The Jim Joseph Foundation views teens, youth and young adults who are beneficiaries of the Foundation’s grantees as sovereign, intentional, meaning-making individuals who instinctively desire to belong to supportive communities. While the Foundation hopes that all these young people connect Israel to their Judaism in some purposeful way, we suspect this does not happen automatically.
The Jim Joseph Foundation has a fairly straightforward approach to providing grant support that leads to opportunities for youth and young adults to integrate a relationship with Israel into their Jewish identity. The Foundation believes that learning about Israel’s history and culture, its politics and people helps individuals to develop informed opinions about Israel. The Foundation also thinks that an individual who has multiple immersive Israel experiences to complement that knowledge base is likely to incorporate some ongoing relationship to and with Israel into his/her Jewish identity.
Hundreds of Jewish educators and thousands of teens and young adults have had immersive Israel experiences with funding support provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation. More broadly speaking, when the Foundation examines its grantmaking, we see that the Foundation funds the following forms of Israel education:
- Birthright and Service-learning trips to Israel
- Intensive study in Israel for teacher educators
- Professional development that occurs in Israel for experiential Jewish educators
- On-campus special Israel learning opportunities
- Teacher certification in Israel Education
- Day school Israel education faculty and program development.
Recently, our staff’s thinking on Israel education and engagement has been influenced by studies conducted for the iCenter by Aliza Mazor, Ramie Arian (link), and Dr. Bethamie Horowitz (link). The iCenter shared findings of these three important studies (link) at a February 29th gathering of 82 Israel education stakeholders.
Dr. Bethamie Horowitz, in her just released study, asserts that “The goal of Israel education is to forge a relationship between the individual person and Israel, so that it becomes part of how a person thinks about him/herself as a Jew. … Building an enduring connection to contemporary Israel depends especially on the deliberate educational effort of families, educators, and communities to develop a thoughtful, coordinated, holistic Israel education as an integral part of an American Jewish education from an early age and continuing over the years.”
The Foundation sees Israel education as a recent and rapidly developing field. We are encouraged that participation in the iCenter convening, held in partnership with the Avi Chai, Marcus, Jim Joseph and Schusterman Foundations, was extensive and broad-based. We are aware of the proliferation of Israel studies programs in institutions of higher education. We recognize the burgeoning numbers of Shlichim working on college campuses and joining staffs of residential summer camps. Numerous education-conscious Jewish Community Centers are expanding opportunities for their members to learn about and to experience Israel. The iCenter’s current Israel education credentialing of 20 educators (see the profiles in this link) clearly signals growth of a field . With concentrated, sustained help from practitioners and academics and dedication over the long term of funders and institutional leaders, the Jim Joseph Foundation is hopeful Israel education can become the mainstay we envision it can - and should - be.
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