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Mental Health Summit 2024

Engage in high-level learning and collaboration around mental health challenges and opportunities in Jewish day schools and yeshivas. This year’s theme is “In The Moment: Navigating Difficult Times With Dignity, Empathy, and Growth.” Over the course of two days of interactive learning and discussion, you will gain skills, perspectives, and approaches to navigating difficult times in your school.

Mental Health Summit 2023

An interactive series of four workshops will enhance your understanding of the confluence of students’ social emotional and neurodiverse learning needs and will allow teams of learning specialists, school counselors, and administrators to learn to access and direct behaviors, and collaborate and communicate more effectively, ensuring that all members of the school community can thrive.

Paul is Prizmah’s founding Chief Executive Officer. Learn more about Paul here.

A Tu Bishvat Message From Our CEO

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Tu Bishvat, amidst the kabbalistic traditions, delightful children’s songs, and dried fruit, has an important halachic role. To properly observe the biblically ordained laws of orlah (avoiding eating the fruit of a tree younger than three years old), we need to keep track of the age of trees. Enter the rabbinically decreed New Year for the trees, a date dedicated to tracking and marking time.

As we celebrate this day, we marvel at and rejoice in the growth and transformation of trees, which move from seeds and saplings to bearing fruit ever so quickly. Trees themselves mark the passage the time, each ring a sign of another year past. On Tu Bishvat itself, we track and celebrate growth.

A few weeks ago, my family in England had an unexpected brush with celebrity. My mother, a German refugee who survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in Nazi-occupied France, was photographed with my niece by the Duchess of Cambridge. Their photograph will be part of an upcoming exhibit of portraits commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The Duchess published the moving portrait of my mother, together with photos of the two of them meeting at Kensington Palace, on her Instagram feed. After their initial meeting, my mother and Kate were again pictured together when the Duke and Duchess were guests of honor at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration event in London. Their voices and presence create headlines every day, and successfully shone a brighter light on the importance of this anniversary. Kate described my mother, together with a second survivor she photographed, as “two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet.” She described the purpose of the portraits as ensuring that “[their] memories will be kept alive as they pass the baton to the next generation.”

I keep thinking about the portrait she took and what it represents. The staging and lighting of the photograph were designed very specifically by the Duchess to capture this unique moment. A survivor of World War II with her 11-year old granddaughter, light streaming in from the hopeful east, wartime artifacts (my mother’s German identity card, marked with a “J” for Jude-Jew) shared across the generations. The photograph is very much a moment in time, a moment that marks time, bridging the past with the future. The image captures the gaze of a young girl learning through the shared experience of her grandmother, committed to re-telling that story in order to learn its lessons.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks articulated a crucial lesson he learned from Holocaust survivors, when he said: “To mend the past, first you have to secure the future.”  The photograph of my mother does this, aesthetically and generationally. Our shared work in Jewish day schools also does this every day, child by child, family by family, community by community. By securing our Jewish future through vibrant and sustainable schools, in some ways we heal the tragedies of our collective past.

So this Tu Bishvat, while I still chuckle at the thought of my mother rubbing shoulders with royalty, I appreciate how the day’s focus on trees and marking time can catalyze a deeper appreciation for the relationship between past and future. And I give thanks, both for the trees which beautify our world, and the hundreds of Jewish day schools in which tens of thousands of Jewish futures are growing to fruition.

 

 

 

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Paul is Prizmah’s founding Chief Executive Officer. Learn more about Paul here.

The Power of Network

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As early as my second week at Prizmah, I saw first-hand the power of our Network of Jewish day schools. While getting to know a school leader, I was asked a question that reached to the core of the character of their school, and honestly was beyond my scope of knowledge. “I’ll get back to you on that,” I replied, thinking that our Prizmah team of experienced day school professionals would pull out just the right answer. But, when I shared the question with my Prizmah colleagues, instead of a “textbook” solution, their response was a list of five other schools who had recently grappled with the identical question. These peers provided that leader with better answers (gained through experience) than a single “expert” might offer. That is an example of the Network at work, and the knowledge of the field in action. There is no textbook, but there are plenty of solutions.

Being part of a Network means contributing and accessing the everyday “real-world” expertise that builds stronger schools, and a supportive, vibrant field.

In the past year, day school professionals and lay leaders have connected, shared, learned, created, and driven impact through the Prizmah Network at an astounding rate.  1100 field leaders, from over 230 schools, joined us at the March, 2019 Prizmah Conference and collectively Dared to Dream; 163 schools participated in a Prizmah Reshet group (which had 200 new members this year); 1305 resources were launched in our new digital Knowledge Center and have been accessed by thousands of page views.

Online, at in-person gatherings, through emerging partnerships with federations and national leaders in education, Prizmah’s focus on Network points us in a strong direction to support individual schools and the day school field.

We just celebrated Shavuot, acknowledging the enormous gift—matan—of Torah. When we call the holiday “z’man matan Torateinu” or “time of the giving of our Torah,” we are actually celebrating a collective experience, as Torah is referred to in the plural possessive. Rashi teaches that both the Written Law and the Oral Law were transmitted to Moshe at Sinai. While the Written Law—Torah she’bichtav--speaks in one Divine voice, the Oral Law--Torah she’be-al peh, including the Mishnah, the Talmud, Midrashim--contains multiple voices across generations. There is an inherent intricate network of diverse voices and opinions offering insight, advice, and instruction.

The Oral Law provides a model for understanding our world and addressing the challenges we inevitably encounter. When we gain access to the experience of others, when we draw on past examples to inform present action, when we debate—even loudly—about our differences, we strengthen our ability to deliver on our mission. The Prizmah Network is predicated on just such a philosophy.

For our Network to fulfill its potential demands that we create space for the myriad voices to be raised, that we construct pathways for connection among practitioners, and that we encourage portals and access to other providers of expertise.

“Do what we do best and connect to the rest” was a kind of informal mantra we used in talking about Prizmah right from launch. Convening the Network means sometimes being in the center and sometimes stepping aside so that people can connect directly.  Oftentimes it means connecting to experts, providers or resources throughout the Network. Primarily, being the Network convener means making it easy to both access and provide knowledge for each other.

In the coming months, we will be concentrating our efforts on strengthening the Prizmah Network with the voices of even more day school leaders and practitioners. School leaders will be receiving information shortly about renewing or establishing their Network affiliation, while others in the field can engage by sharing resources, asking questions, and supporting the day school field. Together, we can ensure that the day school field has a living network that supports and creates tangible impact for individuals, schools, and communities, all working toward a vibrant Jewish future.

SCN and Prizmah Announce “Field Trip Safety Considerations” Resource To Support Students & Schools Amidst Heightened Threat Environment

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SCN and Prizmah Announce “Field Trip Safety Considerations” Resource

The Secure Community Network (SCN), the official safety and security organization for the Jewish community in North America, in partnership with Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, is proud to share a detailed set of field trip safety guidelines as part of its ongoing commitment to enhancing security measures for Jewish schools and organizations.

The new resource, titled “Field Trip Safety Considerations,” provides comprehensive guidance for Jewish schools and organizations planning off-site activities. This new resource aims to ensure Jewish school communities can enjoy educational experiences through prioritizing the safety and security of students and staff.

“In today's environment, most parents are asking, ‘what is my school doing to keep my child safe, particularly when they leave the school?’ With this resource, parents, teachers, and staff can take concrete steps to answer that question when it comes to field trips,” said Michael Masters, National Director and CEO of SCN. “The common sense measures we are recommending, developed by security experts and educators, can provide a plan to our schools and educators and peace of mind to parents. By committing to these efforts, we can replace fear and anxiety with empowerment and action, ensuring our children can experience all that a quality Jewish education has to offer.”

Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah, added, “Providing schools with the knowledge and resources they need to ensure a safe environment for students and faculty to learn and grow is essential. Jewish day schools enable their students and communities to connect to their Jewish identity and values, and to go on to lead full and meaningful lives, and ensuring their safety is the responsibility of the whole Jewish community. We are grateful to SCN for providing this resource.”

The “Field Trip Safety Considerations” resource includes:

  • pre-trip planning considerations
  • transportation safety measures
  • on-site security protocols
  • medical emergency preparedness, and
  • communication and reunification plans.

Available to Jewish schools and organizations through SCN’s website, SCN and Prizmah developed this resource collaboratively with security professionals, educators, and parents to address the unique needs of Jewish educational institutions.

From the CEO: This Is Our Moment. What Will It Take?
Paul Bernstein