Section archive - Informal Education

The Cornerstone Fellowship, generously funded by the AVI CHAI Foundation, promotes Jewish culture change at camp by offering Jewish educational training to exemplary returning bunk staff and professional development to camp leaders. Now in its ninth year, the program empowers counselors to play a larger creative role in Jewish programming and employs leading experiential Jewish educators to deliver a cutting-edge training experience at a four-day seminar.

Repair the World has released a new report, Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators. This study, provides a comprehensive look at the qualities of effective immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) educators and the training they need to continue providing deep and engaging IJSL experiences.

Abrams, Cohen and Wertheimer write about a pilot study they conducted under the auspices of the AVI CHAI Foundation to learn about the factors that go into the decision of parents to enroll their children in a residential summer camp with a Jewish mission. Their goal was to assess the impact of norms within the social networks of Jewish parents, and, in particular, to examine the extent to which the recommendations of social peers play a significant role in the decision to send one’s children to a Jewish summer camp.

The Israel Education Ministry recently held its “youth movement week”, aimed at making students aware of the many youth movements that exist in Israel and bringing them closer to these movements. Representatives of all the major youth movements in Israel took part in the week’s activities, highlighting the importance of getting students together for a variety of activities at a time when social networks such as Facebook usually keep students at home.