Jewish LearningWorks offers a variety of cohort learning experiences designed to share best practices, and deepen your professional knowledge by learning with and from colleagues.
Community is the heart of all Jewish learning. As Jewish educators know, when we engage in Jewish learning, we become part of a rich conversation, taking place over millennia. We know this intuitively, but we also know from research that both adults and children often learn best in groups. Studies show that effective professional development:
- Takes place within educators’ regular workday or work week
- Continues over time with sessions building on each other
- Models active learning
- Fosters a collegial, collaborative environment
- Focuses on building educators’ pedagogical content knowledge
- Includes learning in and from practice
Opportunities include:
Jewish Resilience Roundtable
For Bay Area professionals and lay leaders working with Jewish adolescents
This roundtable will meet monthly throughout the 2025-26 program year to create a learning network for Jewish communal stakeholders invested in Jewish educational and engagement opportunities for adolescents. Organizations participating will be eligible to send their chosen team to online and in-person learning sessions designed to support professionals who sit at the intersection of adolescent well-being and Jewish education. The Resilience Roundtable will meet from September 2025 to May 2026. You can become a member anytime.
Spiritually Centered Judaism Community of Practice
For all Jewish educators who seek to deepen the ways spirituality is centered within their teaching practices
Following our SoulFULL gathering in Spring 2025, and Dr. Lisa Miller’s keynote on the neuroprotective power of spirituality, we invite Jewish educators of learners of all ages to join our SoulFULL community of practice to share, and explore educational pedagogies and practices that cultivate a spiritually infused Judaism.
The Soul FULL Community of Practice will meet from September 2025 to June 2026. For more information about this year-long opportunity, please contact Alisha Pedowitz, Senior Educator, at alisha@jewishearning.works.
Early Childhood Education Community of Practice
For Preschool Directors
The Bay Area is home to 40 Jewish Early Childhood centers in a range of settings across the religious and communal spaces in our community. We convene the Directors of these schools to connect and learn from each other on a monthly basis. This network gathers online to study best practices in areas such as curriculum, family engagement ideas, professional development planning, and supervision to name a few. Jewish LearningWorks also provides an annual day of learning for the educators as well as a day long retreat for the directors.
For more information about this year-long opportunity, please contact Ellen Lefkowitz, Senior Educator, at ellen@jewishearning.works.
Voices for Good Fellowship
For women leaders in Jewish communal organizations in the Bay Area, Pacific Northwest and Mountain States
This two-year fellowship creates an affinity space for women leaders in Jewish communal organizations to build collegial relationships, explore of Jewish values in leadership, and address challenges unique to women in Jewish professional life. Fellows learn together in monthly seminars with core and guest faculty through the duration of the experience. The 2024-2026 cohort began in February 2024.
Educator’s Beit Midrash with Orot
For all Jewish educators working across educational settings
This six-week online series led by Orot is designed to give Bay Area Jewish educators a space to explore sources of Jewish wisdom, inspiration, and meaning because we believe that when Jewish educators are able to nourish, and nurture their own spirituality, they in turn bring this wisdom and inspiration to their learners. The Educator’s Beit Midrash will meet from March to June 2025.
Israel LearningLab
For all Jewish educators working across educational settings
This six-month learning lab for Jewish educators is designed to support the response to our students’ needs at this moment, and help educators create a new strategy for teaching about Israel. Participants will explore the way in which Israel learning is part of Jewish education, learn to navigate through differences through monthly sessions, and work with a mentor to experiment, and develop their own confidence to teach about Israel. The Israel LearningLab will meet from November 2024 to May 2025.
