“We are pleased to join with other foundations dedicated to excellence in Jewish education by supporting the work of Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks,” said Mayberg Foundation Executive Director Todd Sukol upon the announcement of JTS’s relaunching of its program.
“The program’s outcomes align closely with the ultimate goals of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), which we launched almost a decade ago to catalyze radical improvement in Jewish day schools. The Standards and Benchmarks team has supported teachers in an important shift in instruction with a focus on Jewish texts' relevance to the individual learner,” he continued.
“We see this as a crucial component of effective day school education that will have lasting impact on each child and, ultimately, the Jewish people.”
Chevy Chase, MD (October 26, 2020) – The Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) has awarded a total of $80,000 to four Jewish day schools through Ignition Grants for God Expansion.
JEIC initiated its Ignition Grants program in late 2018 to continue to catalyze change in day schools by supporting creative, out-of-the-box programs through micro-grants to a wider population of schools. Ignition Grants for God Expansion were added in summer 2020 to advance distinctive, enduring approaches for elevating and deepening the God-student relationship.
The Spring 2020 issue of Jewish Educational Leadership, published by The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education, featured an article on resilience written by JEIC Managing Director Sharon Freundel.
In this personal piece entitled, The Roots of Resilience, Freundel reveals lessons learned from her family and the Tanakh that gave her the strength to persevere—then and still now—through traumatic life events.
What do you think about this robust exchange of ideas posted on eJewish Philanthropy?
How can and should Jewish day schools use data and assessment to guide their work with students? What are the ultimate goals of a Jewish education? What might lasting impact look like for day school alumni?
Let us know what you are doing in your school or what you hope to learn more about. Contact Sharon Freundel, JEIC Managing Director, with your insight, input, or questions.
Sharon Freundel, JEIC Managing Director, was published in the Fall 2019 edition of the JOFA Journal (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance). Don’t miss this article, which makes a case for the importance of boys and girls having both male and female Torah teachers.
Don’t miss the Fall 2019 issue of HaYidion: The Prizmah Journal, which features a compelling article written by JEIC Managing Director Sharon Freundel called “Listening to Day School Dreams.” This piece highlights what we learned from Jewish day school stakeholders about their dreams, visions, and wishes through our Listening Booths Initiative at PrizmahCJDS’s bi-annual conference in March 2019.
Chevy Chase, Md., October 24, 2019 -- Rachel Mohl Abrahams, an AVI CHAI Foundation senior program officer specializing in Jewish education and day school initiatives, will join the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge’s (JEIC) professional team in January 2020 as part of her new role as senior advisor for education grants and programs at the Mayberg Foundation, which incubates JEIC.
As senior advisor, Abrahams will direct her efforts to both the Mayberg Foundation's core grantmaking program and JEIC’s work with day school grantees, innovative Jewish educational initiatives and philanthropic partnerships. Abrahams brings more than two decades of experience in Jewish educational project design, program management, and evaluation.
Abrahams will advance the impact and scope of JEIC’s grantmaking, which supports the scaling and implementation of contemporary, proven educational models designed to reignite students’ passion for Jewish learning and improve the way Jewish values, literacy, practice, and belief are transferred to the next generation. Additionally, she will elevate JEIC’s position as a positive disrupter in the Jewish day school field by conferring with staff and stakeholders on organizational strategy and advocating for change initiatives in Jewish education.
Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools highlighted a compelling thought leadership article written by Mayberg Foundation Trustee, Manette Mayberg, about her dream of God-Powered Schools (GPS).
Let’s Follow this Kind of GPS for a Strong Jewish Future illustrates a “directional system for Jewish day schools that guides them by mission and vision, mapping the way forward most effectively. A GPS would provide continuous evaluation of a school’s actions so when a miscalculation or misguidance occurs, the school would be redirected… A GPS is one that is guided by the sum of our holy texts, time-tested over thousands of years. A GPS is informed by the teachings of eternal Jewish wisdom and embodies Jewish values. A GPS steers students to develop a relationship with the Divine—whatever their concepts of God might be—and a strong Jewish identity. A GPS emphasizes Jewish values and relevance as much as text study and skills. It also demands that all systems throughout a school—from policies to content to pedagogy—support students’ journeys of Jewish discovery.”
Sharon Freundel, JEIC Managing Drector, and Rabbi Shmuel Feld, JEIC Founding Director, were highlighted as featured presenters at The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s (JLI) 2019 National Jewish Retreat in Washington, D.C., August 13-18, 2019, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.
JEIC facilitated a professional development collaboration with The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, Ayeka and Pedagogy of Partnership of Hadar to enhance methodologies for teaching Jewish text and discussing Gd. These providers learned from one another and explored new ways of engaging students in substantive, robust, and meaningful text study.
This collaboration was made possible due to the support of the Mayberg Foundation and their two funding partners for this initiative: The AVI CHAI Foundation and Kohelet Foundation.
We thank all our partners, and the National Jewish Retreat, for elevating this landmark collaboration improving Jewish education for day school students..
JEIC is grateful that many experienced, knowledgeable authors contribute to our blog with compelling articles on educational innovation, change, and excellence in Jewish day schools.
We encourage you to peruse through our blog for the content that is most relevant to you. These are the 8 most read links on our blog in 2018:
The trust-fall — it’s the quintessential team-building go-to game. I love feeling exhilarated and terrified all at once! The key to its success is obvious; you must trust that people will actually deliver on their promise to catch you. It’s not enough just to hear, “We’ve got your back; we won’t let you fall.” Action transforms a promise into proven trustworthiness.
Trust in school leadership is important to productivity, innovation, loyalty, positive morale, and more. There is no shortage of research and opinion pieces citing the ways leaders can earn trust. Clarity, consistency, contribution, compassion, and other traits that don’t begin with a C are essential for building leadership trust.
A slightly interesting twist in the trust game surfaces in a recent article about trust in leadership in the Harvard Business Review by Holly Henderson Brower, et al. “Trust begets trust,” the article’s authors noted. To build trust FROM others, leaders need to show trust IN others.
