Transformimg Jewish Lives
Jewish Futures Conference at the GA
Joining the Jewish Future!
Participants at this year's Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly (GA) in New Orleans had a unique opportunity to imagine and shape the future of Jewish education and the Jewish community.
On November 8th, the GA hosted the first-ever Jewish Futures Conference. This extraordinary event brought together visionary thinkers, passionate leaders, and fresh voices to chart a course for the future of Jewish learning and life. "The goal of the conference," stated Harlene Appelman, Executive Director of the Covenant Foundation, one of the event's co-sponsors, "is to excite and stimulate thinking about the potential of creative and thoughtful Jewish education." The conference did this, according to David Bryfman of New York's Jewish Education Project, a co-sponsor, "by providing a space to dream, learn, and engage in purposeful conversation. At a time when the Jewish community is at a crossroads, this is an ideal opportunity to showcase some of the best thinking in the Jewish educational world."
The Jewish Futures Conference was keynoted by several provocative speakers, including Ori Brafman, acclaimed author of The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, and Laurie Karr, a marketing and branding expert on families and youth, who will explore the social, cultural, and technological trends that are shaping our world. Their talks were followed by a GA first: presentations on the implications of these trends for Jewish learning and life by several speakers being chosen from an open video competition. "The competition is a way to ensure that emerging voices are given the respect and space they deserve," stated Bryfman. "In today's world, ideas can come from all angles - established organizations and young people alike."
Participants in the conference also had a chance to add their own ideas to the mix. There were opportunities to discuss how to bring new ideas to fruition in their own communities during roundtable discussions which will conclude the conference. As with the mix of presenters, the aim was to attract a diverse group of participants. "We believe that the conference was valuable for anyone who is involved in trying to enrich the Jewish present and future, and especially worthwhile for those who are themselves involved in transformational learning initiatives or have a major role in allocating resources for Jewish education," said Jonathan Woocher, Director of JESNA's Lippman Kanfer Institute, also a co-sponsor of the conference.
Bringing the Jewish Futures Conference to the General Assembly enhanced and broadened this premier event on the Jewish communal calendar. "Our goal is to open the GA to new audiences through innovative and forward thinking programming like this conference," stated JFNA's Andrea Fram Plotkin, one of the key organizers of the event. "We will be successful if participants made connections with stimulating ideas and other people and left inspired to try something new in their organization or community," added Bryfman.
Full coverage of the Jewish Futures Conference is available at www.jewishfutures.net.
The Jewish Futures Conference is sponsored by Jewish Education Project, The Covenant Foundation, JESNA's Lippman Kanfer Institute and The Jewish Federations of North America.
For general information and media relations contact: Rika Levin, Chief Marketing Officer, JESNA at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 212-284-6703.
We would like to thank the Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, the Covenant Foundation, and the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation for their generous financial contributions to this conference.
PJ Library offers Israeli expats children’s books
From The Jerusalem Post:
A unique initiative aimed at encouraging young Jewish children to engage in Judaism’s core values via books distributed for free throughout the school year announced on Friday that it is set to launch a branch of the program aimed at the thousands of Israeli families living in the US.
The American PJ Library, which distributes free books in English to some 170,000 families with young children, has been operating in the US for a number of years. Last year, together with the Education Ministry here, a number of local authorities and other supporters, it began operating a similar book distribution program in Israel called Sifriyat Pijama.
Read the full article at The Jerusalem Post...
Hebrew School Drop Out No More, National effort to improve Jewish education
From The Philadelphia Jewish Voice:
If you asked Jewish people about the single most influential experience that turned them off from their heritage, the majority would say "Hebrew school."
Instead of being an engaging, enlightening, or even an educational experience, Hebrew school is known more as a rite of passage; it is something to be endured and overcome. Our parents didn't like it, but they sent us anyway. We didn't like it, but we are sending our children anyway. What is now known as "part-time" or "complementary" Jewish education has such a poor public image, "Hebrew School Drop Out," is the name of a clothing line and a stand-up comedy show.
Read the full article at The Philadelphia Jewish Voice...
The Bilingual Advantage
From The New York Times:
A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science. We spoke for two hours in a Washington hotel room in February and again, more recently, by telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.
Q. How did you begin studying bilingualism?
A. You know, I didn’t start trying to find out whether bilingualism was bad or good. I did my doctorate in psychology: on how children acquire language. When I finished graduate school, in 1976, there was a job shortage in Canada for Ph.D.’s. The only position I found was with a research project studying second language acquisition in school children. It wasn’t my area. But it was close enough.Read the full article at The New York Times...
L.A. Charter Tests Genre
From The Jewish Week:
Santa Clarita, Calif. — “How do you say ‘cheerleader’ in Hebrew?”
The question comes in the middle of a beginning Hebrew class at Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences, a new charter school in this affluent Los Angeles suburb in the canyons northeast of the San Fernando Valley.
Nehama Meged, a Jerusalem native who has been teaching Hebrew for almost 30 years, pauses a moment before answering, “I don’t think we have cheerleaders in Israel.”
Read the full article in The Jewish Week...
Jewish school program to fill the gap in Caulfield South
From the Caulfield Glen Leader:
BY JENNY LING
Rabbi Menachem Wolf says cooking will be one of the features of the new program for after-school learning in Glen Eira. PIC: JASON SAMMON. N19CK301
PARENTS wanting their children to have a “creative” Jewish education will soon have another option in Glen Eira.
Starting in February, nine to 15-year-olds can attend Spritskool in Caulfield South one afternoon a week to learn about Jewish traditions, synagogue customs, social responsibility and Hebrew.
Hebrew schools for non-Jewish children
It's Thursday morning and 25 boys and girls are leaping on the spot in four lines, counting out jumping jacks in Hebrew.
"Echad! Shtayim! Shalosh!"
These are second grade students at the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn, in which children - the majority of whom are not Jewish - study a large part of their curriculum in Hebrew.
When it opened last year, the HLA was only the second Hebrew-language charter school in America. Within a few years it could be among up to 30 such schools.
After the children reach 10, PE teacher Qayyim Shabazz shouts instructions in Hebrew to touch their shoulders, arms and legs or to run left or right.
Mr Shabazz points out the various ethnicities of his students.
"He's from Jamaica, he's from the West Indies, he's Jewish, those two are Mexican, she's from Haiti," he says.
Looking on admiringly, HLA principal Maureen Campbell says that most schools in her district are predominantly from one ethnic group or another but the HLA is diverse.
More than three-quarters of students have at least one foreign-born parent. About one-quarter of children come from Hebrew-speaking homes and one-quarter from Russian-speaking homes. Almost 40 percent of pupils are black.
Each class of 25 students in HLA, which will have 450 pupils from kindergarten to fifth grade by 2013, has two teachers, one who speaks Hebrew and one who speaks English.
Children have one hour of formal Hebrew instruction each day. Hebrew is also integrated into social studies, science, maths, music and physical education.
"There's no drill and kill," says Campbell. "No copying out words. It's total immersion."
Read the full article at The Jewish Chronicle Online...