Close your eyes and think of a problem you have at your school or organization. Now imagine a team of people coming together to discuss the problem, dissecting it from all angles, then working together to create a solution that benefits all of the stakeholders. That isn’t just a dream scenario, it is a reality thanks to a partnership between Miami’s Center for Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) and MindCET, a world leader in the edtech ecosystem based in Yerucham, Israel.

MindCET uses its experience in research and design to help edtech startups find their footing and grow their business ideas. They help connect the entrepreneurs with educators, researchers, programmers, students, and industry professionals to guide, build, and launch their products. CAJE professionals Julie Lambert, senior educational consultant, and Valerie Mitrani, director of day school professional development, learned about MindCET and developed the idea of creating opportunities for teacher entrepreneurship.

From Miami to Yerucham and Back 

The idea became a reality through the Miami-Yerucham Partnership, a program of Jewish Agency and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation (GMJF). According to GMJF, 

The purpose of the Miami-Yerucham Partnership is to build meaningful relationships in order to strengthen both communities and to foster and develop a love of Judaism, Israel and the Jewish people. The Partnership encourages people-to-people relationships between residents of Miami and Yerucham. It also promotes mutually supportive initiatives, connecting resources and expertise to achieve sustained spiritual, social, cultural and economic growth for both communities.

In January 2023, the inaugural MindCET Miami partnership kicked off with bi-monthly Zoom meetings where MindCET’s experts in program design, management, and education met with educators from across Miami-Dade Jewish day schools to explore the design cycle, a process that takes ideas from problem to solution. Participants looked at the big picture, broke down issues into smaller bites, and began to form solutions that could provide short-term and long-term benefits. In July, the Miami MindCET team traveled to Yerucham where they met with MindCET’s team of programmers, designers, and managers to build their initial solutions. 

The commitment of five hours of monthly meetings and a week in Israel is a significant investment of both time and resources. Why would schools and teachers rearrange class schedules, dedicate time to additional work, and allocate funds to subsidize an idea that may or may not have success? For me, the opportunity to work on the ground floor of concept through design and product building helped me experience what my students face and feel during the Genius Hour unit I lead with my fifth grade students. 

Learning to articulate ideas clearly, struggle to compromise, and figure out how to fix the problems that arise provided a first-hand understanding which will help me better empathize with students struggling with the same concepts. Our school, Scheck Hillel Community School, was happy to partner with CAJE and MindCET in this undertaking, sending both me and Rabbi Elias Hochner, Judaic studies teacher, to the program. Scheck Hillel believes its teachers are their best resource, and helping empower teachers to reflect, create, and problem-solve benefits not only Scheck Hillel but can have a far-reaching impact on other schools and organizations in the Diaspora.

Project #1: Curricular Integration 

EdJEWcator is one of the solutions developed by a team of two educators from The Innovative School at Temple Beth Shalom, Barbara Schpilberg and Miriam Cruz Jackson, and myself. The problem this team brought to the table was one that Diaspora schools with dual curricula in general studies and Hebrew/Judaics often face. These curricula are separate entities and often do not integrate across the classes. General studies teachers would like to incorporate Jewish values, holidays, and ideas into their curriculum, and while the desire is there, the challenge of dual curriculum, dual calendars, and multiple subjects makes it difficult to fully integrate all areas of study. 

To help solve this issue, the EdJEWcator team aims to develop a website/app where teachers will get email reminders two weeks before a Jewish holiday with ideas to integrate their subject area and the holiday. Teachers will be able to search for ideas to incorporate values, beliefs, and other Judaic content within the subject areas. During our visit to MindCET, the EdJEWcator team met with programmers and designers who helped develop their beta-testing product, which focuses on the email reminders about upcoming holidays and integration ideas for subject areas. 

Additionally, the three of us created a website and Google Drive folder for each holiday and each subject area within general studies. We used ChatGPT and their own lessons to populate the folders that are available to teachers who signed up for their beta-testing. More information on the holidays, values, and additional lesson ideas will be added during the beta period and as the work on the programs continues this school year.

Project #2: Judaic Studies Advances 

Rabbi Ari Karp of Hebrew Academy of Miami Beach and Rabbi Elias Hochner both focused on student engagement in the Judaics classroom, but took different approaches to their solution and design. Rabbi Hochner worked on developing an app that would provide an immersive environment for students to learn collaboratively (chavruta) and develop Talmud skills. Rabbi Karp created a program called Gemara Linked to help teachers properly assess their students’ understanding so they can personalize lessons for each student. 

Rabbi Hochner left with a product that he can actually use and begin to evaluate its usefulness. He hopes to go further and receive the necessary funding for an immersive Virtual Reality app that can have a significant beneficial impact on students.

Project #3: Forging Deeper Connections in Israel 

Our Israel week was not just for working. The participants also were able to visit the Negev desert, take a scorpion night tour, have breakfast with the Miami-Yerucham partnership group, and have dinner with one of the culinary queens of Yerucham. These cultural experiences provided the team with connections to the community and a chance to gather information for teaching their students back at home. 

Touring the city with stops at various schools as well as the Yerucham Science Center strengthened connections that had begun with other Miami-Yerucham partnerships in robotics. Rabbi Hochner was amazed and inspired to see how a city with seemingly limited resources is so invested in the education of its children. The Miami team also had the opportunity to visit an arts center where women meet with artisans to learn crafting skills that help to build opportunities for business and industry for the Bedouin and Israeli women in the community. 

This valuable experience will continue into the current school year, where the groups will take the results of their beta testing and look for ways to improve their app/website. Teachers from the initial cohort will model this entrepreneurial mindset with other teachers from their schools who will also look for problems to solve in their classrooms and continue the innovation mindset as they look for and build solutions. 

If you are interested in testing and providing feedback, you can email me ([email protected]) and I will send you the information to sign up for each beta testing program.

The Greater Boston Jewish community is fortunate to be home to 14 Jewish day schools. They include Orthodox yeshivot, Modern Orthodox schools, a Reform day school, and several pluralistic schools, ranging in size from about 40 students to over 400 students. Each school operates independently, and all receive financial and non-financial support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Boston’s local Federation.

Last year, CJP, Prizmah, and The Beker Foundation partnered to launch a pilot initiative based on the premise that collaboration among these 14 Jewish day schools would strengthen the entire system by increasing quality and/or decreasing costs across the network. Prizmah was brought in as the operational partner for the project, and CJP, Beker, and other local funders are providing the initial investment for the three-year pilot. A full-time director was hired, working for Prizmah and based in Boston, and Stronger Together was born.

Laying the Groundwork

When the project launched in December, the first order of business was to build relationships and trust. We started by hearing what makes each school unique, identifying their most urgent needs, and learning about the types of collaboration that might interest them. What emerged from those initial conversations was a long list of potential initiatives that fell into four main categories: Shared Resources, Teacher Support & Professional Development, Student and Family Programming, and job-alike Groups.

While we initially began by casting a very wide net as we considered various types of initiatives, the focus of our efforts became narrower as we learned more about what would be most helpful to the schools and where we could potentially have the greatest impact. 

We were very clear from the beginning that all of our initiatives would be “opt in.” We believed that if we came up with the right projects that met real needs, schools would choose to participate. 

t was also clear early on that there were varying degrees of interest in collaboration, and that most of the interest was focused around shared resources and teacher support/professional development. That was where we decided to focus our energy.

First Initiatives 

One of the first things we did was to schedule regular monthly meetings for all the heads of school. While the heads had begun convening during the previous year, those meetings had been less frequent. As part of Stronger Together, the heads now meet every month on Zoom, with two meetings per year in person. Meeting monthly has allowed us to establish a regular cadence of communication, helping to build stronger relationships and greater trust among the heads.

We also realized that in order for our efforts to be successful, we needed to build relationships not just with the heads, but with other school leaders as well, and we needed to help them build relationships with each other. We began creating other “job alike” groups, starting with the admissions professionals and the Jewish learning directors, both of whom now meet approximately quarterly to discuss common issues, share ideas, and support one another. In the coming months, we hope to add a group for STEM coordinators and one for science teachers. 

In some of those early meetings with school leaders, we heard that many schools do not have the resources to research grant opportunities, or the time to write those grants once they are identified. We decided to use Stronger Together resources to hire a shared grant writer to do some research and identify foundations that may be a good match for our schools. Once the best matches are identified, we will subsidize the grant writer’s hourly rate for those who want her help in applying for those grants.

Community-wide Professional Development Day

The idea for a community-wide professional development day came out of a brainstorming meeting with the heads of school back in March. We were discussing several potential initiatives when someone noted that there had been conversations going on for years about shared professional development, but nothing had ever come of it. There was a general consensus that the idea was worth pursuing, and a few people agreed to attend an initial meeting to discuss it. We all agreed that the topic would need to be compelling, and something they could immediately use in their classrooms. We eventually landed on the practical uses of artificial intelligence in the K-8 classroom. We chose a date at the end of August, which was the first day of staff week for most of the schools, and we hired the Future Design School of Toronto to give the keynote address and facilitate breakout sessions.

The day was a huge success, with close to 350 teachers and administrators in attendance. As far as we know, this was the largest gathering of Jewish day school educators in the history of the Boston Jewish community. The topic was timely and relevant; the presenters were top-notch and highly engaging; and teachers were excited to be spending an afternoon with their peers from ten different schools, gathered together for a shared purpose as the school year was about to begin. Although many participants were required to attend, most reported that they really enjoyed the day, and the vast majority said they learned something new that they are bringing back to their classrooms.

New Initiatives 

As we continue to learn more about the needs of the schools and where there is appetite for collaboration, we are launching some new initiatives in the coming months.

Faculty Sharing Initiative 

Several of our Orthodox schools had part-time teaching positions that they were having difficulty filling. We encouraged the schools to see if they could work out arrangements to share teachers (rather than compete for them), which would also potentially make the positions more desirable for the teachers. Three pairs of schools are taking us up on our offer to subsidize the sharing of faculty. This has enabled these schools to hire teachers that they probably would not have been able to hire otherwise, and has had the added benefit of creating stronger, more cooperative relationships between the schools.

Coaching for Math Teachers 

To help increase excellence in math instruction, we are offering coaching for math teachers in our network. A public high school teacher and former day school parent, with many years of experience, will offer her services to teachers looking to improve their pedagogy around math instruction. A second coach, who is a math professor at a local college and has taught in Jewish day schools, is also available to coach math teachers on how to create content outside of their textbooks, and plan fun, motivating activities, which help students acquire basic skills and fundamentals. The hourly rate for these coaches will be subsidized by Stronger Together.

Shiluv Disability Educators Fellowship Program:

Stronger Together is excited to be partnering with Gateways, a Boston-based organization committed to the full inclusion of all students in Jewish education, to create a year-long program for day school teachers committed to building more inclusive communities in their schools. Teachers will participate in a series of ten trainings over the course of the year, as they develop foundational grounding in the philosophy of inclusion and strategies to implement programming in their schools that develops an inclusive mindset and appreciation of individual differences among students.

Some Early Lessons

For communities considering similar experiments ion collaboration, here are a few lessons we’ve learned so far: 

• There needs to be a person on the ground in the community to serve as the home address for this work. As one head of school noted, “none of these things would be happening without a central coordinator.” 
• Relationship building is the key to successful collaboration, and it takes more time than we think to build necessary trust. 
• There was a limited response when we first asked the schools about their interest in our initial projects. As we began to have some success, the level of interest increased. The more successful initiatives we implement, the higher the participation rate we can expect as we continue to build trust and credibility with school leaders.
• The most successful initiatives are the ones that emerge organically. The more conversations we have with school leaders, the more ideas bubble up. We have learned not to try to impose anything, not to get too attached to any particular idea, and not to be afraid to let go of things that are not getting sufficient support. 
• Be patient! For many different reasons, even great ideas may not be successful. This work requires a certain tolerance of failure, and the curiosity to understand why something failed, so that the next attempt will have a better chance of success. 
• Funding sparks interest. Offering subsidies to encourage collaboration gets people’s attention, especially in smaller schools where a little bit of funding goes a long way. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Some initiatives we are considering for the future include a focus on teacher recruitment to help all of our schools recruit and retain the best teachers, a multi-school 8th grade Israel trip, and a shared benefits consultant to assist schools in putting together the best benefits packages for their staff. 

As we move into year 2 of this 3-year pilot, we will continue to build stronger relationships and continuously find creative new ways to help one another and to share resources for the benefit of the network. We are excited and energized by what we’re learning here in Boston, and hope that our focus on collaboration will ultimately lead to a more thriving and sustainable day school community, and will be a helpful model for other communities across North America.

On a Sunday this past July, when many people were fanning themselves on a beach, more than forty school professionals and lay leaders from ten Jewish day schools in Northern New Jersey gathered in their local federation’s conference room to learn about endowments and endowment building. Over the course of the day, the convening, organized by Prizmah and the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, provided the schools with some of the information and tools they need to begin or to renew their endowment building campaigns.

The convening began with the question of why Prizmah and the federation believe that endowment building is so important. Senior leadership from Prizmah and the federation explained the critical role that endowments play in ensuring financial sustainability and noted how schools with large endowments were better able to navigate the financial challenges that arose during Covid than those without endowments. A kick-off session entitled “Making the Case for Endowment Giving” delved further into explaining why endowments are critical to a school’s long-term financial sustainability, 

Next, participants explored topics including fundamentals of endowment building, cultivating donor prospects, and engaging your board in endowment building. During lunch, participants got to hear about two different types of community-based endowment models from the major donors who funded them: Paula Gottesman (Greater Metrowest, New Jersey) and Sarena Koschitzky (Toronto). In the afternoon, participants were offered an opportunity to attend sessions that were targeted to their specific school role—the role of the head of school or the board in endowment building.

This full day convening, and the yearlong training sessions which will follow it, did not come about overnight. Ever since the outbreak of Covid, schools across North America have been reaching out to Prizmah and their local federations with increasing urgency for guidance on how to build their endowments. In truth, while a handful of the New Jersey schools that attended the convening were already engaged in endowment-building efforts, others had little or no experience. Some were rather circumspect and worried that endowment-building would cannibalize their annual campaigns. Others seemed overly protective of their school donors and viewed the other Northern New Jersey schools as competitors for the same donors. 

In the end, we managed to convince nearly all the schools to attend. We explained to them that endowment-building is part of an integrated ask (and therefore does not cannibalize annual campaigns) and that a rising tide lifts all ships. In other words, working together, as a community of schools, each school will be more successful than if they work alone. By working together, they will raise the entire profile and appeal of endowment building in Northern New Jersey.

As noted, we plan a series of additional training sessions going forward. Over the course of the next year, Prizmah will provide a range of content related to endowments through a series of follow-up trainings focused on the following topics:

• Creating an endowment plan, including setting goals for number of donors and dollars raised
• Recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers 
• Donor cultivation and the integrated ask 
• Marketing and Messaging 

The federation will provide funding and their own professional support. This is a true partnership in which Prizmah can bring a national lens to the field while the federation can provide an important local and communal lens. It is also a model that Prizmah plans to employ in other cities and communities in the near future. In fact, Prizmah believes that there are at least half a dozen communities in the US and Canada that would benefit from this type of partnership. 

Now that’s something that is far more valuable than a day on the beach.

Within the contemporary educational landscape, Jewish day schools and yeshivas hold a crucial position in cultivating cultural identity, teaching religious values, and upholding educational excellence within our Jewish community. Securing the long-term sustainability and advancement of our day schools and yeshivas necessitates strategic community engagements and collaborative initiatives. Many of our educational institutions have embraced this approach, recognizing community engagement as a cornerstone for effective retention and recruitment strategies for both students and donors.

Establishing a Solid Foundation Through Community Engagement 

Community engagement surpasses being a mere buzzword; it stands as a fundamental strategy for building a solid foundation for Jewish day schools and yeshivas. Active engagement with the community cultivates a sense of belonging and involvement, fostering a supportive ecosystem around the school. This involvement leads to increased awareness, advocacy, and a profound emotional bond with the school’s mission and goals. Altogether, it significantly bolsters our efforts in engaging potential families and donors for our schools.

Developing Partnerships: Catalysts for Progress

Collaborative endeavors amplify the impact of individual institutions. When schools collaborate to share resources, knowledge, and expertise, they pave the way for innovation and growth. These collaborations can include joint programs, the sharing of best practices, and the development of initiatives that benefit the collective community. By pooling resources and working in harmony, we can achieve more and provide a richer educational experience for our students.

Retaining and Attracting: Talent and Students 

Community engagement and collaboration also play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining talented educators and staff. When potential employees witness an active and engaged community rallying behind an educational institution, it creates a positive image around the institution. A robust community presence and investment in a school often translate to increased enrollment, leading to further growth and sustainability.

Engaging Alumni

Alumni represent an invaluable asset for any school, and their engagement can significantly impact the growth and development of the institution. Alumni can serve as mentors, donors, or potential advocates, contributing to the institution's progress. Establishing a robust alumni network through strategic engagement and collaboration ensures that the institution maintains lifelong relationships with its graduates, who, in turn, become ambassadors for the school. 

Looking Ahead: Embracing A Collective Future 

Jewish day schools and yeshivas must persist in fostering partnerships and actively engaging with the community. This work ensures their individual growth and excellence while contributing significantly to the vibrancy and strength of the wider Jewish and general community. Schools possess a wealth of knowledge, values, and cultural heritage that they can share with the community at large. Through outreach programs, educational opportunities, and volunteering initiatives, schools can enrich the lives beyond their walls and promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of our traditions, values, and history.

Schools are valuable resources and possess an expertise that extends beyond the classroom. They can offer adult education classes, workshops on various aspects or traditions within Judaism, parenting classes rooted in Jewish ethics and values, and much more. Collaborating with local organizations, synagogues, and community centers can amplify the positive impact, fostering unity and a shared sense of purpose. By doing so, schools not only fulfill their educational mission but also act as catalysts for a more connected and informed Jewish community, reinforcing the communal fabric and ensuring an enduring legacy.

Collaboration and community engagement are more than strategies; they represent the pillars upon which our Jewish day schools and yeshivas can construct a flourishing future. Let us collectively invest in these principles to nurture educational excellence and fortify our communities for generations to come.

חִזְקוּ וְאִמְצוּ אַל־תִּירְאוּ וְאַל־תַּעַרְצוּ מִפְּנֵיהֶם כִּי ה' אֱלֹקיךָ הוּא הַהֹלֵךְ עִמָּךְ לֹא יַרְפְּךָ וְלֹא יַעַזְבֶךָּ׃

Be strong and resolute. Do not fear or dread them; for indeed God marches with you and will not fail or forsake you.
דְּבָרִים/Deuteronomy 31:6

We hope this message finds you and your school communities safe, knowing we all face the devastating news of the attacks on Israel that unfolded over the Chag. As we navigate the trauma and emotions of the current situation, we recognize the profound impact these events have on our schools, communities, and our students.

Am Yisrael is suffering, and we stand together in this moment of crisis. Many of us are dealing with personal loss experienced among friends, family, and colleagues. There are many day school alumni and other current and former members of our community in Israel. We pray they have not been harmed in the attacks, and we pray for the safety of those who are called to serve in the days and weeks ahead.

Jewish day schools and yeshivas play a unique role in fostering deep and enduring connections with Israel. Our commitment to Israel is at the heart of our mission, and it is during times like these that the importance of this commitment becomes even more apparent.

The bonds that our students forge with Israel are deeply personal, spiritual, and emotional. Through the connections formed with Israeli teachers and families, and through those many have made on school study tours to Israel, our students gain knowledge about Israel’s rich history and culture and a deep sense of peoplehood that transcends borders. The educators who bring the spirit of Israel into our classrooms play a pivotal role in nurturing an authentic connection that goes beyond headlines and geopolitical complexities.

As teachers, parents, and school leaders, we have the responsibility to guide our students through moments of uncertainty, helping them navigate the emotional landscape that may arise from the events unfolding in Israel. Our schools will continue to serve as beacons of strength, resilience, and unity.

Thank you for your steadfast dedication to Jewish education. It is through our united efforts that we can make a lasting impact on the lives of our students and contribute to a future of shared values and enduring connections.

Below are some resources to assist in your conversations and work, and more will be added to our Knowledge Center as they become available. Secure Community Network (SCN) is available to provide guidance about safety and security for your schools

• Resources for Schools on Violence and Terrorist Attacks in Israel (Prizmah Knowledge Center) 

Wishing all of our schools and communities strength and resilience in the face of adversity. 

Paul Bernstein 
CEO, Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools 

Lisa Coll 
Chair, Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools 

This time between the Yamim Noraim and Sukkot is one of the busiest weeks in the Jewish calendar, and in addition to the work, errands, and meal-planning we squeeze into a “short” week, we crunch our spiritual muscles as we move from existential fear to unbridled joy.

As we make this transition, I am captivated by the image of an old-fashioned scale. In the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, we call out, “Uteshuvah, utefillah, utzedakah can undo the evil decree,” praying that Hashem sees that our good deeds on one side—repentance, prayer, charity—outweigh the accumulation of our missteps, that the scale tilts toward good in the year ahead. And then, the balance shifts, and we are rewarded with Sukkot, z'man simchateinu, the time of our rejoicing.

At Prizmah, I find myself in a similar position, looking back to the year we have left and anticipating ahead to what is to come. Specifically, where has our scale tipped and how can we hope to maintain or accelerate the positive momentum that so many schools have experienced in recent years?

There is great reason for optimism: enrollment across the field is up, the perceived value of day schools is increasing, and we have seen a significant rise in investments in our schools. Prizmah’s determination to make an impact on thriving day schools and yeshivas has been strengthened by the thousands of school professionals, lay leaders, and devoted

funders who continue to believe in the unique capacity of day schools to ensure a vibrant Jewish future. This is simply an extraordinary time for Jewish day schools.

Looking back over the last year, we can point to quantitative indicators of positive momentum:

• Enrollment is UP. Continuing the positive trends in enrollment we have seen since 2020, two-thirds of Prizmah’s member schools maintained or increased enrollment for 2022-23. Read our Enrollment Pulse Survey Report for more details.
• New families stayed, and more are coming. Seventy-two percent of students who enrolled due to the pandemic re-enrolled for the 2022-23 academic year. These families fell in love with day schools, finding them to be institutions of excellence and centers of community where the values-driven education—content, culture, and context–engages the whole child and nurtures lifelong relationships and love of Judaism. Additionally, we are seeing more transfer students—in the 136 schools participating in Prizmah’s survey, last year nearly 1,000 new students enrolled from public schools and 343 from other private schools.
• Significant Investments are growing. Headlines in Jewish and general press were filled with news of exceptional gifts to Jewish day schools this past year. Multimillion dollar contributions were designated for educational excellence, creative tuition models enhancing affordability, and endowments. These “big bets” emerged from an overall rise in the awareness that day schools make an impact over generations, exemplified in Prizmah’s #JDSalumniproud video campaign.

Our schools have collectively seized this moment, and Prizmah has helped by doubling down on the critical needs which remain core to our strategy: supporting and deepening leadership and talent, activating funding sources, and advancing educational excellence and innovation. These remain top strategic priorities of the Prizmah Network, powered by learning through sharing.

As we see the scale tip with our accomplishments from last year, we look ahead to some of the opportunities and challenges facing us.

• Our leadership and educator pipeline demands cultivation. At a time when exceptional leadership is one of our most precious commodities, we must increase the tenure of heads of school and create attractive pathways to headships. Prizmah programs like DSLTI (Day School Leadership Training Institute), Orthodox Women's Leadership Cohort, and YOU Lead, as well as the invaluable contributions of coaches and mentors, continue to give veteran and new heads skills and encouragement to persevere in what some would call the toughest job in the Jewish world.
• Finances matter more than ever. Affordability will remain a challenge, and schools and communities are practicing ever more creative approaches to meet the needs of all families in fair and effective ways. With broader recognition of the value of Jewish day schools, now is an opportune time to expand efforts in deploying creative affordability models and in raising endowment funds.
• Excellence drives growth. Whether in facilities management or curriculum development, nothing at a school can flourish without ongoing care and tending. Day in and day out, the trust parents place in their schools must be rewarded with impeccable service and the delivery of a first-class education. Post-Covid realities such as increased mental health and social-emotional challenges will continue to push our schools to strengthen the way they support all students, academically, spiritually, and socially.

This liminal time of year, when we emerge from awe and ramp up joy, sets the stage for a promising school year. Just as our days begin to grow shorter, we start a new balancing act. In our vision for the year to come, may we accrue the confidence and success to find ourselves once again in a position to reflect back on achievements just as we look ahead to new challenges.

As a means of reflection, we are pleased to provide you with Prizmah’s annual Year in Review report, featuring highlights from the 2022-23 academic year, including trends in enrollment, advancement, school finance and leadership, along with future-focused insights.

Z’man Simchatainu | זְמַן שִׂמְחָתֵנוּ
With best wishes for a truly joyful year ahead.

Lisa Popik Coll, Prizmah’s new board chair, knew from her first date with her husband, Arieh Coll, that if things worked out, she’d be sending her children to Jewish day school. “While I grew up in a very Jewishly identified community and loved my summers at camp, Arieh made the case that in day schools, Jewish life thrives year-round,” she said.

Coll understood what this really meant when her oldest child was in fifth grade at Solomon Schechter of Greater Boston and parents were invited to tefillah where their children chanted from the Torah for the first time. Eighth graders in the room next door were tapped to help make a minyan so kaddish could be recited.  “Without any typical adolescent eye-rolling, they came into the room,” said Coll. “You could literally see everything come together in that moment—the values the school had instilled, the sense of community, Jewish literacy, and the idea that each student in the school was truly a link in the great chain of our tradition,” said Coll.

Her path to day school lay leadership took off when she was invited in 1997 to a meeting for the new Jewish high school (now Gann Academy) that had just opened on the campus of Brandeis.  “What struck me was that almost none of the people there had kids who would benefit from this new school. Their kids were mostly beyond high school age,” she said. “It was like the midrash come to life about Honi planting carob seeds for the next generation.”  With her children still in grade school, Coll recognized that it was her opportunity to step up and take on a lay leadership role—and she hasn’t stopped since.

Coll’s leadership is powered by a passion for taking advantage of new opportunities to get involved, and she is the quintessential networker. “Through Boston-area day school advocacy and collaboration efforts, like the recently launched Stronger Together initiative, and meeting donors from across North America at Prizmah’s Investor Summits, I have found that sharing what works makes all the difference,” said Coll. As Prizmah’s chair, Coll is excited to leverage the opportunities for school leaders to continue learning from each other.

“Whether we are addressing affordability, tackling the educators pipeline, or strengthening leadership, it all starts when we share what is working in a particular school or community,” said Coll. Prizmah, for Coll, has the sacred responsibility to make sure that happens. “You will never come away more inspired about the future of the Jewish people than at a Prizmah gathering.