The Jewish Educational Leader: Challenges and Opportunities
My career in Jewish Education began as an inexperienced, underpaid camp counselor. My training consisted of someone telling me that if I could be a Dugmah Isheet – a role model – and be passionate about being Jewish, I’d be a good counselor. Years later, while pursuing education degrees, I realized, of course, that being an educator is a much more complex endeavor. In fact, as I worked as a Head of School, attended conferences, read education journals, and called colleagues for advice, it became very clear that I, as an educator, was forever destined to be a work in progress. The various skill sets I needed to run a school – budgets, personnel, curriculum, board work, fundraising, technology, public speaking, and marketing – developed with time and experience and continue to do so. But from those early years, through several decades in the field, I’ve come to realize it’s not just what an educator knows or can do , but who they are as an Educational Leader . What is a Jew...