Congratulations to Yeshiva University and Erica Brown

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The Mayberg Foundation congratulates our esteemed colleague and friend, Dr. Erica Brown, on her selection as director of Yeshiva University’s new Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Center for Values and Leadership. We are pleased for Dr. Brown as she takes this next step in her professional and personal journey, and we look forward to a continued close connection with her as she continues to make important contributions to the Jewish people.

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Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town

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Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town

Learn about Mayberg Foundation grantee JEIC’s work to reimagine Tefillah in this piece by Rabbi Arnold Samlan - originally published in eJewish Philanthropy - titled “Bringing a Spirit of Innovation to Town.”

JEIC’s program to ‘reimagine tefillah’ is in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Broward County at Brauser Maimonides Academy and Shaarei Bina Torah Academy for Girls.

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Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity

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Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity

In Dr. Erica Brown’s blog, on “Leadership, Passover and Maintaining Our Humanity,” she argues that collaboration can be a form of liberation from old notions of power. Ironically, she pointed out, “being a slave to power is one of the ways we injure our freedoms.”

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The seeds of Jewish community are planted on the front door

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The seeds of Jewish community are planted on the front door

MyZuzah Director Alex Shapero writes that in the wake of COVID-19, MyZuzah ”has managed to weather the inhospitable climate of the past year, and thanks to some introspection, quick pivoting and collaboration with fellow educators, has not only emerged into a beautiful flower, but has encouraged a field of other seedlings to flourish.”

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Values that have encouraged Jews to allocate their charitable dollars to the Jewish future 

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Values that have encouraged Jews to allocate their charitable dollars to the Jewish future 

As Jews, we are encouraged to pass on our values through the generations, l’dor v’dor. From the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, our values have endured, and sustained our people. We review our histories to do just that, such as at the Passover table, when we are instructed to recount the Exodus story with our family during the seder, and glean valuable insights into what being Jewish means to us, and how that guides our actions.

Today, we continue to pass along our values to the next generation through our traditions and mitzvot/commandments and through our tzedakah/charity. Every Jewish family actualizes their values in different ways, and one recently launched initiative, Jewish Future Pledge, provides a platform for Jews to express their values through a lasting gift to the Jewish people. The pledge calls on global Jewry, young and old, to allocate in their estate plans at least half of their charitable dollars to Jewish and Israel-related causes. But more than just giving, the pledge asks donors to share their pledge with friends and family, sparking conversations about Jewish legacy and the values that can be expressed through philanthropy.

Motivations for signing the pledge vary like the Jewish people itself.

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Cynicism and Sarcasm - A Not So Silent Killer

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Cynicism and Sarcasm - A Not So Silent Killer

Never before in Jewish history have so many children been enrolled in Jewish day schools. Thousands of young Jewish men and women travel every year to Israel to study their heritage. Tens of thousands of Jews study a page of Talmud every day. In short, there is no comparable era in Jewish history for the amount of Torah being studied around the globe. Yet, there is a silent, growing problem which is only being spoken about in darkened corners. For all of the Torah being studied and the commandments being kept, many of the practitioners are sorely lacking a relationship with the Almighty.

The irony is that Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) are a means to an end. They should direct a person into the arms of the Almighty. Unfortunately, something seems to be lost in translation. I recently spoke with a young woman from a very religious seminary in Israel. She had come to Aish HaTorah to attend some classes that discussed G-d. She told me that having gone to a Jewish school her whole life, she knew the intricate laws of the Sabbath. That having been said, she wasn't sure she believed in G-d! She quipped, “It's not like G-d was on the test!”

The ramifications to this issue are felt far and wide. The result is a large population which is socially Orthodox. They have grown up Orthodox, their friends and family are Orthodox, so they feel at home being Orthodox. This is a dangerous phenomenon. Religion untethered to G-d doesn’t last and certainly won't exist when the community is absent. Hence these Jews tend to be lax on vacation or if they go away to university. Absent the community, there is no incentive to “stay Jewish.”

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Tapping Students' Passions about their Judaism through the Inquiry Beit Midrash

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Tapping Students' Passions about their Judaism through the Inquiry Beit Midrash

Three years ago, as part of the Hakaveret initiative, in which the Mayberg Foundation brought together teams of educators to design innovative models, Michal Smart, Rina Hoffman and I developed The Inquiry Beit Midrash (IBM), a project-based learning model for Judaic Studies. I have had the good fortune to bring this model to life at the Idea School in Tenafly, NJ. The idea behind IBM is to find out what the students are passionate about in their Judaism and to use that passion project as the basis for some of their Judaic learning.

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Looking Through a Multidimensional Philanthropic Lens

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Looking Through a Multidimensional Philanthropic Lens

After 21 years at The AVI CHAI Foundation, I am excited to begin the next stage of my career as the Mayberg Foundation Senior Advisor for Education Grants and Programs. It’s wonderful to be able to bring my experience to a new milieu, while at the same time have the opportunity to learn from and about different philanthropic models. After only a few weeks, I can already point to noteworthy variations in approaches.

Both AVI CHAI and the Mayberg Foundation believe that Jewish literacy is key to sustaining the next generation of Jews. It’s no surprise then that both foundations view Jewish day schools as an essential vehicle for imparting deep Jewish knowledge. Each focuses on acting as an agitating force for the improvement of the instruction of Jewish studies. Additionally, the Mayberg Foundation and AVI CHAI both demonstrate a respect for Jewish unity and Jews across the spectrum. It’s striking that despite these similarities in funding priorities, there are numerous differences in philanthropic practices:

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Distinction: The WHY of Jewish Education

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Distinction: The WHY of Jewish Education

Twice in the last two weeks I heard the “Find Your WHY” construct referenced at Jewish education conferences. Interestingly, this platform for stimulating organizational clarity around purpose, first introduced in 2009 by Simon Sinek in his “Golden Circle” Ted Talk, is finally emerging in the Jewish education field. 

I am hopeful this is a signal that we are getting real with the most pressing challenge facing Jewish education today. I am hopeful we now recognize how urgent it is for those involved in Jewish education to align on mission and purpose. If it were not challenging enough to agree on a universal mission, the real challenge comes in designing the components of Jewish education to produce the results our sacred texts deserve.

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Of Grades and Judaics – Responding to the Call to “Pursue Distinction”

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Of Grades and Judaics – Responding to the Call to “Pursue Distinction”

“If we agree that we want to build Jewish self-esteem in students and cultivate their Jewish greatness, what role does administering exams and assigning grades serve?” – Manette Mayberg, Mayberg Foundation Trustee

How should Jewish Day Schools respond to this radical appeal? 

Pressure from testing and grading inculcates little love for learning among students and creates tension at home. However, the consistent rejoinders demur that Judaics classes without grades won’t motivate students – What would punish tardiness or disrespectful behavior or what gives a class gravitas? These criticisms have merit in the present form of Jewish Day Schools. The current hierarchical structure of many Judaics classrooms situates authority and knowledge in the teacher’s hands, leaving students to be graded on compliance, likability, and innate talent. This appeal dreams a world where new underlying assumptions alter the context, changing the espoused values of a Judaics classroom and producing artifacts that do not include grades or their harmful side effects.

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The Mezuzah As Inspiration To Be Courageous in Jewish Education

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The Mezuzah As Inspiration To Be Courageous in Jewish Education

As we merited to make the journey, yet another year, from slavery to freedom, from the constraints of Egypt to the open desert, it is incumbent upon us to find the relevance of Passover in our lives.

There is a remarkable piece in Gd’s method of preparing the Jews to leave Egypt. Gd commands every Jewish household to take a lamb into the home for a few days, then slaughter it and mark the doorpost of the house with its blood. Imagine being in that place for a minute. Take a lamb, the very animal that is worshipped as a deity in the hostile society in which you live…care for it, then risk your life to kill it so that its blood will protect you from Gd’s final devastating blow. To take this action required such a deep trust in Gd, that most of the Jews didn’t do it. Most assimilated and were lost and only a minority followed Gd’s word and left Egypt.

This marking on the doorpost – it was the first mezuzah! Jewish Egyptians were challenged to distinguish their homes, not with a subtle mark, but with a bold, emphatic and risky statement. Gd clearly had an eternal message in this and it applies to us today.

As educators and investors in Jewish education, we are partners with the holiest institution since the beit hamigdash stood – that is the Jewish home. Many Jews, I would guess, the vast majority, have no idea that the holiest place is in fact, not the synagogue, but the home. Some even think, “I am a bad Jew because I don’t go to synagogue!” When in fact, every Jewish home has equal potential to instill the Jewish identity and values that sustain the Jewish people. The Jewish institutions that we devote ourselves to are extensions of the home. School is not a substitute for, but an essential limb of the home. When families choose to entrust their children’s education and direct their dollars to Jewish day schools, they expect an experience that, like their homes, is distinctly Jewish.  Distinction is in our DNA and has enabled our survival throughout the ages. Scattered to all four corners of the Earth, distinction is the unifier that has made survival possible. Gd said, “mark your houses” because the values that you hold inside, are the hallmark of the Jewish family that will distinguish you for all time. When Gd commanded us to make ourselves distinct, it was by the unit of the home, not the individual.

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Shaping a Better Leadership Story

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Shaping a Better Leadership Story

I often ask people to write their personal leadership story in six words. This condensed leadership memoir forces people to focus hard on either the few key moments that have shaped their leadership or the leadership principles or behaviors they most value. The idea is to get people to surface something deeper, more elemental and distinctive about the way they lead, in the spirit of what author Octavia Butler observed about herself, “Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.”

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