some Jews are reluctant to come to Jewish institutions, why can’t we bring Jewish experiences to them?  That’s the premise behind a growing number of initiatives that take Jewish learning and experiences to where Jews are, whether it’s the aisles of supermarkets, the lounges of bookstores, the board rooms of corporations, or the campuses of public and private high schools.
• A focus on outcomes – In an era of limited resources, it’s vital to make sure that all of our educational investments are as effective as they can be.  But to do so, we need to look beyond the programs to the learners themselves and to be clear about the outcomes we seek and the results we’re obtaining.  Clarifying outcomes and developing measures to assess them is enabling us to make better programs and, we may hope, laying the groundwork for even greater investment in quality Jewish education.