Mandel Center for Jewish Education Pioneers New Model of Informal Jewish Education for Adult Learners
New York , NY , June 13, 2008 JCC Association's Mandel Center for Jewish Education, which provides educational initiatives and resources for the JCC Movement, has unveiled its latest undertaking designed to strengthen adult Jewish engagement and identity. Journeys : Adult Jews Living and Learning takes an interactive, interdisciplinary, multi-media approach to learning through experiential program units. The vision is to create an engagement curriculum, explained Rabbi Alvin Mars, director of the Mandel Center . Our goal is to invest people in meaningful Jewish life and learning through the vehicle of experiential education, helping participants understand all of life's experiences through a Jewish lens.
The first program unit, Food: A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and You, uses pleasurable everyday experiences to engage participants in discovering layers of personal, communal and cultural meaning embedded in Jewish tradition. One suggested activity is a wine-tasting party, while another part of the program has participants watching film clips that relate to Jewish food. The unit was written by a rabbi with a doctorate in anthropology who completed her dissertation on food at Yale University , said Mars, who has lined up experts in other fields to collaborate on program units still in development.
Now in its pilot phase at five JCCs across the United States Riverdale YM-YWHA (NY); JCC of Houston (TX); the Levite JCC of Birmingham (AL); the Valley of the Sun JCC of Scottsdale (AZ); and the Harry and Rose Samson Family JCC of Milwaukee (WI) Journeys will eventually consist of 12 program units to be rolled out over the next four years.
The second unit, tentatively titled To Laugh, on the theme of Jewish humor, should be ready for release in the fall, said Rabbi Jennifer Tobenstein, MCJE's assistant director and project director for Journeys . (This program was developed by a lead writer for the popular comedy show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart .)
Tobenstein will lead a training seminar for JCC program staff at the JCC Association offices in New York City , October 27-28. With the belief that it may become a new model of informal adult education with wide appeal, this training and the curriculum itself are being made available to JCCs free of charge.
The established Jewish literacy programs for adult learners, such as Meah (produced by Hebrew College ) and the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School (a project of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) are very fine programs, Mars said, but they reach a relatively small population, largely because they require a weekly or monthly commitment to a class. With Journeys , people can show up when they want to, have a good time, meet people and learn something. The curriculum is structured like a circle; it isn't sequential. People can come in at any point and participate in those experiences that interest them. Our hope is that by virtue of their experience with Journeys, people will become increasingly engaged in Jewish life and interested in expanding their appreciation of the richness and variety of Jewish culture.
For complete information on training and curriculum for Journeys , including registration for the October session in New York City , JCCs are urged to telephone Tobenstein at (212) 786-5123 or email Jennifer@jcca.org .
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grounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also a U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
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