How Schools Enact Their Jewish Missions: 20 Case Studies of Jewish Day Schools
Source: AVI CHAI Foundation
Buffeted by competing needs and shortages of resources, Jewish day schools face great challenges sustaining their Jewish mission. What does it take to deal with those challenges? How do schools remain true to their mission? When do they accommodate and when do they resist?
This Case Study Project takes you inside 19 Jewish day schools with thick descriptions of how they have maintained a clear focus on their Jewish mission in the face of challenges. Case studies describe how schools align their stakeholders—especially teachers and parents—in support of their Jewish mission, how they make the case for serious Jewish learning, how they have strengthened their teaching of Hebrew, Israel, and Jewish texts, how they make tefillah and connection to the Jewish people meaningful to students and how they resist pressures to dilute their Jewish mission.
Readers can navigate these cases by focusing on major themes or on types of schools.
These cases are intended to stimulate discussion among teachers, school boards and community leaders committed to day school education.