Jewish Journey Project – From Innovation to Self-Sustaining
Source: Jim Joseph Foundation
Celebratng its fourth year, JCC Manhattan's Jewish Journey Project (JJP) is an innovative supplemental Jewish education program for 3rd – 7th graders based on four visionary pillars: flexibility, innovation, collaboration and community. Together with congregational partners from around the area, JJP has engaged more than 800 children and their families by using the rich and diverse history of New York City as an experiential “classroom.” Some of its most popular courses are Architecture: DIY Jewish Building, In the Footsteps of American Jewish History: A Walking Course, JJP NYC Museum Hop, and FoodCraft: The Jewish Culinary Tradition.
In addition, JJP’s innovative Hebrew Homepage is an internet-based, one-on-one video conferencing Hebrew-language learning model with college students as tutors. Each student engages in a weekly 30 minute online session with their tutor (that they both schedule), choosing from a Learn to Read Hebrew track for beginners, a Reading Fluency for Prayerbook Hebrew, and soon a Modern Hebrew track.
Synagogues and families tell JJP they are interested in the benefits that the Hebrew Homepage can offer all students, whether or not they are enrolled in JJP. Responding to this demand, JJP will roll out the Hebrew Homepage as a stand-alone service that any congregation or student can subscribe to, to strengthen their Hebrew acquisition. As a way of becoming a sustainable venture beyond the pilot funding phase, Hebrew Homepage will become a fee-for-service program that will help offset the philanthropic contributions that launched JJP.
In just four years, JJP has demonstrated how innovative educational experiences—with New York as its “classroom”—engage all kinds of families in Jewish life. Now, with JJP’s new sustainable Hebrew language instruction model, even more families will be able to access meaningful Jewish learning.
Read the entire post at the Jim Joseph Foundation.