When Rachel Jarman Myers, a Jewish educator, works with children in Jackson, Miss., she typically asks the students if they know any Jewish people. Sometimes, one child raises a hand. But when she specifies that the person cannot be Myers herself, the child’s hand almost always goes back down. The Jewish population in Mississippi has…
NEW YORK — The Jewish Theological Seminary received a $2.67 million grant from the Avi Chai Foundation to implement its strategic plan at the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education. JTS announced the funding this week for a Davidson School plan that includes providing resources to U.S. Jewish day schools, educators and leaders in…
In the most ambitious attempt to import American-style higher education to Israel to date, the country’s first liberal arts college will open its doors this fall. The four-year degree program at the new Shalem College, located on the Jewish Agency’s campus in the East Talpiot neighborhood in Jerusalem, will teach a broad curriculum like those…
It all began at 5 a.m. one day in February 2013, in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Va. That’s when Ken Gordon and Yechiel Hoffman realized that the time was ripe for a grassroots overhaul of Jewish education. The two were guests at the North American Jewish Day School Conference,…
Usher Bixenspan’s regular attire includes a black hat, a black coat and peyes, but for one afternoon in June, he wore a maroon gown, a graduation cap and a big smile. Bixenspan, 20, was part of the first graduating class of B’Derech, an academic program geared toward ultra-Orthodox Jews. The goal of B’Derech — Hebrew…
There are few, if any, options for teens in America who want a Jewish experience during their post-high school, pre-college gap year, but don’t want to spend time in Israel. That was a key incentive for Portland, Ore.-based contracting carpenter Steve Eisenbach-Budner to create Tivnu, the first Jewish social-justice themed gap-year program in the U.S.,…
Please resist the urge to stop reading this article as soon as a certain word rears its ugly head. This is not an indictment. On the contrary — it’s a letter of commendation, a borderline puff piece. But the good news only makes sense in the context of the bad news, and I don’t know…
Jordana Horn’s recent article asks the singular question, Who Says You Need Day School? The question is simple and so is the answer. Nothing less than the future of the Jewish people rests on the existence of vibrant Jewish day schools. If we are to have a future as a people — we need day…
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