News

We ARE the Leaders We Need Right Now

We ARE the Leaders We Need Right Now – eJewish Philanthropy By Nicole Nevarez, with Jamie Allen Black and Naomi Eisenberger “Where are the Jewish leaders who speak for women?” Dr. Susannah Heschel asks this critical question in her July 27th opinion piece in the Forward. She celebrates Rep. Alexandria…...

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David’s farewell message

Dear friends, When I began at the Bureau of Jewish Education thirteen years ago, every community survey announced with ever-greater alarm that the Jewish people were sliding  toward oblivion.   Throughout our history, “there was hardly a generation in the Diaspora that did not consider itself the final link in Israel’s chain,”…...

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1980s Soviet Jewry activist turns his eyes toward a battle for today: Black Lives Matter

By David Waksberg Originally from the j. Jewish News of Northern California When I was a teenager, I wore a huge Jewish star around my neck, and on it was the name of Mark Dymshitz, a Soviet Jewish prisoner of conscience. One day, an African American friend of mine stopped…...

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A Round Up of Jewish Virtual Programming for Teens in the Bay Area

Debra Sagan Massey, Senior Educator at Jewish LearningWorks in San Francisco, has for the last year been holding regular pop-up meetings for Jewish educators working with teens. As a result of the pandemic crisis, these meetings have recently gone virtual, but have, as a result, become fertile ground for sharing…...

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Class dismissed: Jewish LearningWorks CEO David Waksberg retires

Originally published in J. Jewish News of Northern California – May 28, 2020 Around the time David Waksberg became CEO of the Bureau of Jewish Education 13 years ago, he had a heart-to-heart with a colleague. And not just any old colleague. He called former Soviet Jewish refusenik Natan Sharansky.…...

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Be the campfire for our teens

When I accepted the position of CEO at Jewish LearningWorks, I was motivated by optimism about the future of our work, elevating the art of Jewish teaching and the practice of Jewish learning. In spite of this historical moment, I continue to be driven by that optimism. Though none of…...

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Farewell from our Director of Inclusion

Dear Friends, For nearly a decade I have had the privilege of supporting, advising, and working with all of you to make the Bay Area Jewish community more welcoming and inclusive. From our humble beginnings with five schools in the North Peninsula, to our work today offering special needs support…...

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Jewish Education and Engagement Award Winners

Jewish LearningWorks is proud to announce the recipients of two new awards for 2020. Devra Aarons, Executive Director of Contra Costa Midrasha, is receiving the Award for Excellence in Jewish Youth Education and Engagement. Rick Concoff, Director of Chaverim at the JCC of Sonoma County, is the recipient of the…...

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Genealogy ‘mavens’ go old-school to uncover Jewish past

Genealogy ‘mavens’ go old-school to uncover Jewish past – J. Final part of three-part PAST LIVES series on Jewish genealogical research. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Sam Ginsburg sat in a library with a mess of papers scattered in front of him. He was looking for an uncle he had…...

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Changing The Way We Think About Jewish Learning

The car pulled into the synagogue parking lot; a Sunday morning like any other. The rear doors flew open and two kids jumped out of the car and ran to the front door. “Here, kids run to our school,” one congregant observed proudly, sparking smiles among the adults nearby. The students’ excitement…...

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