Adapting: The Future of Jewish Education

How do Amram Altzman, Jessica Cohen, and Megan Sass approach the most pressing issues facing Jewish educators today? Amram, the Associate Director of Youth Programs at Keshet, discusses how he reimagined his approach to LGBTQ Jewish teen engagement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jessica, Associate Director of Religious Education at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, shares her approach to building a curriculum that supports the social and emotional needs of students. Megan, the Tefilah Specialist/Young Families Songleader at SAJ-Judaism That Stands for All, analyzes how the arts help children and families forge strong connections with Jewish culture and each other. This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York.Send us Fan Mail

What motivates and inspires Francie Goldberg and Emily Hausman, two of the recipients of The Jewish Education Project's 2022 Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneers Award? Francie, the Director of Admissions and Marketing and School Librarian at HANC Plainview, discusses her unique approach to family education and the importance of making libraries places where children feel creatively empowered. Emily, Director of Early Childhood Education at the Riverdale Y, shares her passion for working with young children and what it's like working at a school that is part of New York City's universal early childhood education program.This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York.Send us Fan Mail

What gives Liz Kleinrock hope for the future? The students in her classroom. In the second episode of Our Jewish Futures, Liz joins The Jewish Education Project’s Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath for a fascinating conversation on antiracist and antibias education in Jewish spaces and beyond. They discuss her social media activism, the importance of education about Antisemitism, and her work as an antibias and antiracist facilitator. This episode was hosted and produced by Dr. Samantha Vinokor Meinrath, The Jewish Education Project's Senior Director, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning.  This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail

Rabbi Leor Sinai, Senior Director of Israel Education at RootOne ,joins David Bryfman this week to suggest that Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut represent two of the "modern days of awe." Rabbi Sinai’s passion for Israel education and his students shines throughout this episode, and he discusses how educators can transmit the significance of these days to learners, wherever they are in the world. Learn more about the Lone Soldier Center and Michael Levin z"l, mentioned at the end of the episode, at lonesoldiercenter.com. This episode was originally released on Yom HaZikaron 2022.This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York.Send us Fan Mail

Rabbi Yehudah Potok, Director of Jewish Education at Facing History and Ourselves joins David Bryfman for a meaningful episode focused on Holocaust education for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences. Rabbi Potok shares how he understands the phrase "Never Again", why it’s important to balance the universal and the particular in Holocaust education, and how he’s responding to questions from students about the violence in Ukraine. Rabbi Potok also reflects on what his family history, a love of summer camp, and personal experiences staffing teen travel excursions taught him about the role of experiential education in perpetuating living memories of Jewish history. This episode was originally released on Yom Hashoah 2022.This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail

Jewish or not, teens are teens. As Jewish educators, if we want to be serious about the future of teen Jewish education, we should be actively engaging with our colleagues from other faith traditions doing this same work. For the first episode of Our Jewish Futures, Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath speaks with Kenda Creasy Dean, an ordained United Methodist pastor and the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. Kenda shares her journey as a teen educator, and what inspires her passion for what she calls the privilege of connecting with young people at critical junctions in their life’s journey.This episode was hosted and produced by Dr. Samantha Vinokor Meinrath, The Jewish Education Project's Senior Director, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning.  This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to Our Jewish Futures, a new series within Adapting hosted by The Jewish Education Project's Dr. Samantha Vinokor- Meinrath! In this series, Samantha speaks with educators and thought leaders from in and outside the world of Jewish education to envision the Jewish Future. Join us for this exciting new journey! New episodes will be released about once a month in the Adapting podcast feed. Our Jewish Futures is hosted and produced by Dr. Samantha Vinokor Meinrath, The Jewish Education Project's Senior Director, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning.  This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail

Can you imagine if your congregation had 100% participation for every Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service? According to Rabbi Matt Dreffin of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, that's typically the case in some small Jewish communities he works with. Rabbi Dreffin speaks with David Bryfman about the vitality of Jewish life in the South and what can we all learn from what’s taking place in small Southern communities, how he designs an intensely detailed curriculum with the intention that anyone--even people with no Jewish knowledge--could teach Hebrew school, and what it feels like to be the first Jewish person someone meets. He even plays a bit of a famous Southern song! This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail

Who owns the Torah? What does it mean for Jewish education now that we have free universal access to the Torah, Talmud, and other Jewish texts? Rabbanit Sara Wolkenfeld, Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria, a free virtual library of Jewish texts, speaks with David Bryfman about her passion for Jewish text, how gender affected her own access to Jewish texts, and what drives her work building a new digital infrastructure for Jewish text.   This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York.   Send us Fan Mail

"As my colleague Allison Cook says, 'It feels like magic, but it doesn’t take magic to make it happen, it takes pedagogy.'" Rabbi Avi Killip, Executive Vice President of Hadar Institute, joins David Bryfman to discuss what it takes to make Jewish learning- family engagement, adult education, and everything in between- magical and meaningful. She also reflects on how her struggles with dyslexia impact how she teaches today.This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Gabriel Weinstein.  The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released.To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. Send us Fan Mail