Section archive - Education & Administration

Jewish day schools in Greater Boston will receive $3 million over the next five years to make education more affordable for students with special needs. Combined Jewish Philanthropies, a nonprofit organization, is partnering with the Ruderman Family Foundation to create the Morton E. Ruderman Inclusion Scholarship Fund, according to a statement from officials of the philanthropies.

Three visionary educators demonstrating the power of inspired Jewish education to create change and drive impact are the 2015 recipients of The Covenant Award for excellence in the field, The Covenant Foundation announced today. Michelle Shapiro Abraham, Director of Program Development for the Campaign for Youth Engagement at the Union for Reform Judaism, as well as a consultant for the Foundation for Jewish Camp, and a clinical faculty member in the HUC-Jewish Institute of Religion Executive MAJE Program; Dr. Sandra Ostrowicz Lilienthal, Curriculum Developer and Instructor at The Rose and Jack Orloff Central Agency for Jewish Education of Broward County in Davie, FL; and, Amy Meltzer, Lead Kindergarten teacher at Lander- Grinspoon Academy in Northampton, MA, are the 2015 recipients of the Award, which is among the highest honors in the field of Jewish education.

Recently, a group of 15 different organizations released a case study – Finding New Paths for Teen Engagement and Learning: A Funder Collaborative Leads the Way – detailing the two-years they’ve spent working together, learning about and investing in Jewish teen education and engagement initiatives. There are a litany of insights and interesting lessons to pull from the study, which we believe are beneficial to organizations well beyond the Jewish teen education and engagement arena (and even beyond the Jewish education arena). In fact, funders in all philanthropic sectors are increasingly pooling or coordinating funding for greater impact, or to address particularly challenging social and environmental problems.

The research investigated how principals in Israel’s Jewish and Arab school systems perceive and practice their role in promoting equitable education to bridge socio-economic and pedagogic gaps. It asked how Jewish and Arab principals understand the concept of social justice and what they do in order to promote social justice reality in their schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Arab and Jewish principals. Analysis of interviews indicated that Israeli education policy perpetuates ethnic and social gaps. The principals reported different personal trajectories that shaped their perceptions of social and described strategies used to promote social justice.