The Lippman Kanfer Institute believes that for Jewish education to be successful in the 21st century it needs to embrace new modes of engaging learners, create rich and diverse experiences of study and action, and forge stronger connections among its many actors and settings. The Lippman Kanfer Institute’s projects seek to guide the field as it generates and adopts innovative ideas and develops new ways of thinking about and doing Jewish education.

The Institute’s current projects include:


Enhancing the Impact of Jewish Social Entrepreneurship

Jewish Education 3.0

Day School Education in Challenging Times: Examining the Strategic Options

Envisioning the Future of Congregational Education

“Linking Silos”: Buidling More Accessible and Integrated Jewish Education

Innovations in Jewish Learning

Enhancing the Impact of Jewish Social Entrepreneurship

JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute, in partnership with UJC and others, is working to strengthen the "Jewish innovation sector" -- promising new projects, organizations and change agents for Jewish education and life. The Institute helps to foster expanded information sharing and collaboration among stakeholders and, through a new Jewish Innovation Think Tank that is being developed with UJC and Jewish Jumpstart. will provide opportunities for these stakeholders to learn from one another and the wider world of social entrepreneurship and new leadership development and to 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.

Jewish Education 3.0

Jewish Education 3.0 (JE3) is bringing together professionals working in Jewish education, media, and technology to explore the impact and implications of new communication technologies on Jewish learning and teaching and what Jewish education can and should be in a 21st century digital world. Papers prepared thus far for the project and ideas that have emerged from the conversations held as part of JE3 gatherings can be found on our Wiki, which is open to all those interested in contributing to this initiative.  Look for our online publication on media, technology, and Jewish education, featuring articles, resources, and multiple opportunities for continuing the discussion in the fall.

Day School Education in Challenging Times: Examining the Strategic Options

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 has 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.

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.

Envisioning the Future of Congregational Education

The Lippman Kanfer Institute is working with leaders of major congregational educational change initiatives to 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." The second stage of the project, now underway, is focused on envisioning what congregational education might look like a decade from now and on identifying what will be needed to realize this vision for the future.

Download the Working Paper: Transforming Congregational Education



Transforming Congregational Education: Lessons Learned and Questions for the Future

"Linking Silos": Building More Accessible and Integrated Jewish Education

The Lippman Kanfer Institute is facilitating a “community of practice” for central agencies that are seeking to "link silos" in their communities, i.e., to create more accessible, engaging, and integrated Jewish educational systems for learners and their families.  The community of practice includes two dozen agencies, and grows out of the Institute's research on "silo linking" and work with several individual communities over the past several years to help them re-envision their educational systems. 

The "linking silos" project also includes case studies of innovative projects in this area that can serve as models for other communities.  The first case study, Making Connections, profiling the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education's Concierge for Jewish Education program, has just been released.

Download Making Connections: A Case Study in Linking Silos

Linking Silos Webinars

The most recent webinars of the Linking Silos Community of Practice, featuring presentations by Ellen Kagen Waghelstein of Georgetown University on "leading systems change," "adaptive challenges," and "skills for 21st century leaders," are available for listening and viewing.  Click on the links below for playback of the webinars:

(Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

Innovations in Jewish Learning

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."  The Lippman Kanfer Institute, in partnership with the PresenTense Institute, is bringing together innovators in Jewish learning from a number of these settings to share insights, look more closely at these new models of Jewish learning, and consider their implications for Jewish education in mainstream settings.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute is an action-oriented think tank for innovation in Jewish learning and engagement.  Its goal is to ensure that Jewish education remains relevant and effective in the challenging and rapidly changing environment of the 21st century.  The Lippman Kanfer Institute brings new thinking to important issues and opportunities facing Jewish education, such as the limited and episodic nature of educational participation among many Jews; the need to build powerful synergies among multiple forms of education; and the untapped potential of technology, the arts, social action and other media for Jewish communication, self-expression and engagement.

Jewish education is the primary vehicle through which the Jewish community ensures its continuing vitality. Dramatic demographic, sociological, cultural, technological and organizational changes have taken place in society and in Jewish life over the past quarter century.  These call for equally dramatic changes in how Jewish education is organized, practiced, and delivered in 21st century America.

In order to achieve such changes -- changes that by and large have not yet been implemented widely and, in some cases, not even imagined -- Jewish education must:

• Identify where innovation is required,
• Capitalize on creative ideas that exist within the field of Jewish education,
• Cultivate ideas from fields beyond Jewish education, and
• Systematize the development and dissemination of promising solutions.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute: An Action-Oriented Think Tank for Innovation in Jewish Learning and Engagement responds directly to this need. The Institute focuses on infusing innovation into the Jewish educational system. It identifies and disseminates new ideas, new thinking, new practices, and new organizational designs to keep Jewish education relevant and effective in a changing world.

Read our flagship publication: Redesigning Jewish Education for the 21st Century

Visit the Lippman Kanfer Institute Wiki to comment on the Redesigning Jewish Education Working Paper

The Lippman Kanfer Institute’s inaugural project, “Redesigning Jewish Education for the 21st Century,” laid out a set of “design principles” that call for contemporary Jewish education to be more “learner-focused, relationship-infused, and life-centered.”  Following up on its initial work, the Institute has launched a number of projects that are working with community leaders and educators on the ground to apply these design principles and the analysis underlying them to key areas where innovation and systemic change have the potential to substantially enhance Jewish education’s reach and impact. 

To learn more about the projects we are currently working on, please visit our Lippman Kanfer Institute Projects Page.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute brings new thinking to important issues and opportunities facing Jewish education, such as the limited and episodic nature of educational participation among many Jews; the need to build powerful synergies among multiple forms of education; and the untapped potential of technology, the arts, social action and other media for Jewish communication, self-expression and engagement.

In all of its work, the Lippman Kanfer Institute maintains a vigorous connection with front-line practitioners and draws on and learns from innovative work already underway that promises to dramatically improve Jewish education’s reach and impact.  The Lippman Kanfer Institute also pays special attention to learnings from beyond the field of Jewish education. Its innovative ideas are brought to the field through vehicles such as conferences and colloquia, print and electronic publications; interactive media like wikis and blogs, and direct contact with educators and policy-makers working on the front lines.

The Institute is available to work with communities and other organizations to assist in developing initiatives aimed at applying these new ideas and at engaging professional and lay leaders in conversations and deliberations based on the Institute's work.  The Institute has made numerous presentations at national and local conferences and meetings, and would be happy to come to your community to speak about innovative ideas that can strengthen local Jewish education.

If you are an educational innovator, we would like to hear from you about your work and your ideas.  If you are interested in participating in future Institute-sponsored conferences, projects or invitation only events, or in learning more about the Institute's work, please be in touch with us by contacting Lippman Kanfer Institute Program Assistant Rebecca Leshin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .