One of the major challenges facing Jewish education today is to provide learners with ready access to a seamless continuum of learning opportunities.  Meeting this challenge will require new levels of cooperation among educational institutions and across various educational domains.

To help advance this process of "linking silos," the Lippman Kanfer Institute facilitated a “community of practice” for central agencies seeking to create more accessible, engaging, and integrated Jewish educational systems for learners and their families in thir communities.  Senior professionals from more than two dozen agencies participated in conference calls and webinars, and contributed to the Institute's research on "silo linking."

Webinars on Leading Systems Change

An important series of webinars for this community of practice featured presentations by Ellen Kagen Waghelstein of Georgetown University on "leading systems change," "adaptive challenges," and "skills for 21st century leaders."   These webinars are available for listening and viewing by clicking on the following links: Webinar Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

During 2009-10, the Lippman Kanfer Institute joined with JESNA's Learnings and Consultation Center to offer an additional series of webinars applying these concepts to the redesign and transformation of our systems for delivering supplementary Jewish education.  These webinars are available through the Sosland Online Resource Center.

Case Study

Together with JESNA's Berman Center, the Institute also undertook a case study of the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education's Concierge for Jewish Education program, a model effort in encouraging expanded educational participation.

Browse the publication online or
Download the Research Brief Making Connections: A Case Study in Linking Silos

In 2009, the Lippman Kanfer Institute was commissioned to identify and analyze a variety of ways in which day schools that face persistent enrollment, financial and/or educational challenges can continue to provide the kind of quality Jewish learning and socialization experience that day schools have delivered for thousands of Jewish children and families.  Under the guidance of a Design Team made up of top day school professionals and other educational leaders, the Institute prepared a policy report, "Day School Education in Challenging Times: Examining the Strategic Options," that analyzes a number of strategies that schools can pursue in order to increase enrollment and financial viability, as well as a number of alternative models that schools and communities may wish to consider if and when a high quality conventional day school cannot be sustained.


Browse the publication online or
Download the Working Paper: Day School Education in Challenging Times: Examining the Strategic Options (1.34 MB)

Read the blog on issues facing day schools and give us your feedback.

In September 2008, JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute initiated the first large-scale gathering of stakeholders in the "Jewish innovation sector" -- promising new projects, organizations and change agents for Jewish education and Jewish life.  To follow up on this conference and continue its efforts to strengthen the innovation sector, the Institute is partnering with Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish Jumpstart on a Jewish innovation think tank to gather and disseminate insights from the broader field of social entrepreneurship, distill learnings and best practices from innovating organizations, and address key issues relating to the success of the innovation sector, such as funding strategies, defining and measuring success, program development, building support systems, and “scaling up” to maximize impact.  The Think Tank convened for the first time in December 2009, a two-day conference held in Toronto in cooperation with that community's UJA Federation.  Participants in the Think Tank explored a range of issues affecting the vitality and effectiveness of the innovation sector in Jewish life and relationships among the various constituencies comprising the innovation "ecosystem."  You can read a summary and analysis of the Think Tank and the ideas discussed here.

The Institute also promotes information sharing and ongoing communication among those interested in Jewish Social Entrepreneurship and New Leadership Development by sponsoring the Jewish Social Entrepreneurship group on Facebook.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute organized and facilitated the Working Group on Congregational Educational Change to bring together leaders of major local, regional, and national congregational educational change initiatives to share ideas and help envision the future of congregational education.  The first stage of the process distilled key learnings and challenges emanating from the collective experience of a dozen major change projects.  These learnings have been synthesized in the Institute's Working Paper, "Transforming Congregational Education: Lessons Learned and Questions for the Future."

In the second stage of the project, discussions focused on a wide range of issues that are affecting the development and evolution of new models of congregational education, including approaches to and challenges of transformational change, the roles of leadership, and visions of the future of congregational learning.


Browse the publication online or
Download the Working Paper: Transforming Congregational Education: Lessons Learned and Questions for the Future (439.61 kB)

Some of the most exciting and innovative Jewish learning taking place today is happening in settings beyond traditional educational institutions.  Vibrant Jewish learning is happening as part of social justice environmental and service learning programs, through the arts and culture, on line, in minyanim and other emergent spiritual communities, and as part of new forms of Jewish community - both "real" and "virtual."  During 2009-10, the Lippman Kanfer Institute, in partnership with the PresenTense Institute, brought together innovators in Jewish learning from a number of these settings to share insights, look more closely at the future of these new models and venues Jewish learning, and consider their implications for Jewish education in mainstream settings.