CAJE-Miami: The Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education

𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀, 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

There are moments in a teenager’s life when something shifts: a new friendship, a conversation that stays with them, a place they visit that changes the way they see the world. Sometimes, one experience can become the beginning of a lifelong connection to the Jewish community, Israel, and their own identity. That is the power behind CAJE’s Miami teen programs. Through IsraelNow Miami, Diller Teen Fellows Miami, and Miami March of the Living, CAJE meets teens at these different moments with opportunities to connect, learn, lead, and discover their place in the Jewish community. And sometimes, the world reminds us just how important that work is.

Read the blog by Dr. Carly Orshan, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Teen Department, and Congregational Education at
https://caje-miami.org/latest/blog/three_journeys_one_jewish_future

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗲

It is serendipitous that as we approach Rosh Hashanah, the day of reckoning, the weekly Torah reading presents us with laws that help us to train in noticing and weakening our tendency towards willful ignorance...But why would we choose to ignore?

Read the dvar torah by Sam Feinsmith from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality on our blog:
https://caje-miami.org/latest/shabbat/what_we_choose_to_see

Send this to 10th and 11th graders who you think would be great for this amazing opportunity. Applications are open NOW!

https://www.dillermiami.org/apply-1

𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝘀

Every rabbi eventually learns an uncomfortable truth: it is much easier to condemn the sins of others than the sins of our own. The prophets of Israel understood this. Nathan did not rebuke the Philistines; he rebuked King David. Jeremiah did not devote his ministry to the moral failures of Babylon. He called his own people to account. Covenant begins with self-examination. That is why I found myself nodding in agreement as I read Bret Stephens’ recent column in The New York Times warning that Jewish terrorism in the West Bank poses “a direct threat to Israel’s security and statehood, and thus to Zionism itself.”

Read the full dvar by Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El Synagogue Omaha at https://caje-miami.org/latest/shabbat/justice_belongs_to_the_courts/

𝗖𝗔𝗝𝗘 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗡𝗧𝗣: 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀

A few months ago, the 7th cohort of the CAJE’s Jewish New Teacher Project(JNTP) program came to a close. Over the past two years, this cohort brought together 20 educators from six South Florida schools — Scheck Hillel Community School, Yeshiva Elementary School, Hebrew Academy Miami(RASG), Tamim Academy, Yeshiva Toras Chaim Toras Emes - Klurman Campus , and Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton. These experienced teachers stepped into the role of mentors, committing to support new educators during their most formative and often most challenging years in the classroom.

Read the story by Valerie Marshal Mitrani, CAJE’s Director of Day School Professional Development https://caje-miami.org/latest/blog/investing_in_our_teachers_strengthening_our_schools/

𝗘𝗹-𝗦𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

I took my six-year-old daughter to see Aladdin on Broadway, and as I watched, I realized: here was a street thief who steals from the rich to feed the poor, a candidate the DSA could run tomorrow, and the show’s answer to poverty and to longing is a magical genie. And then this week many of us watched, with dread, magic of a scarier kind: a monumental primary election in Michigan, where El-Sayed’s victory, celebrated loudly by Mamdani and his movement, rode the promise of tearing down what is and conjuring a utopia in its place.

Read Words of Wisdom by Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
https://caje-miami.org/latest/shabbat/allure_of_magical_thinking/

𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗔𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗺

It is our great joy to introduce Rachel Delia Benaim-Abudarham as CAJE’s new Senior Educator and Assistant Director of Adult Learning. A little about her: Rachel is a Sephardic Jew, born and raised in South Florida. For her, this is not a new landscape — it is home. She was trained in study halls across the United States, Israel and Sweden, sharpened in Columbia University classrooms and shaped by a 15-year, award-winning career as a journalist chasing Jewish stories around the globe. A lifelong student, her current doctoral research explores embodied memory in Moroccan and Sephardic Jewish communities— her own community — which is a scholarly way of saying that she cares about how history lives inside us.

Read the full blog
https://caje-miami.org/latest/blog/meet_rachel_benaim_abudarham/

𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗛𝘂𝗿𝗿𝘆!

Years ago I was a group leader for the American Jewish World Service Alternative Spring Breaks.

I would accompany groups of college students to poor countries, mostly in Central America, to learn about global poverty and American Jewish responsibility.

There were very few rules about how we would observe Jewish traditions on those week-long visits, but one of them was that we would not work on Shabbat.

That was difficult for some students. We were there to work! To help out! The need was so great! How could we “waste a day” resting?

Sometimes these days when I teach about contemplative spiritual practice, I hear an echo of those students.

Isn't spiritual practice essentially self-care? And isn't self-care inherently self-indulgent? Why should we have the right to rest when there is so much to do in this world?

Read the blog by Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
https://caje-miami.org/latest/shabbat/lose_that_hurry/

𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹: 𝗗𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆

This summer, something long anticipated finally became reality. For the first time since 2023, Miami Diller Teen Fellows returned to Israel for the Diller Israel Summer Seminar (ISS), joining more than 700 Jewish teens from 32 communities across seven countries for an experience centered on leadership, Jewish peoplehood, and connection. After two summers in which the program was unable to travel to Israel, returning felt especially meaningful.

Eleven Miami Fellows and two Junior Counselors participated in this year's seminar, accompanied by Diller Coordinator Bari Lutz and Teen Department Operations Manager Claudine Ackerman, who guided and supported the delegation throughout the nearly three-week experience.

Together, they explored Israel, connected with peers from around the world, and strengthened relationships with their Israeli counterparts from Yerucham, Miami's Partnership community.

Read the article By Dr. Carly Orshan, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Teen Education https://caje-miami.org/latest/blog/diller_returns_to_israel/