JESNA's Cheif Ideas Officer quoted in the Jewish Week: Can Day Schools Survive?
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg
“For a number of years, people in the Jewish community were justifiably excited by the growth in the day school arena and were really focused on capitalizing on what was perceived to be a significant potential for continued growth,” says Jonathan Woocher, the Jewish Education Service of North America’s chief ideas officer and director of its Lippman Kanfer Institute.
“In the last few years, what people have begun to do is step back and say, ‘There are other areas of potential growth and other areas of potential needs, as well.’”
Is the day school enterprise, which looked so promising and was considered such a magic bullet in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, doomed?
Read the full article in the Jewish Week...
Jim Joseph Foundation Cites Study from JESNA's Berman Center on the Shortage of Well-Prepared Educators
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg...Why the focus on training?
The shortage of “well-prepared educators” has been documented in several studies, including a 2008 one by the Jewish Education Service of North America’s Berman Center for Research and Evaluation, and has for decades been a “chronic refrain from the field,” the foundation’s executive director, Charles “Chip” Edelsberg, explains.
“There has been a different reality since the recession, but that doesn’t obviate for us the premise on which we’re doing this: the belief that the educator — whether in a youth group, on an Israel trip, teaching in a day school, holding a book salon or leading a Shabbat service — is a person who is likely to have a chance to motivate and inspire others to opt into Jewish life,” he says. “You get a lot of leverage out of a qualified educator.”
The YU-JTS-HUC grant, which Edelsberg says will “bolster existing programs and add new degree programs,” places particular emphasis on early childhood education and informal/experiential education.Read the full article at the Jewish Week...
JEdI Leads Way for Jewish Supplementary Education in North America
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg
supplementary Jewish Education. With the leadership of Co-Chairs Lisa Newmark and Or Mars, the project has already conducted numerous focus groups. Recently leaders, professionals and lay people from across the community came together for a summit to review the findings of the Discovery Phase and begin the Dream and Design Phase to map out the future for Columbus. This week, Rabbi Idit Jacques took part in a webinar with JESNA to share some of the the lessons learned on the project so far. Educational leaders from cities across North America took part in the webinar which was the final of six in a series to prepare other communities to take part in the WOW project.Read the full posting at the webpage of the Columbus Jewish Federation...
JESNA's Chief Ideas Officer Discusses Seed Funding in the Jewish Nonprofit World on Jweekly
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg
Jewish Milestones needs second-stage, or mezzanine, funding. This is not easy to find in the Jewish nonprofit world, said Jonathan Woocher, chief ideas officer at the Lippman Kanfer Insitute, a think tank in New York focused on Jewish education and researching this very issue with other New York nonprofits.
When new nonprofits begin to seek funding, they are eligible for seed grants, which typically last three to five years. An organization that outlives the life of its start-up grant has proven it can succeed, but it can’t always find the continued support to do so, Woocher said.
“There are very few sources of funding to take organizations to the next level,” he said. “Funders are very interested in working with fledgling projects in their early stages, but it takes more resources and funding over a longer period to really grow something.”
Read the full article at Jweekly.com...
The Jewish Week Spotlights JESNA's Technology & Jewish Education Conference
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg
by Jason Miller
Jewish techie Ari Davidow listened in on JESNA's recent "Technology and Jewish Education"conference and posted some of his observations on the Jewish Women's Archive blog. JESNA's conference is run through its Lippman Kanfer Institute.
I repost some of Ari's comments below, but first some background on the conference. JESNA's Lippman Kanfer Institute seeks to enhance Jewish education's receptivity to and capacity for worthwhile innovation. In this context, the Institute began nearly two years ago to bring together - both physically and virtually – some of the most talented and thoughtful individuals working in the broad arena of technology and Jewish education to discuss their work and their visions for the future of Jewish learning and teaching in a technology-infused age. JESNA calls the project and conversations "JE3" for Jewish Education 3.0. It emphasizes that the future of Jewish education is being written and re-written as new technologies emerge and are put to new uses.
Read the full article at The Jewish Week...
Jewish Educational Leadership features article by JESNA's Chief Ideas Officer
Written by Jennifer Aisenberg
An article on strategies and options for day schools based on the Lippman Kanfer Institute’s Working Paper, Day School Education in Challenging Times, has been published in the latest issue of Jewish Educational Leadership, a publication of the Lookstein Institute at Bar-Ilan University. Both the article and the full report from the Lippman Kanfer Institute can be found in JESNA's Sosland Online Resource Center.