Foundation News —Chip Edelsberg

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

October 2008

The Jim Joseph Foundation just completed its second retreat in two years with a group of distinguished advisors whom JJF views as madrichim.

Our conversation with these individuals was far-reaching. Madrichim critiqued JJF’s strategy implementation based on an analysis of JJF’s grant making that we presented to them (See the JJF Portfolio Analysis). We enjoyed a dialogue on potential JJF Request for Proposal opportunities. We discussed approaches JJF might take to lead and partner in the field so as to increase the Foundation’s chances to demonstrably achieve its vision of increasing numbers of young Jews engaged in ongoing Jewish learning and choosing to live vibrant Jewish lives.

Suffice it to say there is neither unanimity of opinion among the madrichim, nor do they converge on any single approach they recommend JJF should take to achieve maximum impact. These experienced leaders do agree that JJF should continue to deploy its resources both to foster innovation as well as to bolster programs’ performance at levels that meet standards of excellence to which JJF holds its grantees.

Another area in which there is madrichim and Foundation agreement is that investment in Jewish education professionals is essential leverage for JJF grant making. To this end, JJF Directors awarded a grant to the New Teacher Center/Jewish New Teacher Project (JNTP) to expand its successful mentor/induction program to metropolitan Baltimore and Washington D.C. In addition to JNTP, JJF now funds DeLeT and Hartman teacher preparation programs as well as Pardes alumni teacher professional development.

Day Schools are obviously important to JJF. Its educators are critical agents of the foundation’s grant making. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that credentialing highly qualified educators and placing and retaining them in sustainable educational environments – in institutions, established and fledgling organizations, "emergent" communities, flourishing networks, etc. – is a fundamental challenge to the field.

We concur with Jack Wertheimer’s assertion that "an upwardly mobile Jewish population will find it hard to recruit educators unless monetary and status rewards are substantially upgraded." (The Current Moment in Jewish Education: An Historian’s View, Jack Wertheimer) But there are, as Wertheimer notes, persistent "endemic problems" which mitigate against success. Unfortunately, it is improbable that the stature of the Jewish educator will be elevated without long term strategic effort both to systematize the disparate aspects of Jewish education and to build institutional capacity, foster innovation, incubate models, and invest major financial resources over extended periods of time in professionalizing the field of Jewish education.

As JJF identifies particular initiatives which we believe merit broader support, we will do our best to signal that to other funders. We will also continue to welcome invitations to join planning processes with both funders and prospective providers in exploring potentially fundable initiatives aligned with JJF’s mission, vision, and strategic priorities. In the best case scenario, we can join others in shared, binding commitments to drive more resources to high performing grantees.

Archived News