Welcome to the Mandell L. Berman Jewish Heritage Center for Research and Evaluation in Jewish Education

History of the Berman Center
About the Berman Center
The Berman Center’s Four Lines of Service
The Berman Center’s Clients
Programs Evaluated by The Berman Center (Sample)
The Berman Center’s Staff
Resources

History of the Berman Center
The Mandell L. Berman Jewish Heritage Center for Research and Evaluation in Jewish Education was established in 1992 to honor Mandell (Bill) Berman, past Honorary Chairman of JESNA and recipient of the 1992 Mesorah Award for Outstanding Leadership in Jewish Education. As a leader of Jewish and civic causes, Mr. Berman has worked both on the national level and locally in Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Berman played a key role in JESNA’s formation in 1981, having served as Chairman of its predecessor agency, AAJE for ten years. This center furthers Mr. Berman’s dedication to the use of research and evaluation to improve the quality of Jewish education.
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About the Berman Center
JESNA’s Berman Center serves as the central information resource for Jewish educational research and evaluation.

The Berman Center has three primary goals:
1. Increasing and improving the use of evaluation to improve the quality of Jewish educational and identity-building programs in North America;
2. Raising the prominence of and support for the field of Jewish educational research and evaluation; and
3. Achieving a greater understanding of factors contributing to increases in Jewish identity, educational change, and improvement.
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The Berman Center’s Four Lines of Service

Since 1992, the Berman Center has been a field leader in applied research and program evaluation of Jewish education and identity-building efforts in North America. The Berman Center offers its evaluation expertise through four principal lines of service:

1. Evaluation Studies
The Berman Center develops, implements, and reports on the results of its evaluation studies to provide our clients with specific, utilization-focused data. This information helps them better understand and make more informed choices about their work during any point in the life of the program. Berman Center staff work closely with clients to assess their needs, plan for evaluation, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and, most importantly, to make recommendations to enhance program implementation and impact.

2. Evaluation Consulting and Capacity Building
The Berman Center’s consulting services help funders and program providers understand the need for accountability in the non-profit arena and meet the challenges of demonstrating outcomes forJewish education programs.  In this line of service, we help our clients further define their goals and programmatic outcomes, build “logic models” to help them better plan for and assess the design of their programs, and develop their internal capacity to gather, manage, and interpret meaningful evaluation data.

3. Evaluation Training and Workshops
The Berman Center staff share their accumulated knowledge and expertise of program evaluation with philanthropists, program providers, educators, researchers, and others in public venues, including Jewish education conferences, annual research association meetings, and national gatherings of Jewish education practitioners and funders.  In addition, the Center offers training and professional development about program evaluation to individuals and small groups in a variety of settings to demonstrate how evaluation can help organizations, and Jewish education itself, go from good to great. 

4. Basic Issues Research
Periodically, the Berman Center is commissioned to conduct non-evaluative research and/or systematic reviews of research done by others about a particular aspect of Jewish education.

Specifically, the Berman Center assists its clients with:

•  Decision-making
•  Strategic planning
•  Mid-course program corrections
•  Research
•  Replication or "scaling up" of programs
•  Creating structures of accountability
•  Documenting program initiatives
•  Identifying "best practices"
•  Creating excellence in program design
•  Goals clarification

Among its many activities, the Berman Center:

•  Collects data and/or consults to data collection processes
•  Conducts formal and informal program evaluations
•  Performs environmental scans and needs assessment studies
•  Offers training and professional development in program evaluation
•  Develops program logic models and helps clients explore program theory
•  Helps clients build capacity for internal evaluation
•  Disseminates findings through publications, presentations, handbooks, conferences, etc.
•  Serves as the Secretariat and provides overall support for the Network for Research in Jewish Education
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The Berman Center’s Staff

Renae Cohen, Ph.D.
Director
Renae joined the Berman Center staff in 2008 and brings with her extensive training and expertise in research methodology. Prior to joining the Berman Center, Renae served as Vice President of Research at the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ, formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews), where she was responsible for the organization’s national research program that explored intergroup issues including inclusion, equity, diversity, bias, and bigotry. She has also worked for the American Jewish Committee, where she served in their national office’s research department exploring issues of Jewish communal concern including Jewish identity, Jewish affiliation, attitudes of and toward Jews, and antisemitism. Renae holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from New York University. Renae is based in JESNA’s New York City offices.

Shira Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
Associate Director
As a Berman Center staff member since 2004, Shira brings extensive experience in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, particularly in the arena of early childhood education where her research has centered on social development, as well as the relationship between Jewish programs and families’ Jewish behaviors and attitudes. Before joining the Berman Center, Shira served for several years as Project Coordinator and Research Analyst at UCLA for Early Head Start working in the area of early intervention. Shira holds a Ph.D. in Applied Human Development from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was a Fulbright recipient in 1996. She was also the recipient of pre-doctoral training grants from the National Institute of Mental Health. Shira is based in Los Angeles, CA.

Lauren Raff, M.Ph.
Senior Research and Evaluation Associate
Lauren joined the Berman Center staff in 2003 and brings with her extensive training and expertise in quantitative research methods.  Prior to her work with the Berman Center, Lauren served as the Director of Research for eight years at the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, where she was responsible for the community’s Jewish population study in 1996.  She has taught undergraduate courses in Sociology for many years and served as adjunct faculty at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Lauren holds a B.A. in Social Science from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has completed her coursework for a doctorate in Sociology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Lauren is based in Cleveland, OH.

Kate O’Brien, M.A.
Senior Research Writer
Kate joined the Berman Center staff in 2007 and brings wide-ranging expertise in translating complex qualitative and quantitative data into clearly written materials and presentations for multiple professional and lay audiences. Prior to joining the Berman Center in 2007, Kate served as the marketing and communications manager for Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) in San Francisco, where she wrote and produced monthly and quarterly newsletters for clients and donors, developed web site content, and coordinated community outreach. Prior to this position, she served as a communications/marketing professional for a global public relations agency. Kate holds M.A. degrees in Bible and in Jewish Education from Jewish Theological Seminary. She has taught and served as an administrator in diverse Jewish education settings, such as camps, the interfaith community, congregations, and a Tel Aviv-based start-up. She is currently the Hebrew School Education Director at Congregation Sons of Israel in Nyack, NY. Kate graduated summa cum laude with a B.F.A. in Communications from Long Island University/C.W. Post. She is based in JESNA’s headquarters office in New York.

Miri Rozenek, M.A.
Research Associate
Miri brings considerable experience with online survey methodology and data analysis to her work in the Berman Center, where she has been a staff member since 2005.  Prior to this position, Miri was the coordinator of the Psychology Research Lab at McGill University; a staff interviewer for the March of the Living; and an informal educator for summer camps, Israel experiences, and Shabbat morning programming for young children. She holds both a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and a B.A. Honors degree in Psychology from McGill University and is a member of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec.  Miri is based in Montreal, Canada.

Rachel Levine, M.S.
Research Associate
A Berman Center staff member since 2007, Rachel is deeply knowledgeable about Jewish educational systems having attended day school and adult Jewish educational programs, served in board positions for Jewish educational institutions, and taught in a variety of Jewish educational settings.  Prior to joining the Berman Center, Rachel was based at the Harvard School of Public Health where she directed research studies focused on low-income populations. In her public health experience, she was responsible for conceptualizing and designing studies, developing measurement tools and evaluation protocols, overseeing data collection, data management and data analysis, and presenting findings. Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard College and a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health where she trained in program evaluation and survey research methods. She is based in Boston, MA.

Zohar Rotem, M.A.
Research Assistant
In addition to being a member of the Berman Center staff since 2006, Zohar is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Anthropology at The New School for Social Research where he is researching the development of Israeli children’s national identity.  Prior to joining the Berman Center, Zohar was a Research Assistant at The New School for Social Research and at Haifa University in the field of urban anthropology. His Jewish education experience includes teaching in synagogue schools in Philadelphia and Brooklyn and at the Lokey Center for Jewish Education in Haifa. He has also taught botany, environmental science, and gardening to urban teenagers at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  Zohar holds a master’s degree in Anthropology from The New School for Social Research and a B.A. from the Honors and Special Education Programs at Haifa University.  He is based in New Haven, CT.

Rebecca Halpin, B.F.A.
Administrator
Rebecca joined JESNA in 2005 and serves as the administrator for the Berman Center, JESNA’s Learnings and Consultation Center, and the Network for Research in Jewish Education (NRJE).  Prior to this position, Rebecca was the Youth Advisor at Temple Israel of Jamaica, a customer service representative at the URJ Press, and the Conclave Coordinator for NFTY-NAR.  Her Jewish educational experience includes three years teaching Hebrew High School at Temple Israel of Jamaica and most recently as a 3rd grade teacher at Congregation Rodeph Sholom’s Religious School in Manhattan.  Rebecca earned her B.F.A. from NYU in Acting and English Literature.  She is based in Los Angeles, CA.

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For information about the Berman Center evaluation services, workshops, seminars, or to request copies of evaluation reports, contact:
Renae Cohen
Director, The Berman Center for Research and Evaluation in Jewish Education
212-284-6516
rcohen@jesna.org

For an overview of the Berman Center’s evaluation services, please see:
Who Wants to be Evaluated, @www.jesna.org, Spring 2000
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