Rabbi Jim: Still Learning

Rabbi Jim Rogozen   Almost every Jewish day school has a Mission Statement. It usually appears on the school’s web page and in marketing materials. It explains what the school is about, its target audience, and the nature and goals of the school. Some of these Mission Statements are very specific about the families they serve and the religious nature of the school, while others are broader in scope, hoping to attract families with a wider range of Jewish practices and beliefs. A school’s religious policies, curriculum, program, and faculty will (or should) reflect what’s contained in the Mission Statement. A school’s ability to accomplish all the elements contained within its Mission Statement depends on several factors: enough students to constitute each grade of the school, sufficient revenue from tuition and fundraising, a group of qualified teachers and specialists, trained administrators, a facility that supports the school’s program, and the support of the Board and p...

For many people in the world, no matter how Israelis fight back against Hamas (and Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran, etc.) they will be accused of genocide. Expelling Hamas from Gaza comes with the price of lives lost on both sides; a price that is extremely high because of the way Hamas has used its citizens as human shields. But the way protestors frame their opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas in such a narrowly focused way (genocide), ignoring larger context and realities (as well as the death cult that is Jihadism) speaks to a troubling belief system. In a way, it’s a new kind of idolatry. We usually think of idolatry as worshipping idols, but in the history of religious thought, there are deeper understandings of idolatry. When we see only one side of a person and mistake that for the whole person, we ignore the full reality of who they are. When we take a small part of the world and say, “This is God,” or “This is the meaning of life,” we elevate that one part, and mistake it for ...

When I first started out as a school administrator I read an article in a parenting magazine about choosing the right school for your child. The first piece of advice: go check out the bathrooms. The writer wasn’t claiming that clean bathrooms led directly to quality learning, but that a school that paid such close attention to bathrooms would, no doubt, be very careful when it came to educating children. In a previous blog post I wrote that if a school is serious about setting learning goals, the staff need to have clarity around what they consider to be “good” or “excellent” in those target areas.  The next step is to be just as serious about what is “good” or “excellent” when it comes to the school’s organization and management. Just as Disney World creates a Magic Kingdom for visitors by using its behind-the-scenes Utilidor System for cast members, and cruise ships use their Deck 0 utility tunnels (called “I-95”) to ensure a wonderful experience on the upper decks, schools h...

Where’s the Vision?  Rabbi Jim Rogozen In Ian Symmonds’s April 2022 blog post 1 he observes that, unlike the ubiquitous Mission Statement, fewer than 20% of independent schools and colleges have a Vision Statement. The reason partially lies in the inconsistent use of the terms Mission and Vision . For instance, some schools use the word “vision” when what they are describing is the “mission” or, in some cases, the learning environment. As Symmonds noted, such descriptions are neither “missions” nor “visions,” but fall into the categories of branding or messaging. So let’s do a quick review: A Mission Statement explains why you open the doors to your school each day; it’s your purpose, your intention. It’s what you do, who your audience is, and (as one consultant put it) the next hill you want to conquer.   Some examples, starting with three non-school organizations: ·        To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.  (...