CAJE Blog

A few weeks ago, whenever we spoke about “virtual reality,”, we meant some kind of video game or experience. Not anymore! The past few weeks have called for a major shift in traditional ways of teaching and learning. Our 10 Miami funded Jewish day schools have risen to the challenge and created age-appropriate, distance learning models in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. But thankfully, Miami schools are no strangers to innovation.

This year, MJFF was featured on the cover of the Miami Herald, Miami New Times, and was featured in dedicated interview segments on WPLG Local 10, CBS Miami, and on NPR Radio. MJFF was also acknowledged as the “City’s Cultural Gem” by Culture Crusaders, a marquee online go-to-guide for Miami’s millennial generation! The Festival trailer played for an entire month on PBS and in local arthouse theaters (O Cinema, Coral Gables Art Cinema, Miami Beach Cinematheque)

Supporting Miami’s Leo Martin March of the Living is an extremely effective, “action-oriented” way to combat the rise of antisemitism, because it educates our teens and young adults to be able to say “I was there. I heard the testimony of a survivor” and “I stood in Sderot and saw the fragments from Gaza rockets. I heard from Israelis about the efforts to be a more just society.”

The Friends of the March of the Living (“FMOTL”) is pleased to announce the formation of the Broward March of the Living Fund, created to provide scholarship assistance for students from Broward County Florida participating in the March of the Living (“MOTL”) program. The MOTL is an educational program bringing individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust, and to examine the roots of prejudice, and teaching about the dangers of assimilation, hatred and intolerance.

This Shabbaton, the “Leadership Shabbaton,” was organized almost entirely by the Fellows themselves. Fellows had the opportunity to work in committees to plan the programming that would make up the weekend, ranging from pluralistic and creative Shabbat programs, to group bonding, and more. The teens worked together with different communication styles, time constraints, and through their busy schedules to learn what it takes to work as a group and produce programming for their peers that would be meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking!

This week, as part of the Jewish Resource Specialist (JRS) Initiative, and a collaboration with our Adult Education and Growth, CAJE welcomed Dasee Berkowitz, the director of BECOMING A SOULFUL PARENT, a six week program for parents, developed by AYEKA: Center for Soulful Education. Educators who work with young children and their parents learned that often times the best parenting tips come from looking inward, and listening to our internal wisdom.

This Shabbaton, the “Leadership Shabbaton,” was organized almost entirely by the Fellows themselves. Fellows had the opportunity to work in committees to plan the programming that would make up the weekend, ranging from pluralistic and creative Shabbat programs, to group bonding, and more. The teens worked together with different communication styles, time constraints, and through their busy schedules to learn what it takes to work as a group and produce programming for their peers that would be meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking!

In every video I ever watched of Poland the images were of somber shades of gray, black and white. When we got off the Lot plane in Poland, we first went to a park to eat our small bagged lunch of fruit and radishes. I sat among the green trees and red tulips and could not believe there was color around me. I couldn’t rationalize the sounds of laughter with the images I had seen and the books I had read... It was the first of many moments on the March of the Living that would touch my heart and stay with me always.”