Celebrating a Milestone for Jewish Early Childhood Education
Posted on 06/05/2026 @ 06:30 AM
By Dr. Yehudis Smith, Director of CAJE’s Robert Russell Early Childhood Department
On Sunday, May 17, 2026, American Jewish University held its inaugural graduation ceremony at the House of the Book on the Brandeis-Bardin Campus in Los Angeles for the first cohort of Ed.D. candidates in Early Childhood Education through an explicitly Jewish program.
I am proud to say I was among the graduates who earned their Doctorate in Early Childhood Educational Leadership that day.
This milestone was not only a personal achievement. It was also a meaningful moment for our Miami Jewish early childhood community.
I was honored to be asked to give a graduation speech on behalf of the entire class and in it, I reflected on a quote I first heard from a four-year-old child during my early years as a teacher: “Growing is invisible until suddenly, it isn’t.”
That simple observation became a powerful lens for my doctoral journey and for the work of early childhood education itself.
As I shared in my speech, the work of educators is to “listen more closely to what is right in front of us” and to recognize that children are not unfinished adults, but whole human beings with “thoughts, emotions, questions, theories, dignity, and depth.”
My doctoral dissertation, Guiding With Dignity: How Reggio-Inspired Jewish Early Childhood Educators Interpret and Respond to Challenging Behavior, explored how Jewish early childhood educators understand and respond to children’s behavior through the lens of dignity, relationship, Jewish values, and the Reggio Emilia philosophy’s image of the child.
One important takeaway from my research is that behavior guidance is not simply about having the “right strategy,” it is about professional judgment.
Educators make meaning in real time, balancing the needs of the individual child, the classroom community, their own capacity, and the values that guide their work.
This is precisely why advanced study, professional learning, and leadership development matter so deeply in early childhood education.
When we elevate the knowledge and expertise of ECE professionals, we elevate the entire field.
We strengthen classrooms. We support families. We deepen Jewish educational life.
And we affirm that the youngest children in our community deserve educators and leaders who are thoughtful, reflective, and highly prepared.
My accomplishment also reflects a growing culture of professional leadership within Miami’s Jewish early childhood community.
Several Miami ECE directors are now pursuing doctoral degrees at the American Jewish University, continuing to raise the standard for the field and demonstrating that early childhood education is not merely a place of care, but a serious, sophisticated, and deeply impactful profession.
As I noted in my speech:
“Today, we celebrate the degree. But we also celebrate the questions that changed us, the people who carried us, the children and communities who inspired us, and the work that still calls us forward.”
For CAJE and for the Miami Jewish community, this moment is a celebration of growth that, like the young child I learned from, may have once been invisible but is now beautifully seen.
If you have any questions about or would like to support the important work happening in our Miami Jewish Early Childhood community, contact Dr. Yehudis Smith at yehudissmith@caje-miami.org
