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Conversation with Wendy Grinberg

Jewish educational consultant revamps Greenwich Hebrew school

By Cindy Mindell

Wendy GrinbergGREENWICH – This has been a time of revamping for Greenwich Reform Synagogue (GRS). Along with selling off its property, moving into two temporary spaces, and purchasing a site for a planned new building, the congregation is also renovating its educational program.

Tapping into new trends in Jewish education, this will be a new kind of religious school, says Rabbi Andrew Sklarz, from the name of the program – “Generation J” – to its experiential-learning model and community-building content.

Sunday school will be a family experience. Instead of a formal classroom structure, students will start their Sunday with breakfast (parents welcome) and Havdalah, and engage in a variety of learning opportunities that provide for self-expression, ending the day with a school-wide service. Weekday Hebrew school will feature one-on-one Hebrew “coaching,” social events, and social-action activities.

“I’m a big believer in family education,” Sklarz says. “Our real goal is to create a sense of community.”

To help design a new program, GRS hired consultant Wendy Grinberg, founder and lead researcher of Jewish Education Lab and a veteran Jewish educator. Grinberg has worked in a variety of formal and informal education settings, writing award-winning curricula and gathering and analyzing evaluative data to measure success. She received joint Masters degrees from Brandeis University in Jewish education and Near Eastern and Judaic studies. She is currently pursuing a PhD in education at the Jewish Theological Seminary William Davidson Graduate School of Education.

Grinberg spoke with the Ledger about how her work with Greenwich Reform Synagogue reflects yearnings and trends throughout the American Jewish community.

Q: A common mantra among American Jewish organizations today is that the younger or future generation is not engaged Jewishly. How do you view this claim?

A: The main thing that I think has changed is the notion that today every Jew is a “Jew by choice.” To try to compel people to give to or affiliate with a Jewish organization because it’s the right thing or because their parents did it or because we should support the Jewish community – when it’s a “should” thing – without demonstrating the relevancy and meaning that the Jewish community can provide them right away, is an approach that’s failing.

Unlike our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, today there’s no loyalty to the brand. It’s important for the organization to hear that so that they can say to potential constituents, “What is it that you need?” That hasn’t changed from before; likewise, organizations have to determine how to meet those needs in a meaningful way – which is different for each successive generation. An organization that functions the way it used to isn’t meeting the needs of today’s population. The needs may be the same, but they manifest in a different way. This generation doesn’t think the way the old one does. So, if leadership is not listening to younger people, they won’t know how to send the message. As leaders, you have to hear what people are looking for.

The reason people join a synagogue is because they want to be part of a community, so those leading the congregation have to make that part of the experience and do it effectively. Research has borne out that, especially with children, one’s Jewish friendship circle is hugely influential in terms of how you grow as a Jew and as an adult. So, one priority for GRS is to create a program that is both flexible and that focuses on building a community. We aren’t modeling the program on a school that bases grades on achievement, but on a community that cares about each other.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most important objective of Jewish education?

A: I think the mission of Jewish education is very simple: people who do it believe that they have a product that will make your life better, and by sharing it, their lives get better as well. People want their lives to be more meaningful, more connected to those around them and to history. I went to a board meeting at my synagogue recently and a board member who is also a volunteer at a local food bank told us that the organization needs money to restock the shelves, and she passed around a basket. I had come to the meeting to do something meaningful and she gave me the opportunity.

We shouldn’t think that Sunday school provides enough Jewish learning to sustain children for the rest of their lives; even in public school, we don’t teach our kids all of science, but we teach them how a scientist thinks or how to analyze primary sources. Hopefully, they’ll pick up Scientific American every so often when they’re in college. So, by the same token, let’s teach our kids how Jews think and interact in the world so that they will hopefully pursue that as they go through life.

When you build resilient children, you show them that they can do something about a world that can seem overwhelming, where they might feel that they can’t do anything. Judaism has a great way of doing that; it provides an antidote to the feeling of helplessness. When a kid talks about a war in the world or somebody who died, you can’t do anything to change the facts. But when you tell someone that they can mention the name of the deceased in services or plant a tree in their memory in Israel, that is immensely comforting to a 10-year-old and to a 30-year-old. When you visit a shiva house with your child, as uncomfortable as it might be, you can say, “It’s okay that it’s uncomfortable, but this is what we do.” Judaism gives you a way to interact in the world.

You don’t have to panic that they don’t learn all the names of the parshot. We just want to give them ways to think about the world in Jewish terms and help them cope, to give them one lens through which they can interact in the world.

Q: How did you gather data from GRS parents and what did you discover?

A: I help educational organizations rethink what they’re doing and try new things. I don’t propose solutions, but I gather data and assess the program’s success. It helps to have someone from the outside come in, ask questions, and share ideas.

GRS said that they wanted to try to be the best school they could be and find out what their constituents want and make changes accordingly. They were already working with Measuring Success, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that works with non-profit management teams, on administering a congregational survey. We incorporated two questions about the school program: to rank the current program and to express what they would like it to be. I interviewed a cross-section of parents and professional staff; some parents were in volunteer leadership positions as well.

The survey got a 76 percent household response rate. Having an educational program where children can make friends was the top priority, at 59 percent. Respondents said that they care about Jewish values and holiday rituals, a flip from past surveys, which indicated that parents wanted a primary focus on holiday practice and then values.

An educational program would not be considered a success if everyone came out as nice people and didn’t know what to do on Chanukah. We can do both, and not everything has to be learned on Sunday mornings. When it comes to living a Jewish life, we can do it as a community on the actual holiday. We can do something that makes the holiday more meaningful. For example, why do an ersatz seder and then a real one, especially when that’s the most widely recognized Jewish ritual of all? What people like about the seder is the community aspect, that lots of people have a part.

The priorities that came out of the survey are a flexible school schedule to accommodate people’s busy schedules, and a huge focus on friendships, which is a trend I see in the American Jewish community, something Dr. Ron Wolfson talks about in his book, Relational Judaism.

Q: What are some of the trends you’re seeing in American Jewish education?

A: When enrollment declines, synagogues tend to further decline. In my experience, when they ask the right questions, they can turn things around by adjusting curriculum to focus not on the things they’ve traditionally done, but the things that the families and students value the most.

Because people have access to Jewish community and resources elsewhere, parents may not feel as committed to these programs. But when the central question is how to add value in the programs that are meeting parents’ needs, I see that parents are opting for more time, not less. They don’t want to continue to drag their kids to activities that don’t have meaning.

Providing a flexible learning schedule, using technology, experiential learning and learning for today, choice of classes, exploration and discovery – allowing students to pursue and explore Jewish life through their own interests – and a renewed focus on community and relationships is a big thing.

Another important focus is having the teachers seeing themselves as role models and leaders in that community who apply Judaism in a meaningful way in their own lives. For example, if a teacher loves the earth and exploring the environment through Judaism, that teacher should be able to bring that to the students. There are many meaningful ways to explore Judaism through different modalities and paths, which has to do with building on a teacher’s strengths and letting teachers and students decide how to explore the learning – music, popular culture, arts, literature, etc.

Jewish-education professionals are using camp-based models, which have a lot to do with hands-on learning, relevant learning, friendship, multi-age learning – things that translate into community.

Comments? email cindym@jewishledger.com.

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