By Lori Rubin, Chief Program Officer What a fabulous day!  From start to finish, our first Mifgash (gathering) this past Sunday ran incredibly smoothly.  The buses arrived on time, the 5th graders were happily engaged, the teachers were prepared, and the structure and timing of the program as designed was a success.  Staff members and lay leaders from Jewish Learning Venture, Gratz College, and Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia have been working diligently for almost two years to plan this new initiative called Havayah. Havayah is the Hebrew word for "experience," and experiences are what the students were offered on [...]

Our Venture of the month features a congregation that has gone through a systemic change process while working with Jewish Learning Venture. This month, we are featuring the curriculum development work that one congregation, The Narberth Havurah, has done. Rabbi Simcha Zevit described the work she has done with Gloria Becker, Ed.D., Director of Educational Leadership at Jewish Learning Venture.  JLV: Please describe the change, innovation, or transformation your organization has achieved: SZ: Our community is about 30 households, many are young families, and we are growing. We've gone through a transformation, which we are continuing to shape with the [...]

By Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, Director, Whole Community Engagement The Reta Emerson Fellowship/Teen Assistant Program (TAP) is Jewish Learning Venture’s education initiative through which a group of selected high school students are trained and mentored to assist children with special needs and those experiencing difficulty in congregational classroom settings. Beginning with a week-long intensive training, and continuing monthly through the school year, teens study, learn skills, work in classrooms in their congregations, and reflect with one another about their experiences. The program is generously funded by the family of Reta Emerson, z"l, who was dedicated to helping children and worked tirelessly [...]