Mourning Becomes CAJE

by Adrian Durlester

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

Thousands of us lost a good friend recently. With sadness, the leadership of CAJE, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, announced that there would be no annual CAJE Conference this year, canceling the 34th annual conference which was to be held in San Antonio this August.

In his play “Mourning Becomes Electra”, a modern retelling of the Orestia, some analysts believe that among the many themes Eugene O’Neill explores is the role fate plays in our lives. It’s a dark play, and somewhat more Freudian than the Greek story it is based upon, so I’m not suggesting that what has happened to CAJE is a tale full of the same sort of dark material. However, I am wondering what role fate has played in the timing of CAJE’s announcement. It may be premature to call it a death – CAJE may yet be resurrected (and what an odd religious symbology that might take on.)

The loss of CAJE, or, at least for now, the annual conference, is a great loss for the Jewish community. Though CAJE had matured from its grassroots beginnings as the Conference for Alternatives in Jewish Education to become somewhat part of the establishment for which its founders sought alternatives, it remained relevant and important. What made CAJE truly special was how it enabled interaction between people who might not normally interact. This free-flow of ideas across denominational. occupational, theological and other silos has been and will continue to be an essential ingredient in shaping Jewish education for the present and the future. At CAJE, Jews from across the religious spectrum mixed regularly, easily, and, for the most part, respectfully. Rabbis, Educators, Hazzanim, Scholars, Teachers, Authors, Musicians, Storytellers, Dancers, Artists, professionals, avocationals, and laity learned together, studied together, engaged in dialog, shared ideas, and more. CAJE has become, in some ways, as essential to Jewish education as bees are to the pollenization fo certain flower species. You could find at CAJE what you might not find at NATE, JEA, Torah Umesorah, etc.

CAJE: Up from the Ashes

by Joel Lurie Grishaver

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

On the poster that changed CAJE’s name from the Coalition for “Alternatives” in Jewish education to the Coalition for the “Advancement” of Jewish Education was this Midrashic quotation picked out by Stuart Kelman.

At the end of the great persecution our teachers met together at Usha… They sent to the elders of Galilee saying, ‘Whoever has learned, let him come and teach, and whoever has not learned, let him come and learn.’ They came together and studied and took all necessary steps.
[Song of Songs Rabbah 2:18]

It perfectly captured the dream. CAJE started out as a dream. There were a bunch of us sitting around on the sofas at Boston University Hillel talking about the teaching we were all doing in Hebrew Schools. (We hadn’t yet gotten to Supplemental Schools or Congregational Schools or the other “reconceptualizations” of the process). The insight came from Cherrie Koller-Fox. She said, “We all have something to teach each other.” We began to imagine a local teacher’s conference where each of us would teach stuff, and get to learn stuff from others. Nothing came of that particular conversation. I don’t know how many times it was repeated. Eventually it made it the Network of Jewish Students who decided to hold a first Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education at Brown University, to a Continuations committee who held a second conference at the University of Rochester, and then an organization was birthed. A few of us on the West Coast (Wolfson, Kelman, and Grishaver) put together (with a single staff person, Jody Hirsh) a West Coast Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education. That was the third. And from then on the national organization took root and created its annual conference. It was all very Woodstock.

A New Vision Rooted in Change

by Leora Koller-Fox

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) announced it will not hold its annual conference this year due to monetary problems. Now is the time to have a new vision for CAJE. This is mine.

CAJE will be a place where anyone involved in formal or informal Jewish education can meet to share ideas. Because of CAJE, Jewish education across the world has come to include Tzedakah education, ecology, rich Jewish music and art, textbooks and materials, family education, storytelling, and the expanded use of media and technology. Did you teach the alef- bet to your students through a song? You probably use the tune Debbie Friedman taught to educators at CAJE who taught it to you. Without an environment in which all are encouraged to bring innovation, good ideas are contained to their originators.

CAJE will be a think tank for the Jewish people, where we unite as a people, in the most fundamental and essential piece of Judaism—its transmission to the next generation. It will bring together all parties that contribute to education. This will include educators from all denominations of Judaism, all educational settings, as well as laypeople and parents. The heart of our people, Israel, is being attacked both with words and with bombs. Jewish-focused terrorism, like the most recent attack in Mumbai, proves once again that banding together as a people is the key to our survival. CAJE serves as a place to not only to survive, but to drastically move Judaism forward.

CAJE will be an outspoken advocate for Jewish education and Jewish educators. The American Jewish community does not give proper respect to our educators. Education is the core of our being—Torah, Talmud, ritual, traditions, language, and yet we do not respect those we have entrusted to teach us those things. Respect means first-rate salaries and benefits and an honored status in the community. Love for children does not pay the bills and passion for education does not sustain a lifelong career. No one goes into this field to become wealthy, but my generation of highly educated and committed Jews will not even think about a job without status, respect and at the very least, the most basic of benefits. Let’s discuss the possibility of CAJE becoming a union, or something like a union, so that we can speak together with a strong voice to advocate for ourselves on economic issues.

Rediscovering CAJE’s Mission

by Cherie Koller-Fox

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

I believe that over the years, CAJE forgot who it was and what its mission was. It grew too bureaucratic and its Boards made some decisions that were not in the best interests of the organization. CAJE stopped raising money and spent down a 1.4 million dollar endowment fund. Those are some of the things that led to the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in today. What now?

Luckily, there are many of us who do remember and do value what CAJE has to offer. CAJE’s greatest strength has always been its membership. Members planned the conferences and the programs. Members donated thousands of teaching hours to CAJE so that the annual conference could be held. Members brought their ideas and freely shared them with each other at the conference, through Bikkurim, and Jewish Education News. By working together on a common purpose, we have become a family. We came together to create the field of Jewish education—a pardes, an orchard in which our ideas could soar beyond our individual classrooms and congregations. Our purpose was to plant the seeds that would strengthen the future of the Jewish people through education.

Because that is our mission and our model, we do not have to be flummoxed by financial difficulties, even bankruptcy. As long as our ideas are not bankrupt we will be able to pick ourselves up and continue our important work. The truth is that it does not take a lot of money to do a CAJE conference. It’s nice, but not absolutely necessary to have an office and an office staff. The first six CAJE conferences were run out of a borrowed corner in an office and out of our homes. One of those conference was Rutgers that attracted around 2300 participates –the largest conference we ever held. We have to look at these new circumstances as an opportunity to rebuild CAJE again as from the beginning. What will be the priorities of a rebooted CAJE?

And now for something (almost) completely different…

by Ira Wise

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

Let’s try something different. Let’s move forward. Let’s focus on goals and outcomes, on growth and on moving Jewish Education and the role of the teachers and lead educators to the next level. Facebook, e-mail in boxes and phones have been busy for much of the past week with friends and colleagues talking about, wondering and speculating about what will happen to CAJE—the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education—now that they have announced the cancellation of this summer’s Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education.

The difference I am suggesting is that we not get bogged down in history, gossip or recriminations. I believe that the lay and professional leadership of CAJE is doing everything they can to solve the fiscal dilemmas that led to the decision. And I have tremendous respect for them and for CAJE Executive Director Jeff Lasday in particular. I am not a finance person. I don’t have the answers. I call upon everyone who cares about Jewish Education to be part of that solution. If you have ideas or access to serious funds, contact CAJE directly.

I believe we cannot wait for that solution before beginning the conversation. So let’s have another conversation at the same time. Let’s talk about what’s next. The conversation might be helpful in revitalizing CAJE. It might be useful in figuring out where our field is going. We can’t wait because our students are not going to be able to wait for us to figure it out.

CAJE from the Bottom Up

by Joshua Mason-Barkin

In this issue of TAPBB, we’ve invited a number of people to share their thoughts on the future of CAJE. This is one in that series. To read them all, click here.

A lot has been said and written about the recent cancellation of what would-have-been CAJE’s 34th annual conference. I have my own thoughts about what caused this to happen, though it seems clear that the conference’s non-existence this summer is mostly about financial management and the current economy, and little to do with the conference itself.

That being said, the absence of CAJE 34 presents a unique opportunity to look at the conference from a distance and to think out loud about what made CAJE great, what will make it great in the future, and what we can do to develop a conference that reflects that vision.

Rabbi Beth Nichols, an educator who is assistant rabbi at Temple Israel of New Rochelle, NY, taught the best session at last summer’s CAJE 33 conference in Burlington, Vermont.

Beth’s session was entitled “Evolving Bulletin Boards: Constructing the Big Ideas on Our Walls.” A few nights beforehand, she was up late putting together sample bulletin boards. She brought pictures, she brought handouts, and she shared her ideas about how to make bulletin boards that “help students construct knowledge throughout the year.” Beth spent her session sharing her own ideas — best practices for using bulletin boards as curricular tools — and soliciting discussion from colleagues who also have given some thought to using the walls of their classrooms in interesting ways.

CAJE used to be a conference full of sessions like Beth’s. It was about professionals and not-so-professionals in the field of Jewish education spending time to learn with each other and from each other. But things have changed, and CAJE has become a “top-down” sort of conference.

There are plenty of examples of the “top-down” model in conferences for professionals in Jewish education. Here’s how it works: An esteemed expert (a university professor, a government official with experience in the mideast peace process, a well-published author, etc.) stands in front a lecture hall full of people and imparts wisdom about his or her particular subject of expertise before taking questions from the audience. These speakers are not necessarily invested members of the gathered community; rather, they are hired experts who are flown in to deliver a keynote address and maybe sit on a panel. In these sorts of conferences, participants are, for the most part, passive. They are the recipients of knowledge and expertise.

In the “bottom-up” model, things work a lot differently. The classroom teacher’s expertise is valued right alongside the university professor’s. Every voice has a chance to speak and present, and every attendee is there to listen and learn.

Let me be very clear. The world of Jewish education needs “top-down” opportunities for teachers and educators to learn from experts. We need experts — people who’ve done research, who’ve studied the field, who have a breadth and depth of experience that can be shared — because experts help us to do our jobs better.

Teaching Israel When Israel is at War

by Joel Lurie Grishaver

Crossing the internet are two prayers. One is a prayer for Israel’s soldiers. The other is a prayer for the civilians of Gaza. Both are recommended as the way for teachers to begin their classes.

The problem is not that one is being asked to choose between these two prayers. Supporting both wishes is not a problem. Prayers for safety can’t be too many. And the problem is not that prayer seems to be the major response to War. Prayer is a good response to War. The problem is that this seems to be the only major public response besides a zillion causes to join on Facebook.

There is of course a need to teach “The War.” Explaining the background and context of the fighting is probably obligatory. Some teachers in some schools will teach the situation one way, some will teach it the other. My purpose here is not to argue for either Sderot or for the Palestinian population. Great teaching will make both of these “siduations” clear. The argument I want to make here is something else. That is, now is a time when we must teach about Israel, build connection to Israel, and to help our students understand that Israel is important in our lives. This is not a statement of Israel right or wrong. It is rather an expression of what I learned from Steven M. Cohen, that “We must teach that one can both love Israel and disagree with some of Her actions.” Do not take this as a statement that I think that Israel Gaza’s campaign is wrong. My reactions are actually more complex and not important to our discussion anyway. Do not take it as a statement of an expectation that students are going to flock to class with all kinds of expression of outrage at Israel’s actions. (That would actually be a great starting point—because the discussion would flow.)

My great fear is that the War, and the school with forty mainly women and children dead, and the general confusion of conflicting truths are perfectly good reasons to care less about Israel because it is too confusing, too complex, too far from our students’ experience. What scares me is not either position on who is wrong, nor the understanding that there is enough wrong to go around, but complete ambivalence. What I care about is caring about Israel.

In 1975 I was a brand new youth director at North Shore Congregation Israel, in Glencoe Illinois. Yom Kippur came. The War came. And I of a sudden I had a couple of hundred kids working the streets and going door to door collecting money for Mogen David Adom. That story is ancient history. It is as long ago as the rotary dial telephone. We live in a universe with different physics. We know that many of our families have little or no feeling about Israel. We know that the same is true of many of our kids.

Because Israel is at War, we need to be shouting “you are connected to Israel.” “You have a relationship with Israel.” “Israel’s future impacts your future.” Now is the time to emphasize knowledge about Israel, Zionist (or post-Zionist) ideology, and simple family relationships. You can teach “The War” or not teach “The War,” but you need to teach “the love.” I would hope that students can locate Gaza on the map. I wish that Tzipi Livni, Benyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Mahmud Abbas, Tzahal, Hamas, and Hezbollah were part of their vocabulary. It is easy to create a taxonomy of objectives for teaching “The War,” for explaining “the situation.” Matzav is a good vocabulary word.

But what I really want is this. I at least want them to care about Israel the way that I care about Boston sports teams. I never go to games. I live in Los Angeles but grew up in Boston. I have family in Boston. Boston is sort of my homeland. I don’t watch games of any kind on TV. But as the season comes to an end, I know if a Boston team is near the top. If Boston moves into the post season, I begin to know the scores. If they are in a super bowl, world series, or championship, I will probably watch some if not all of the games. Ideally, I’d want our students to care more about Israel than I care about the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics. But at the very least I want Israel to be for our students what Boston sports is in my life. I want them to care about the outcome.

So now is a time to make falafel and sing “Im Tirtzu.” We need to be dancing “Hinei Mah Tov u’Mah Nayim” and “Mah Na’avu.” Students should be finding Haifa on the map and learning that Ben Gurion like to stand on his head cause he thought it was good for his health. What we need to be doing is teaching Israel more than ever. And, if we do so, the questions about The War will come, and we will be able to answer them the way we want to answer them, providing we add, “And you are still connect to the land, people, and Nation of Israel—no matter how you feel about some of her actions.