The Leadership Institute is guided by the vision of the New York School of Education at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) and the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and is fully funded by the UJA-Federation of New York. This historic opportunity will enable HUC-JIR and JTS to join together to further the leadership capacity, pedagogic skills and Judaic knowledge of congregational school educators. This program is open to candidates from all denominations in the New York, Long Island, Westchester and the greater metropolitan area extending to New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

To qualify, educators must have at least two full years of experience leading a congregational school. Candidates must also demonstrate support from the congregation’s Rabbi, Board President, and Education Chair to establish the terms of the financial and time commitments. While there is no fee for the Institute, congregations must be willing to contribute to the cost of local transportation and half the principal’s round trip airfare from NY-Tel Aviv. Small grants will be available for both the Action Research Project and the Individualized Learning Plan.

Read what others have said about the Leadership Institute:
(Off-site links will open in a new window)

• HUC-JIR: Leadership Institute Opens New Cohort; Holds Alumni Network Symposium
  February, 2008
• The Jewish Week of New York: Follow the Leader
  August 21, 2007
• The Forward Newspaper, Reform, Conservative Movements Collaborate on Principal Training
  January 14th, 2005
• New Jersey Jewish News, Reform, Conservative seminaries partner to train synagogue school principals
  December 23, 2004
• The Jewish Week of New York, Teaming Up For Education
  November 12th, 2004
• The Jewish Week of New York, Principal Focus
  July 15, 2005
• New Jersey Jewish News, Extreme makeover - the Hebrew school edition
  July 21, 2005

For more information please contact:

About the leadership of the Leadership Institute:

Project Director, Evie Levy Rotstein, Ed.D has been a congregational educator for 26 years. During that time, she has enjoyed developing many innovative programs including a school based professional development for the faculty, a curriculum for training teenage classroom assistants and peer mentors, and the design of a parent based initiative for elementary age students to engage in informal Jewish activities called “Chaverim”.

Her leadership positions prior to her career in the supplementary religious school include work as a regional director for Hadassah’s Young Judaea youth movement and the Young Judaea Midwest summer camp. Evie has taught graduate courses at Fairleigh Dickenson University School of Education and is presently a consultant for the ECE RE-Imagine project. She has completed a doctorate at the Davidson School of Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary and is also teaching as an adjunct professor at Hebrew Union College and the William Davidson Graduate School of Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Program Associate, Beth Lutzker, earned her B.A. in Early Childhood Education and Judaic Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She worked for five and half years at The Jewish Theological Seminary in the Public Events Department, planning lectures, conferences, commencements, academic convocations, and more. Beth is an active member of Town & Village Synagogue, and is involved in Jewish communal life.

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