Avi Chai

By: Eli Kannai Last month AVI CHAI sponsored 10 Jewish educators at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia.  I joined the group for this huge 4 day event, which had about 18,000 people in attendance, including over 1100 presenters and an exhibit floor the size of 5.5 football fields.  AVI CHAI is interested in cultivating day school leaders who are exploring the potential use of technology in their schools. We … Read More »

By: Michael S. Berger Once again, the Jewish Week has highlighted a growing trend in day schools: the incorporation of on-line courses.  As Clayton Christensen projected in his 2008 Disrupting Class, educational innovation will begin at the margins in an effort to achieve more affordable results, such as in small schools that cannot reach an economy of scale due to their size, or home schooled children.  It would be within 5-10 years that such offerings … Read More »

By Sarah Kass Today’s e-Jewish Philanthropy reports JDub is closing up shop despite a 9 year history of innovation and success. The reason?  Financial pressures. The article notes that “among the reasons stated for closing are [an] ‘aging out of the cohort of Jewish “start-ups,”’ and rightly suggests this is a “troubling thought to those of us familiar with the exciting and expanding world of Jewish innovation.” JDub–an incubator for Jewish artists, a platform (through … Read More »

By Sarah Kass In a few weeks time, when we read Parshat Eikev, we will once again be invited to contend with the warning in Devarim Chapter VIII against building big houses and amassing great physical assets, lest we “become haughty and forget God”   and foolishly think it was we and not He who gave us the strength to make wealth. In her new book, The Mesh, internet pioneer and author Lisa Gansky lays out … Read More »

By: Michael S. Berger The Jewish blogosphere and other media have been all abuzz these last two weeks since the New York Jewish Week ran a cover story on the phenomenon called “half Shabbos” – the reality that many Modern Orthodox teens continue to text privately on their phones (iphones and droids) even while they otherwise observe the Sabbath.  While the true extent of such behavior is almost impossible to determine, many Jewish educators in … Read More »

The Challenges and Opportunities for the Next Generation of Jewish Education – Part 2 (Excerpted from Yossi Prager’s address to the 2011 graduates of the Azrieli School for Jewish Education) Children’s immersion in technology raises a host of challenges and opportunities.  Most of the discussion about technology and social media focuses on the dangers – the fall of the boundaries that Orthodoxy tries to maintain, the ease of access to pornography, the culture of exhibitionism … Read More »

The Challenges & Opportunities for the Next Generation of Jewish Education Excerpted from Yossi Prager’s address to the 2011 graduates of the Azrieli School for Jewish Education. Graduation speakers are generally charged with inspiring graduates to ambitions larger than themselves.  Today, I have no need to do that.  You have already made a commitment to the most important profession in the Jewish community today.  In my eyes, you are all 21st Century heroes.  As a … Read More »