HaYidion: The Prizmah Journal Spring 2024 on the Jewish Educator Pipeline

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This issue explores the significant challenges of the Jewish educator pipeline from a place of optimism. Articles analyze systemic difficulties and present initiatives that promise relief and solutions. Sections highlight different phases of educators' careers, from early experiences sparking interest through study and professional recruitment, on to growth in skills and career. The magazine represents part of an initiative between Prizmah and JEIC to widen and strengthen this critical pipeline.

BUILDING A STRONGER TEACHER PIPELINE

By Sharon Freundel
By Marc Wolf

Prizmah and JEIC joined forces over the past year and a half to understand the challenges of the teacher pipeline and find ways that the field can address them. We launched a think tank and gathered 25 Jewish day school stakeholders—educators, funders and other Jewish professionals—and convened six working groups. They were tasked with assessing the current state of the teaching pipeline, exploring realistic options to address the problem and drafting a handful of high-impact initiatives. Aside from the two main deliverables—a summary report and a playbook for possible projects—we surfaced some principles that everyone in Jewish day schools—faculty members, parents, lay leadership and donors—should understand in order to address the issue of lack of trained and dedicated educators.
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SCHOOL FEATURE

WHY I STAYED IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION

This issue presents ways to entice people to become teachers, to develop their professional talents, to draw them to work for our schools. Here, we turn to veteran teachers and ask, What has kept you in the classroom? Was their a specific event or secret sauce that stoked your love for your work and

made you want to continue on this path?

Calling, Growth and Satisfaction
Recovering My Purpose
Professional Development Helped Me Up My Game
Aerospace STEM Keeps Us Afloat
Learning to Listen Made Me a Better Teacher

PRIZMAH COLUMNS

From the Editor: Jewish Educator Pipeline

The Jewish tradition values the teacher above all other professions. The word rav means spiritual leader and teacher interchangeably; “rabbi” is a formalized acknowledgment that someone has the qualifications to serve as both.
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From the CEO: A Time to Act, Again

Just as we look back on the lofty goals of “A Time to Act” as the harbinger of what Jonathan Krasner has called a “new zeitgeist” for Jewish education, so too today do we ambitiously envision building a new reality for the educator pipeline that will have a pervasive and long-lasting impact.
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From the Board Chair: Making Teachers

Our schools need to maintain educational excellence in order to keep attracting students, and that excellence lies in the hands of first-class Jewish educators.
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