Jewish Portal of Teacher Education

Source: Covenant Foundation 

The Covenant Foundation announced the recipients of the 2021 Covenant Award today, honoring three Jewish educators who are forging change in the field of Jewish education, and the Jewish community at large. Helene Drobenare-Horwitz, Executive Director, Young Judaea Sprout Camps, New York, NY; Anna Hartman, Director of Early Childhood Excellence, Jewish United Fund, and Director of the Paradigm Project, Chicago, IL; Judith Turner, Senior Program Officer for Volunteer Services and Intergenerational Program Engagement, DOROT, New York, NY, are the recipients of the Award, which is among the highest honors in the field of Jewish Education.

Along with the recognition that accompanies this award, recipients will each receive $36,000 and each of their institutions will receive $5,000.

Helene Drobenare-Horwitz is the Executive Director of Young Judaea Sprout Camps in New York, NY.

During her tenure as Director at Sprout Lake, Ms. Drobenare-Horwitz has strived to renew and revitalize camp culture by inspiring campers and staff members toward acts of chesed and tikkun olam. In 2005, Ms. Drobenare-Horwitz implemented Caravan for Katrina, an initiative that connected 300 Young Judaea youths from the northeast with survivors of Hurricane Katrina to establish a longitudinal support network. The program culminated with Ms. Drobenare-Horwitz and several staff members driving trucks to New Orleans stocked with much needed supplies.

Anna Hartman is the Director of Early Childhood Excellence at the Jewish United Fund in Chicago, Illinois and Director of The Paradigm Project, a national organization.

For the past six years at JUF, Ms. Hartman has led the visioning, strategy, and professional development planning for Jewish early childhood education across Chicagoland. Ms. Hartman also leads communities of practice around topics such as utilizing the Reggio Emilia approach through a Jewish lens. In addition, she conducts educational research on various issues ranging from reflective supervision to young children’s understandings of Israel.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Hartman led the development and organization of webinars for educators, collaborating with field leaders around the country. Focusing on skill building and leadership development, webinar topics ranged from reopening schools to racial justice in early childhood education. Ms. Hartman and her team also looked to support educators as they struggled with layoffs and closures through the development of the Early Childhood University.

Judith Turner is the Senior Program Officer for Volunteer Services and Intergenerational Program Engagement at DOROT, in New York, NY.

In her position at DOROT, a New York City-based Jewish non-profit that provides aging services and volunteer opportunities, Ms. Turner sets the vision, oversees the program portfolio, and directly supervises the directors for both the department of Volunteer Services and Intergenerational Program Engagement. These departments annually engage more than 6,300 volunteers of all ages and more than 200 community partners to meet the changing needs of older adults.

At DOROT, Ms. Turner has also established the educational pedagogy and best practices for intergenerational and service-learning programming. She is also charged with critically assessing all programs for innovative ways to expand and improve them through strategic planning, capacity building, and collaboration with staff members, lay leaders, and Jewish community networks. As part of DOROT’s Senior Management Team, she works with colleagues to drive the strategic direction, agency-wide objectives, and standards of excellence for the organization.

The Covenant Foundation and the Jewish community will honor the 2021 Award recipients at a celebration in the fall.

Read the entire piece at The Covenant Foundation website.