CAJE Blog

The education world has experienced change over the past year in unprecedented and deep ways. In education, we often talk about how we are called upon to metaphorically drive the bus while changing the tires, looking under the hood and getting people on and off safely. This holds true during the pandemic more than ever.

Close to a year ago, as our entire world was thrown into a new reality, the world of Jewish education was compelled to pivot into this new reality as well. Our Miami Jewish day schools had to instantaneously become adept at new ways of teaching and learning. At first, the approach was “do the best possible,” given the situation and hope that things would go back to “normal” soon.

This year the Department of Adult Learning & Growth/ Melton & More has welcomed students from around the world to our ZOOM classrooms, expanded our course topics to address mind, body and soul, and invited new faculty to join our team. We reached out to some of our adult learners and asked them to share a little about themselves and the impact of Melton & More.

These powerful words were one of the important ‘take-aways’ from the first session of Miami’s Leo Martin March of the Living 2021 this past Sunday. While we might not be able to travel to Poland and Israel this year, nevertheless, high school seniors from across Miami gathered virtually to learn about life before the War as well as explore their Jewish Identities, which they discovered were just as complex, interesting and diverse as the Jews growing up decades ago in far off lands. They also learned from local Holocaust Survivor, Anita Karl.

Miami’s Diller Teen Fellows Cohort 8 had a breakthrough moment this past Shabbat. Although they have been participating in the Diller program since September, this past Shabbat was the first time the group was able to gather in person, rather than on Zoom. Teens went through screening protocols, were physically distanced, masked, and outside to create a safe environment for all.

Several times a year, CAJE’s Youth Professional Network (YPN), made up of representatives from different Jewish Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs), comes together to share ideas and best practices from the field.

I was born in a DP camp in Hanover, Germany. The only thing I remember about it was the snow. At the age of two, we were able to emigrate to the United States, and we lived in Manhattan until I was 10 years old. My parents sent me to a yeshiva preschool and kindergarten mainly because they both had to work until 5pm and the program offered extended hours, not because my parents were that observant. After that, I attended public schools.

Joan Micklin Silver (z”l), the groundbreaking filmmaker and Miami Jewish Film Festival alum (Hester Street -MJFF 2007), passed away December 31. The daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Micklin Silver was a trailblazer for women directors and created proud depictions of Jewish culture in cinema.