Evolving Best Practices – Schechter Leaders Meet

by Joanne Palmer

There are some challenges shared by all schools – how to cope with diverse learning styles, say, or how best to support their teachers in their own ongoing learning, or how to project a school’s strengths and its unique vision in what might be a crowded marketplace.

Other challenges are shared by most private schools, secular and religious, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. They generally have to do with fundraising, financial aid, and governance.

And then there are such questions as how teachers can best integrate Jewish values into the teaching of math and science, while making sure that math and science are taught at the highest level of excellence. There are such challenges as how best to teach Tanach and Talmud both relevantly and reverently, or how to davven. And then there is the question of outreach to intermarried families, and whether and when to accept children who are not or not yet halakhically Jewish.

Those questions are asked only by some Jewish day schools.

From December 10 to 12, about 130 lay leaders and professional educators from Solomon Schechter schools across North America gathered in Boca Raton, Florida, for the biennial Solomon Schechter Day School Associationconference. There, they discussed those issues and many others.

The participants were faced with the need to make choices – there was much to cover in a fairly short time. “There was the chance to learn from outside experts and consultants with expertise in governance and leadership and branding and marketing and financial assistance,” said Dr. Elaine Cohen, who is both SSDSA’s lead professional and associate director of United Synagogue’s education department. “And then we also draw on the expertise to be found within the schools as well. We have sessions led by heads of school and board chairs, we have panels with educators from several of our schools that exemplify best practices in certain areas of the educational program and we have affinity groups where someone presents a case and then everyone shares their experiences managing similar situations.

“Best practices evolve from those discussions.”

The conference has been held for decades, but until 2004 participants met at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.. This conference, the second to be held at a hotel, allowed participants to relax and feel the sun’s warmth as they let their minds range freely. Educators’ lives generally are stressful and their schedules usually are jammed. Part of the goal of this conference was to allow them to free themselves to focus on their mission. “A conference like this is more intensive,” Dr. Cohen said. “There is a greater opportunity for collegial conversations before and after formal events, and it’s good to feel taken care of.”

That, she said, is important “because I think it’s important to find ways for the Schechter schools to be more visible, more clearly on the agenda of the Conservative movement. Many people believe that the schools embody the best of Conservative Judaism. They show clearly how we can live successfully in both worlds,” the religious and the secular.

Perhaps the clearest sign that the Conservative movement takes its educators seriously was the attention movement leaders paid to the conference. Rabbi Jerome Epstein, United Synagogue’s executive vice president, went to Florida to be at the conference. “His presence, and the fact that he stayed there pretty much the whole time, meeting delegates, talking to them, and listening to them, signaled an interest to Schechter schools and a commitment to them,” Dr Cohen said. “He was informal, warm, open, and well-prepared. He took us very seriously.”

Rabbi Epstein talked about “the welcoming stance that he’s creating in the movement,” Dr. Cohen said. Rabbi Epstein’s edud program demands that Conservative Jews be not passively but actively welcoming to the non-Jews who want to draw closer to us. As the Schechter schools consider changing the recommendations to make it easier for families whose children have not yet converted to enroll, edud can help provide guidance to them.

Dr. Arnie Eisen, the Jewish Theological Seminary’s chancellor-elect, could not be at the conference in person, but he did speak to participants over a video hookup. “It was inspiring,” Dr. Cohen reported. “He talked about the place of the day schools in furthering Conservative Judaism, and how many of the organizations that make up the Conservative movement are partners in that vision. People felt energized. Even across the television screen his menschlikheit came out.”

For the first time, SSDSA worked with the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) on a two-day seminar on development. PEJE is a national interdenominational organization that works with schools across the Jewish spectrum and receives funding from major philanthropists in the Jewish community Thirty-five participants from Jewish day schools outside the Schechter network joined Schechter conference-goers in the PEJE track as they learned about how to conduct an effective annual campaign. Then the Schechter contingent rejoined their colleagues for the conference’s last day. “We were very pleased with the collaboration,” Dr. Cohen said. “We felt it added value to the conference.”

The question of whether the schools should go further in accepting not-yet-Jewish students was introduced for the first time at the board of delegates meeting. “We wanted to find out where the schools stand on the issue now,” Dr. Cohen said. “Some of the larger schools in metropolitan areas are very comfortable with the policy as it is now, when the school accepts a child who is not yet Jewish with the expectation of a conversion within a year. We know that there are other schools that feel they need more flexibility. They’re often in smaller communities, or they draw significant numbers of students from outside the Conservative community. This conversation will continue.

“We are an inclusive community anchored in Conservative Judaism. We have all kinds of families. Our day schools are just more diverse than they used to be,” Dr. Cohen said.

The challenge the Schechter schools confront is to make that diversity work, and to make sure that students leave Schechter as committed, connected Jews who are also successful independent learners. It is a challenge the delegates now feel even more ready than ever to confront and surmount.