JCCs Featured in Text on Practices in Jewish Education
Jewish Community Centers consider informal Jewish education an integral part of their mission and have hired professional Jewish educators to work with staff as well as JCC members, say three JCC professionals in an article included in What We Now Know About Jewish Education, just published by Torah Aura Productions. The article, titled Jewish Education in the JCCs, was written by Patricia Cipora Harte, Richard Juran , and Alvin Mars . Harte is vice-president of program services at JCC Association, Juran was the director of JCC Association's Israel Office, and Mars was the director of the Mandel Center for Jewish Education at JCC Association, the network for Jewish Community Centers in North America.
The text, edited by Roberta Louis Goodman, Paul A. Flexner, and Linda Dale Bloomberg, is subtitled Perspectives on Research for Practice, and includes articles from well-known experts in Jewish demography, sociology, and education. The volume is a follow-up to an initial text published in 1992, and stresses the development of new trends in Jewish education.
One trend is the ascendancy of informal Jewish educational experiences over formal education. JCCs are in a position to provide numerous informal encounters through their preschool, camp, and teen programs, as well as Israel and holiday-related programming. JCCs are prime places for informal Jewish education, says Harte, from the art on the walls, to the greeting that one gets when entering the building, to the way JCC staff answer the phone. All of this is in addition to the programs and activities that help individuals deepen their awareness and appreciation and knowledge of what being Jewish is all about.
In the article, the writers recommend that further research be done on the educational strategies employed by JCCs and the experience and terms of employment of Jewish educators within JCCs. They also suggest that JCC Association should nurture the Jewish educational conversation' among North American JCCs.
JCC Association has introduced several experiential learning programs through the Mandel Center for Jewish Education, including TAG: Jewish Values Through JCC Camping ® and Journeys: Adult Jews Living and Learning. The JCC Maccabi Experience provides enriching Jewish experiences for teens through sport, the arts, and travel to Israel .
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JCC Association
is the leadership network of, and central agency for the Jewish
Community Center Movement, which is comprised of 350 JCC,
YM-YWHA and camp sites in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association
offers a wide range of services and resources to strengthen
the capacity of its affiliates to provide educational, cultural,
social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs
to enhance the lives of North American Jews of all ages and
backgrounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also the U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
520 8th Ave., NY, NY 10018
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
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