A major new initiative from Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools and the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) aims to take action and channel innovative ideas to address the emerging shortage of Jewish day school educators. Known as the Jewish Day School Educators Pipeline Working Group, this facilitated, year-long effort will bring together professional and lay leaders in education, community organizations, and foundations to cultivate new ideas, thinking, and proposals that can be implemented to build the pipeline of Jewish day school educators.
“Jewish day school educators inspire us to do our best and be our best, in and out of the classroom, instilling and modeling Jewish values, and serving as anchors of our Jewish day school communities,” says Marc Wolf, Chief Program and Strategy Officer of Prizmah. “We need to ensure that our children can continue to learn from talented and committed Jewish day school and yeshiva educators now and for generations to come. What programs, new initiatives, and key investments will address this need?”
Sharon Freundel, Managing Director of JEIC, notes, “Our teachers are the heart of our educational institutions — without energized, innovative Judaic studies teachers, we cannot sustain or grow our Jewish day schools. Together, Prizmah and JEIC have formed The Jewish Day School Educators Pipeline Working Group to ensure that our field can recruit, develop, and fund a pipeline of great Jewish educators for generations to come.”
Field leaders report — and it has been confirmed by the data and knowledge emerging from the CASJE Jewish educators research — that Jewish day schools and Jewish communities across North America have an ongoing issue regarding recruiting, training, and retaining talented teachers to inspire Jewish students.
The Jewish Day School Educators Pipeline Working Group, funded by the Mayberg Foundation, Melissa Kushner and Jeremy Kaplan, and Evelyn and Dr. Shmuel Katz, will explore the current landscape and challenge current assumptions, while seeking to understand and confront the key issues currently impeding the pipeline of Jewish educators. The Working Group will develop programmatic and funding solutions to galvanize change going forward in the next 2-3 years. This effort builds on Prizmah’s and JEIC’s expertise and portfolio of work that cultivates school leaders, advances professional development, and transforms Jewish day schools into vibrant centers of learning.