Last month, we shared the exciting news about launching HaKaveret: JEIC Team Challenge. HaKaveret will convene a group of ten talented, creative and motivated individuals from around the country to form an innovation design team with a focus on creating a new vision in Jewish education. 

Earlier this month, the design team met for the first time for a three-day retreat in Silver Spring, MD. The ten Designers had the opportunity to meet and get to know each other, as well as hear about their expectations and aspirations for the project.

Facilitated by Lisa Lepson, Executive Director at Joshua Venture Group, the team immediately got to the difficult first tast of defining the problems facing Jewish Day Schools today. The designers discussed a wide range of areas which they felt could significantly impact the quality of Jewish education including:

• understanding teacher motivations and teacher support
• board member selection, activity, and its impact on school administration
• the role of parent involvement in schools
• student empowerment and emotional development
• the culture of a school developed by the above areas

Now that the designers have had the opportunity to talk about the problems, they are prepared to begin developing solutions.

With their work cut out for them, the Designers will now break into small teams to tackle these issues head on. Designers left feeling motivated and inspired to create real change. We look forward to sharing more on HaKaveret soon.

HaKaveret: JEIC Team Challenge is operated by Joshua Venture Group and funded jointly by the Mayberg Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah and Arnee R. and Walter A. Winshall.