Our focus.
VISION — The Institute for Jewish Enrichment envisions a world in which the child’s voice is cherished as essential to the vitality of Jewish life.
MISSION — The Institute for Jewish Enrichment’s mission is to pioneer, research, and advance an educational approach in which a child’s Jewish learning is fully entwined with their growth as a compassionate, courageous, connected individual.
What we do.
The Institute is engaged in three interconnected processes designed to cultivate Jewish learning fully entwined with a child’s humanity:
FIELD SCHOOL
The Field School is our flagship school for local Jewish families. It’s a vibrant place of creativity, empathy, and deep grappling with Jewish text. Children develop their own relationship with Judaism, using the same process at age 7 that they can use throughout their lives. Our Field School is a center for research and development of education that brings children, Judaism, and our world into dynamic dialogue.
EDUCATOR DEVELOPMENT
The Institute offers introductory and intensive educator development for educational leaders and practitioners across North America. Whether you’re intrigued by our theoretical framework or inspired by our groundbreaking educator practices, our educator development affirms existing expertise while challenging prevailing notions about the child’s voice in Jewish children’s learning. Inspiring, nurturing, and provocative, our educator development raises questions about teaching and learning that transform practice.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
The Institute offers thought leadership in the field of Jewish Children’s Learning. In the swirl of voices crowding Jewish children’s learning, our commitment is clear: the child’s voice is essential in their learning. Our workshops, publications, and seminars offer profound questions and exquisite, nuanced insight. With an explicit framework and methodology, with tested strategies and tools, we offer new direction for the field.
I am confident that I wouldn’t feel as comfortable vocalizing my thoughts about Judaism or yearning to hear others vocalize theirs without guidance from you. I owe a lot to [IJE].
— IJE TEEN (age 17)
What we value most.
13 years of extraordinary
Jewish enrichment.
Opening Day!
After 18 months of community organizing, painting walls, and sourcing furniture and funding, we opened a new chapter in Jewish children’s learning . Our school was founded on a vision of recognizing both Judaism AND children’s thoughts, questions, and ideas as integral to Jewish children’s learning. Diverse backgrounds and experiences were more than treasured; they were vital to our education. By the close of our first year, 27 children, ages 3 - 7, were enrolled.
First Full Project Process
In the fall of 2012, children completed their first full-scale Signature Project Process, with our first-ever Family Exploration & Celebration. Our floor-to-ceiling installation held children’s life-altering insights, born through their creative wrestling with Torah and their own burning questions. Parents, grandparents, community members, and children packed the room to learn Torah through children’s projects, sparking collective reimagining of what children are capable of and what Judaism holds for us.
The Growth Years
As enrollment grew steadily, educators, academics, and funders all recognized both our framework (Three Voices in Perpetual Dialogue) and our methodology (the Signature Project Process) as transformative in Jewish children’s learning. Rabbi Rebecca Milder was hired by Jewish communities for multi-year engagements as those organizations launched their own schools designed through our approach. Meanwhile, our school grew into a 5-day/week program, infants and toddlers through high school teens.
Pandemic Possibilities
Our educational approach, with its fusing of Jewish learning with children’s burning questions about themselves and life, let children and families process and make sense of their world. Our clear, strong, guiding vision and values easily moved to a new, online context. With travel on hold, with space to think, leadership set the stage for organizational expansion. It was time to bring our exceptional educational approach into full view to transform the field of Jewish Children’s Learning.
