Avi Chai

This summer, AVI CHAI will sponsor up to 15 day school leaders to attend an institute at The Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We encourage school leaders to apply: Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership (AOL) June 26 – July 3, 2012 1–5 Years of Leadership Experience This institute helps you to identify areas of school improvement, establish priorities, develop strategies and build a base of support around a change initiative. … Read More »

by David Bernstein There is a debate escalating in American Jewish circles between those who favor Israel advocacy and those who favor Israel education for high school and college age Jewish students. For many years, the establishment favored Israel advocacy. It armed young Jews with the basic skills of communication and argumentation, and gave them “the facts.” It sent them back to places like the college campus in the hopes that their new-found confidence and … Read More »

By: Michael Berger We all knew it was coming.  Technology is making its way into day schools – like all disruptive innovation, it appears initially in a small number of schools, and within a relatively short time, it’s mainstream. Julie Weiner’s balanced article on iPad use in Jewish day schools highlighted that we may be observing the emergence of a revolution.  Was this what the move from hand-copied scrolls to printed books was like in … Read More »

After months of video production, promotion, and hard work, the Jewish Day School Video Academy Awards contest has come to a close with over 17,500 votes!! The competition was intense with 116 videos submitted by 68 schools. In addition to the three “people’s choice” prizes, three prizes were awarded by a panel of expert judges. The time that we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Drum roll please… 1st place winners of $10,000 are: People’s … Read More »

This week on the AVI CHAI blog, the AVI CHAI and Steinhardt Foundations posed the question: What would make day schools more attractive to non-Orthodox parents? In addition to the discussion on this forum, the question was also explored on: Mixed Multitudes, eJewishPhilanthropy, Metroimma, InterfaithFamily as well as via Facebook and Twitter. We have been excited to read the numerous comments from parents, educators, and others interested in this question. We have learned how passionate … Read More »

Among the many decisions involved in raising children, how to educate them is one of the crucial ones. It will influence their growth – intellectually as well as socially and morally. It will also orient them toward a certain set of values, identity, skills, and sense of community. For Jewish parents, there is an additional layer of consideration in educational decisions: how to ensure your children grow up with a Jewish sense of values, identity, … Read More »

By: Deborah Fishman Ken Gordon of PEJE wrote in a NAJDS blog post on the importance of real-life networking – not just because it enables us to meet and socialize, but because on a deeper level it enables us “to recognize our interdependence.” Reviewing the #NAJDS twitter feed, I was indeed struck by the desire for collaboration which pervaded many of the observations which both participants and those tuning in beyond the conference recorded in … Read More »

By: Deborah Fishman The North American Jewish Day School Conference’s session “What Funders Want” dealt with a few striking questions which funders – and anyone interested in deciding where to devote resources – face. One such question is whether the needs of individual schools or “the community” as a system take priority. This can manifest itself geographically: How does what is occurring on the local scene relate to the national picture? It also surfaces when … Read More »

Ramah Wisconsin campers and staff (1951) By: Joel Einleger Much has been written recently about efforts to build and support people networks in the Jewish world, including a recent post here by my colleague Leah Meir. Network building has become sufficiently important that the Schusterman Foundation hired Seth Cohen, Director of Network Initiatives, to lead and catalyze their efforts towards this goal. As an experiment in this arena, AVI CHAI and the Maimonides Fund recently … Read More »

By: Leah Meir I was reminded of my father when I read a recent New York Times article entitled “Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain”.  This major study found that good teachers have lasting effects on their students’ lives that go way beyond academics, affecting life choices the students make years later. This study only confirms what many of us have felt personally. And the impact of teachers is even more crucial in … Read More »