The Jewish communal field writes, talks, and often asks, “How do we innovate to meet the moment?” As a startup, Makom Community is often seen as innovative. We launched a human-centered independent Jewish afterschool program 11 years ago. Over the last 5 years, we have supported Jewish educators across the country with our consulting branch, Makom Making.
There are aspects of our work that fall into the innovative category, but as practitioners of education what we do daily is iterate. As Nira Dayanim wrote earlier this year in eJP “Against the backdrop of a broader sense of fragmenting community, we found that parents with young children really do want their children to be part of something larger.” As a field, the same desire for community and connection to Judaism has not changed for centuries. It is a deeply human need. By focusing on iteration, making the small changes daily to be responsive and do this work from a place of strength, we are setting ourselves up for sustainable innovation over the long term.
Jewish education, especially part-time and experiential Jewish education is no longer teaching from a blackboard. How do we bring educators into new thinking and practice? At Makom Community we began to ask: What if the path into a lifelong career as a Jewish Educator was rooted in community, iterative practice, and deep support?
Makom Community is embarking on exactly this. Beginning in the fall of 2025, we will add two positions on our team of educators for education professionals with 3-5 years of experience to spend two years in residence at Makom Community’s Lab School in Philadelphia. These educators will be immersed in the unique pedagogy of Makom Community, Jewish Placemaking, as they lead a classroom for two years. After this two-year, in-person Jewish Placemaking Residency, these educators will be our first certified Jewish Placemaking Educators. They can then take their certification in Jewish Placemaking to their next role in the Jewish professional world with more experience, more perspective, more confidence, more hireability, and no debt following this intensive, on-the-job learning experience.
Beginning their journey at Makom Community with this residency develops teacher competence to discover who they are and find their voice in the classroom, modeling their own professional advancement alongside the growth of their learners. We are poised to have Makom Community’s Executive Director & Founder, Beverly Socher-Lerner, mentor these educators in residency at Makom Community. Educators in residence at Makom Community get to have ongoing professional learning and reflection as a benefit from ongoing mentorship with Beverly and Makom Community’s leadership team. That intensive learning can then go right back into the way they plan for and facilitate in our Lab School.
In their second year at Makom Community, residents will continue to teach in our Lab School and join the team of facilitators teaching our pedagogy out to the field of Jewish Education as we build out another path for educators all over North America to also become certified Jewish Placemaking Educators (JPE) while continuing to work in the communities they serve. These educators from all over the country will be a community of practice supporting each other as they study Jewish Placemaking over two years with robust support from Makom Community to envision what it could mean to bring Jewish Placemaking to their home communities. When the two year residency ends, we will work with the congregations from this first national cohort to have our JPE residents continue to support them as Jewish Placemaking implementation unfolds.
How do we know Jewish Placemaking is successful? Of course we always love to hear about how a learner asked a big question at seder, came home humming a prayer, or asked to make challah, AND as Jewish educators our goal is to be in deep and ongoing partnership with our families. We live that goal of partnership when we successfully guide families and help them discover how Judaism, its rituals, its wisdom, and the community can support their daily lives as parents and families. For example, after our Lab School’s House Warming Shabbat, we received the following email from a father:
“Great event this weekend! I wanted to report the positive effects it had on N (a 3rd grader) and our household as a whole. On Sunday, N:
– played quietly in her room all day
– didn’t once complain about being bored
– showered when asked without resistance
– had her hair brushed without drama
I know it’s a big ask, but would you consider doing that once a month . Joking of course!”
This exchange we had was a key indicator of why being a Jewish educator is holy and important work. Modern parenting can be isolating. As the ripples of Jewish Placemaking Educators grow across North America, we can expect to see Jewish Placemaking permeate not just the classroom but the approach to building community in partnership with families. What is possible for our youth learners and their families then is a sense of connectedness, to each other, to Jewish wisdom, and to their own power to build the communities they need and love to be in.
As we launch this fellowship, will you be our partner as we deeply iterate our practice to innovate the field of Jewish Education?
You can learn more about the Jewish Placemaking Residency here.