A teacher pipeline issue continues to grow, not only in the world at large, but in the yeshiva and Jewish day school field. School and field leaders are struggling with recruiting, training and retaining talented educators. As a response, Prizmah and the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) created the Jewish Day School Educator Pipeline Working Group to investigate current and previous initiatives, explore new ideas, and plan for the future. Learn about this partnership, read the summary report and view the playbook in this blog post by JEIC Managing Director Sharon Freundel and Prizm ..read more

Before this year’s Seder (or Sedarim, if you conduct two), there was a great deal of chatter on blogs, in podcasts, and throughout social media on how we should commemorate the ongoing imprisonment of 133 innocent Jewish lives, the unconscionable murder of 1,200+ Israelis, and the ongoing conflict in and around the southern and northern borders of the State of Israel. Should we eliminate the song Dayenu as we are not yet satisfied that enough has taken place? Should we add a prayer during Shefoch Chamatcha in which we attempt to invoke God’s wrath on those who attack God and the Jewish people ..read more

During the history of the Jewish people, we have often been in conflict with the outside world. We struggle with how to honor and learn from the cultures and wisdom in the world around us, while also protecting ourselves from adversaries who all too often intend to harm or negate our way of life. Attempts to reconcile the tension between Jewish tradition and secular modernity have had mixed outcomes. Today, it is more important than ever to better prepare our students to grapple with this dialectic.  In my work as a Jewish makerspace educator, I’ve had the opportunity to work with student ..read more

In the summer of 2023, when things in Israel looked much brighter and happier, I enjoyed a lunch in Jerusalem with a teacher in one of the gap year seminaries. During the conversation, this question arose. Why is there a lack of Hebrew reading and comprehension skills including basic things that should have been drummed into students by 7th Grade?  This would facilitate high schoolers possessing skills that permit the teaching of increasingly challenging, less boring material that is more suitable for their age. Let’s unpack some elements of this query. First, the experience of learning J ..read more

Judaism is a religion of looking both forward and backward. Three times daily, at the end of the Aleinu prayer, we quote the prophet Zechariah who forecasts the day, at some point in the (hopefully near) future, “when God will be sovereign over all the earth, when there shall be one God with one name.” That is us looking forward. At the same time, after the Shacharit service, we are reminded to pay heed to the “six remembrances” — six Torah texts that speak of events or concepts we are required to always remember. That is us looking backward. Every day. And on every Shabbat we remember that Go ..read more

Many schools are questioning whether, in light of the atrocities of October 7th and the ongoing war, they should proceed with their regular Purim shenanigans this year. Administrators and teachers wonder whether they should scale back their usual activities or whether they should skip the celebration altogether with the hope that Purim festivities will be back in force next year. The limited sources on celebrating rabbinic holidays in light of tragic circumstances seem to indicate that not only should we celebrate despite the current situation in Israel and with Jews around the world, we shoul ..read more

In his forthcoming book The Triumph of Life, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg presents his compassionate theology of creation, in which peoples’ partnership with God sets a framework for human behavior. He emphasizes that the core Jewish belief baked into Bereshit (Genesis), that each person is created in the image of God, results in three lessons regarding human dignity: The infinite value of each human life – each human being possesses a fraction of the infinite value and dignity of God. Therefore, every human being is of infinite value. The equality of each person – as an image of God, each person ..read more

What is the ROI of funding Jewish schools? A robust and bright future for the Jewish people. "Inspired children will become the kind of adults who independently pick up a sefer (Jewish book) or seek out a study partner. This exchange of ideas ...is what builds community," explains Mayberg Foundation Director, Operating Programs Amian Frost Kelemer in this eJewish Philanthropy article. Learn about how our partner organizations, like Hadar Institute's Pedagogy of Partnership program, Makor Chaim Institutions' Lifnai v'Lifnim program, Amatz and JEIC's own God Expansion initiative each offer creat ..read more

On October 7th, Israel bore witness to an unprecedented wave of attacks that sent shockwaves through its society, leaving an enduring mark on the nation's collective consciousness. These attacks also created a profound impact on Israel education.  Over the past two months, Unpacked for Educators has been fielding non-stop requests from schools with variations of the same questions: How can we help our students meet the challenges of the current moment? What should we be teaching our students now about Israel? How can we give students the resources and support they need to process the barr ..read more

JEIC Managing Director Sharon Freundel's article "The Spiritual Significance of Hebrew Letters” was featured on the Jewish Unpacked website. In it, she explains the spiritual significance of Hebrew letters, and uncovers the messages they have conveyed through millennia. From mystical meanings to numerical values, the Hebrew letters communicate more than just phonetic sounds; they are a gateway to understanding deeper spiritual truths. “As part of their spiritual meanings, each Hebrew letter holds a numerical value,” Sharon explains. “These numerical values are known as Gematria. In Gematria ..read more