What is the future of Jewish
education? Who is the future leadership?
ATID has been
established in order to enable talented men and women, young professionals from all
fields, who have a rich background in Torah study, to develop the ability to make informed
decisions about the education of the next generations. We have established ATID to help
shape and develop the future of educational leadership in our community.
These future leaders and visionaries will be the teachers and builders
of educational institutions, members of the boards of directors, and the forces in
setting the educational agenda within the community.
Those working in the culture of schools and formal education are forced to
develop sophisticated positions on a range of educational issues. Individuals who may not
serve as professional educators find themselves obliged to make educational decisions of
great significance. They are often charged with the burden of their children's education
in the wider sense, and affect the state of the community enterprise in a decisive way.
ATID Fellows will develop the sharpened insight and broad vision to face this crucial and
holy challenge.
ATID deals with problems in the philosophy of education, and
education in an ideologically charged Jewish world. ATID exposes its participants to both
the well-known and rarely contemplated problems of educationall the while
endeavoring to create a meaningful dialogue and serious inquiry between the
participants and our staff.
Educating the Jewish people is a holy task, and the complexities of
doing it correctly in the modern world demand that those entrusted with the task develop
the sophistication to succeed, and to lead this enterprise to new levels of improvement,
development, and accomplishment. We believe that if junior professionals and future
lay leadership develop the ability to face the complexities that will stand before them,
we will be entrusting the future of our community to the ablest of hands.
The theory of education which ATID examines helps each Fellow develop an
educational vision for themselves and the community they will lead. But that is not
enoughATID also focuses on the strategies necessary to actualize and implement the
theory and vision. Jewish tradition serves as a crucial resource in molding a young
educators understanding of his or her profession, and ATID returns to the sources to
mine the classical texts for insights to educational policy. Unfortunately, these sources
often merely serve as slogans, and have not been fully processed to offer the deepest
insight into pedagogy. ATID Fellows develop the ability to engage the texts, and draw
deeply from these insights. Additionally, we turn our attention to the world of general
education and educational meta-theory for its ability to enrich and inform our work.
Furthermore, we are committed to the idea that the systemic reform that is
needed in Jewish education can only be activated by combining all of the
playersteachers and administrators and lay leadership, formal and informal
educators, academics and elementary school personnel, students of yeshivot and of
universitiesall brought together in ATID to map out the future, creating a new
generation of educational decision makers, practitioners and designers.
"From Zion shall go forth Torah..."
Perhaps the most dynamic, impactful educational phenomenon for Diaspora
Jewry happens in Israel. This is true for North American and Anglo Modern Orthodoxy, and
in an increasing way for other segments of the Jewish community at-large. The year (or
more) of study in Israeli yeshivot and seminaries is having a decisive impact on
the thousands of students who come to learn Torah and then return to the Diaspora bringing
Torat Eretz Yisrael with them. By focusing on young professionals who are largely
working with these students, ATID affirms its commitment to the impact Torah study in
Israel has on world Jewry, and the role that Torah can and must play as a link between all
Jewish communities. By helping these educators reach higher levels of professionalism,
ATID helps improve the education of Jewish students in Israel and throughout the world.
A broad conception of Jewish education
ATID is founded on a broad conception of Jewish education. By including a
select number of outstanding professionals from outside of the world of formal education,
we show our commitment to the notion that the players in Jewish education are found in
many varied arenasfrom the classroom to the boardroom, schools and homes, yeshivot
and universities. By exposing future school-based leaders to lay leadership we help to
foster a sophistication and the rigorous, broad vision crucial to a successful educational
setting. By exposing the future laity to deep educational inquiry, thinking, and decision
making we enable them to be more effective in the positions they will assumeand
foster the sense that they too are educators.
Through the mentor relationships that are established, we provide a
meaningful, growth-orientrelationship which (on one level) expands the participants
level of professional contacts, and (on a deeper level) provides the mentoring which is
necessary for bringing someone into contact with the deep, significant thinking that is
necessary for the personal growth that the participants experience. The senior educators
guide the Fellows as they enter state-of-the-art practices and thinking, and will remain
partners and colleagues with the Fellows throughout their careers.
ATID is an independent, privately funded institution which aims to
foster new and significant thought on the crucial issues facing Jewish education among
future leaders in the fieldstudents, young educators, and other professionals who
will serve as lay leadership.
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