CONTACTWINTER 2002/TEVET 5762 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2 THE JOURNAL OF JEWISH LIFE NETWORK /

Jewish Day Schools:New Directions Essays by Rabbi Joshua Elkin, David Steinberg, Caren N. Levine,Peter A. Geffen, Naava Frank, and Virginia Bayer

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contactWINTER 2002 / TEVET 5762 VOL 4 NO 2

JEWISH LIFE NETWORK /

Eli Valley Editor

Erica ColemanCopy Editor

Edith Fenyvesi Photo Coordinator

David WinterAdministration

Janet Mann Administration

Yakov WisniewskiDesign Director

J E W I S H L I F E N E T W O R K

Michael H. SteinhardtChairman

Rabbi Irving GreenbergPresident

Jonathan J. Greenberg Executive Director

CONTACT is produced and distributed by Jewish Life Network, a Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation, 6 East 39th Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016.

Phone: (212) 279-2288Fax: (212) 279-1155Email: info@jewishlife.org

Copyright © 2001 by Jewish Life Network.

Jewish Life Network is dedicated tostrengthening and transforming Ameri-can Jewry to ensure a flourishing, sus-tainable community in a fullyintegrated free society. We seek to revi-talize Jewish identity through educa-tional, religious and cultural initiativesthat are designed to reach out to allJews, with an emphasis on those whoare on the margins of Jewish life.

Photographs in this issue appear courtesy of Art Today,Caren N. Levine, Joe Malcolm, Jerome and RochelleKutliroff, and the Solomon Schechter Day School ofAlbuquerque.

New Directions in Day School Education

Y ears ago, Jewish day schools were generally associated with the

most rigorously observant segments of the Jewish community.

But things have begun to change. According to a 1999 Avi Chai

census of American Jewish day schools, day school enrollment saw a dra-

matic increase in the 1990s. Among community and non-Orthodox day

schools, enrollment rose by nearly 25 percent. Jewish day schools are

increasingly viewed as an indispensable tool to solidify Jewish identity and

involvement.

Now that Jewish education is attaining long-overdue esteem, the question is

no longer whether day schools have a measurable impact on Jewish affilia-

tion, but how can we make them even more effective and widespread in

their reach. Many issues remain unresolved. Among future challenges are

personnel recruitment and retention; the creation of guidelines for a Jewish

curriculum; the integration of technology into the classroom; and a much-

needed increase in funding for teacher salaries, day school expansion and

tuition reduction.

This issue of Contact is dedicated to exploring the next phase of day school

excellence. Contributors examine the future of day schools from diverse

perspectives ranging from Rabbi Joshua Elkin's systematic assessment of day

school needs to Virginia Bayer's more personal account of helping to build a

Jewish high school. Taken together, these articles envision exciting new vis-

tas of day school improvement.

Day schools are one of the most precious resources in the Jewish commu-

nity. Like no other program, they impart a sustained mixture of Jewish

knowledge and experience that often leads to a lifelong commitment to Jew-

ish life. It is time to further enhance the quality of a day school education so

that its benefits will resonate throughout the Jewish world.

Eli Valley

2 CONTACT

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F ive years ago, MichaelSteinhardt and YitzGreenberg conceived of

a philanthropic partnership tosubstantially increase access tohigh quality Jewish day schooleducation in North America.The initial program consistedof challenge grants for new ele-mentary and middle schools. Inaddition to funding, schoolsreceived access to expertise.

Five years later, the Partner-ship for Excellence in JewishEducation (PEJE) has brought tofruition much of what was origi-nally envisioned. Approximately$8 million has been awarded tonearly forty elementary and mid-dle schools, and over $3 million inexpertise has been provided. Thematching nature of the grants hasstimulated additional philanthropy,and the initial focus on elementaryand middle schools has beenbroadened to include the burgeon-ing number of Jewish high schools.Two donor assemblies of major dayschool supporters, a resource devel-opment conference, nearly a dozenpublications, and an active web siteand public relations effort are all tes-timony to the broadening agenda.

In the context of the seriousattention now being paid to dayschools, we can step back and reflecton some of the challenges that lieahead. If day schools are to maximizetheir potential to help foster a newgeneration of literate and engagedJews, what are some of the prioritiesthat must be successfully addressed?

A Change Theory for Day Schools Building on the work of the MandelFoundation, one of PEJE’s supportingpartners, we have conceptualized achange theory for the Jewish day

school world consisting of four quad-rants: models of excellence, expertise,personnel, and advocacy and philan-thropic leadership. These four prioritiesmust be addressed simultaneously andvigorously by the Jewish philanthropiccommunity as well as by individual dayschools and their umbrella organizations.

Models of ExcellencePEJE’s experience working intensivelywith over fifty schools has shown thatvision/mission, lay leadership and pro-fessional leadership form a tripod uponwhich one builds and sustains an excel-lent Jewish day school. Weakness in anyone area creates instability and limits aschool’s potential. Furthermore, thesethree parts of a day school organizationmust be conversant with each other andfully aligned so that the school has clar-ity of purpose, with lay and professionalleadership capable of transformingvision into reality.

Examples of excellence in specificareas of day school life abound, includ-ing: integration of the arts into manyaspects of the curriculum; immersioninto an intensive Hebraic environmentto ensure fluency; travel to Israel as anorganic part of a school’s program;design and construction of state-of-the-art facilities; and provision of a widerange of extracurricular activities.

In much the same way as businessschools use case studies to documentsuccessful practices in the profit world,we desperately need case studies to helpcapture the rich texture of day schoolsuccess. There is a need to documentvirtually every aspect of day schoolfunctioning. These case studies will beused to train and strengthen lay andprofessional leadership, to support pro-fessional development of teachers and tofoster cross-school learning.

Expanding the Availability of ExpertiseThe success of PEJE’s Madrikh Program,whereby grantee schools are provided a

The Burgeoning Day School World:

What Lies Ahead?by RABBI JOSHUA ELKIN

Rabbi Joshua Elkin is Executive Director of the

Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education.

WINTER 2002 3

WINTER 2002 5

others are about to be launched. Currentprograms include the PARDES two yearprogram in Jerusalem, funded by AVICHAI for high school Judaic teachers;Ha Sha’ar in New York, funded by theNash Family Foundation; The NewModel Partnership in JewishTeacher Recruitment andPreparation, funded by theCovenant Foundation andcosponsored by the WesternCanadian Coalition of JewishEducators and York Universityin Toronto; DeLeT, a newnational program beinglaunched in cooperation withJESNA and funded by a con-sortium of donors led byLaura Lauder; and variousteacher training options avail-able at the Jewish TheologicalSeminary, Hebrew Union Col-lege, and at other teachertraining institutions.

On the administrativeside, the needs are profound.We cannot rely solely on thetraining of new, unprovenleaders. We must turn to thepool of talented educatorswho are Jewish but who havenot worked previously in Jew-ish education. They currentlywork in independent andpublic schools. They are mid-career and need to beapproached about the possi-bility of devoting the secondhalf of their careers to Jewishday school education. A num-ber of individuals have alreadymade this switch, with someschools appointing a schoolrabbi or Judaic studies coordi-nator to compensate for theHead’s weaker Judaic back-ground. We need to provideincentives, mid-career trainingand Judaic learning to facili-tate this transition for others.

Advocacy andPhilanthropic LeadershipThough day schools havereceived considerable atten-tion in the last decade and though manynew schools have been established, thefact remains that roughly 80 percent ofthe non-Orthodox community remainsrelatively unconnected to Jewish day

school education. The enrollment statis-tics are even more sobering. A recentAVI CHAI census revealed that approxi-mately 40,000 non-Orthodox childrenare currently enrolled in day schools.This represents well under ten percent

of the population. If we are to doublethe enrollment of non-Orthodox stu-dents in day schools over the nextdecade, it will be necessary to launchand sustain a vigorous campaign which

promotes the value of day school educa-tion. AVI CHAI and PEJE have sup-ported public relations and advertisingcampaigns for day school education atall levels.

Promoting philanthropic leadershipand involvement is the otheraspect of advocacy. While dayschools value every donor, the factremains that 90 percent of thefunds that any day school raisescomes from a very small percent-age of the population. It is impera-tive that we increase this donorbase substantially. It will be neces-sary to form a collaboration of dayschools, federations and nationalday school networks to attract thenext cadre of philanthropic leader-ship that will support local dayschools. Each day school mustincrease its fundraising by at least50 percent over the course of thenext five years.

Finally, related to advocacyand philanthropic leadership is thechallenge of day school affordabil-ity. High-quality day school educa-tion is expensive. Many parentscannot shoulder the full cost. Eachday school must have availableexpertise to assist in establishingscholarship endowment funds, atuition stabilization or reductionprogram and tax-advantaged char-itable remainder trusts, wherebygrandparents of recently born orsoon-to-be-enrolled grandchildrencan arrange to pay part or all oftheir grandchild’s day schooltuition. Such vehicles do exist; itis essential to promote their use.AVI CHAI, The Harold GrinspoonFoundation and Samis Foundationhave each implemented a focusedtuition reduction program, and theUJA-Federation of New York hasdeveloped the Grandparent Chari-table Remainder Trust vehicle.

As challenging as these needsand priorities are, PEJE is opti-mistic that collaborative workamong day schools, federations,private foundations and dayschool parents, alumni and sup-

porters will lead to an increasing num-ber of students attending day schools.These students will benefit from aheightened level of Jewish literacy and acommitment to tikkun olam.

general coach for their lay and profes-sional leadership, has demon-

strated the need to grow aculture within the

day school

world of readily available expertise. Noday school should be floundering whenaddressing a challenge that other schoolshave faced before. Even schools in verysmall Jewish communities recognize the importance of expertise, as demon-strated by an overwhelming response

to the Charles SchustermanSmall Communities Enhance-ment Program, PEJE’s neweffort to make expertise avail-

able to schools in small Jewishcommunities.

A specific area of expertisedelivery that PEJE has alreadybegun to tackle is resource develop-ment. If day schools are to thrive,they require a stronger financial baseto support excellence. PEJE is nowembarking on the deployment offinancial resource developmentexperts to schools across the country.Using a matching grant program,PEJE is finalizing relationships withfifteen schools to substantiallyincrease their resource developmentcapacity and performance. We antici-pate many more grants in the future.In order to make an impact in thisarea, it will be necessary to invest inthe infrastructure of individual schoolsso that the needed financial resourcescan be secured. Furthermore, activeboard involvement and volunteer-pro-fessional collaboration are essential toany success.

PEJE is also in the initial stages oftesting a more substantial expertisedelivery system whereby experts will bemade available to all day schools in theareas of general studies, Judaic studiesand Jewish life, and organizationaldevelopment. Over the course of thenext year and a half, PEJE will be testingexpertise delivery vehicles in the areas offinancial management and joint purchas-ing, lay leadership development and thetraining of pedagogic coaches, particu-larly in Judaic studies.

Close collaboration with the existingday school networks and associationsmust be an essential feature of allexpertise delivered. Worthy of particularmention is the outstanding visioningand school-strengthening project, “Jew-ish Day Schools for the 21st Century,”led by Professor Michael Zeldin of theRhea Hirsch School of Hebrew UnionCollege in Los Angeles. The lay leader-ship network of the Solomon Schechter

Day School Association is another exam-ple of existing expertise that should bebuilt upon. Aspects of the expertise willalso be delivered online. A developingpartnership between the Jewish Educa-tion Service of North America (JESNA)and PEJE will help to ensure compre-hensiveness while avoiding duplication.

Another vast source of expertise canbe found in independent accreditation ofschools. The importance of this processlies in its reflective power. Goingthrough a year-long self-study, followedby an on-site visit and report by a panelof educators, is one of the most power-ful tools to help a day school take stockof its performance and needs. Thoughmany day schools have undergone suchself-studies and received regional inde-pendent school accreditation, there aremany more schools that would benefitfrom this process, which must berepeated every seven to ten years.

PersonnelWhen one hears the term personnel,administrators and teachers usuallycome to mind. We begin instead withlay personnel, because they are oftenoverlooked. The need for a substantialincrease in experienced volunteer lead-ers is crucial. The demands on dayschool boards today are exponentiallymore complex than they were twentyyears ago. Day school leadership recog-nizes that the Nominating Committee(or Committee on Trustees) is the mostinfluential committee in the organiza-tion. That committee is charged with theresponsibility of evaluating the currentBoard and of searching on a year-roundbasis for additional talented leadership.The importance of lay leader mentor-ships, as well as lay/professional collabo-ration, cannot be overestimated.

On the professional side, we need tolaunch a multi-faceted recruitment andtraining program to target potentialteachers while they are in college.Another source of potential teachersmay be found among mid-career parentswho have been involved in their chil-dren’s day schools. Meaningful incen-tives need to be offered to enablecandidates to see teaching in a Jewishday school as a viable career choice. Inaddition to raising salaries and benefits,we need to grow first-rate training andinduction programs at many differentsites. Some opportunities already exist;

Day School Philanthropy on the Local Level

The Partnership for Excellence in JewishEducation is a collaborative of twelvemajor philanthropic partners to create

new day schools and strengthen existing dayschools in North America. Recognizing that dayschool education requires advocacy on thenational as well as local levels, PEJE partners areoften actively involved in additional programs toassist day schools in their own communities. Aprime example is the Harold Grinspoon Founda-tion, which concentrates on funding Jewish educa-tion in Western Massachusetts.

Founded in 1993 by Harold Grinspoon, theFoundation funds a variety of day school initia-tives ranging from a tuition incentive program toexpertise delivery. It provides general operatingsupport and, through a “21st Century ChallengeCampaign,” is helping to establish endowments atfive Jewish day schools serving Western Massachu-setts. It also operates the Resource Center for Jew-ish Education, a professional developmentheadquarters for Jewish educators in the region. In1995, the Foundation established a program tohonor superlative teachers in Western Massachu-setts. The success of this program led to a nationalteacher awards partnership with the Jewish Edu-cation Service of North America (JESNA). JewishLife Network/Steinhardt Foundation has recentlybecome a partner in this awards program.

Finally, in an effort to strengthen the entire Jew-ish community infrastructure in Western Massachu-setts, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation supportsyouth and teen initiatives including the Bnai TzedekTeen Philanthropy Program, college programs andJewish family education. By enriching many aspectsof Jewish life in the region, the Foundation ensuresthe continued vitality of the day school movementin Western Massachusetts and beyond.

4 CONTACT

WINTER 2002 5

others are about to be launched. Currentprograms include the PARDES two yearprogram in Jerusalem, funded by AVICHAI for high school Judaic teachers;Ha Sha’ar in New York, funded by theNash Family Foundation; The NewModel Partnership in JewishTeacher Recruitment andPreparation, funded by theCovenant Foundation andcosponsored by the WesternCanadian Coalition of JewishEducators and York Universityin Toronto; DeLeT, a newnational program beinglaunched in cooperation withJESNA and funded by a con-sortium of donors led byLaura Lauder; and variousteacher training options avail-able at the Jewish TheologicalSeminary, Hebrew Union Col-lege, and at other teachertraining institutions.

On the administrativeside, the needs are profound.We cannot rely solely on thetraining of new, unprovenleaders. We must turn to thepool of talented educatorswho are Jewish but who havenot worked previously in Jew-ish education. They currentlywork in independent andpublic schools. They are mid-career and need to beapproached about the possi-bility of devoting the secondhalf of their careers to Jewishday school education. A num-ber of individuals have alreadymade this switch, with someschools appointing a schoolrabbi or Judaic studies coordi-nator to compensate for theHead’s weaker Judaic back-ground. We need to provideincentives, mid-career trainingand Judaic learning to facili-tate this transition for others.

Advocacy andPhilanthropic LeadershipThough day schools havereceived considerable atten-tion in the last decade and though manynew schools have been established, thefact remains that roughly 80 percent ofthe non-Orthodox community remainsrelatively unconnected to Jewish day

school education. The enrollment statis-tics are even more sobering. A recentAVI CHAI census revealed that approxi-mately 40,000 non-Orthodox childrenare currently enrolled in day schools.This represents well under ten percent

of the population. If we are to doublethe enrollment of non-Orthodox stu-dents in day schools over the nextdecade, it will be necessary to launchand sustain a vigorous campaign which

promotes the value of day school educa-tion. AVI CHAI and PEJE have sup-ported public relations and advertisingcampaigns for day school education atall levels.

Promoting philanthropic leadershipand involvement is the otheraspect of advocacy. While dayschools value every donor, the factremains that 90 percent of thefunds that any day school raisescomes from a very small percent-age of the population. It is impera-tive that we increase this donorbase substantially. It will be neces-sary to form a collaboration of dayschools, federations and nationalday school networks to attract thenext cadre of philanthropic leader-ship that will support local dayschools. Each day school mustincrease its fundraising by at least50 percent over the course of thenext five years.

Finally, related to advocacyand philanthropic leadership is thechallenge of day school affordabil-ity. High-quality day school educa-tion is expensive. Many parentscannot shoulder the full cost. Eachday school must have availableexpertise to assist in establishingscholarship endowment funds, atuition stabilization or reductionprogram and tax-advantaged char-itable remainder trusts, wherebygrandparents of recently born orsoon-to-be-enrolled grandchildrencan arrange to pay part or all oftheir grandchild’s day schooltuition. Such vehicles do exist; itis essential to promote their use.AVI CHAI, The Harold GrinspoonFoundation and Samis Foundationhave each implemented a focusedtuition reduction program, and theUJA-Federation of New York hasdeveloped the Grandparent Chari-table Remainder Trust vehicle.

As challenging as these needsand priorities are, PEJE is opti-mistic that collaborative workamong day schools, federations,private foundations and dayschool parents, alumni and sup-

porters will lead to an increasing num-ber of students attending day schools.These students will benefit from aheightened level of Jewish literacy and acommitment to tikkun olam.

general coach for their lay and profes-sional leadership, has demon-

strated the need to grow aculture within the

day school

world of readily available expertise. Noday school should be floundering whenaddressing a challenge that other schoolshave faced before. Even schools in verysmall Jewish communities recognize the importance of expertise, as demon-strated by an overwhelming response

to the Charles SchustermanSmall Communities Enhance-ment Program, PEJE’s neweffort to make expertise avail-

able to schools in small Jewishcommunities.

A specific area of expertisedelivery that PEJE has alreadybegun to tackle is resource develop-ment. If day schools are to thrive,they require a stronger financial baseto support excellence. PEJE is nowembarking on the deployment offinancial resource developmentexperts to schools across the country.Using a matching grant program,PEJE is finalizing relationships withfifteen schools to substantiallyincrease their resource developmentcapacity and performance. We antici-pate many more grants in the future.In order to make an impact in thisarea, it will be necessary to invest inthe infrastructure of individual schoolsso that the needed financial resourcescan be secured. Furthermore, activeboard involvement and volunteer-pro-fessional collaboration are essential toany success.

PEJE is also in the initial stages oftesting a more substantial expertisedelivery system whereby experts will bemade available to all day schools in theareas of general studies, Judaic studiesand Jewish life, and organizationaldevelopment. Over the course of thenext year and a half, PEJE will be testingexpertise delivery vehicles in the areas offinancial management and joint purchas-ing, lay leadership development and thetraining of pedagogic coaches, particu-larly in Judaic studies.

Close collaboration with the existingday school networks and associationsmust be an essential feature of allexpertise delivered. Worthy of particularmention is the outstanding visioningand school-strengthening project, “Jew-ish Day Schools for the 21st Century,”led by Professor Michael Zeldin of theRhea Hirsch School of Hebrew UnionCollege in Los Angeles. The lay leader-ship network of the Solomon Schechter

Day School Association is another exam-ple of existing expertise that should bebuilt upon. Aspects of the expertise willalso be delivered online. A developingpartnership between the Jewish Educa-tion Service of North America (JESNA)and PEJE will help to ensure compre-hensiveness while avoiding duplication.

Another vast source of expertise canbe found in independent accreditation ofschools. The importance of this processlies in its reflective power. Goingthrough a year-long self-study, followedby an on-site visit and report by a panelof educators, is one of the most power-ful tools to help a day school take stockof its performance and needs. Thoughmany day schools have undergone suchself-studies and received regional inde-pendent school accreditation, there aremany more schools that would benefitfrom this process, which must berepeated every seven to ten years.

PersonnelWhen one hears the term personnel,administrators and teachers usuallycome to mind. We begin instead withlay personnel, because they are oftenoverlooked. The need for a substantialincrease in experienced volunteer lead-ers is crucial. The demands on dayschool boards today are exponentiallymore complex than they were twentyyears ago. Day school leadership recog-nizes that the Nominating Committee(or Committee on Trustees) is the mostinfluential committee in the organiza-tion. That committee is charged with theresponsibility of evaluating the currentBoard and of searching on a year-roundbasis for additional talented leadership.The importance of lay leader mentor-ships, as well as lay/professional collabo-ration, cannot be overestimated.

On the professional side, we need tolaunch a multi-faceted recruitment andtraining program to target potentialteachers while they are in college.Another source of potential teachersmay be found among mid-career parentswho have been involved in their chil-dren’s day schools. Meaningful incen-tives need to be offered to enablecandidates to see teaching in a Jewishday school as a viable career choice. Inaddition to raising salaries and benefits,we need to grow first-rate training andinduction programs at many differentsites. Some opportunities already exist;

Day School Philanthropy on the Local Level

The Partnership for Excellence in JewishEducation is a collaborative of twelvemajor philanthropic partners to create

new day schools and strengthen existing dayschools in North America. Recognizing that dayschool education requires advocacy on thenational as well as local levels, PEJE partners areoften actively involved in additional programs toassist day schools in their own communities. Aprime example is the Harold Grinspoon Founda-tion, which concentrates on funding Jewish educa-tion in Western Massachusetts.

Founded in 1993 by Harold Grinspoon, theFoundation funds a variety of day school initia-tives ranging from a tuition incentive program toexpertise delivery. It provides general operatingsupport and, through a “21st Century ChallengeCampaign,” is helping to establish endowments atfive Jewish day schools serving Western Massachu-setts. It also operates the Resource Center for Jew-ish Education, a professional developmentheadquarters for Jewish educators in the region. In1995, the Foundation established a program tohonor superlative teachers in Western Massachu-setts. The success of this program led to a nationalteacher awards partnership with the Jewish Edu-cation Service of North America (JESNA). JewishLife Network/Steinhardt Foundation has recentlybecome a partner in this awards program.

Finally, in an effort to strengthen the entire Jew-ish community infrastructure in Western Massachu-setts, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation supportsyouth and teen initiatives including the Bnai TzedekTeen Philanthropy Program, college programs andJewish family education. By enriching many aspectsof Jewish life in the region, the Foundation ensuresthe continued vitality of the day school movementin Western Massachusetts and beyond.

4 CONTACT

6 CONTACT WINTER 2002 7

tion, the future of Judaism – and of Jews– was threatened. “We will just melt into that silent majority out there,” shesaid. Asked to explain this “revolution,”Gardenswartz said the Jewish educationleadership is aware that the kind of Jewish education that has been the normin the last 100 years hasfailed dramatically. “So wehave to revolutionize theway we transmitJudaism to our chil-dren and to ourchildren’s children.”

Gardenswartz disagreeswith the longstanding think-ing of liberal Jews and Jewsin Western and Southerncities that to isolate Jewish childrenfrom a more diversified school popu-lation is not good for America and notgood for Jews. “I feel just the opposite.It’s the best thing for Jews. That way weenrich America. That way we add to thesoup. Without the knowledge of ourown culture and history we’re justadding water to the soup.”

Schechter finally opened its doors inthe education wing of Congregation B’naiIsrael, the city’s Conservative synagogue.As Gardenswartz remembered, “Wehoped for 10 children that first year and

we had 24 in the first, second and thirdgrades. The second year we had 40.”

After four years at the synagogue,the school moved into spacious quarterson the new campus of the Jewish Com-munity Center of Albuquerque at thestart of the 2000-2001 academic year.

The SSDS partners with the JCC,which provides, among other amenities,after-school care for Schechter students.Jacob Haner, the JCC athletic director,directs Schechter’s physical educationprogram.

Heading the school is Dr. KathrynWeil, who recently retired after 25 years

as a teacher, principal and administratorin the city’s public schools and with theNew Mexico Department of Education.Dr. Weil has encouraged general studiesand Judaic studies teachers to worktogether to integrate the two programsas much as possible. In addition, the

teachers in both general andJudaic studies attend morn-

ing prayers with students“in part to assist in

supervising studentsand in part to learn

more about Judaism.” Weilfinds this joint attendance an

exciting element of theinstructional approach.

Rabbi Joe Black ofCongregation Albert, the community’sReform synagogue, noted that theschool is a dynamic institution that uti-lizes all the resources in the community.For example, one day the Orthodox

rabbi may come to school to talk to thestudents about Sukkot, or the Conserva-tive cantor may lead the students insong during prayers, or blow the shofarevery school day during the month ofElul. Such synergy and interdenomina-tional cooperation make SolomonSchechter Day School the bedrock of theAlbuquerque Jewish community.

When Jessica Mazzie was inthe first grade at an Albu-querque public elementary

school, she made Easter baskets in theclassroom.

Jessica’s mother, Sara Mazzie,recounts how the class quite literallypassed over Passover. “They stressed aChristian holiday,” said Mazzie, whoteaches math in a local public middleschool. “She told me she wished theywould do something that she knewabout.” So for the next four years, Jes-sica attended the Solomon SchechterDay School of Albuquerque, the onlyJewish day school in New Mexico.

“When you think about public school — and I believe in diversity —kids should be exposed to all kinds ofchildren. But the public schools don’texpose children to Jewish traditions and culture,” Mazzie said. She thinksher views are shared by most Schechterparents.

Solomon Schechter Day School ofAlbuquerque, now in its sixth year, has66 students in grades one through a

blended sixth/seventh grade. Severaleducators have dubbed SSDS “a miraclein the desert.” “If one were to extrapo-late the size of this school to Los Ange-les’ Jewish community, the enrollmentwould multiply to more than 1,000 chil-dren,” said Susan Nunemaker Braun,president of the school’s board of direc-tors and a mother of two SSDS students.

The student body reflects thebreadth of the metropolitan area’s grow-ing Jewish community, representing fam-ilies from the Conservative, Reform,Orthodox and Renewal congregations aswell as a free-standing Chavura andthose who are unaffiliated. The greaterAlbuquerque metropolitan area is, bysome estimates, home to anywhere from12,000 to 20,000 Jews in a general pop-ulation of over half a million people.

The existence of the school seems amiracle to some, but to Judy Garden-swartz, the founding president of Albu-querque’s SSDS and the person mostresponsible for making the day school areality, it is a blessing. “I think we wereright to establish a school with anational movement. It gave us credibilityin the larger community, whereas allthree previous efforts created independ-ent Jewish day schools that had failed,”Gardenswartz said. “I think it is working

in part because many young peoplemoving to Albuquerque are coming fromurban areas outside of New Mexico andknow about Solomon Schechter.”

An early root of the school was a pre-school established independently by a halfdozen parents in 1968. “It limped alongfor a few years as the Albuquerque Gan,”Gardenswartz said. Then the parentswanted to expand the preschool into anelementary school. At the time, there wereabout a dozen kids in the entire school.

According to Gardenswartz, approxi-mately nine years ago a local residentstarted a day school that lasted one year,with about 20 children in the first fewgrades. These same parents reorganizedand started yet another day school. It,too, lasted one year.

“At that point I was driven,” Gar-denswartz said. “I wanted to prove tothe naysayers I was arguing with for 30years that we were now 30 years behindother communities in the United States”in offering Jewish education. “I was upagainst Jews who didn’t want to be per-ceived as being ‘too Jewish’ or whofeared the school would remind them ofa little cheder in a big city. They had noconcept.”

Gardenswartz was convinced thatwithout a revolution in Jewish educa-

David Steinberg is an Albuquerque journalist who

sits on the Solomon Schechter Day School board. His

daughter, Sarah, is a Schechter third-grader and his

son, Nate, attended Schechter for four years.

A Miraclein theDesert

by DAVID STEINBERG

Without the knowledge of our own culture and

history we’re just addingwater to the soup.

6 CONTACT WINTER 2002 7

tion, the future of Judaism – and of Jews– was threatened. “We will just melt into that silent majority out there,” shesaid. Asked to explain this “revolution,”Gardenswartz said the Jewish educationleadership is aware that the kind of Jewish education that has been the normin the last 100 years hasfailed dramatically. “So wehave to revolutionize theway we transmitJudaism to our chil-dren and to ourchildren’s children.”

Gardenswartz disagreeswith the longstanding think-ing of liberal Jews and Jewsin Western and Southerncities that to isolate Jewish childrenfrom a more diversified school popu-lation is not good for America and notgood for Jews. “I feel just the opposite.It’s the best thing for Jews. That way weenrich America. That way we add to thesoup. Without the knowledge of ourown culture and history we’re justadding water to the soup.”

Schechter finally opened its doors inthe education wing of Congregation B’naiIsrael, the city’s Conservative synagogue.As Gardenswartz remembered, “Wehoped for 10 children that first year and

we had 24 in the first, second and thirdgrades. The second year we had 40.”

After four years at the synagogue,the school moved into spacious quarterson the new campus of the Jewish Com-munity Center of Albuquerque at thestart of the 2000-2001 academic year.

The SSDS partners with the JCC,which provides, among other amenities,after-school care for Schechter students.Jacob Haner, the JCC athletic director,directs Schechter’s physical educationprogram.

Heading the school is Dr. KathrynWeil, who recently retired after 25 years

as a teacher, principal and administratorin the city’s public schools and with theNew Mexico Department of Education.Dr. Weil has encouraged general studiesand Judaic studies teachers to worktogether to integrate the two programsas much as possible. In addition, the

teachers in both general andJudaic studies attend morn-

ing prayers with students“in part to assist in

supervising studentsand in part to learn

more about Judaism.” Weilfinds this joint attendance an

exciting element of theinstructional approach.

Rabbi Joe Black ofCongregation Albert, the community’sReform synagogue, noted that theschool is a dynamic institution that uti-lizes all the resources in the community.For example, one day the Orthodox

rabbi may come to school to talk to thestudents about Sukkot, or the Conserva-tive cantor may lead the students insong during prayers, or blow the shofarevery school day during the month ofElul. Such synergy and interdenomina-tional cooperation make SolomonSchechter Day School the bedrock of theAlbuquerque Jewish community.

When Jessica Mazzie was inthe first grade at an Albu-querque public elementary

school, she made Easter baskets in theclassroom.

Jessica’s mother, Sara Mazzie,recounts how the class quite literallypassed over Passover. “They stressed aChristian holiday,” said Mazzie, whoteaches math in a local public middleschool. “She told me she wished theywould do something that she knewabout.” So for the next four years, Jes-sica attended the Solomon SchechterDay School of Albuquerque, the onlyJewish day school in New Mexico.

“When you think about public school — and I believe in diversity —kids should be exposed to all kinds ofchildren. But the public schools don’texpose children to Jewish traditions and culture,” Mazzie said. She thinksher views are shared by most Schechterparents.

Solomon Schechter Day School ofAlbuquerque, now in its sixth year, has66 students in grades one through a

blended sixth/seventh grade. Severaleducators have dubbed SSDS “a miraclein the desert.” “If one were to extrapo-late the size of this school to Los Ange-les’ Jewish community, the enrollmentwould multiply to more than 1,000 chil-dren,” said Susan Nunemaker Braun,president of the school’s board of direc-tors and a mother of two SSDS students.

The student body reflects thebreadth of the metropolitan area’s grow-ing Jewish community, representing fam-ilies from the Conservative, Reform,Orthodox and Renewal congregations aswell as a free-standing Chavura andthose who are unaffiliated. The greaterAlbuquerque metropolitan area is, bysome estimates, home to anywhere from12,000 to 20,000 Jews in a general pop-ulation of over half a million people.

The existence of the school seems amiracle to some, but to Judy Garden-swartz, the founding president of Albu-querque’s SSDS and the person mostresponsible for making the day school areality, it is a blessing. “I think we wereright to establish a school with anational movement. It gave us credibilityin the larger community, whereas allthree previous efforts created independ-ent Jewish day schools that had failed,”Gardenswartz said. “I think it is working

in part because many young peoplemoving to Albuquerque are coming fromurban areas outside of New Mexico andknow about Solomon Schechter.”

An early root of the school was a pre-school established independently by a halfdozen parents in 1968. “It limped alongfor a few years as the Albuquerque Gan,”Gardenswartz said. Then the parentswanted to expand the preschool into anelementary school. At the time, there wereabout a dozen kids in the entire school.

According to Gardenswartz, approxi-mately nine years ago a local residentstarted a day school that lasted one year,with about 20 children in the first fewgrades. These same parents reorganizedand started yet another day school. It,too, lasted one year.

“At that point I was driven,” Gar-denswartz said. “I wanted to prove tothe naysayers I was arguing with for 30years that we were now 30 years behindother communities in the United States”in offering Jewish education. “I was upagainst Jews who didn’t want to be per-ceived as being ‘too Jewish’ or whofeared the school would remind them ofa little cheder in a big city. They had noconcept.”

Gardenswartz was convinced thatwithout a revolution in Jewish educa-

David Steinberg is an Albuquerque journalist who

sits on the Solomon Schechter Day School board. His

daughter, Sarah, is a Schechter third-grader and his

son, Nate, attended Schechter for four years.

A Miraclein theDesert

by DAVID STEINBERG

Without the knowledge of our own culture and

history we’re just addingwater to the soup.

Online Resource Centers and CurriculumAnother way in which technology isimpacting Jewish studies is throughthe growing wealth of resources andtools available to teachers and stu-dents online. These resourcesinclude lesson plans and teacher-made materials for Hebrew andJudaic learning as well as sites thatoffer online templates to help teach-ers design technology-enrichedlearning in the form of projects,worksheets, puzzles and sustainedstudent activities such as WebQuests.

Referenced below are examplesof the many websites withresources for day schools:

The Partnership for Excellencein Jewish Education website (www.peje.org) includes resources andpublications for Jewish day schoolsand information about its grantand expertise delivery programs.

Jewish Education Service ofNorth America’s Jewish Educators’Electronic Toolkit (www.jesna.org)brings together on one website abroad range of information, materialsand curricular guides to help Jewisheducators use media and technologymore extensively and effectively intheir work. It includes an onlinedatabase of Judaic software, suggestedwebsites categorized by curriculararea, resources for technology plan-ning and links to other educationalsites. The forthcoming SoslandOnline Jewish Education ResourceCenters will provide educationaldecision-makers with relevant knowl-edge to guide their planning and pro-gram development. JESNA and PEJEare also working together to coordi-nate resources for Jewish day schoolsthat will be made available online.

The Lookstein Virtual ResourceCenter for Jewish Education(www.lookstein.org) provides cur-ricular materials and ideas andfacilitates interaction between Jew-ish educators worldwide. The Cen-ter includes a Virtual ResourceLibrary with materials on variouscurricular areas, an InteractiveEducators’ Forum and a section onEducational Enrichment/Profes-sional Development. It is a projectof The Rabbi Joseph H. LooksteinCenter for Jewish Education in theDiaspora at Bar Ilan University.

The Pedagogic Center of theJewish Agency for Israel, Departmentof Jewish Zionist Education(www.jajz-ed.org.il/ index1.html)

includes lesson plans and other cur-ricular materials on Zionism, Israeland Jewish holidays, as well as ongo-ing educational initiatives such as theVirtual Zionist Congress and Let’sTwin. The site also includes links tothe DataJEM database of Jewish edu-cational materials and to JUICE, Jew-ish University in Cyberspace.

The Coalition for the Advance-ment of Jewish Education(www.caje.org) offers informationabout its annual conference, articlesfrom Jewish Education News andaccess to CyberCAJE’s curriculumbank for CAJE members, includingresources for special needs andearly childhood education.

The Jewish Education Centerof Cleveland (www.jecc.org)develops original, web-based cur-ricula such as online tutorials, Jew-ish-based WebQuests and curricularelated to current events. JECCalso provides links to lesson plansand resources such as “virtual fieldtrips” with Jewish themes.

E-Chinuch.org: PinchasHochberger Creative LearningPavilion (www.echinuch.org) is anonline resource center based onTorah Umesorah’s Creative Learn-ing Pavilion. The site houses andcollects downloadable materials andcurricular resources for Judaic stud-ies teachers and administrators,including early childhood educa-tion, special needs, classroom andschool management, weekly “par-sha pages” and a “Bais Midrash” ofresources for Jewish text study. Italso includes teaching tips, lessonplans, worksheets, crafts, digitalslideshows and multimedia, clipart, program banks, moderatedmessage boards and more.

Websites of the Jewish reli-gious movements and central agen-cies for Jewish education, as well ascurricular sites in Israel that focuson Hebrew-language resources arefurther sources of important teach-ing materials and tools.

The digital age has ushered inexciting possibilities to the world ofJewish day school education. Newtechnologies such as Judaic software,video-conferencing and the Internetare creating diverse opportunities forJewish schools to enhance the workin which they are already engaged.These new resources can also poten-tially transform the meaning of whatit is to learn and teach for Jewisheducation.

8 CONTACT

J ewish day schools have always used edu-cational technology to support Jewishlearning. However, new developments in

computer technologies provide schools withunprecedented abilities to create, access anddisseminate resources to enhance their vision.Used appropriately, these new technologiescan be an asset to Jewish learning by assistingindividual instruction, engaging students incomplex projects and by providing access to

resources, ideas and professionaldevelopment that broaden theclassroom experience beyond thelocal school community.

Technology in theClassroomSoftware and the Internet canchange and enhance the waysin which students incorporatelearning into their lives. Emailand the Internet help supportrich exchanges among fellowstudents and foster a sense ofclal yisrael. Educational Inter-net twinning projects between

Israeli and Diaspora schools,such as those sponsored by Part-

nership 2000 and the Departmentfor Jewish Zionist Education Pedagogic

Center, help facilitate stronger, more per-sonal links among young Jews the worldover. The Internet is used in class trips toIsrael and student exchange programs todocument student experiences and supple-ment face-to-face encounters.

Other technology-enhanced curricularinitiatives integrate modern tools and capabil-ities in ways that support and often transformJewish learning. RabLab, which originated atthe Solomon Schechter Day School of GreaterBoston, is one such model. The project com-bines the traditional values of text study andchevruta with new resources such as softwareand the Internet. With support from theCovenant Foundation, the program is being

piloted and adapted in three other Schechtermiddle schools: Essex and Union, RaritanValley and Greater Hartford. JSkyway (seebelow) is creating an online training compo-nent for implementing the initiative inschools, and there are plans to pilot the proj-ect on the high school level.

Day schools are also exploring the use oflaptops to provide seamless access to comput-ers in school, at home and in other learningsettings. In addition, distance learning allowsschools to expand course offerings to theircore populations and accommodate gifted stu-dents and students with special needs. ThePardes School in Cleveland, for example,adapted an online Talmud curriculum devel-oped by the Jewish Theological Seminary forits high school students. Another model is thepartnership of Cleveland College of JewishStudies with the Columbus Jewish Day Schooland Kivunim to provide professional develop-ment, curriculum development, and creativeschool programming opportunities for Jewishday schools. The program will be deliveredentirely by synchronous, fully-interactivevideo-conferencing in which the instructor andstudents see and hear each other in real time.Four day schools will participate in the pro-gram, including Columbus Jewish Day School,Austin Jewish Day School, Abraham JoshuaHeschel School (NY) and Jacobson-Sinai Acad-emy in Miami. Students and teachers willwork on collaborative projects with participat-ing schools throughout the world. In addition,teachers will participate in professional devel-opment offered by the College.

In addition to enhancing the day schooleducational experience, new technologies

also provide in-service professional develop-ment for teachers. Many Jewish institutionsof higher learning in North America andIsrael offer interactive, online courses, someleading to Master’s degrees and professionaldevelopment credits. Boston Hebrew College,Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, GratzCollege and the Jewish Theological Seminary,among others, offer online courses thatemphasize Judaic content and teaching skills.

JSkyway is an example of an independent,

asynchronous online professional develop-ment program that was developed to improvegeneral and Judaic education. Entering its sec-ond pilot year, the web-based initiative offerseight-week courses for middle school teachersin Jewish schools in pedagogy and content.Participating teachers learn from professionalteacher educators, share resources and collab-orate on projects. Courses include Skills forEffective Teaching, Skills for Teaching JewishTexts, New Technologies for Jewish Education,and Meeting Individual Needs. JSkyway is apartnership of the Nash Family Foundation,Jewish Family & Life! and JESNA.

The Jewish Technology Collaborative is anew fellowship project developed by the Boardof Jewish Education of Greater New York andthe New York Institute of Technology (NYIT),with support from the Covenant Foundation.

The Collaborative is designed to promote theuse of technology as a teaching and learningtool for Jewish education and to build a cadreof teacher leaders. It targets in-service educa-tors teaching in formal or informal Jewish edu-cational settings. Fellows enroll in a two-yearMaster’s Degree in Instructional Technology atNYIT that emphasizes the use of educationaltechnology for core Jewish and secular sub-jects. In addition to regular course work, par-ticipants are provided with academic stipendstoward their studies, leading-edge technologyand access to expert mentors in Jewish educa-tional technology. In return, graduates of theprogram are expected to further develop thefield by serving as mentors to future partici-pants and by assuming leadership roles in theireducational communities.

— CAREN N. LEVINE

21ST CENTURYPROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT

Learning and Teachingin the Digital World

by CAREN N. LEVINE

The Power of Promotion

WINTER 2002 9

A vi Chai is a private foundation that promotes commit-ment to Jewish tradition and understanding among Jews

of different religiousbackgrounds and com-mitments to observancein North America andIsrael. In 1993, afterreviewing the results ofthe 1990 National JewishPopulation Survey, AviChai concluded that atleast nine years of Jewishday school educationmark the most significantupward jump in Jewishinvolvement and affilia-tion as an adult. Avi Chaithen began focusing onintense investment in dayschool education inNorth America, becominga leader in enhancing thequality of day school edu-cation, expanding thenumber of students enrolled in day schools, and promoting thevalue of an intensive Jewish education throughout NorthAmerica.

Avi Chai is widely known for its provocative advertise-ments extolling the virtue and necessity of day school educa-tion. Avi Chai employs a two-pronged approach to marketing:it creates ad templates that can be customized by specific dayschools throughout North America, and it creates more general

advertisements to bringthe cause of Jewish dayschools to the forefrontof the communityagenda.

In 1999, Avi Chailaunched a bold adcampaign on the Op-Edpage of the New YorkTimes. It was consid-ered a major step toadvertise not only inJewish newspapers, butalso in the secularmedia. According toAvi Chai trustee MemBernstein, it was a logi-cal step. “The NewYork Times has thelargest Jewish circula-tion of any publica-tion,” she said.

“Advertising there engenders greater credibility for the cause.” To this day, the ads are memorable for their candor and the

effect they had in stimulating a growing community interest inJewish education. Mrs. Bernstein explained that although theads were slightly flip, “the body of the text speaks directlyabout what we’re interested in: parents’ responsibility to edu-cate their children, and Jewish philanthropy’s responsibility toprovide for the education of the next generation.”

Caren N. Levine is the Associate Vice President ofMedia and Technology at JESNA, Jewish EducationService of North America. She is also an adjunctinstructor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli GraduateSchool of Jewish Education and Administration.Caren may be reached at caren@jesna.org.

Online Resource Centers and CurriculumAnother way in which technology isimpacting Jewish studies is throughthe growing wealth of resources andtools available to teachers and stu-dents online. These resourcesinclude lesson plans and teacher-made materials for Hebrew andJudaic learning as well as sites thatoffer online templates to help teach-ers design technology-enrichedlearning in the form of projects,worksheets, puzzles and sustainedstudent activities such as WebQuests.

Referenced below are examplesof the many websites withresources for day schools:

The Partnership for Excellencein Jewish Education website (www.peje.org) includes resources andpublications for Jewish day schoolsand information about its grantand expertise delivery programs.

Jewish Education Service ofNorth America’s Jewish Educators’Electronic Toolkit (www.jesna.org)brings together on one website abroad range of information, materialsand curricular guides to help Jewisheducators use media and technologymore extensively and effectively intheir work. It includes an onlinedatabase of Judaic software, suggestedwebsites categorized by curriculararea, resources for technology plan-ning and links to other educationalsites. The forthcoming SoslandOnline Jewish Education ResourceCenters will provide educationaldecision-makers with relevant knowl-edge to guide their planning and pro-gram development. JESNA and PEJEare also working together to coordi-nate resources for Jewish day schoolsthat will be made available online.

The Lookstein Virtual ResourceCenter for Jewish Education(www.lookstein.org) provides cur-ricular materials and ideas andfacilitates interaction between Jew-ish educators worldwide. The Cen-ter includes a Virtual ResourceLibrary with materials on variouscurricular areas, an InteractiveEducators’ Forum and a section onEducational Enrichment/Profes-sional Development. It is a projectof The Rabbi Joseph H. LooksteinCenter for Jewish Education in theDiaspora at Bar Ilan University.

The Pedagogic Center of theJewish Agency for Israel, Departmentof Jewish Zionist Education(www.jajz-ed.org.il/ index1.html)

includes lesson plans and other cur-ricular materials on Zionism, Israeland Jewish holidays, as well as ongo-ing educational initiatives such as theVirtual Zionist Congress and Let’sTwin. The site also includes links tothe DataJEM database of Jewish edu-cational materials and to JUICE, Jew-ish University in Cyberspace.

The Coalition for the Advance-ment of Jewish Education(www.caje.org) offers informationabout its annual conference, articlesfrom Jewish Education News andaccess to CyberCAJE’s curriculumbank for CAJE members, includingresources for special needs andearly childhood education.

The Jewish Education Centerof Cleveland (www.jecc.org)develops original, web-based cur-ricula such as online tutorials, Jew-ish-based WebQuests and curricularelated to current events. JECCalso provides links to lesson plansand resources such as “virtual fieldtrips” with Jewish themes.

E-Chinuch.org: PinchasHochberger Creative LearningPavilion (www.echinuch.org) is anonline resource center based onTorah Umesorah’s Creative Learn-ing Pavilion. The site houses andcollects downloadable materials andcurricular resources for Judaic stud-ies teachers and administrators,including early childhood educa-tion, special needs, classroom andschool management, weekly “par-sha pages” and a “Bais Midrash” ofresources for Jewish text study. Italso includes teaching tips, lessonplans, worksheets, crafts, digitalslideshows and multimedia, clipart, program banks, moderatedmessage boards and more.

Websites of the Jewish reli-gious movements and central agen-cies for Jewish education, as well ascurricular sites in Israel that focuson Hebrew-language resources arefurther sources of important teach-ing materials and tools.

The digital age has ushered inexciting possibilities to the world ofJewish day school education. Newtechnologies such as Judaic software,video-conferencing and the Internetare creating diverse opportunities forJewish schools to enhance the workin which they are already engaged.These new resources can also poten-tially transform the meaning of whatit is to learn and teach for Jewisheducation.

8 CONTACT

J ewish day schools have always used edu-cational technology to support Jewishlearning. However, new developments in

computer technologies provide schools withunprecedented abilities to create, access anddisseminate resources to enhance their vision.Used appropriately, these new technologiescan be an asset to Jewish learning by assistingindividual instruction, engaging students incomplex projects and by providing access to

resources, ideas and professionaldevelopment that broaden theclassroom experience beyond thelocal school community.

Technology in theClassroomSoftware and the Internet canchange and enhance the waysin which students incorporatelearning into their lives. Emailand the Internet help supportrich exchanges among fellowstudents and foster a sense ofclal yisrael. Educational Inter-net twinning projects between

Israeli and Diaspora schools,such as those sponsored by Part-

nership 2000 and the Departmentfor Jewish Zionist Education Pedagogic

Center, help facilitate stronger, more per-sonal links among young Jews the worldover. The Internet is used in class trips toIsrael and student exchange programs todocument student experiences and supple-ment face-to-face encounters.

Other technology-enhanced curricularinitiatives integrate modern tools and capabil-ities in ways that support and often transformJewish learning. RabLab, which originated atthe Solomon Schechter Day School of GreaterBoston, is one such model. The project com-bines the traditional values of text study andchevruta with new resources such as softwareand the Internet. With support from theCovenant Foundation, the program is being

piloted and adapted in three other Schechtermiddle schools: Essex and Union, RaritanValley and Greater Hartford. JSkyway (seebelow) is creating an online training compo-nent for implementing the initiative inschools, and there are plans to pilot the proj-ect on the high school level.

Day schools are also exploring the use oflaptops to provide seamless access to comput-ers in school, at home and in other learningsettings. In addition, distance learning allowsschools to expand course offerings to theircore populations and accommodate gifted stu-dents and students with special needs. ThePardes School in Cleveland, for example,adapted an online Talmud curriculum devel-oped by the Jewish Theological Seminary forits high school students. Another model is thepartnership of Cleveland College of JewishStudies with the Columbus Jewish Day Schooland Kivunim to provide professional develop-ment, curriculum development, and creativeschool programming opportunities for Jewishday schools. The program will be deliveredentirely by synchronous, fully-interactivevideo-conferencing in which the instructor andstudents see and hear each other in real time.Four day schools will participate in the pro-gram, including Columbus Jewish Day School,Austin Jewish Day School, Abraham JoshuaHeschel School (NY) and Jacobson-Sinai Acad-emy in Miami. Students and teachers willwork on collaborative projects with participat-ing schools throughout the world. In addition,teachers will participate in professional devel-opment offered by the College.

In addition to enhancing the day schooleducational experience, new technologies

also provide in-service professional develop-ment for teachers. Many Jewish institutionsof higher learning in North America andIsrael offer interactive, online courses, someleading to Master’s degrees and professionaldevelopment credits. Boston Hebrew College,Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, GratzCollege and the Jewish Theological Seminary,among others, offer online courses thatemphasize Judaic content and teaching skills.

JSkyway is an example of an independent,

asynchronous online professional develop-ment program that was developed to improvegeneral and Judaic education. Entering its sec-ond pilot year, the web-based initiative offerseight-week courses for middle school teachersin Jewish schools in pedagogy and content.Participating teachers learn from professionalteacher educators, share resources and collab-orate on projects. Courses include Skills forEffective Teaching, Skills for Teaching JewishTexts, New Technologies for Jewish Education,and Meeting Individual Needs. JSkyway is apartnership of the Nash Family Foundation,Jewish Family & Life! and JESNA.

The Jewish Technology Collaborative is anew fellowship project developed by the Boardof Jewish Education of Greater New York andthe New York Institute of Technology (NYIT),with support from the Covenant Foundation.

The Collaborative is designed to promote theuse of technology as a teaching and learningtool for Jewish education and to build a cadreof teacher leaders. It targets in-service educa-tors teaching in formal or informal Jewish edu-cational settings. Fellows enroll in a two-yearMaster’s Degree in Instructional Technology atNYIT that emphasizes the use of educationaltechnology for core Jewish and secular sub-jects. In addition to regular course work, par-ticipants are provided with academic stipendstoward their studies, leading-edge technologyand access to expert mentors in Jewish educa-tional technology. In return, graduates of theprogram are expected to further develop thefield by serving as mentors to future partici-pants and by assuming leadership roles in theireducational communities.

— CAREN N. LEVINE

21ST CENTURYPROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT

Learning and Teachingin the Digital World

by CAREN N. LEVINE

The Power of Promotion

WINTER 2002 9

A vi Chai is a private foundation that promotes commit-ment to Jewish tradition and understanding among Jews

of different religiousbackgrounds and com-mitments to observancein North America andIsrael. In 1993, afterreviewing the results ofthe 1990 National JewishPopulation Survey, AviChai concluded that atleast nine years of Jewishday school educationmark the most significantupward jump in Jewishinvolvement and affilia-tion as an adult. Avi Chaithen began focusing onintense investment in dayschool education inNorth America, becominga leader in enhancing thequality of day school edu-cation, expanding thenumber of students enrolled in day schools, and promoting thevalue of an intensive Jewish education throughout NorthAmerica.

Avi Chai is widely known for its provocative advertise-ments extolling the virtue and necessity of day school educa-tion. Avi Chai employs a two-pronged approach to marketing:it creates ad templates that can be customized by specific dayschools throughout North America, and it creates more general

advertisements to bringthe cause of Jewish dayschools to the forefrontof the communityagenda.

In 1999, Avi Chailaunched a bold adcampaign on the Op-Edpage of the New YorkTimes. It was consid-ered a major step toadvertise not only inJewish newspapers, butalso in the secularmedia. According toAvi Chai trustee MemBernstein, it was a logi-cal step. “The NewYork Times has thelargest Jewish circula-tion of any publica-tion,” she said.

“Advertising there engenders greater credibility for the cause.” To this day, the ads are memorable for their candor and the

effect they had in stimulating a growing community interest inJewish education. Mrs. Bernstein explained that although theads were slightly flip, “the body of the text speaks directlyabout what we’re interested in: parents’ responsibility to edu-cate their children, and Jewish philanthropy’s responsibility toprovide for the education of the next generation.”

Caren N. Levine is the Associate Vice President ofMedia and Technology at JESNA, Jewish EducationService of North America. She is also an adjunctinstructor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli GraduateSchool of Jewish Education and Administration.Caren may be reached at caren@jesna.org.

WINTER 2002 11

participants, both Jews and non-Jewsalike — and even one Jewish studiesteacher — had never been to Israel beforethis program. It is hard to believe, butimperative to confront, that individualswho have never been to Israel are teach-ing our children in Jewish day schoolsacross the United States and Canada.Kivunim schools are either establishedschools of recognized excellence or Part-nership for Excellence in Jewish Educa-tion (PEJE) Grantees selected for theirpotential future development. A broadersample would likely reveal more distress-ing statistics.

In the first two years of Kivunim, bothThe Columbus Jewish Day School andThe Austin Jewish Community DaySchool set a new standard by committingfunds to bring virtually their entire staffsto the Kivunim program. Other participat-ing schools witnessed the power of build-ing personal relationships betweenteachers. By working with the entire fac-ulty (Jews and non-Jews, general studiesand Jewish studies teachers, specialists andclassroom teachers), and by encouragingthe participation of school administrators,the program has already succeeded inreshaping the culture of the schools withrespect to their relationship to Israel.

Why Israel?A meaningful and comprehensive Jewisheducation is not possible without Israel.Both the intellectual and emotionalencounter with Jewish history in rela-tionship to Israel, and the literal experi-ence of traveling in Israel must becentral to the day school experience.Currently, this is not the case.

For a Jewish child to be moved bythe power of Jewish history, he/she mustcomprehend the enormity of the cre-ation, in our own times, of a JewishState. I do not refer to an idealizedIsrael, free of blemishes and imperfec-tions. Quite the contrary, the Israelneeded in our classrooms is the real one,filled with challenges and unrealizedpromises, yet basking in the achieve-ment of a dream fulfilled.

Israel cannot be taught from a dis-tance. Moreover, it is not possible for a

Jewish school to teach about Israel if itsentire faculty, Jewish and general studiesteachers alike, have not walked the streetsof Jerusalem, gazed at Israel’s desert vistas,spoken with its opinion-makers, listenedto its music, prayed in its synagogues,appreciated its artists and craftsmen.

Hence Kivunim. Kivunim is the expe-rience of Israel for teachers. An intensivetwo-week excursion into history, culture,sociology, religion, arts and more, Kivu-nim brings teachers to an Israel of ideasand inspiration. From that experienceflows creative and imaginative teaching.

Beyond IsraelMaking Israel a vivid part of the school’sculture is about far more than Israelitself. Kivunim awakens teachers andinspires them to reconsider importantideas and concepts. For the Jewish stud-ies teacher, Kivunim’s Israel-based experi-ence may offer obvious opportunities.Less obviously, Kivunim provides thegeneral studies teacher with an apprecia-tion and integration of the higher goals ofJewish education. It creates a team. Manyteachers report feeling as “outsiders” inschools where they have taught fordecades. Kivunim provides a way in.

In addition, teachers need to feelrespected, honored and appreciated fortheir remarkable role in nurturing thenext generation. Using Israel as the lab-oratory, Kivunim provides teachers withtwo weeks of thinking, of honing theirsenses, and of expanding their view ofwhat constitutes “Jewish.” This is thefoundation upon which authentic andserious curricular integration can bebuilt. And Israel, as a multi-cultural,multi-generational and multi-sensoryland, forms the core of that foundation.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel cap-tured the profound potential Israel rep-resents: “We were carried away by anawakening of the soul, overwhelmed bya vision of the profound seriousness ofJewish history. Suddenly, we sensed thelink between the Jews of this generationand the people of the time of theprophets.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel,Israel, An Echo of Eternity. Farrar, Straus,and Giroux, 1967)

10 CONTACT

Far too many teachers in Jewish Day Schoolshave a narrow and limited Jewish educationthemselves. In order for Judaism to come alive

in our classrooms, our teachers in Jewish and generalstudies must not only raise their level of Jewish liter-acy, but they must also experience Jewish life on thehighest and most intellectually challenging plane.

Created in 1999, the Kivunim Summer Institute isan intensive two-week program aimed at dramaticallyenhancing the intellectual, aesthetic, and creative dis-course in Jewish day schools across North America.Kivunim, the Hebrew word for “directions,” containswithin it the deeper meaning of Kavanah, “intention.”Israel is a laboratory; its scholars, artists and socialactivists are teachers. Kivunim has brought a new anddynamic level to the professional development of dayschool faculties. With more than 180 participants from1999-2001 and 120 expected for 2002, the programhas become the largest in-service training program thatbrings teachers from North America to Israel.

Kivunim is not a guided tour, but an experiencein curricular integration, modeling the very approachthat it seeks to inculcate in its participants. Everypresentation is given by experts in the field. Kivunimmoves from the ancient to the modern, from politicsto the arts, from controversy to spirituality. Teacherswho have been to Israel many times, even Israeli-Americans who visit Israel annually, report havingunderstood Israel in entirely new ways. Kivunim pro-vides a new direction in teacher training for the Jew-ish day school of the 21st Century. Teachers must bemodels of inquisitiveness and expansiveness. In orderfor Jewish education is be truly effective, Jewishschools must become places where the great ideas ofJudaism and civilization are explored and debated.

Understanding the NeedKivunim reveals a troubling underside of Jewish edu-cational staffing. A full 35-40 percent of 1999-2001

Peter A. Geffen is the founder of The Abraham Joshua Heschel School

in New York City, a consultant to many schools across the continent,

and creator and director of Kivunim. He may be reached at

PG1946@aol.com.

STARTINGEARLYI t is often assumed that a Jewish

education begins in kindergarten.Many experts, however, emphasizethe importance of providing Jewisheducational experiences as early inthe lifespan as possible. Unfortunately,the larger Jewish community has gen-erally overlooked the benefits of Jew-ish education at such an early age.

Recognizing this, the Jewish EarlyChildhood Education Partnership(JECEP) was recently initiated by sixfoundations, including Jewish LifeNetwork/Steinhardt Foundation, toadvocate for Jewish early childhoodeducation. JECEP seeks to ensure thatevery young Jewish child has anopportunity to participate in quality,innovative and meaningful Jewisheducational experiences that will fos-ter permanent connections to Judaism.

One of the main challenges isthat there does not currently exist acentral database of information onthe state of Jewish early childhoodeducation. One of the partnership’sfirst projects is a national surveydesigned to obtain descriptive dataabout Jewish early childhood educa-tion programs in the United States.The survey was sent to over 300 ran-domly selected sites that representthe denominations as well as JewishCommunity Centers and programswith no affiliation. Its goal is to bet-ter understand the background ofJewish preschool personnel, torecord typical salaries and benefits,as well as to gain an overview of thetypes of programs and numbers ofstudents enrolled.

The first five years of life are atime of enormous growth of linguis-tic, conceptual, spiritual and socialcompetence. Experiences duringthese early years have been shown tolay the foundation for a committedJewish life. It is the goal of JECEP tobring such educational experiencesto Jewish children throughout NorthAmerica. For more information onthe work of JECEP, go to its websiteat www.jecep.org.

What AboutIsrael?TheKivunim

ApproachtoIsrael Education

forEducatorsby PETER A. GEFFEN

Israel cannot be taught from a distance. Moreover, it is not possible for a

Jewish school to teach about Israel if its entire faculty, Jewish and

general studies teachers alike, have not walked the streets of Jerusalem...

WINTER 2002 11

participants, both Jews and non-Jewsalike — and even one Jewish studiesteacher — had never been to Israel beforethis program. It is hard to believe, butimperative to confront, that individualswho have never been to Israel are teach-ing our children in Jewish day schoolsacross the United States and Canada.Kivunim schools are either establishedschools of recognized excellence or Part-nership for Excellence in Jewish Educa-tion (PEJE) Grantees selected for theirpotential future development. A broadersample would likely reveal more distress-ing statistics.

In the first two years of Kivunim, bothThe Columbus Jewish Day School andThe Austin Jewish Community DaySchool set a new standard by committingfunds to bring virtually their entire staffsto the Kivunim program. Other participat-ing schools witnessed the power of build-ing personal relationships betweenteachers. By working with the entire fac-ulty (Jews and non-Jews, general studiesand Jewish studies teachers, specialists andclassroom teachers), and by encouragingthe participation of school administrators,the program has already succeeded inreshaping the culture of the schools withrespect to their relationship to Israel.

Why Israel?A meaningful and comprehensive Jewisheducation is not possible without Israel.Both the intellectual and emotionalencounter with Jewish history in rela-tionship to Israel, and the literal experi-ence of traveling in Israel must becentral to the day school experience.Currently, this is not the case.

For a Jewish child to be moved bythe power of Jewish history, he/she mustcomprehend the enormity of the cre-ation, in our own times, of a JewishState. I do not refer to an idealizedIsrael, free of blemishes and imperfec-tions. Quite the contrary, the Israelneeded in our classrooms is the real one,filled with challenges and unrealizedpromises, yet basking in the achieve-ment of a dream fulfilled.

Israel cannot be taught from a dis-tance. Moreover, it is not possible for a

Jewish school to teach about Israel if itsentire faculty, Jewish and general studiesteachers alike, have not walked the streetsof Jerusalem, gazed at Israel’s desert vistas,spoken with its opinion-makers, listenedto its music, prayed in its synagogues,appreciated its artists and craftsmen.

Hence Kivunim. Kivunim is the expe-rience of Israel for teachers. An intensivetwo-week excursion into history, culture,sociology, religion, arts and more, Kivu-nim brings teachers to an Israel of ideasand inspiration. From that experienceflows creative and imaginative teaching.

Beyond IsraelMaking Israel a vivid part of the school’sculture is about far more than Israelitself. Kivunim awakens teachers andinspires them to reconsider importantideas and concepts. For the Jewish stud-ies teacher, Kivunim’s Israel-based experi-ence may offer obvious opportunities.Less obviously, Kivunim provides thegeneral studies teacher with an apprecia-tion and integration of the higher goals ofJewish education. It creates a team. Manyteachers report feeling as “outsiders” inschools where they have taught fordecades. Kivunim provides a way in.

In addition, teachers need to feelrespected, honored and appreciated fortheir remarkable role in nurturing thenext generation. Using Israel as the lab-oratory, Kivunim provides teachers withtwo weeks of thinking, of honing theirsenses, and of expanding their view ofwhat constitutes “Jewish.” This is thefoundation upon which authentic andserious curricular integration can bebuilt. And Israel, as a multi-cultural,multi-generational and multi-sensoryland, forms the core of that foundation.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel cap-tured the profound potential Israel rep-resents: “We were carried away by anawakening of the soul, overwhelmed bya vision of the profound seriousness ofJewish history. Suddenly, we sensed thelink between the Jews of this generationand the people of the time of theprophets.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel,Israel, An Echo of Eternity. Farrar, Straus,and Giroux, 1967)

10 CONTACT

Far too many teachers in Jewish Day Schoolshave a narrow and limited Jewish educationthemselves. In order for Judaism to come alive

in our classrooms, our teachers in Jewish and generalstudies must not only raise their level of Jewish liter-acy, but they must also experience Jewish life on thehighest and most intellectually challenging plane.

Created in 1999, the Kivunim Summer Institute isan intensive two-week program aimed at dramaticallyenhancing the intellectual, aesthetic, and creative dis-course in Jewish day schools across North America.Kivunim, the Hebrew word for “directions,” containswithin it the deeper meaning of Kavanah, “intention.”Israel is a laboratory; its scholars, artists and socialactivists are teachers. Kivunim has brought a new anddynamic level to the professional development of dayschool faculties. With more than 180 participants from1999-2001 and 120 expected for 2002, the programhas become the largest in-service training program thatbrings teachers from North America to Israel.

Kivunim is not a guided tour, but an experiencein curricular integration, modeling the very approachthat it seeks to inculcate in its participants. Everypresentation is given by experts in the field. Kivunimmoves from the ancient to the modern, from politicsto the arts, from controversy to spirituality. Teacherswho have been to Israel many times, even Israeli-Americans who visit Israel annually, report havingunderstood Israel in entirely new ways. Kivunim pro-vides a new direction in teacher training for the Jew-ish day school of the 21st Century. Teachers must bemodels of inquisitiveness and expansiveness. In orderfor Jewish education is be truly effective, Jewishschools must become places where the great ideas ofJudaism and civilization are explored and debated.

Understanding the NeedKivunim reveals a troubling underside of Jewish edu-cational staffing. A full 35-40 percent of 1999-2001

Peter A. Geffen is the founder of The Abraham Joshua Heschel School

in New York City, a consultant to many schools across the continent,

and creator and director of Kivunim. He may be reached at

PG1946@aol.com.

STARTINGEARLYI t is often assumed that a Jewish

education begins in kindergarten.Many experts, however, emphasizethe importance of providing Jewisheducational experiences as early inthe lifespan as possible. Unfortunately,the larger Jewish community has gen-erally overlooked the benefits of Jew-ish education at such an early age.

Recognizing this, the Jewish EarlyChildhood Education Partnership(JECEP) was recently initiated by sixfoundations, including Jewish LifeNetwork/Steinhardt Foundation, toadvocate for Jewish early childhoodeducation. JECEP seeks to ensure thatevery young Jewish child has anopportunity to participate in quality,innovative and meaningful Jewisheducational experiences that will fos-ter permanent connections to Judaism.

One of the main challenges isthat there does not currently exist acentral database of information onthe state of Jewish early childhoodeducation. One of the partnership’sfirst projects is a national surveydesigned to obtain descriptive dataabout Jewish early childhood educa-tion programs in the United States.The survey was sent to over 300 ran-domly selected sites that representthe denominations as well as JewishCommunity Centers and programswith no affiliation. Its goal is to bet-ter understand the background ofJewish preschool personnel, torecord typical salaries and benefits,as well as to gain an overview of thetypes of programs and numbers ofstudents enrolled.

The first five years of life are atime of enormous growth of linguis-tic, conceptual, spiritual and socialcompetence. Experiences duringthese early years have been shown tolay the foundation for a committedJewish life. It is the goal of JECEP tobring such educational experiencesto Jewish children throughout NorthAmerica. For more information onthe work of JECEP, go to its websiteat www.jecep.org.

What AboutIsrael?TheKivunim

ApproachtoIsrael Education

forEducatorsby PETER A. GEFFEN

Israel cannot be taught from a distance. Moreover, it is not possible for a

Jewish school to teach about Israel if its entire faculty, Jewish and

general studies teachers alike, have not walked the streets of Jerusalem...

WINTER 2002 13

addition, the Association is develop-ing a curriculum for the Study ofIsrael. The Association has con-tracted with the Lookstein Centerfor Jewish Education in the Diasporaat Bar-Ilan University to provideeducation support for this project.

Torah Umesorah supports teacherdevelopment of Judaic curricula withits Creative Learning Pavilion, whichcontains over 10,000 catalogued anddigitized teacher-prepared Judaicmaterials available on CD-Rom or ate-chinuch.org.

An example of a centralized cur-riculum development project, with awell-developed approach to teachertraining, is the MaTok Bible curricu-lum developed by the SolomonSchechter Day School movementwith a grant from the Jim JosephFoundation. The movement hasdeveloped a plan to deploy trainersacross the United States to keep upwith the turnover of Judaica teach-ers. They are writing both Hebrewand English teacher guides forIsraeli-born and North American-born teachers.

A Hebrew language curriculumdevelopment project, sponsored byUnion of American Hebrew Congre-gations and funded by the JimJoseph Foundation, incorporates asignificant advocacy component thataims to raise the bar for Hebrew lan-guage study throughout Reformmovement day schools. It includesopportunities to bring heads ofschools, lay leaders and Judaica

coordinators together to examine thegoals for Hebrew language acquisi-tion in all aspects of school life. Thecurriculum emphasizes active lan-guage production and its connectionto children’s own worlds. It is con-tent-rich, emphasizes Jewish valuesand is intended to compliment, notreplace, a Judaic curriculum.

Project 2001: Flexible Schedulingand Staff Development - Models forJewish Day Schools, funded by theJim Joseph Foundation, supportseight Jewish day schools (and morein the future) in designing scheduleswith longer blocks of instructionaltime to allow for the incorporationof powerful instructional strategiesbased on the latest research fromcognitive science.

Another promising developmentin recent years is the use of Israeliresources, such as selections fromattractive Israeli children’s literature.The difficulty with Israeli material isthe need to adjust the Hebrewvocabulary for non-native speakers.However, organizations such asMATACH (the Center for Educa-tional Technology) are producingmaterials for new immigrants toIsrael, some of which are immedi-ately adaptable for use in NorthAmerica. Other Israeli agencies, suchas the Jewish Agency and the MeltonCenter for Jewish Education in theDiaspora of Hebrew University, pro-duce Judaic curriculum for supple-mentary schools and have a growinginterest in day school material. A

new Hebrew language program forhigh schools, funded by Avi Chai, iscurrently under development atHebrew University. It is an exampleof a productive Israel-North Ameri-can partnership.

Judaic curriculum development inNorth America could move forwardwith a number of targeted initiatives.Schools should cultivate lay interestand support so that they can allocateappropriate resources to curriculumdevelopment. The rich resources ofJewish day school teachers’ knowl-edge should be mined to producecurricula. Collaboration betweenschools should be encouraged.Israeli resources should be systemati-cally reviewed and partnershipsdeveloped to produce new materials.Since much curricular work hasbeen starved for vision, an increaseddialogue should raise the discourseabout “who is an educated Jew?” andidentify a “vision of the ideal gradu-ate” so that it can inform the overallstructure of new curricula. Individ-ual schools should take on system-atic curriculum review anddevelopment.

Schools with the ability to fundteachers to develop curricula havebeen very well rewarded by theirefforts. It is essential to the future ofNorth American Jewry that our dayschools develop the ongoing capacityto offer students a high qualityJudaic curriculum that is rigorous,engaging, compelling and personallymeaningful.

12 CONTACT

J ewish day schools strive forexcellence in the fields of bothgeneral studies and Judaic stud-

ies. Although they can share excel-lent curriculum resources in generalstudies with public and privateschools, far less is available in theareas of Hebrew language, Jewishtexts, Jewish history and culture,Israel studies and prayer.

The factors that may account forthe lack of a Judaic curriculum arevaried, including the economic prob-lems of a relatively small market thatinhibits investment by professionalpublishers, and the high expense oftesting materials, training to usethem, and professional development.There are many experienced anddedicated teachers who have signifi-cant knowledge of Judaic curricula.However, they lack systematic sup-port to create and review curricula.

Curriculum is the totality oflearning experiences that educatorsstructure and students experience inschools. An ideal curriculum flowsfrom the vision of the school and aportrait of its ideal graduate. Itembodies the values and goals of theschool, is tailored to meet thediverse learning needs of its studentbody and is based on the latest inresearch about how children learn. Asuccessful curriculum developmentprocess includes opportunities forteachers to shape the curriculum, as

well as teacher guides and teachertraining. Rather than the bits-and-pieces, year-by-year approach thatmany schools have been forced touse for curricula, Jewish day schoolswould benefit from a comprehensive,spiraled curriculum across gradesthat takes into account developmen-tal milestones, the connectionsbetween different areas of study, theuse of educational technology andteacher input and training. An excel-lent Judaic curriculum would paycareful attention to helping studentsmake personal meaning of Judaicsources, as opposed to a roteapproach to learning. Such a cur-riculum would succeed in engagingboth teachers and students.

As the number of day schoolsgrows and day schools receiveincreased investment, one hopes thatresources will become available forcurriculum development. There is alack of sufficient comprehensive cur-ricula, especially in Hebrew, forteaching Prayer, Israel, Ethics andLaws in non-Orthodox schools. Inthe Modern Orthodox community,the greatest needs are for curriculathat have been designed in-house byteachers, reflecting the principles ofModern Orthodoxy including theperspective of religious Zionism. It isimportant that newly-designed cur-ricula be sensitive to the socialtrends of complex Jewish familiesand to the development of personalJewish meaning in the context ofinteraction with the secular world.

Curriculum development should becombined with training in pedagogy.

New DevelopmentsHaving pointed to the obstacles anddeficiencies in Judaic curriculardevelopment, there are a number ofpositive developments worth noting.

At this point, the largest andmost well-developed independentJudaic curriculum development pro-gram comes from Montreal andreceives Canadian government sup-port. Tal Sela is an integrated pro-gram and has been on the market fora number of years. Tal Am, thenewly revised and highly successfulintegrated program, is now availablefor grades 1-2. It is being used inschools across the denominationalspectrum throughout North Amer-ica. Because of its magnitude andscope, this program is hard tochange and adapt.

The Association of ModernOrthodox Schools and Yeshiva HighSchools (affiliated with Yeshiva Uni-versity) has recently embarked upona number of new curriculum devel-opment projects based on individualschools’ mission statements asreflected in their portrait of an idealgraduate. The projects utilize themodel of empowering teachers todevelop curricula tailored for theschool. Six elementary schools aredeveloping their own in-houseTanach curricula for grades K-8,which will be available for distribu-tion and adaptation in the future. In

Naava Frank is Senior Project Director at the Part-

nership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE).

It is important that newly-designed curricula be sensitive

to the social trends of complex Jewish families and to the

development of personal Jewish meaning in the context of

interaction with the secular world.

A Judaic Curriculumfor Jewish Day Schools:

The Time Is NOWby NAAVA FRANK

WINTER 2002 13

addition, the Association is develop-ing a curriculum for the Study ofIsrael. The Association has con-tracted with the Lookstein Centerfor Jewish Education in the Diasporaat Bar-Ilan University to provideeducation support for this project.

Torah Umesorah supports teacherdevelopment of Judaic curricula withits Creative Learning Pavilion, whichcontains over 10,000 catalogued anddigitized teacher-prepared Judaicmaterials available on CD-Rom or ate-chinuch.org.

An example of a centralized cur-riculum development project, with awell-developed approach to teachertraining, is the MaTok Bible curricu-lum developed by the SolomonSchechter Day School movementwith a grant from the Jim JosephFoundation. The movement hasdeveloped a plan to deploy trainersacross the United States to keep upwith the turnover of Judaica teach-ers. They are writing both Hebrewand English teacher guides forIsraeli-born and North American-born teachers.

A Hebrew language curriculumdevelopment project, sponsored byUnion of American Hebrew Congre-gations and funded by the JimJoseph Foundation, incorporates asignificant advocacy component thataims to raise the bar for Hebrew lan-guage study throughout Reformmovement day schools. It includesopportunities to bring heads ofschools, lay leaders and Judaica

coordinators together to examine thegoals for Hebrew language acquisi-tion in all aspects of school life. Thecurriculum emphasizes active lan-guage production and its connectionto children’s own worlds. It is con-tent-rich, emphasizes Jewish valuesand is intended to compliment, notreplace, a Judaic curriculum.

Project 2001: Flexible Schedulingand Staff Development - Models forJewish Day Schools, funded by theJim Joseph Foundation, supportseight Jewish day schools (and morein the future) in designing scheduleswith longer blocks of instructionaltime to allow for the incorporationof powerful instructional strategiesbased on the latest research fromcognitive science.

Another promising developmentin recent years is the use of Israeliresources, such as selections fromattractive Israeli children’s literature.The difficulty with Israeli material isthe need to adjust the Hebrewvocabulary for non-native speakers.However, organizations such asMATACH (the Center for Educa-tional Technology) are producingmaterials for new immigrants toIsrael, some of which are immedi-ately adaptable for use in NorthAmerica. Other Israeli agencies, suchas the Jewish Agency and the MeltonCenter for Jewish Education in theDiaspora of Hebrew University, pro-duce Judaic curriculum for supple-mentary schools and have a growinginterest in day school material. A

new Hebrew language program forhigh schools, funded by Avi Chai, iscurrently under development atHebrew University. It is an exampleof a productive Israel-North Ameri-can partnership.

Judaic curriculum development inNorth America could move forwardwith a number of targeted initiatives.Schools should cultivate lay interestand support so that they can allocateappropriate resources to curriculumdevelopment. The rich resources ofJewish day school teachers’ knowl-edge should be mined to producecurricula. Collaboration betweenschools should be encouraged.Israeli resources should be systemati-cally reviewed and partnershipsdeveloped to produce new materials.Since much curricular work hasbeen starved for vision, an increaseddialogue should raise the discourseabout “who is an educated Jew?” andidentify a “vision of the ideal gradu-ate” so that it can inform the overallstructure of new curricula. Individ-ual schools should take on system-atic curriculum review anddevelopment.

Schools with the ability to fundteachers to develop curricula havebeen very well rewarded by theirefforts. It is essential to the future ofNorth American Jewry that our dayschools develop the ongoing capacityto offer students a high qualityJudaic curriculum that is rigorous,engaging, compelling and personallymeaningful.

12 CONTACT

J ewish day schools strive forexcellence in the fields of bothgeneral studies and Judaic stud-

ies. Although they can share excel-lent curriculum resources in generalstudies with public and privateschools, far less is available in theareas of Hebrew language, Jewishtexts, Jewish history and culture,Israel studies and prayer.

The factors that may account forthe lack of a Judaic curriculum arevaried, including the economic prob-lems of a relatively small market thatinhibits investment by professionalpublishers, and the high expense oftesting materials, training to usethem, and professional development.There are many experienced anddedicated teachers who have signifi-cant knowledge of Judaic curricula.However, they lack systematic sup-port to create and review curricula.

Curriculum is the totality oflearning experiences that educatorsstructure and students experience inschools. An ideal curriculum flowsfrom the vision of the school and aportrait of its ideal graduate. Itembodies the values and goals of theschool, is tailored to meet thediverse learning needs of its studentbody and is based on the latest inresearch about how children learn. Asuccessful curriculum developmentprocess includes opportunities forteachers to shape the curriculum, as

well as teacher guides and teachertraining. Rather than the bits-and-pieces, year-by-year approach thatmany schools have been forced touse for curricula, Jewish day schoolswould benefit from a comprehensive,spiraled curriculum across gradesthat takes into account developmen-tal milestones, the connectionsbetween different areas of study, theuse of educational technology andteacher input and training. An excel-lent Judaic curriculum would paycareful attention to helping studentsmake personal meaning of Judaicsources, as opposed to a roteapproach to learning. Such a cur-riculum would succeed in engagingboth teachers and students.

As the number of day schoolsgrows and day schools receiveincreased investment, one hopes thatresources will become available forcurriculum development. There is alack of sufficient comprehensive cur-ricula, especially in Hebrew, forteaching Prayer, Israel, Ethics andLaws in non-Orthodox schools. Inthe Modern Orthodox community,the greatest needs are for curriculathat have been designed in-house byteachers, reflecting the principles ofModern Orthodoxy including theperspective of religious Zionism. It isimportant that newly-designed cur-ricula be sensitive to the socialtrends of complex Jewish familiesand to the development of personalJewish meaning in the context ofinteraction with the secular world.

Curriculum development should becombined with training in pedagogy.

New DevelopmentsHaving pointed to the obstacles anddeficiencies in Judaic curriculardevelopment, there are a number ofpositive developments worth noting.

At this point, the largest andmost well-developed independentJudaic curriculum development pro-gram comes from Montreal andreceives Canadian government sup-port. Tal Sela is an integrated pro-gram and has been on the market fora number of years. Tal Am, thenewly revised and highly successfulintegrated program, is now availablefor grades 1-2. It is being used inschools across the denominationalspectrum throughout North Amer-ica. Because of its magnitude andscope, this program is hard tochange and adapt.

The Association of ModernOrthodox Schools and Yeshiva HighSchools (affiliated with Yeshiva Uni-versity) has recently embarked upona number of new curriculum devel-opment projects based on individualschools’ mission statements asreflected in their portrait of an idealgraduate. The projects utilize themodel of empowering teachers todevelop curricula tailored for theschool. Six elementary schools aredeveloping their own in-houseTanach curricula for grades K-8,which will be available for distribu-tion and adaptation in the future. In

Naava Frank is Senior Project Director at the Part-

nership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE).

It is important that newly-designed curricula be sensitive

to the social trends of complex Jewish families and to the

development of personal Jewish meaning in the context of

interaction with the secular world.

A Judaic Curriculumfor Jewish Day Schools:

The Time Is NOWby NAAVA FRANK

WINTER 2002 15

with their classmates and teachers. Wewill encourage students to have a voiceboth in the classroom and outside it.”

“General and Judaic knowledge andculture will be integrated throughoutthe day, and Jewish life will inform andenrich every aspect of the school.”The statement on student life

has yet to be prepared because webelieve that students should have avoice in such areas as clubs, teams,co-curricular activities, student gov-ernment and an honor code. Leader-ship opportunities abound while anew culture is developed and nur-tured in conjunction with a highly-trained and caring faculty.

The lay and professional leadersof the Heschel School would not

have undertaken this enormous taskif we did not feel a responsibility toour community and to the Jewishpeople. We are a school that isdevoted to Jewish learning andexperience, respectful of the diver-sity that exists within the Jewishcommunity and aware of the socialrealities and challenges our studentsface. We are a school that teachesthe skills of inquiry and expression,critical thinking and respect formultiple perspectives.

Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschelwrote: “Each human being has some-thing to say, to think, or to do whichis unprecedented. ... A person has thecapacity to create events.” The Hes-chel School, founded as an elemen-tary school, is now expanding toprepare and inspire high school stu-dents to create communities of sharedhumanity and mutual respect, torepair and fashion a better world.

14 CONTACT

I n September 2002, the AbrahamJoshua Heschel School (AJHS) willcelebrate the beginning of its twen-

tieth year with the opening of a highschool program. This accomplishment isthe culmination of years of rewardingeducational experiences and the readi-ness to embark on a new challenge forour community.

AJHS is a community day school onthe Upper West Side of Manhattan with492 students from nursery through eighthgrade. The education we provide is pro-gressive and enables students to learn in avariety of modalities in Jewish and generalcurricula. Whether it’s lessons on animalanatomy and the laws of kashrut, or aneighth grade Israel trip that synthesizesgeography and literature, our studentslearn the art and analysis of interdiscipli-nary learning.

Our growth pattern has been dra-matic. Starting with only a few younggrades, we added one grade per yearuntil we reached the eighth grade. As of1996, the entire school had two classesper grade and a second building to houseour Middle School.

At that point the school was stable interms of its finances, facilities, enroll-ment and staff. This allowed the Board toconsider an idea that had, for so many

years, seemed unreachable — extendingthe school throughout the high schoolyears. Not everyone on the Board agreed.Some felt we should expand solely as anN-8 school, whose graduates wouldchoose from the wide variety of optionsin New York for public, private and Jew-ish high schools. Others felt that a highschool was the natural outgrowth of thedemand for this type of education. In thewords of our Director, Roanna Shorofsky,“The teenage years provide opportunitiesfor more in-depth exploration of the bigideas that are already a part of the Hes-chel mission.”

The Board decided to invest a greatdeal of time and thought to better under-stand how to articulate the essence of thecurrent school within a high schoolframework. At the same time we surveyedour school population and studied thedemographics of the broader community.The results of both were promising. Wecreated strategic planning committees tolay out the curricular and philosophicalagendas, and an Educational AdvisoryCommittee of professionals from our par-ent body and the broader community to

give advice on areassuch as science, his-tory and Talmud. Thecommittees produceddocuments outliningfresh approaches toboth the traditionaland innovative areas of study. The articulation of the vision allowed for discussion, but perhaps more importantly, it gave shape and form to what had previously been only an idea.

We spent closeto a year looking atpotential sites untilwe found one thatmet our needs. Wehad spoken topotential donors

throughout this process, but no one waswilling to make a financial commitmentuntil there was a concrete site. When wefound a site with two buildings, a greatlocation near Lincoln Center and a fullblock front, the necessary enthusiasmand support followed, which enabled usto make the purchase. We continue toraise additional funds to create a state-of-the-art facility. Our overall campaigngoal is $55 million, of which $44.5 mil-lion has been raised as of October 2001.

We formed additional committees,one of which was responsible for com-munication with our families and thebroader community. We created anewsletter, The Blueprint, and includedupdates in our weekly Heschel News.With the help of an outside search firm,a search committee was created to out-line the position of Head of the HighSchool and to find a person who waseminently qualified in both Judaic andsecular studies. We were very fortunateto have hired Ahuva Halberstam, whohas expertise not only in both areas butalso in teaching and administration. Shealso brings experience in building a newJewish high school from her last posi-tion as a principal on the West Coast.Ahuva assumed her position in August2001, which gave her a year to supervisethe necessary planning, recruitment andhiring before we open in 2002.

Various staff and parents put togethermaterials for prospective students detail-ing the philosophy and goals of the highschool program. The materials are anexpansion of core Heschel School educa-tional principles. To quote from thestatement on educational philosophy:

“The Heschel High School is grounded in a strong curriculum which requires eachstudent to seek personal meaning in thatcurriculum.”

“By stressing integrity as well as aca-demic achievement, the school will encour-age academic resourcefulness, intellectualrigor and social responsibility.”

“Rather than expecting our students toseek one right answer we will teach them toask questions and become learners together

Virginia Bayer is a former president of the Heschel

School and continues to serve on the Board and Exec-

utive Committee.

Reflections on Building

a Jewish High Schoolby VIRGINIA BAYER

We are a school that is devoted to Jewishlearning and experience,respectful of the diversitythat exists within theJewish community andaware of the socialrealities and challengesour students face.

Heschel School

WINTER 2002 15

with their classmates and teachers. Wewill encourage students to have a voiceboth in the classroom and outside it.”

“General and Judaic knowledge andculture will be integrated throughoutthe day, and Jewish life will inform andenrich every aspect of the school.”The statement on student life

has yet to be prepared because webelieve that students should have avoice in such areas as clubs, teams,co-curricular activities, student gov-ernment and an honor code. Leader-ship opportunities abound while anew culture is developed and nur-tured in conjunction with a highly-trained and caring faculty.

The lay and professional leadersof the Heschel School would not

have undertaken this enormous taskif we did not feel a responsibility toour community and to the Jewishpeople. We are a school that isdevoted to Jewish learning andexperience, respectful of the diver-sity that exists within the Jewishcommunity and aware of the socialrealities and challenges our studentsface. We are a school that teachesthe skills of inquiry and expression,critical thinking and respect formultiple perspectives.

Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschelwrote: “Each human being has some-thing to say, to think, or to do whichis unprecedented. ... A person has thecapacity to create events.” The Hes-chel School, founded as an elemen-tary school, is now expanding toprepare and inspire high school stu-dents to create communities of sharedhumanity and mutual respect, torepair and fashion a better world.

14 CONTACT

I n September 2002, the AbrahamJoshua Heschel School (AJHS) willcelebrate the beginning of its twen-

tieth year with the opening of a highschool program. This accomplishment isthe culmination of years of rewardingeducational experiences and the readi-ness to embark on a new challenge forour community.

AJHS is a community day school onthe Upper West Side of Manhattan with492 students from nursery through eighthgrade. The education we provide is pro-gressive and enables students to learn in avariety of modalities in Jewish and generalcurricula. Whether it’s lessons on animalanatomy and the laws of kashrut, or aneighth grade Israel trip that synthesizesgeography and literature, our studentslearn the art and analysis of interdiscipli-nary learning.

Our growth pattern has been dra-matic. Starting with only a few younggrades, we added one grade per yearuntil we reached the eighth grade. As of1996, the entire school had two classesper grade and a second building to houseour Middle School.

At that point the school was stable interms of its finances, facilities, enroll-ment and staff. This allowed the Board toconsider an idea that had, for so many

years, seemed unreachable — extendingthe school throughout the high schoolyears. Not everyone on the Board agreed.Some felt we should expand solely as anN-8 school, whose graduates wouldchoose from the wide variety of optionsin New York for public, private and Jew-ish high schools. Others felt that a highschool was the natural outgrowth of thedemand for this type of education. In thewords of our Director, Roanna Shorofsky,“The teenage years provide opportunitiesfor more in-depth exploration of the bigideas that are already a part of the Hes-chel mission.”

The Board decided to invest a greatdeal of time and thought to better under-stand how to articulate the essence of thecurrent school within a high schoolframework. At the same time we surveyedour school population and studied thedemographics of the broader community.The results of both were promising. Wecreated strategic planning committees tolay out the curricular and philosophicalagendas, and an Educational AdvisoryCommittee of professionals from our par-ent body and the broader community to

give advice on areassuch as science, his-tory and Talmud. Thecommittees produceddocuments outliningfresh approaches toboth the traditionaland innovative areas of study. The articulation of the vision allowed for discussion, but perhaps more importantly, it gave shape and form to what had previously been only an idea.

We spent closeto a year looking atpotential sites untilwe found one thatmet our needs. Wehad spoken topotential donors

throughout this process, but no one waswilling to make a financial commitmentuntil there was a concrete site. When wefound a site with two buildings, a greatlocation near Lincoln Center and a fullblock front, the necessary enthusiasmand support followed, which enabled usto make the purchase. We continue toraise additional funds to create a state-of-the-art facility. Our overall campaigngoal is $55 million, of which $44.5 mil-lion has been raised as of October 2001.

We formed additional committees,one of which was responsible for com-munication with our families and thebroader community. We created anewsletter, The Blueprint, and includedupdates in our weekly Heschel News.With the help of an outside search firm,a search committee was created to out-line the position of Head of the HighSchool and to find a person who waseminently qualified in both Judaic andsecular studies. We were very fortunateto have hired Ahuva Halberstam, whohas expertise not only in both areas butalso in teaching and administration. Shealso brings experience in building a newJewish high school from her last posi-tion as a principal on the West Coast.Ahuva assumed her position in August2001, which gave her a year to supervisethe necessary planning, recruitment andhiring before we open in 2002.

Various staff and parents put togethermaterials for prospective students detail-ing the philosophy and goals of the highschool program. The materials are anexpansion of core Heschel School educa-tional principles. To quote from thestatement on educational philosophy:

“The Heschel High School is grounded in a strong curriculum which requires eachstudent to seek personal meaning in thatcurriculum.”

“By stressing integrity as well as aca-demic achievement, the school will encour-age academic resourcefulness, intellectualrigor and social responsibility.”

“Rather than expecting our students toseek one right answer we will teach them toask questions and become learners together

Virginia Bayer is a former president of the Heschel

School and continues to serve on the Board and Exec-

utive Committee.

Reflections on Building

a Jewish High Schoolby VIRGINIA BAYER

We are a school that is devoted to Jewishlearning and experience,respectful of the diversitythat exists within theJewish community andaware of the socialrealities and challengesour students face.

Heschel School

Jewish Life Network6 East 39th Street10th floorNew York, NY 10016

Non-Profit Org.U.S. PostagePaidRockville, MDPermit No. 800

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n the context of the serious attention now

being paid to day schools, we can step

back and reflect on some of the challenges

that lie ahead. If day schools are to

maximize their potential to help foster a

new generation of literate and engaged

Jews, what are some of the priorities that

must be successfully addressed?

—RABBI JOSHUA ELKIN