NESS (Nurturing Excellence in Synagogue Schools), was conceived as the Philadelphia Jewish community's response to the crisis of escalating student drop-out rates from synagogue schools. Begun in 2001 under the direction of Helene Tigay of the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education (ACAJE), NESS was designed to produce systemic change in congregational education by targeting the holistic educational environment in which complementary education takes place. The program promotes a change in the very culture of the school and synagogue. NESS works intensively with member congregations at every level -- lay leaders, educational directors, and classroom teachers - on issues that range from curriculum, family education and assessment capacities. NESS' impact has inspired a new organization, PELIE, to partner with ACAJE and JESNA to seek to replicate its successes in other communities. This past July, Central Agency directors and congregational leaders from 14 communities met at the first official NESS Conference in Philadelphia to discuss the process by which NESS might be replicated in communities across North America.

NAACHHS (The North American Association of Community Hebrew High Schools) held its Annual Conference this past summer at Brandeis University - the fourth such gathering of Community Hebrew High School professionals overall, but the first since the formal establishment of NAACHHS with the support of the Legacy Heritage Foundation Limited of New York . NAACHHS is an umbrella organization for the field of community-based supplementary Jewish secondary education. Its mission is to create, support, exchange and disseminate innovative programs, curricula, best practices and resources to enrich Jewish education in member schools while providing professional development opportunities for directors of member schools. There are currently 53 member schools representing 9,000 students nationwide, and growing! At the conference, 39 professionals, representing 33 schools, learned with and from each other during the conference, the theme of which was, "Exploring Partnerships to Enrich Our Schools." Bess Adler (of the Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor High School in New York) and Robyn Faintich, (of TRIBE Three-Sixty in Atlanta) co-chaired the conference.

JESNA and the Association of Directors of Central Agencies (ADCA) are more than partners... we're mishpocha. JESNA was created in 1981 with a mandate to continue to work closely with local Jewish education agencies as its predecessor organization, the AAJE, had always done. A key component of that ongoing relationship played out between JESNA professionals and the directors of these local bureaus and central agencies, first through the Bureau Directors' Fellowship and now through ADCA.