Tag: Jewish education

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Rabbinic Innovation Rabbinic Reflections

Rabbi Stacy Schlein: Innovation in Jewish Education

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, Reform Judaism’s rabbinic professional leadership organization, is home to more than 2,000 Reform rabbis across North America and beyond. And while Reform rabbis wear many hats, often at the same time—Torah scholar, officiant, pastoral counselor, chaplain, educator, organizational leader, activist—they also serve in a wider range of settings, changing the shape of the sacred work of the rabbinate with innovative new visions for Jewish communal life.

We’re proud to share the stories of CCAR members who are taking our ancient Jewish traditions and imaginatively and courageously building new programs, practices, collaborations, communities, and transformational approaches to Reform Judaism. We’re also sharing how, even in dark times, so many CCAR members find joy as rabbis, and we share their hopes for the future of the Reform rabbinate and Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Stacy Schlein was ordained at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 2001 and received her Master’s in Jewish Education from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 2017. After serving in congregations including The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, she is now the Director of Educational Capacity Building at the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland, a renowned organization that aims to create transformative, meaningful Jewish educational experiences for Jewish children and families in Cleveland. Here, she shares how Jewish learning and innovation are at the center—and future —of her rabbinate.

How do you describe your approach to your rabbinate?
My rabbinate has grown, shifted, and changed over the years. Throughout it all, my focus has been on learning. My main passion is the Jewish spiritual and educational growth of children. In my current role, I support the synagogue’s early childhood and retreat programs in Cleveland.

How has your rabbinate evolved throughout your career?
My rabbinate has always centered around teaching. I have consulted with a children’s author about Judaic content, worked as a chaplain, ran a weekly family learning program, served as an education director in a synagogue and now at the JEC. I am grateful for the opportunities to expand and grow throughout the years. After being a rabbi for twenty-four years, I appreciate working in a central agency where I can consult and support my colleagues.

How have you brought innovation to Jewish education?
The greatest innovations that I have been involved with have been experimenting and developing curriculum with my colleague Nachama Moskowitz. Together, we’re launching a new initiative in Cleveland to create prototypes to address declining enrollment in Jewish education.

In 2022, after many years of observing enrollment declines in congregational education, the Jewish Education Center in Cleveland conducted a study to understand these trends and gain deeper insights so we and our partners could strategically identify areas for opportunity.

We discovered that Jewish education matters to parents; children are the drivers for decision-making about enrollment, there is an interest in informal education, and a need for more formal data. This provides an incredible opportunity to reimagine congregational education and think more broadly about how we support all Jewish children with enriching educational experiences. Based on our findings and national data, we adopted our strategic action in March of 2023 to address these challenges.

We launched a Design Thinking Task Force to oversee and support our efforts. The task force includes a diverse group of community members representing the breadth and depth of our community careholders, as well as JEC board members. We plan to provide grants to test prototypes and to test our principles.

What do people find unique, unusual, or surprising about your rabbinate?
The spiritual fulfillment that I gain from educational work.

What is your rabbinic motto or words that guide your rabbinate?
In my office, I have a beautiful art piece from Pirkei Avot 4:1 “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.”

What excites you or makes you feel the most hopeful about the future of the rabbinate?
Rabbis are now considering a wider range of settings to work and share their gifts.

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Rabbinic Reflections

The Challenges and Joys of Teaching Our Teenagers: Rabbi Josh Goldstein Reflects on 50 Years as a Reform Rabbi

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of my ordination, it’s a natural impulse to reflect on the most wonderful rabbinic moments I’ve experienced. Tuesday evenings are among my fondest memories.

Each Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., at the mid-sized synagogue I served for more than three decades, sixty to seventy post b’nei mitzvah students would arrive for their weekly two-hour dosage of Jewish learning. In my sections, we would take on some eclectic topics, from Masada to Maimonides to mixed marriage. I always felt that a great deal was at stake each week. I wanted each student to leave feeling some degree of Jewish inspiration. And I desperately tried to avoid the greatest sin of all—being boring.

I had an advantage. I could “talk the talk,” whether bantering about hoops, or movies, or rock music, or being a bit irreverent. I was also drawn to those students who felt like outsiders. So, over pizza dinners, I’d schmooze with everyone, lead Birkat Hamazon, and then engage in topics that were carefully chosen, not only to draw interest, but really to teach and discuss about the remarkable story of our people. We avoided using the word “confirmation” (too assimilated), and we declined teaching comparative religion (we wanted to spend those precious two hours on our own heritage). We never had the resources to take our teenagers to Israel each year, but I constantly talked up the joy of Camp Harlam summers, and soon, a semester or year in Israel.

I made a point of keeping in touch with our students after their high school graduations, and even surveyed them, years later, about the impact of Tuesday evenings on their Jewish identities. Warning them not to “kiss up” to me, I invariably was told: “Those evenings were a wonderful part of my Jewish growth. It was great to have dinner with friends, to be encouraged to share thoughts, and to develop a greater appreciation of my Jewish story.”

These days, in semi-retirement, my challenges are on another level: Sally has dementia, and I’m now a caregiver for my wonderful wife of fifty-three years.  I am supported in many ways, especially by the deep friendships of my colleagues in NAORRR. And I feel bolstered, as well, by the memory of Tuesday evenings with our teenagers. I remember them all—the jocks, the rebels, the conformists. I loved them all. It was profoundly challenging to try to inspire them Jewishly. Sometimes I succeeded. But the challenge was a deeply meaningful part of my life. I miss it more than anything else I ever did as a rabbi.

Josh Goldstein is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Sha’arey Shalom, in Springfield, New Jersey, and founding rabbi of the Chai Center for Jewish Life in Watchung, New Jersey. We look forward to celebrating him and all of the CCAR’s 50-year rabbis when we come together at CCAR Convention 2025.

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Books Prayer Rabbis Reform Judaism

Mishkan T’filah for Children: Do Students in K-2 Need a Different Siddur than Students in Grades 3-5?

This question has been raised by several people and it is a really good question.  When our committee sat down to work on the new siddur Mishkan T’filah for Children we asked ourselves (as good educators do) “What are our goals for this siddur?”  As we explored that question through many discussions we came to the conclusion that we would, in fact, need two siddurim.  That one siddur for grades K-5 would not work well.  The reason is something which we have learned from the Early Childhood Education world.  The following is from the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children).

ccar-mishkantfilah-frontcover-2-children_1“Developmentally appropriate practice, often shortened to DAP, is an approach to teaching grounded in the research on how young children develop and learn and in what is known about effective early education. Its framework is designed to promote young children’s optimal learning and development.  DAP involves teachers meeting young children where they are (by stage of development), both as individuals and as part of a group; and helping each child meet challenging and achievable learning goals.”

DAP does not just apply to early childhood education, but to all education.  Simply put, we need to understand where children are developmentally and meet them there if we are going to be successful in engaging and educating them.  This applies to their intellectual, social and SPIRITUAL development.  If you spend time with a 6 year old and then spend time with a 10 year old it does not take long to see that they are in very different places developmentally.  A six year old will be a much more concrete learner while the ten year old is starting to think critically and will ask questions like “Which came first, Adam and Eve or the dinosaurs?”

The amazing comChildrenTalitmittee of rabbis who worked on this siddur quickly came to the conclusion that one siddur would not work for all ages.  Different developmental needs needed to be met by creating two different books.  The book for the younger children, which Michelle Shapiro Abraham did an incredible job creating will reach our youngest children at a level they can understand and connect to.  The book for the older children will have more Hebrew, English readings at a different level and questions which will engage our older thinkers.    The goal was the same for both – to engage children and families in prayer and encourage their spiritual growth.

 

Rabbi Paula Feldstein serves Temple Avodat Sholom in River Edge, NJ