Who is wise? One who sees what is going to be (or what will be born).
-Talmud Tamid 32a
30th Annual Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education
August 15-18, 2005
Shabbat, Tisha B'Av and Pre-Conference
August 12-15, 2005
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Excellence. What an idea.
Say it out loud, “Excellence.” It even sounds good.
And have you ever heard anyone say, “We aren’t worried about excellence, we’re aiming just for good.”?
Excellence. We all want it, don’t we?
Some of us might even be willing to take a shot at defining it.
The philosopher Spinoza suggested,
“All things Excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
Educator John W. Gardner asserted,
“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
Or Aristotle, who described it behaviorally saying,
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
So how do we help each
other learn new habits?

That is the “alternative”
the 2005 CAJE Conference
on Alternatives in Jewish
Education is all about.

In addition to the varied opportunities for learning no matter what your interest and task, this Conference will provide an integrated focused experience trying to live up to a tall order. This year CAJE will focus on a reconsideration and redefinition of educational excellence for a new generation. The program will pose the question, “Given what we know about the Jewish community in 2005, how do we successfully perpetuate an intellectually and spiritually dynamic Jewish community in North America?” The challenge is enormous, and this surely will be a single step on a long and complex journey.


The building blocks of this renewed discussion of excellence will be –
Change, Collaboration, and Sacred Community. Add your voice to this holy dialogue:


Change
Learning new habits. Vision and assessment.

“It’s hard.”
“It’s exciting!”
“I want to be the best teacher I can be. I can change my classroom.”
“I don’t think I can make change. I’m just a teacher.”
“But, if you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always…”
“I am a teacher, but always still a learner. I am looking for change that can lead me to excellence.”
“How do we make systemic change?”
“Here’s a change – Educators should get more kavod.”
“We must let the future make demands on the present.”
“Define the goals – then teach to them.”
“Create a vision – then give the vision decision-making power.”
“Change doesn’t just happen. We need to plan it, nurture it, advocate for it.”
“I have to be true to my desire for personal excellence. I need rededication.”
“How do I know what changes to make? If the changes are, in fact, better?”


Collaboration
Doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Rethinking how we work.

“The whole really can be more than the sum of the parts.”
“But how? There never seems to be enough time.”
“Who’s in on your collaborations? I don’t think I am reaching far enough.”
“Collaboration is a powerful engine for change.”
“We need to be open to brave, bold ideas.”
“Collective wisdom.”
“Sharing resourses.”
“Learning from each other.”
“Seeing Torah shining on each other’s faces.”


Sacred Community
Who is wise? The past and the future calling to the present.

“Define your terms. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Build it, and we will be built by it.”
“It is about my soul, and the soul of my community.”
“It is our values, our point of view. An alternative way of living.”
“It should apply to us as well. A sacred connection between the board, the administrators, and the teachers.”
“It is about how we live in reference to our texts, to our ideas about God.”
“Tikkun Olam. Definitely. It is all about partnerships and repair.”
“We will do, and we will listen.”
“A light unto the nations.”
“It is what makes teaching worthwhile. Waking people to their higher selves.”
“It provides the answers to life’s difficult questions.”
“No. It provides the difficult questions to life’s easy answers.”
“I want to live there. Can you you tell me where it exists?”
“It is a circle of meaning. Sacred community demands collaboration.”
“Profound collaboration will begin by asking us all to participate in defining, advocating for, and getting up to our ears in change.”


Alternatives

As part of this challenging move in the direction of excellence, the Conference will offer opportunities participants have come to expect at CAJE Conferences. There will be sessions designed to hone and advance your personal teaching and professional skills, to deepen your Judaic knowledge and understanding, and to learn about new materials and technologies.

And, of course, there will be music and song, dancing and storytelling, joyous prayer and meditation. This special community will join together with great ruach, the hallmark of any CAJE Conference, to remind each other that we are engaged in holy labor. We will celebrate our work, celebrate our community, and celebrate the richness of our lives.

And, don’t even think about missing Shabbat, Tisha B’Av and Pre-Conference!

This year CAJE 30 will provide our community with an unusual opportunity. We will spend an intense Shabbat retreat focused on personal and communal healing and renewal. Our Shabbat consideration of destruction and rebuilding will prepare us, in the manner of a prequil, to experience the drama and lamentation of Tisha B’Av. Then Tisha B’Av will bring this Conference the extraordinary opportunity for prayer and programming, as we explore the day’s meaning in a minor key.

Following Tisha B’Av, Monday’s pre-conference will offer participants a variety of options. Some may choose to “unpack” the Shabbat and Tisha B’Av experiences; to learn what is involved in building this unique sacred community as well as what and how similar experiences can be created within our home communities. Others will choose to explore excellence in learning through a more focused lens by availing themselves of the special programs our CAJE Networks and the Conference committee are planning.

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