Jim Joseph Foundation

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

December 2006

As the Foundation draws closer to solidifying its initial grant making priorities and strategies, we have gained clarity about its vision. The Jim Joseph Foundation envisions a future in which ever-increasing numbers of young Jews engage in meaningful, ongoing Jewish learning and choose, as a result of the compelling and inspirational quality of those learning experiences, to lead vibrant Jewish lives.

While the Foundation’s understanding of the field continues to evolve, we are confident in what we have learned. Among the critical principles that we find to be especially pertinent are the following:

- Discrete stages in child, youth, and young adult development possess distinctive characteristics that have implications for how learning and teaching best occur.

- Learning experiences, in order to be maximally effective at any stage, should be designed to take into account scientific knowledge on human development.

- Peers are a powerful component of much Jewish learning, which itself is often social in nature.

- Caring, competent educators profoundly influence individuals’ experience of various forms and types of Jewish learning.

The Foundation actively uses in its planning the map of the field of Jewish education that the Brandeis research team is creating for us. (I encourage readers to look at the Brandeis reports linked to this site.) We continue to examine philanthropic “big ideas” distinguished Jewish leaders have urged us to consider. Empirical findings on generational and denominational differences in religious observance, spiritualism, and ways in which contemporary Jewish identities are constructed have proven to be very instructive.

We are poised to begin goal-oriented grant making in 2007. In order to be strategic, however, there are a few steps yet to be taken. Most importantly, the Foundation wants to define how it will use evaluation in conducting its program of grant making. To that end, we have asked several highly-qualified organizations to submit a proposal for design of a Foundation evaluation plan. Evaluation – and communication – will be integral to the Foundation’s philanthropic enterprise.

We look forward to extending invitations to our first prospective grantee partners in the New Year and to exploring with them how we might work together to make an impact in the field.

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