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The Jewish world, and beyond, have felt an immense sense of loss this past month, faced to contemplate a world without the spiritual and moral leadership of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. So much has been written in these weeks, by so many, on his impact and influence. I wish to consider how we can begin working toward actualising the vision for the Jewish people and the wider world which he laid out for us so eloquently in his writings and speeches. My humble contribution is to begin a conversation on what a system of Jewish education based on the thought of Rabbi Sacks may look like, and I have tried to set this out in this Manifesto on Jewish Education.

Over and above what Moses said in the last month of his life, is what Moses did. He changed careers. He shifted his relationship with the people. No longer Moses the liberator, the lawgiver, the worker of miracles, the intermediary between the Israelites and God, he became the figure known to Jewish memory: Moshe Rabbeinu, “Moses, our teacher.” Moses became, in the last month of his life, the master educator. In these addresses, he does more than tell the people what the law is. He explains to them why the law is. There is nothing arbitrary about it. The law is as it is because of the people’s experience of slavery and persecution in Egypt, which was their tutorial in why we need freedom and law-governed liberty. Time and again he says: You shall do this because you were once slaves in Egypt. They must remember and never forget – two verbs that appear repeatedly in the book – where they came from and what it felt like to be exiled, persecuted, and powerless.

Setting out on a new venture in Jewish education, I was interested in the hard-earned wisdom of notable professionals in and around the field. As part of the work of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership, we seek to bring academics and practitioners into conversation on the educational issues that matter most. To do this well, it’s critical to identify today’s educational landscape. To that end, I spent nearly a year interviewing professionals in and around the universe of Jewish education, formally and informally. I had initially intended to save the formal responses in a personal collection to direct my own work. But there was too much richness and depth to keep the responses to myself. While the conversations continue, clear patterns emerged.

CASJE, the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, has announced the next steps in its long-term research project to explore how Jewish early childhood education (ECE) can serve as a gateway for deeper and more sustained involvement in Jewish life. While broadly conceived, the study will include a focus on ways that ECE institutions can better engage interfaith families and families that are not currently involved in a synagogue or other Jewish institution.