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.

This post comes from JESNA. While much of the Jewish world is still a bit in shock over the developments of the past year or so, JESNA reminds us that until the financial downturn, it had been a pretty good decade in Jewish education.

The dawn of a new decade has brought with it a flurry of retrospectives assessing the first ten years of the 21st 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 can’t resist giving you a bargain, so we’ve thrown in an 11th just for good measure.

Read the list at www.JTA.org.

I have more than passing interest in the debate that has emerged about the field of Jewish social entrepreneurship, which has become a hot topic in the Jewish blogosphere.

I am a serial entrepreneur, having founded a synagogue (Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Md.), a national Jewish educational organization (the PANIM Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values) and a national interfaith initiative (the E Pluribus Unum Project). Among the fruits of my labor are: an enormous level of joy and fulfillment, not a few gray hairs, and some lessons that might be helpful to the next wave of pioneers and the community that is encouraging them.

When I founded the first two of the above in the late 1980s, there were no organizations around to incubate and support innovation in the Jewish community. The re-launch of the Joshua Venture Group along with several other Jewish social innovation incubators represents an important development and signals the realization on the part of funders that one of the Jewish community’s greatest assets is the creativity of the younger generation. Notwithstanding the impressive array of services and programs provided by the organized Jewish community, younger Jews have to be given the chance to reinvent the Jewish community for themselves.

Still, I always fear a stampede. In the rush to put a spotlight and throw resources at new Jewish ventures, we can, without prudence, end up doing more harm than good.

Continue reading at www.JTA.org.

Yasmine Guedalia and Sami Rosen, both 11th graders at Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, walk the halls of the high school in Hartsdale Jan 6, 2010.

The students were instrumental in planning an event called Pink Day. The event brought together the students, staff and school administrators, raising awareness towards breast cancer. In addition to the hallways and stairwells being decorated with pink ribbons and streamers, a guest speaker spoke to the students, as well as education about breast cancer  incorporated in lessons taught in each class room. Guedalia and Rosen’s goal was to raise $1,000 through fundraiser sell of T-shirts and bracelets, with all the proceeds being donated to the National Breast Cancer Society.

Post originally on http://whiteplains.com.

For a small but seemingly growing number of families, home-based Jewish learning — whether with a personal tutor or in small groups, like Rabbi Modek’s Hebrew Learning Circles program — is offering an attractive and convenient alternative to synagogue-based Hebrew schools.

The vast majority of American kids receiving a Jewish education continue to do so in synagogue schools, and many of these programs have dramatically restructured and improved in recent years.

Nonetheless, anecdotal reports suggest that families are increasingly turning to private teachers and tutors — sometimes arranging to observe the bar or bat mitzvah in a synagogue, but often opting instead for private ceremonies in homes, restaurants, country clubs, Israel and other locations. One set of privately educated twins recently shared a bat mitzvah ceremony at Galapagos, a gallery and performance space in Brooklyn.

Harried families trying to balance the demands of work, school and numerous extracurricular activities — as well as those who have a negative impression of Hebrew schools or synagogues — report that home-based programs enable them to obtain a more personalized education for their child in less time, with more flexibility and on a more convenient schedule than they would in a congregational program.

“These days, a temple sometimes just doesn’t fit the bill,” says Juliet’s mother, Hope, who asked that the family’s last name not be used in order to protect their privacy.

Continue reading at www.thejewishweek.com.