CJP Teen Education & Engagement Network

The attack on Oct. 7, the ensuing war, and the changed environment in the U.S. have all led to questions about how American Jewish educational institutions have responded, and how they should. What do we know about the impact of the last year on schools, synagogues, camps, Israel trips, and other initiatives? How have educators been affected? How have children? What new trends are emerging? In this session, a group of scholars and educational leaders will offer ideas for educators and educational institutions one year into this new environment.

Habits of creative thinking have sustained the Jewish people through centuries of crisis and opportunity. How might the enterprise of Jewish education reclaim and teach creativity? Weaving together a wide range of theory and research, including affective neuroscience, Jewish philosophy and education, and studies of creativity and arts education, Miriam Heller Stern will discuss a framework for fostering Jewish creativity that can be pursued across the Jewish educational ecosystem.

How are Jewish American teens really doing?  Hear from the team at BeWell and the Stanford University researchers behind the first-ever national research on Jewish teen well-being. Join us for the public release of this comprehensive study of Jewish American teens. Come away with real strategies for promoting youth well-being in your work with teens in this pivotal moment. Gain insights to the sources of stress and strategies for thriving that characterize life among Jewish teenagers, with greater clarity around the intersection of Jewish culture and tradition, family dynamics, and systemic communal influences.

The field of Jewish education has now been split into two sub-fields, referred to as “formal” or “informal” (or “experiential”) education. But this division is artificial and proving profoundly limiting, distorting, and even harmful. What might be the ultimate potential of the field were we able to employ a balanced and integrated use of the full range of educational competencies, across all settings? In this session, Tali Zelkowicz will share recent work, in which she applies both/and thinking to surface a more expansive and integrative vision of Jewish learning that can empower and endure.