Since I wrote the article below for CJ Magazine a few months ago, I figured I'd give an update here. I'd be glad to talk more about our ideas and program goals on or off the Shefa list.
The program now has a name: Washington Metro Area Jewish Aftercare (WMAJA) - many schools in our area have matter-of-fact, English names and we decided to follow that minchag. Our website is at: www.wmaja.org It's still pretty rough, but we'll try to keep it updated.
We're still working towards an aftercare school opening this Fall with a single K-2 classroom. We sent out a surveys to several synagogues in D.C. and the nearby Maryland suburbs. Fifty families responded with interest in the program. Thirty of those families were both interested and a had a child who would be in grades K-2 this Fall. For many reasons, we don't expect all 30 to enroll, but, based on the survey, interest generated from emails sent to local public schools, and many in-person conversations, we're confident we'll have enough students enrolling if we get staffing and funding in place. I don't think a full fundraising pitch is appropriate for the Shefa list, but if you're interested in helping out....I'd be very happy to talk to you more.
If we can get the funding in place, we'll be looking to hire a dynamic director/teacher and an assistant teacher in July. If you might be interested in the job, or if you know someone who might be interested, let me know.
Best,
Dan Handwerker
On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 8:54 AM, <shefa@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
What I Want For My Children's Jewish Education
*by Daniel Avraham ben David Kalmen v'Sarah*
*http://www.uscj.org/What_I_Want_For_My_C8619.html*
My oldest child will be starting kindergarten next year, and I have been
thinking about her Jewish education.
I am proud to raise my children in an ethnically and economically diverse
neighborhood and to be part of a vibrant Jewish community. I live a block
away from a public school where my children can get an excellent secular
education. I also want them to benefit from Jewish learning that is
engaging, rigorous, and appropriate to their needs. With two working
parents, our family spends Saturday observing Shabbat, and we treasure
Sunday for the family time when we can do things we don't do on Shabbat.
One option for my kindergartener's education is to spend around $20,000 to
bus her to a day school miles away. That would pay for a secular education
that would be approximately as good as the one at the public school, coupled
with 15 to 20 hours per week of Jewish education. My other option is to send
her to the public school down the block and pay around $1,000 to get three
or four hours of supplemental education per week at a nearby synagogue. I'm
planning to send her to public school, but I don't think that three hours a
week of Jewish education is sufficient and I'm willing to pay for more.
For anyone reading this who is mumbling that I should just send my daughter
to day school, you're in good company. I've lost track of the number of
intelligent and passionate leaders of synagogues and synagogue schools who
have told me that if I want a serious Jewish education for my children, day
schools are the only choice.
Still, I am not alone in facing this choice and not choosing day school.
According to recent surveys by the Avi Chai Foundation, there are 56,000
children attending supplemental schools in Conservative synagogues in the
United States, and 13,000 children enrolled in Solomon Schechter day
schools. Those 56,000 children whose parents can't or don't chose day
schools have few other options for rigorous Jewish education during the
school year.
I am also looking at another model that takes some inspiration from the old
Talmud Torahs. In this model, on weekdays children get their secular
education in public schools, and then they go directly to a Jewish school
for Jewish education four days a week. Talmud Torahs were created as
community schools in urban areas, but when Jews migrated to the suburbs
their children moved away from those schools, which were not re-created in
their new neighborhoods. This model can be revived and updated with
everything we've learned about quality Jewish education in school and camp
settings. (One modern benefit would be that Talmud Torahs provide childcare
that helps working parents in the late afternoon.)
The Kesher Community Hebrew After Schools in the Boston area are probably
the most established example inspired by this model. A few families in our
neighborhood are trying to create this kind of program. We're working with
vibrant local Conservative synagogues – Tifereth Israel Congregation in
Washington, DC, and Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Ohev
Sholom, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Washington, also has expressed some
interest in this idea and has families considering participating. We are
receiving our most direct inspiration and help from the Edah program at
Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, California.
Edah began with one kindergarten class last fall. Its goal is to merge the
experiential, structured learning that flourishes at highquality Jewish
summer camps with a commitment to daily Jewish learning and Jewish
community. The program began with a partnership between a group of parents
and Netivot Shalom's rabbi and director of lifelong learning. The program
runs Tuesday to Thursday afternoons, beginning when the school buses arrive
from public schools – between 1:30 and 2:45 – and goes for a total of 8 to
12 hours per week. On Thursdays, the Edah children join the synagogue's
religious school class. Plans call for the program to run five days a week
in future years, with children attending at least three afternoons.
When they arrive, children can choose art, reading, or game activities. Each
activity has Jewish content, and most involve Hebrew language. The children
play a lot of games, play sports in Hebrew and do aleph-bet yoga,
participate in outdoor and environmental learning experiences, cook, daven,
study the parshat hashavuah, and much more. There are also full-day programs
when the public schools are closed, and three full-week programs during
school breaks.
Rena Dorph, a day-school graduate and Edah co-founder, said that the program
is helping her child develop a sense of being Jewish in a secular world. She
has heard kindergarteners discuss how to explain Judaism and kashrut to
friends in their public schools. The regular transitions between a secular
environment and a community of Jewish peers create a place for in-depth
discussions like these. Rabbi Stuart Kelman, Netivot Shalom's founding
rabbi, who is a former day school principal and camp Ramah director and the
grandparent of a child in the program, calls it "the first serious
alternative in Jewish education that has come along in years."
I hope to adapt some of these elements in our community. Although it is far
from certain that we'll have our program ready by the time my daughter
enters kindergarten, the lay and professional leaders at Congregation
Tifereth Israel and Ohr Kodesh Congregation are enthusiastic and willing to
work with us. But translating enthusiasm into action is a challenge. Budgets
are tight and neither synagogue has funds to invest in experiments, even if
those experiments should be largely self-sufficient once they are fully
running. It's hard to recruit families for a program that doesn't have a
location or a schedule yet.
My vision is far from the only new model in Jewish education. For example,
the winter 2010-11 issue of this magazine looked at Hebrew language charter
schools. I am not personally interested in that model – I see no need to
replicate the things that secular schools do well in my community. My
vision, however, does share something with Hebrew charter schools – the
central organizations of the Conservative movement are barely part of these
efforts. The authors of two of the three articles in CJ supported a serious
consideration of charter schools by the Conservative movement. The third
article, from the head of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association,
argued that it would be "demoralizing, counterproductive, and against the
best interests of the existing institutions" for Schechter professionals to
support charter school Jewish education.
Given limited money and staff, what role could the Conservative movement's
central organizations play in these efforts to innovate in Jewish youth
education? Section 2 of United Synagogue's recently passed strategic plan
provides some surprisingly good guidance, as it talks about United Synagogue
staff as connectors. For example, in CJ's spring 2011 issue Rabbi Harry Pell
described a Schechter day school's curriculum on the evolution of halachah
through modern times. A central Conservative organization like United
Synagogue or the Jewish Educator's Assembly could make such curricula
available on public websites. Even if such a program can't be replicated
outside day schools, it could be a starting point for educators in
traditional supplemental schools or newly designed programs. Organizations
also could work with outside groups such as the TaL AM, which provides
Hebrew language books and curricula to day schools, to adapt their resources
for othereducation models and increase the number of Hebrew language
educators trained in using such materials.
I want to see Conservative organizations identifying, documenting, and
publicizing some of the many new education ideas happening within and
outside the movement, so that educators and parents can spend less time
reinventing the wheel. Where there are particularly exceptional programs, I
want to see additional funds and the necessary support to replicate them. I
want the synagogues in my neighborhood to learn about programs, like Edah,
not because a random congregant – me – moved from California to Maryland,
but because professionals are scouring the country for good programs to use.
Even providing web pages where people could post and comment on programs,
curricula, and lessons would be a huge help.
So what does movement infrastructure have to do with my vision for my
children's education? I'm just a parent with a mediocre Jewish education who
is learning Jewish pedagogy in my spare time. I want my ideas to be heard by
others, ripped apart, improved, and sent back to me so that what happens in
my children's classrooms is of higher quality than what I and a few
overworked teachers and synagogue leaders could create on our own. I want to
learn about new ideas from people with whom I have no direct connection. I
want my children to understand they are not part of just their synagogue
community, but of a world community of Jews who are working together to make
sure their education is as engaging and high quality as possible. I want the
institutions of the Conservative movement to have an active and valued role
in this process.
*Daniel Avraham ben David Kalmen v'Sarah* *is a walking-distance member of
Tifereth Israel Congregation in Washington, DC, and Ohr Kodesh Congregation
in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He's also a non-walking distance member of
Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, California. He grew up at the South
Baldwin Jewish Center in Baldwin, New York.*
Messages in this topic (1)
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"Shefa: The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within" is a forum for
passionate Conservative Jews to reflect together as they increase creative
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Conservative Jews.
We belong to the Conservative Movement and commit ourselves to working
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"Shefa: The Conservative Movement Dreaming from Within" is a forum for
passionate Conservative Jews to reflect together as they increase creative
energy within within the culture and environment of the Conservative
Movement in an effort to bring a renewed and revitalized perspective to
Conservative Jews.
We belong to the Conservative Movement and commit ourselves to working
towards its revitalization. Be a part of this community of visionary
thinkers and builders. To join the conversation, email
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