In a groundbreaking gathering representing collaboration and common purpose among Jewish religious streams, nearly 600 leaders and educators at Jewish day schools across the U.S. and Canada will open the first-ever North American Jewish Day School Leadership Conference today.
The three-day conference offers delegates sessions, workshops and networking opportunities underscoring and addressing common concerns and issues as Jewish day schools enter a new decade committed to transmitting Jewish knowledge, enhancing Jewish practice, ensuring a vibrant Jewish future and solidifying the foundation of Jewish day school education.
“This is a watershed moment in North American Jewish life,” said Dr. Marc Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network. “A collaboration among Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Community day schools represents a bright new light for Klal Yisrael. The debut of this conference proves that working across ideologies is possible and desirable. Jewish day schools remain the most significant venue for the advancement of Jewish life. This is why we are here, together.”
The conference, taking place in Teaneck, NJ, is a joint initiative of RAVSAK, the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, the Solomon Schechter Day School Association and PARDeS: The Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools.
The theme of this debut conference is Thriving in a New Reality, underscoring 21st century challenges including economic uncertainties, government funding, demographic changes and teacher retention, but also opportunities, such as the promise of technology in classrooms, Jewish service learning, and social media to build educational communities.
Such challenges and opportunities cut across Jewish educational denominations, creating an opening for this breakthrough collaborative conference, officials said.
“Like all great institutions and organizations today, day schools benefit from the synergy that emerges when collaboration and creativity travel together with opportunities for sharing resources,” said Dr. Jane West Walsh, executive director of PARDeS. “The promise of increased synergy through collaboration, creativity and resource sharing was at the heart of every conversation that took place to plan this conference. The reality of this promise will emerge through the conversations colleagues will share while in conference sessions, in hallways, around vendor tables, at meals and network meetings.”
Delegates will attend four plenary sessions during the three-day conference, featuring some of the most innovative and forward thinkers in Jewish education and organization leadership. Slated to speak: Dr. Alan November, Senior Partner at November Learning, on “Transformational Leadership,” Dr. Erica Brown, Director of Adult Education at The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, on “Tradition and Innovation: Leading as a Balancing Act,” Dr. Lee Shulman, President Emeritus of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, on “Where Novelty and Routine Collide: From the Formation of Understanding to the Formation of Identity in the Process of Education,” and author Jonah Lehrer on “How We Decide: The New Science of Decision Making.”
More than 60 sessions and workshops will focus on the provocative issues, ideas, challenges and opportunities facing Jewish educational leaders in 2010 and beyond, from effective fundraising and teacher development, to community collaboration and utilizing Web 2.0.
“This is a bold venture, signaling a new level of collaboration among the day school networks across the spectrum of Jewish life,” said Dr. Elaine Shizgal Cohen, executive director of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association. “The level of attendance signals a hunger for collegial community among day school leaders and a readiness and openness to learn with and from each other across denominational lines.”
“We must do everything in our power to advance Jewish education,” noted President Richard M. Joel of Yeshiva University. “It is crucial that the Jewish people infuse their institutions of learning with rigor and quality to maximize the potential of inspiring our next generation.”
The North American Jewish Day School Leadership Conference is sponsored by The Covenant Foundation, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, The Kohelet Foundation and several anonymous funders.
A full schedule for the conference, which runs through Tuesday, is viewable at the conference website, http://www.jewishdayschoolconference.org.
CAT, RAVSAK’s online, highly participatory middle school program in Jewish history, will have four new schools taking part in the fall:
[More]Members of RAVSAK enjoy many benefits which support the overall work of the school and the professionals who lead them. Find out more about membership benefits and how your school can become a member.
Use our interactive map of member schools to find a Jewish Day School near you.
In addition to serving Jewish community day schools across North America, RAVSAK has a special category of membership for Jewish and educational organizations, consultants and companies which share our vision of excellence in Jewish day school education.
© All rights reserved to RAVSAK.
