CAJE Blog

It’s been an incredible year together! We are so proud of the Cohort 9 Fellows and have enjoyed facilitating their development into dynamic, proud, and passionate young Jewish leaders. Thank you to Lindsay Spiegelman, our outgoing Diller Coordinator, for her leadership.

Last week the Rita Spector Connector’s featured guest, with a focus on spirituality, was our own head of CAJE, Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar.

Three years ago the Miami Jewish community embarked on the JRS pilot program as a way of addressing how we can impact families of young children to connect and stay connected to the Jewish community.

Judaism happens to be an ideal tradition in which to find spirituality through the physical world, because our tradition asks us to elevate (rather than deny or denigrate) the sensual and physical to the level of holiness, often through prayer and blessing.

For Jews, 13 is a very lucky number indeed — the number associated with becoming a Bar Mitzvah! CAJE is proud to report that the 2022-2023 Miami Jewish Day School Robotics program is back and better than ever with 13 schools joining our cohort this year!

Wait, what does this mean? Aren’t teachers in schools to teach and students in schools to learn? Actually, no. If schools are to meet the needs of all children, then it is everyone’s job, including the adults, to learn.

Our Miami Diller Teen Fellows recently culminated their program in an incredibly moving, three-week trip to Israel where they learned about its great leaders and change-makers.

"While in college, I was terrified that someone would ask me a question about [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] or that someone would tell me that my perspective was wrong and I wouldn’t be able to find the facts to back up my opinion." - Aviva Edrich, CAJE Teen Department Associate