Community News

Small-Schools Conference Scholarship

We are pleased to announce the inauguration of the RAVSAK Small School Professional Development Scholarship. This scholarship will make the training, networking and professional development opportunities of the RAVSAK Annual Leadership Conference accessible to educators from small Jewish day schools and small Jewish communities across North America.

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Job Market

Title: Head of School
School: The Akiva School
City: Nashville, TN

The Akiva School is the only independent elementary community day school of its kind in the region and has earned both local and national recognition as an outstanding academic institution. The school is located minutes from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, a culturally vibrant city...

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Featured School

The Paul Penna Downtown JDS

The Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School appreciates the diversity of contemporary Jewish life. Our Senior Kindergarten to Grade 8 curriculum presents children with a holistic view of the world, weaving together the Jewish and general facets of their lives. In this highly enriched learning environment, students develop excellent academic skills and a meaningful Jewish identity.
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Associate Member

The David Project
is a non-profit organization that is leading an educational movement of effective Israel supporters. We aim to inform and inspire strong voices for Israel through our dynamic and comprehensive educational curricula, workshops, and seminars.
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JCAT: Jewish Court of All Time

JCAT: Jewish Court of All Time enables students to delve into history by adopting a historical figure and acting in role, while interacting with a large cast of their peers and adults playing other characters. The program takes place mostly in a web-based forum, where students discuss cultural, social, and moral issues surrounding a fictional trial, using the voices of those characters. In doing so, JCAT provides students with an opportunity to practice historical research, deliberation, perspective-taking, genre and voice in writing, and other skills. Participants include middle-school students from different schools, who participate under the guidance of their teacher, along with university mentors taking a seminar structured around the project. Schools implement JCAT as a project within a class, whether in Judaics, English, History or another subject. The program takes place over a period of several months.

Among the activities that students perform for JCAT are:

  • Selecting a character
  • Researching and writing a “resume” in the voice of the character
  • Becoming the character through discussions, forums, plebiscites, and speeches online
  • Participating in character in a fictional trial
  • Responding to probing questions and challenges given by mentors

Mazel tov to participating schools in 2007-08!

  • Bernard Zell Emet Day School (Chicago, Illinois)
  • N.E. Miles Jewish Day School (Birmingham, Alabama)
  • Yavneh Day School (Cincinnati, Ohio)

JCAT is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Covenant Foundation.

Schools interested in taking part in JCAT should contact Dr. Elliott Rabin, RAVSAK’s Director of Educational Programs, at erabin@ravsak.org or 212-665-1320.