‘Moving the Needle’: Day schools eye relevance

More than 500 leaders of 110 Jewish day schools and other educational institutions, attended “Moving the Needle: Galvanizing Change in Our Day Schools,” a three-day conference organized by RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network.

“Leadership requires a constant sharpening of the sword,” said RAVSAK founder Marc Kramer.

Divergent views on how to move the needle were on display in the conference’s vendor area, which included companies selling computer programs to help organize and manage administrative offices; an author, Rosemary Zibart, promoting her novels about the Holocaust; and a company selling Jewish art that could be used for fundraising.

“There’s been a lot of talk here about the tuition crisis, but there’s a meaning crisis,” said Rivky Stern, production manager for the AlephBeta Academy Jewish education technology non-profit founded by Rabbi David Fohman, who leads the nusach Sefard minyan at the Young Israel of Woodmere.

While conference attendees were finishing their kosher dinners and having dessert, Stern and David Block, curriculum developer for Freedman’s company, were fishing for customers.

“We’re trying to make bible and Jewish studies relatable,” said Stern, who herself had attended a Jewish day school.

“Kids need to find personal meaning and relevance in Judaism,” said Block, who formerly was a tenor in the Maccabeats — the Jewish a capella group whose songs have received tens of millions of hits on YouTube.

Their solution was a series of 8-10 minute animated videos, which Block said he viewed as “making the texts relevant.” Created with Rabbi Fohman, one video was titled “Exodus, What Does it Mean to be Chosen?” Another, “Joseph: Coats, Dreams and Jealousy,” delves into a story that “is darker than the one we might remember learning as a child,” according to the video’s description.

In Jewish education’s search for relevance, “videos are springboards,” said Block.

Amanda Pogany, head of school at the Luria Academy in Brooklyn, said attending the conference presented an opportunity to “re-energize.”