We see signs of hope these days. Infection rates are down--we pray they will continue to decline and remain low--and vaccination numbers are up. With our deepest prayers and gratitude, we seem to be closer to the end than the beginning of this awful pandemic.

Like Dor HaMidbar, the generation of Israelites who left slavery in Egypt to wander in the desert, we can look back to where we have been and ahead to what’s to come. As the Haggadah suggests, we all feel as if we have taken steps out of our narrow places, our own Mitzrayim/Egypt. 

Our schools are resilient, even in the most challenging circumstances, and our children have made progress this year in so many ways, whether in front of a screen or in a socially distanced classroom, thanks to the incredible efforts of educators everywhere. 

We see the next stage ahead—finishing this year strong, enjoying a more calm and reflective summer, and the prospect of an exciting next school year. Yet, while we are filled with hopes and plans alongside the sadness for all that has been lost, there is still much we do not know.

How will we learn what it means to thrive in a new reality? Like the Israelites, will we send scouts to see what lies ahead? Will the reports be accurate and the messengers trustworthy? Where we are headed is not where we have been before. We are not who we were before. We have many questions to add to this year’s Seder. 

The Israelites who left Eretz Yisrael with Joseph and his brothers were refugees; the freed people and their descendants who “return” have been changed by the experience of slavery, Exodus and Sinai. Even as they build new lives and a new society, they are charged to consider how their history will be woven into the fabric of the world they are creating. 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l wrote about the Exodus narrative as an expression of hope--of both divine intervention and self-determination. “A people can be granted freedom by an external cause, in this case divine intervention. But a people sustain freedom by their own efforts. It is not what God does for us, but what we do for God, that changes us.”

As we gather around our Seder tables, perhaps with a few more place settings this year compared to a year ago, but likely still far from what we hope for in the future, may we mark this moment in time--this transition from where we have been to where we are headed—strengthened by the hope that even amidst so much uncertainty, we possess the means to sustain a vibrant future for our schools, our families, our communities and our people.

By Dr. Tal Grinfas-David, CIE Day School Specialist

The benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to education are well documented, yet most day schools relegate Israel education to a sliver carved out of Judaic studies. 

According to research, interdisciplinary instruction fosters advances in cognitive ability and helps students recognize bias, think critically, tolerate ambiguity and appreciate ethical concerns. Moreover, significant learning takes place when teachers incorporate a range of skills from different subjects, not only about the content, but also about the process of learning how to learn. Curricula should reflect the real world, which is complex and not organized into neat subject areas. 

Why then is Israel education, which appears in most schools’ mission statements and goals as central to Jewish identity, treated as yet another subject that is included at the expense of others? Why isn’t Israel taught by all faculty all year long?

In this past year, as most schools simply sought to survive the pandemic, one school took the Start-Up Nation’s lesson to heart: When the going gets rough, innovate! Vancouver Talmud Torah, a pluralistic Jewish day school in British Columbia, joined the Atlanta-based Center for Israel Education’s Day School Initiative in 2018 after finding CIE online during the DSI pilot period.

Although Israel was always important, the school for preschoolers through seventh-graders lacked formal programs or a structure for Israel education as a distinct discipline, says Ellen Wiesenthal, the head of Jewish life and learning. “Our goal is to provide the foundation for a lifelong love of Israel and their Jewish identity, but also to equip students with skills, content and values that make them Israel literate.”

Israel’s success comes in part from a culture that embraces “failing forward” by learning from mistakes while taking risks. VTT is emulating that culture of curiosity, innovation and improvement while pursuing its dual goals of integration and collaboration: inspiring teachers in Jewish studies and general studies to incorporate Israel across grades and courses. After CIE demonstrated to the VTT faculty how to transform a science fair into an “Israeli Shark Tank” and explained the concept in a community presentation during a visit to Vancouver in February 2019, VTT’s leadership team won parents’ support for a comprehensive approach to Israel education.

Developing as a result at VTT is iSTEAM: Israel through Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. “STEAM is now being pursued through the lens of Israel innovation, and we are forerunners in this area,” Wiesenthal says. 

Head of School Emily Greenberg shared the community’s excitement at this new approach: “iSTEAM uses Israel’s export of innovation to integrate Jewish learning and ahavat Yisrael with our general studies curriculum in a meaningful and relevant way. Our students and parents have relished this opportunity to participate in hands-on learning that creates another authentic connection to Israel and spotlights the contributions that Israel is making to the world.”

Director of Innovation and Learning Jessie Claudio spoke to the balance of affective, ethical and cognitive goals: "My dream is to have every student leave VTT’s iSTEAM program having a deep connection to Israel and feeling a sense of pride. By learning about all of the amazing innovations and global impacts Israel has made, I hope our students will be inspired and empowered to do the same.” Claudio’s efforts ensure that province-mandated competencies and benchmarks are thoughtfully woven into the Israel units developed and implemented at VTT.

While iSTEAM is new in this first year of what will likely be a multiyear initiative, VTT has made significant programmatic gains in Israel education. For example, fourth-graders learn about Israel while exploring science. Fifth-graders studying Canadian government make comparisons with Israel and its many elections. Zionism and the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel meld well with education about Canada’s First Nations and, Wiesenthal says, work with VTT’s core competencies of identity and personal awareness.

Students gain a solid foundation in Israel education, preparing them for stand-alone units built with CIE materials to address Israel with depth and nuance in sixth and seventh grades. In one unit, students explore Israeli architecture and watch videos of such designers as Eliezer Armon and Yaakov Agam. They take virtual tours of sites in Israel to learn what makes spaces sacred and how to bring that special feeling to places in their lives. They combine those inspirations with engineering lessons about form and function and computer skills in design software to create a plan for a new school wing, then write essays to persuade administrators to accept their design over other submissions.

For CIE, what is truly inspiring is to see a Jewish day school living its mission on a daily basis by innovating and integrating Israel into multiple subjects. VTT is sending a message to students and the broader community that Israel matters to us all, Jewish and non-Jewish faculty, and that Israel literacy requires skills from all areas of study. 

To learn more about CIE and iSTEAM, please contact Dr. Tal Grinfas-David, CIE’s day school specialist, at [email protected].

I recently heard both Dr. Deborah Birx (on an interview with Meet the Press) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (quoted in the NY Times) use the phrase “N=1” in different contexts related to the coronavirus response. Since, I heard the phrase, I keep thinking about it. In research, N means the total number of responses, so, when N = 1, it means that your sample population is one person. The data is an anecdote, not something learned from scientific rigor. Truth in research can be learned from a plurality of subjects/examples/reponses. 

When receiving feedback from students, parents and others in the community, do you let that one negative comment or feedback from one person change your perspective? When hearing from one person, do you attribute that feeling to many people? It’s hard not to. We listen and empathize but we must remember that one person’s comments are not indicative of a larger trend. That’s why parent and staff surveys are so useful, they allow school leaders to tease out what’s true about the experience of the parent body or staff culture rather than only hearing the voice of the complainers. 

If we can learn anything from Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci’s “N=1” it’s that one person is not enough when trying to understand the efficacy of something new or in the school context, trying to understand parent sentiment, or educational or admission trends. To know if something is truly reflective beyond your one person or one example you must hear it from many. In respect to the field of Jewish day schools, the power of the collective, allows school leaders to understand if what is happening is a phenomenon only in their school or experienced wider.  Fauci’s comments were in relation to the effectiveness of coronavirus treatment. He was commenting we don’t know the efficacy of a treatment by looking at how one patient responds to it. All students won’t respond the same to the same interventions. If something works for one person, it doesn’t mean it works for every person. 

"One witness shall not arise against a man for any sin or guilt that he may commit; according to two witnesses or according to three witnesses a matter shall stand." - Dvarim 19:15

According to the Torah one witness is not enough in a court of law to deem a man guilty of sin. Perhaps that could be attributed to the subjectivity of one person.

At Prizmah we do a lot of research. This past year, we conducted 3 major field wide surveys on the impact of the pandemic in many areas of school functioning in addition to our annual field wide benchmarking project. The number of respondents, the response rate and who those respondents are is critically important to the findings. Thankfully we have not had the problem of N=1. When you see an example of “one” in your work, try to remember what N=1 really means. Next time you see a Prizmah survey in your inbox, be a part of our N.

Odelia directs Prizmah's Knowledge Center work which includes research on Jewish day schools, our online Knowledge Center and evaluation. She has worked in various organizations including the JCC Association and the Yeshiva University School Partnership. Through her involvement in benchmarking projects for both JCCs and Jewish day schools, Odelia is passionate about making research and data accessible to the Prizmah Network and greater Jewish community. She is a proud day school graduate, and her children are third generation day school students. Odelia has an MPA from Baruch College and BA from Queens College. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and three children.

Count me among the hordes of people eagerly awaiting delivery of a Peloton bike in the coming weeks. After crowdsourcing advice from friends who are already devotees and analyzing various options for staying fit from the safety of home, we placed our order and look forward to “high-fiving” many of you on upcoming rides.

The phenomenon of the Peloton craze should not be all that surprising. Whatever your fitness goal, being able to measure progress and output—literally watching the numbers rise and fall with your own exertion—is one of the best motivators. Couple the metrics with the virtual communal experience of staying connected to others who share your goal, and you have a winning combination.

Even before officially “clipping in,” I recognize just how relevant Peleton is to my work at Prizmah. So much of what we do is providing tools for schools to measure their progress on defined goals and opening connections for school leaders to learn from and be motivated by their peers. We are committed to helping schools make data-based decisions—to empowering them with both quantitative and qualitative information.

The Torah portion this week, Ki Tisa, contains one of the most famous examples of “metrics” in the Torah—taking the census of the people by means of the half-shekel. I am always struck by the wisdom of the pasuk/verse from Shemot/Exodus 30:15, “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less.”

 הֶעָשִׁיר לֹא-יַרְבֶּה וְהַדַּל לֹא יַמְעִיט 

When it comes to the need to count, to be counted, we should all be in the same boat.

In the past year, knowing that the Covid-19 pandemic is a new reality without clear roadmaps, Prizmah has fielded a number of “pulse surveys” to quickly collect and disseminate information. School leaders want to know what other schools are doing and how they fit into it.

We are now releasing the latest survey results which focus on fundraising. This survey found that even as schools face significant needs on the cost side—health and safety expenses, increased tuition assistance, to name just two—they are meeting those needs with success in fundraising. A few takeaways from this survey:

• Major donors (and non-major too) have increased or kept steady their support.
• 75% of respondents had an endowment, and 59% of those are still actively raising endowment funds.
• Emergency campaigns saw strong support from new and lapsed donors, increasing schools’ donor bases.
• 79% of schools project they will meet or exceed their fundraising goals for FY 2021.

These data collection points help Prizmah and Jewish day schools advocate for critical philanthropic and government funding. They also reveal the vital trends that can serve to engage donors and foundations in conversations around how to help for maximum impact.

In our first pulse survey, we asked schools about what they were planning for fall 2020 opening: schedule models, tuition setting and budget changes. Our second pulse survey drilled down more deeply about budget changes and increases in costs, financial aid and fundraising. We reported on the average increase in tuition assistance, which allowed school leaders and school boards to understand their own decisions in light of the larger field. Our survey on enrollment uncovered critical stats that inform recruitment, admission and retention practices.

Prizmah takes seriously our responsibility to encourage this kind of thinking among school leaders and to provide a range of opportunities and tools for school leaders to engage in benchmarking and data-based decision making. Collecting and disseminating data is a central part of what Prizmah does to support and strengthen the Jewish day school field.

Almost every day, we hear from school leaders asking questions like these:

What kind of indicators bode well for supporting an endowment campaign?

How much are other schools increasing their financial aid?

How much are other schools spending on Covid-related costs?

We are seeing an increase in enrollment; are other schools experiencing the same thing?

When school leaders want to know how their school compares to others, the impulse comes from a recognition that they are not alone and that information from other schools can reassure them or push them toward a higher standard. Messages that start with words like “I am curious to hear if other schools…” or “How has someone else approached…” usually lead to responses with real applicable value.

We also take seriously our commitment to measuring Prizmah’s own impact, with a monthly review of an internal dashboard set that is revised by our board annually, along with regular evaluation of all Prizmah programs. 

Data measures more than enrollment or participation numbers. Using data can fuel growth and change the course of how a school achieves its mission. For example, when schools across the country note an influx from non-traditional avenues, they can commit to renewed focus on retention and ways to strengthen future enrollment.

Engaging data to fuel growth can be as simple as posting a message on a Prizmah Reshet. Or as complex as participating in Data and Analysis for School Leaders (DASL), the benchmarking tool offered by Prizmah in partnership with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to generate fieldwide data and customized benchmarking reports in the areas of expenses, revenue, tuition, financial aid, enrollment and fundraising. Through Prizmah’s partnership with BoardSource, over 700 day school board members have already enlisted a customized Board Self-Assessment (BSA) tool for their 44 schools to help them measure their governance practices against their peers and against expert recommendations. (See the summary in this issue: “Jewish Day School Boards: Snapshots of the Field.”)

On March 9, Prizmah is hosting a webinar entitled Create You Own Benchmarking Reports. Participants will understand how activity and trends in their school fit into a larger context through DASL and explore how to use create custom benchmarking in areas such as attrition, tuition, annual campaign and salaries. I encourage you to participate.

Just like those sweating away on their Pelotons at home, school leaders look at key metrics to know just how they are doing and when they will hit those elusive “personal records.” They also know the immeasurable value of connecting and checking in with peers to compare progress. Stay tuned for my Peloton username, and I look forward to continuing our critical work together, one measurable step at a time.

By Amy Adler and Dan Perla

Over this past year, Prizmah’s work in the area of school advancement shifted to meet the urgent needs of the field during the pandemic. Much of our work was in response to supporting schools to adapt their fundraising strategies to a virtual environment, navigating the challenges of recruitment and enrollment during an economic crisis, and adapting financial plans to address growing tuition assistance needs as well as addressing the issue of increased Covid-related school costs. With these rapid changes, many schools had unforecasted expenses; there was an immediate need for fundraising to offset these expenses.

A survey Prizmah recently conducted to collect data about fundraising reported that donors, federations and foundations rose to the challenge in support of operating funds for our schools. Eighty-six percent of major donors gave the same or increased their contributions, and 75% of contributions from other donors remained steady or increased since March of 2020. Much of the increase was due to the COVID crisis and a willingness among donors to provide emergency funding.

Schools are understandably concerned that annual fundraising may decline once the urgency of COVID has diminished. Not only is tuition assistance likely to remain at historically high levels, but many of the COVID-related expenses (smaller class sizes and more staff) that schools are experiencing may continue for years to come.  The larger question many are asking is how can schools sustain this level of fundraising in the longer term? 

One answer is endowment. In the midst of a pandemic and the pressing fundraising needs to support rising staff and school related expenses, it may seem daunting to think about or even begin an endowment campaign. However, endowment is a mechanism for long-term financial sustainability. The existence of an endowment has been especially valuable to the schools that made the decision to lower tuition or roll back planned tuition increases.  Endowments also enabled some schools to provide even higher levels of tuition assistance without the need to reduce staff or sell assets.

According to Prizmah’s survey, 75% of respondents indicated that they have an endowment. The mean endowment size is $7.4 million and the median value is $3 million. Based on an average size school of approximately 300 students, the data suggests that the majority of day schools have an endowment per student of $1,000 or less. By contrast, many independent schools have endowments of $25,000 per student or more. Even more disappointing is  the fact that nearly half of day schools are not actively soliciting endowment gifts at the current time. 

The influx of public school students into Jewish day schools and yeshivas over the last year suggests that the value proposition for day schools has never been stronger. The extraordinary fundraising successes of the past year support this assertion. If ever there was a time for endowment building, the time is now. 

Over the next few months, Prizmah is expanding its work in the field of endowments. Our work will focus on school level endowments as well as communal endowments. We are exploring ways in which incentive funds might help catalyze new or increased endowment gifts to individual schools or communities. The Prizmah team is ready to work with your school and your community to strengthen your capacity for endowment building.  We are positioned to work with federations, foundations, and other central agencies to support your work in development of communal endowment funds. 

Today, there are more than a half dozen communal endowment funds throughout the U.S. that provide millions of dollars each year toward initiatives such as school excellence, middle income affordability, and enrollment management. Please reach out to Prizmah to discuss ways in which we can help your school and your community build its endowment.

If you are like most development professionals, you spend considerable time, talent and financial resources making sure that you have accurate and reliable data at your disposal. What are we using all this data for? Certainly we should use it for more than setting ask amounts, tracking participation and printing mailing labels.

Last year, I was asked to compile a list of ten trends in fundraising. My research led me to the notion of thick data from Tricia Wang, co-founder of Sudden Compass, a data analysis firm. What is “thick data?” It is the information from humans that captures the full context of their emotions and stories. At their core, development and education are about serving people, so it wouldn’t be prudent for us to eliminate the human element from our decision-making and analysis.

Thick data goes hand-in-hand with hyper-personalization. One obvious example is Netflix: when you log in, you will see suggestions of what to watch next based on your viewing history. Consumers have come to expect hyper-personalization on shopping and social-media sites. 

Can you use that type of personalization in fundraising? Yes! By leveraging mail merges, push pages and other tools, you can appeal on a very personal level to your constituents. The way to accomplish this in fundraising is by culling thick data. Look for patterns or gaps in the data. Get to know your donors and the reasons that they support your community and why they participate at a particular giving level.

Know Your Potential Donors
Find the sources of thick data in your work—then bring your thick data and big data experts together to strategize. 

This is especially important for constituent groups such as grandparents and alumni. Intuitively, grandparents want what is best for their grandchildren, but often they make significant gifts to Jewish schools because they are committed to the future of the Jewish people. Similarly, if you look at what resonates with alumni donors, they won’t necessarily be motivated to donate because of new technology that the school is adapting. They are likely compelled to give for nostalgic reasons and so that current students can experience what they did.

If you run your annual campaign with parent volunteers, make sure that they understand that a big part of their assignment is to be astute listeners and communicate with you on a regular basis. The information that they report back after making their calls will inform how you plan your spring fundraising. Is the information you are getting from your volunteers reflected in your data? What is the school excelling at that you can promote? Where are you falling short? This is where to begin looking for patterns in data. 

Data as Reality Check
Grade 10 students at Milken participate in a semester-long program in Israel. The cost of the program is significant, and there has been a long held belief that parents of tenth graders don’t contribute to the annual fund, or if they do, they make a substantially smaller donation. When we looked at the data and started speaking with donors, we found we were simply incorrect. The majority of parents in this group had planned for the added expense of the trip, and in some cases they even increased their donation to show their appreciation for their child’s unparalleled experience.

Thinking Beyond Capacity
Capacity is one thing that all of our leadership donors have in common, but it's just a starting point on a strategic journey. If you dig deeper, can you learn why donors in this group are inclined to give at this level. This year, during the pandemic, many of our leadership donors were motivated to move up to this level because of the extraordinary tuition-assistance needs of our community. Understanding the reason for their generosity will likely help you develop a strategic approach for other prospective donors. 

Learn to Tell a More Compelling Story With Your Data
Before learning about thick data, data never held my attention. I acknowledged that accurate data was the single most valuable tool for an organization. It told one of two stories: the campaign succeeded or failed to meet goals. It was also a burden, taking an immense amount of time and resources. Spending more time on data didn’t necessarily lead to better decisions. 

Now I see that data can be used to tell a much more nuanced, interesting and important story about our school. I try to look at data creatively. Data alone isn’t an answer; integrating data with context and emotions to enhance our stories can help inform and guide our work. 

For many of us, our annual campaigns have wrapped up, and there is a bit of flexibility in our schedules. Make it a priority to reach out to donors of a particular giving level, and find out what the commonalities are and their reasons for giving. They may surprise you, and they will certainly help you achieve your strategic objectives.

Hilary Hellman is the Director of Development at Milken Community School in Los Angeles.

As we again approach the holiday of Purim, all I can think about is Venahafoch hu, it was turned upside down. Last Purim at Hillel Day School and around Detroit the entire community was gathering together joyfully to celebrate the holiday season as we always have. We knew about the virus spreading into the United States, but there were no known cases in Michigan, and we would have never imagined that our world would be completely upended by Covid-19 just a few days later. 

Venahafoch hu is used in the Megillah to describe how all of Haman’s efforts to destroy the Jewish people ultimately lead to its salvation:

וּבִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ הוּא־חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם בּוֹ אֲשֶׁר הִגִּיעַ דְּבַר־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְדָתוֹ לְהֵעָשׂוֹת בַּיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר שִׂבְּרוּ אֹיְבֵי הַיְּהוּדִים לִשְׁלוֹט בָּהֶם וְנַהֲפוֹךְ הוּא אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁלְטוּ הַיְּהוּדִים הֵמָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶם׃

And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power. (Esther 9:1)

Venahafoch hu: We have faced tremendous loss due to this horrible virus, yet it has not destroyed us as a community. It has propelled us to shift in the direction of learning how to be more flexible, more adaptive, to survive and even thrive despite extremely challenging conditions.

A week after Purim last year, we were all at home adjusting to remote learning. Like so many other schools, we spent much of the summer strategizing and planning for opening our doors in the fall. We have been blessed at Hillel Day School with both in-person instruction and a remote model all year long. As we enter this Purim and the one year mark of the pandemic, we’ve learned that the key to responding to this venahafoch hu was our ability as a school to be flexible, creative and collaborative. 

Approaching a Purim that will look different and continue a year of adapting holiday celebrations to meet COVID guidelines, with many activities still online or in much smaller groups, I reflect on how the Jewish people have constantly had to adapt to moments of unexpected challenge or change. As we discuss with our seventh graders, when the Jews were at Kriyat Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, their freedom was suddenly challenged. They looked back to see the Egyptians quickly approaching, and it took courage and leadership to move forward despite concern and complaint. When the Jewish people are faced with great challenges, they are able to find an opportunity to adapt and create a path forward, even if it feels like we are walking into unknown waters. 

COVID, was just the latest venahafoch hu, the unknown challenge that turned everything upside down. Now as we approach this year’s Purim with more and more people in the community receiving the vaccine, we can draw strength from another use of this word later in the same chapter:

וְהַחֹדֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר נֶהְפַּךְ לָהֶם מִיָּגוֹן לְשִׂמְחָה וּמֵאֵבֶל לְיוֹם טוֹב

The same month which had been transformed for them from one of grief and mourning to one of festive joy. (9:22)

It is my hope and prayer that we can feel this festive joy this year despite the tremendous losses we have suffered. Although celebrations this year will look different, we are so excited and grateful to celebrate Purim in school, double-masked, one for safety and one for costume, and physically distant. We are blessed to be a Jewish day school providing learning and community for our students and families. And we look to the future, the rest of this year and next year with joy. As a Jewish community, no matter the venahafoch hu moments, our flexibility, creativity and collaboration as a community enable us to face the challenge. 

Rabbi David Fain is Rav Beit Sefer at Hillel Day School in Metropolitan Detroit.