NEWS
Summer 2006
Photo credit: Sonya Shoptaugh
— Teacher, Zimmer Preschool
at the Chabad Jewish Center
JECEI: A BRIEF HISTORY
Education and learning is a central part of Judaism. When children and families alike are embraced in a solid Jewish learning community, the stage is set for the rest of their lives. It is this idea that inspired a group of philanthropists to embark on a quest to revitalize and restructure Jewish Early Childhood Education, nearly three years ago. This is how the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative (JECEI) was born.
— Mark Horowitz
Early Childhood Education is a gateway to a lifetime of Jewish learning and involvement. What better way to enforce this than to make a space in the Jewish non-profit world, for an organization to work with entire communities nationwide in order to create a preschool learning environment that would encompass the entire Jewish families. To quote Michael Steinhardt, Chairman of the JECEI Board, ěYoung families and preschool-aged Jews have not received sufficient attention. Sadly we are losing many of our most promising young Jews at the very beginning of their lives. This is easily correctable, and it is my dream that JECEI will fill a pressing need.î
Once the JECEI staff was selected, Mark Horowitz (Executive Director), Diana Ganger (Program Director), and Erica Kaufman (Executive Assistant), we immediately got to work. JECEIís first six months of operation were full of research and travel. Mark and Diana visited over seventy schools across the United States, as well as schools in Israel and in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Through observation and documentation, these visits enabled the JECEI staff to get a sense of the state of the field of Early Childhood Education, both Jewish and in general. The sites visited represented a wide array of ideologies and affiliations, enabling the staff to figure out what is working and what is not, in terms of what a Jewish Early Childhood classroom should look like.
It is important to the JECEI mission that we educate ourselves of the various Early Childhood Education Programs available in order to create the best possible curriculum, incorporating ECE best practices as well as Jewish ěbig ideas.î By visiting schools in Israel, we were able to both establish a connection with the land in terms of the variety of Early Childhood Programs available, as well as the connection between the community and the preschools. Similarly, JECEI draws upon Reggio Emilia as a foundation for our work with schools, so it is important to study the latest and newest theories and practices at all times. By visiting Reggio Emilia in Italy, Mark and Diana were able to study with leading ECE scholars, as well as to gain a first hand understanding of how community and culture should work together in terms of education, meaning that schools should cater to the community the are located in. Reggio Emilia is also an excellent example of the kind of deep respect for children and families that JECEI hopes to instill in Jewish Early Childhood Educational environments.
After this first round of world wide research, the JECEI staff was then faced with the difficult task of paring down this initial group of seventy schools to just twenty-five sites. These twenty-five sites were then asked to participate in a process we called Phase Two, which required directors, lay leaders, and other members of the community to answer a series of reflective questionnaires. Out of this group, twelve sites and one ěmulti-siteî community were selected to partner with JECEI as the first sites of demonstration. These ěpilot schools,î were chosen due to their readiness to enter into a journey of change and growth. The factors influencing the selection of these schools include geography, diversity, community involvement, systemic involvement, high potential for change and the assessment of school functioning. This first group of schools is diverse in terms of both ideology and location. The schools range from Chabad to Reform, from Day School to JCC. This was an involved process that required schools to engage in a period of self-reflection and commitment.
It is hard to believe that all of this happened in a period of less than a year! Each of these vanguard schools is now hard at work with the JECEI staff, coaches (melavot), and consultants. This group of individuals skilled in early childhood education, Jewish education, and school transformational practices includes: Dr. Naama Zoran (Israel), Sonya Shoptaugh (New York), Nancy Klinger (New York), Alise Shafer (California), Trixie Levy (Argentina), Lori Geismar-Ryan (Missouri), Ilene Vogelstein (Maryland), Candice Percansky (Illinois) and Dr. Judith Bertacchi (Illinois).
These gifted professionals have worked in some of the most influential early childhood centers around the world and have changed the nature of the field. Alise Shafer is the director of the progressive Evergreen school in Los Angeles which has become a model for experiential learning approaches and the exploration of non-traditional environments. Dr. Naama Zoran received her PhD at Haifa University, writing her dissertation on the role of the teacher in the early childhood program. She brought the ground breaking work of the Reggio Emilia philosophy to Israel. Dr. Judith Bertacchi was one of the founders of the Illinois Infant Mental Health Association and for many years directed the Virginia Frank Child Development Center of the Jewish Family and Community Service in Chicago. Each of the coaches and consultants has done transformational and unique work.
Summer 2006 Newsletter : Article Continued On Next Page >
< Return to Newsletter Index