Search results for: Educational leadership

The Hornstein M.A./Ed.M. Program In partnership with Brandeis University's Education Program invites applications from talented, motivated, young professionals seeking the knowledge and skills to lead in Jewish educational settings: camps, experiential educational programs, Hillels, synagogues, day schools, museums, federations, and more.

There is no automatic translation of Torah text study from an academic enterprise to a life-guide. I interviewed dozens, if not hundreds of students exiting elementary school all of whom wanted to demonstrate their proficiency in Talmud. They could recite the various opinions of the sages as well as a range of commentaries, but when I asked them to describe what they would do if they found a lost object in the hallway I was met with a glazed stare. That basic translation into real life had simply not been part of the learning. How many students have studied the laws of mourning but have no idea what to say when entering a shiva home? It is these questions that are at the core of this issue of the journal. How can we transform the classroom into a place of discovery that can help ensure that the student is not just covering the material and learning the information but is growing as a person on the path to healthy, Jewish adulthood?

Gleanings is the ejournal of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary. What should we believe about leadership? How can we effectively educate for leadership? How might we build collaborative leadership for our communities? “Leading Places to Work: Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work?” compiled by the organization Leading Edge, shows evidence that our community has significant challenges in recruiting and retaining professional talent. Previous to this report, the Bridgespan Group, noting that over the next five years, 75 percent of the CEOs and EDs of our institutions will be retiring, raised questions about professional pipelines and succession plans to ensure strong, effective leadership for the future. To stimulate conversation, we’ve invited respected community thinkers to address these issues.

Ethical challenges confront each and every one of us in our daily lives. How honest should we be with our co-workers? To whom do we owe our greatest loyalty? How do we balance between our responsibility to family, community, profession, and self? Many view these kinds of challenges as obstacles to be overcome; others, however, see them as opportunities for schools to grow and find their most deeply held values. Much like a real-life Kohlbergian values-clarification exercise, the process of dealing with the challenges sometimes matters as much, if not even more than, the actual results. The process can help examine questions such as: Whose interests does the school place at the core? Who is involved in addressing the problem? What criteria are established for determining the most appropriate course of action? These questions touch the heart of the school’s identity, and it is questions like these to which we devote this issue of Jewish Educational Leadership.