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Early Jewish Engagement in New York: A Summary Report Featured
Becoming a parent can be the most thrilling and the most challenging of times. And in the months and early years following that pivotal moment of new parenthood, mothers and fathers often discover a new openness to bringing Jewish experiences into their lives. That's why UJA-Federation's Beginning Jewish Families Task Force, founded in 2008, commissioned a study to learn how to best reach out to young Jewish families. Now the task force, part of the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal (COJIR), has published the summary report, Jewish Early Engagement in New York. The study researched five communities as potential pilot sites for enhanced Jewish programming for new parents: Downtown Manhattan, Brownstone Brooklyn, Southern Brooklyn, Northern Westchester, and Staten Island. The report found that Jewish institutions could benefit from more viral marketing and publicity for their programs, and that there was a need for a Jewish parenting website. The study also recommended the need to better use social media and listservs that parents already subscribe to. The report found that for parents taking their first steps into Jewish life, the main reason for going to a Jewish program is to make new friends. And, according to the study, programs that are competitively priced or free, where possible, are important in reaching new parents. Other findings included recommendations for how organizations can reach out to families with young children: • Become more technologi ...
- Research Reports and Studies
The Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation supports programs that ensure vibrant Jewish life by empowering young Jews to embrace the joy of Judaism, build inclusive Jewish communities, support the State of Israel and repair the world. Established in 1987 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Foundation also provides assistance to non-sectarian charitable organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in our hometown, especially in the areas of education, child advocacy and youth development.The website includes program listings, studies and evaluations, multimedia resources, and a blog.
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Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility
Sh’ma invites some of the most thoughtful writers of contemporary Judaism to create a “conversation-in print” each month. Our topics raise critical questions about communal issues, Jewish education, synagogues, personal theology, philanthropy, Israel, community transformation, Jewish arts and culture, Judaism and the Diaspora, and much more. Regular features include book reviews, a practical Jewish ethics column, and Nish’ma, a simulated page of contemporary Jewish Talmud. Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility publishes ten issues a year, from September through June. In addition to posting articles from the print journal, the website also offers a blog and audio/video resources.
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Jumpstart
Jumpstart’s mission is to develop, strengthen, and learn from emerging Jewish organizations that build community at the nexus of spirituality, learning, social activism, and culture, in order to transform the broader Jewish community and the world. Jumpstart nurtures compelling and innovative early-stage nonprofits, networks their leaders, and connects them to the resources and expertise they need to succeed. Jumpstart provides strategic advice to philanthropists and other advocates committed to growing emerging organizations to scale and sustainability. Jumpstart assesses key trends, disseminates best practices, and leverages new insights about the emergent sector for use by practitioners, funders, and other thought leaders.
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Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership
The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian educational organization that provides ethical leadership training and professional development for women. Too often, success has been measured in terms of the accumulation of power and wealth with almost no consideration of how these accomplishments have been achieved. Ethical leadership is concerned with the means as well as the ends to personal and professional achievements. As such, Woodhull has developed a community that encourages women to lead with honesty, respect, courage and compassion; to strive for the common ground in decision-making and to share in community service.
- Organizations - Professional Organizations
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2009 Consultation on Jewish Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Featured
Jumpstart, JESNA's Lippman Kanfer Institute, and The Jewish Federations of North America have partnered to create a think tank on Jewish innovation and social entrepreneurship. The goal is to create a forum to address the key issues that will affect the success of the Jewish innovation sector. The think tank partners held a consultation in Toronto on December 15-16, 2009 hosted and co-sponsored by the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and co-sponsored by the Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. Dr. Caryn Aviv was engaged to attend the conference and write a report on the gathering. Follow the link above to download the report, view resources, and learn more about the convenors and participants.
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- Research Reports and Studies - Lippman Kanfer Institute Publications
Redesigning Jewish Education in the Real World: A Case Study in Bridging Principles and Practice
During the 2008-09 academic year, Siegal College and the JECC of Cleveland collaborated with JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute on a series of seminars for Cleveland-area educators and congregational leaders that was built around the “design principles for 21st century Jewish education” articulated by the Institute in its Working Paper, Redesigning Jewish Education for the 21st Century. The goal of the seminar was to see whether and how these design principles –treating the learner as the focal point and an active agent in the educational process, infusing education with rich peer-to-peer and educator-student relationships, and making Jewish education “life-centered” – could be used by educators as practical guides and stimuli for designing and implementing educational activities in their institutions, especially synagogues. The two principals in organizing the seminar, Dr. Jeffrey Schein of Siegal College and Dr. Jonathan Woocher of JESNA, authored this paper to share their reflections on the seminar process, learnings from it, and its possible broader implications for the wider Jewish educational community. We conclude that the seminar did, in fact, stimulate fresh reflection among the participants on a range of philosophical and practical issues that affect their educational programs and that the design principles are a useful vehicle for generating and guiding this reflection. Moreover, the seminar demonstrated the value of this type of collaboration between ...
- Research Reports and Studies - Lippman Kanfer Institute Publications - Working Papers
Growing Jewish Education in Challenging Times: A Roundtable Series with JESNA's Lippman-Kanfer Institute & eJewishPhilanthropy Featured
Quality Jewish education is our most powerful tool for ensuring a vibrant Jewish future. But, it can't have an impact on those who don't participate. What can we do to make Jewish education more attractive, accessible and affordable, even under current conditions of economic pressure on both "providers" and "consumers"? How do the challenges of expanding educational participation play out today in specific arenas - day school, "complementary" education, camp, Israel education - and for specific critical populations - families with young children, teens, young adults, etc.? What new approaches are being tried and where are there signs of success? What has yet to be tried, but ought to be? Leaders from a wide range of settings and representing a variety of perspectives were invited to address these questions in a Roundtable series of essays that appeared over several weeks on eJewishPhilanthropy and on the JESNA website. We've now gathered their analyses and proposals together in this publication, along with the comments of readers to several of the essays who add their own opinions to the mix. We encourage you to use this publication to stimulate further discussion on the critical issues the essays address. Please note: The views expressed in the essays and in the comments published here reflect the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the thinking of the Lippman Kanfer Institute, JESNA or eJewishPhilanthropy.com. Growing Jewish Education in Challeng ...
- Articles
31 Days of Jewish Women in Education: Full 2010 List for Download Featured
In March 2010, JESNA began a new annual tradition in honor of Women's History month: 31 days of Jewish women in education. Each of the 31 women (or women's organizations) selected this year reflect some aspect of the wide range of contributions Jewish women have made to the world of education, both Judaic and secular, throughout American history.You may download the PDF of the full 2010 list here, for use in classrooms, trainings, home discussion with children, and more. 31 Days of Jewish Women in Education (1.6 MB)
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WOW! Columbus Supplementary School Initiative
This PowerPoint was presented at JESNA's WOW! Columbus Summit in June 2010. It provides a basic overview of the current model of Jewish supplemantary education, designed in the 1950's, and notes the growing demographic and cultural changes in North American Jewish communities that demand new approaches attuned to current realities. The WOW! project is one such new approach, with the goal of engaging greater numbers of children and families in satisfying and impactful supplementary Jewish educational experiences. View and download the presentation here: WOW Summit Columbus (2.28 MB)
- Presentations
Technology & Jewish Education: a Revolution in the Making? Featured
In May 2010, JESNA's Lippman Kanfer Institute and The Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner co-sponsored the convening, "Technology and Jewish Education: a Revolution in the Making." This convening built upon JESNA's Jewish Education 3.0 project, and featured two panels on the current state of technology in the world of Jewish education and possibilities & challenges for the future, as well as post-panel discussions & a special talk by Professor Jeffrey Shandler. The convening included live participants as well as another virtual group who were brought into the room via online conferencing.The entire convening was recorded through JESNA's online conferencing platform, and can be viewed here in its entirety. You may select the clips you wish to view from the menu below. You may also download the bios of all the evening's speakers here: Panelist Bios (39 kB)Video clips:Welcome from Jon Woocher, JESNA Chief Ideas OfficerPanel 1 1) Intro & Lisa Colton 2) Lisa Colton 3) Meredith Lewis 4) Dan Sieradski 5) Dan Sieradski 6) Dan SieradskiDiscussion 1 Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3 Clip 4Dinner speaker Jeffrey Shandler Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3 Clip 4 Clip 5 Panel 2 1) Intro & Russel Neiss 2) Russell Neiss 3) David Bryfman 4) David Bryfman 5) Lilit MarcusDiscussion 2 Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3Final Words from Jon Woocher
- Interactive Resources - Webinars
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How Can Program Evaluation Help Me? Webinar 3
The final installment of the Program Evaluation webinar series with Dr. Leora Isaacs, JESNA's Vice President for Programs and Organizational Learning, on the how-to's of program evaluation in Jewish education. Webinar 3 focuses on moving from outputs & outcomes to indicators. You may wish to view the first 2 webinars in this series before viewing this final installment; both are available in the JESNA webinar library here. Download Dr. Isaacs' PowerPoint presentation from this webinar here: Program Evaluation Webinar III (1.32 MB)You may also be interested in downloading the JESNA publication Pathways: A Guide for Evaluating Programs in Jewish Settings, which is also discussed in this series. Download Pathways here: Pathways part 1 (12.3 MB) Pathways part 2 (11.73 MB)Please note that the video is broken up into 7 parts of roughly 9 minutes each, posted here in the correct order. When you get to the end of the first clip, simply click on the next one to play. You may also watch these videos full-screen by clicking on the button with the 4 outward-facing arrows at the bottom-right corner of the video player screen.
- Interactive Resources - Webinars
Educator learning keeps evolving Featured
This article from NSDC's monthly publication, "Teachers Teaching Teachers," reviews and explores the history of teacher professional development over the last half century. While detailing the history of professional development, Killion explores not only how the terminology has changed, but more importantly, how assumptions about the purposes and outcomes of such learning have evolved. The column also describes five levels of learning with examples of each. Teachers Teaching Teachers (158.8 kB)
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Partnerships for Learning: Promising Practices in Integrating School and Out-of-School Time Program Supports Featured
Across the country many schools and communities are trying to create and support efforts to institutionalize partnerships for learning, including those that rethink the use of time across the school day and year, and across the developmental continuum. These partnerships are not merely transactional in nature but rather transformative: partnering entities work together to integrate and complement their services with the shared goal of supporting children’s learning. Partnerships for learning can be structured differently according to local community needs, can be housed in a variety of school and community-based settings, and can involve a range of partners, including schools, afterschool and summer programs, physical and mental health services, and other community resources. This new report from the Harvard Family Research Project is aimed to help school and OST program leaders, decision-makers, and funders, to understand and implement effective OST–school partnerships for learning. Specifically, it Describes the benefits of OST–school partnerships for children, schools, and OST programs. Presents five research-derived principles of promising OST–school partnerships, offering specific strategies and examples for each. Profiles three “on-the-ground” partnership efforts based on the in-depth interviews conducted at the three selected sites. Discusses conditions for optimal success in developing sustainable OST–school partnerships. Download the re ...
- Research Reports and Studies
Searching for the Study of Israel: A Report on the Teaching of Israel on U.S. College Campuses 2008-09
An update of a 2006 report, Searching for the Study of Israel examines the scope of academic courses being taught about Israel on more than 300 leading American college and university campuses and finds that the state of education about Israel has improved since the original study. A comparison of the 246 institutions included in both studies shows a 69% growth in courses that focus specifically on Israel over the three-year period. searching_for_the_study_of_Israel_2008-09 (1.91 MB)
- Research Reports and Studies
- Reference
Tragedy of the Commons: A Jewish perspective on a seminal essay of the modern environmentalist movement
This essay, Reprinted with permission from A Compendium of Sources in Halacha and the Environment, offers a Talmudic approach to one of the seminal essays of the modern environmentalist movement.
- Articles
- Books
ADCA Webinar 2: "The Current Situation in Complementary Education"
#2 in the ADCA webinar series, this webinar features an in-depth assessment and conversation around the current situation in complementary education, facilitated by Jon Woocher, Chief Ideas Officer at JESNA. Due to file size restrictions, this video has been broken down into 6 clips of approximately 9 minutes each, which can be viewed here in order. Before viewing, you may wish to view the first offering in this webinar series, "Leading Without Authority."
- Interactive Resources - Webinars
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Featured
This seminal article by author Marc Prensky assesses the new (at the time) 21st century student culture of "digital natives," the first generation of young people who are "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games & the internet (more boradly referred to as social media). How does this transition from digital immigrants to digital natives affect the classroom, and the very nature of our educational system? Though there have been many more advances in the field of social media since this article was first published, it remains a relevant reference when assessing the broad transition of student culture to the digital world of the 21st century. Digital_Natives_and_Imigrants (43.61 kB)
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Sally Priesand
In March 2010, JESNA began a new annual tradition in honor of Women's History month: 31 days of Jewish women in education. Each of the 31 women (or women's organizations) selected this year reflect some aspect of the wide range of contributions Jewish women have made to the world of education, both Judaic and secular, throughout American history. Download the full PDF here: 31 Days of Jewish Women in Education (1.6 MB)
- Articles
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
In March 2010, JESNA began a new annual tradition in honor of Women's History month: 31 days of Jewish women in education. Each of the 31 women (or women's organizations) selected this year reflect some aspect of the wide range of contributions Jewish women have made to the world of education, both Judaic and secular, throughout American history. Download the full PDF here: 31 Days of Jewish Women in Education (1.6 MB)
- Articles