Jewish educators from around the country are coming to Baltimore from June 23-26 for NewCAJE16, the annual conference hosted by the Jewish educational organization NewCAJE.
This year marks 16 years of NewCAJE holding the conference and is the first time it has been to Baltimore, opening the opportunity for local educators to attend and collaborate with peers from across the country.
The four-day conference will be hosted on the campus of Goucher College and will be both a celebration of Jewish educators and a space to share best practices, attend workshops and attend fun evening programs.
“They [the educators] come from all over the country, and I would say the two most important things are that they come to be reenergized and rejuvenated,” said Rabbi Cherie Koller-Fox, president and founder of NewCAJE.
Koller-Fox said that while part of the conference is about sharing educational resources and tips, the conference is also a place where teachers can be surrounded by people that share their deep passion for their jobs.
Koller-Fox, a Boston resident, likened it to attending a Red Sox game, where everyone involved is standing together and rooting for the best possible result for the team.
“We call ourselves a NewCAJE family, because it’s kind of like that. We like to treat them like family. We pick them up at the airport, we provide meals, we make sure they’re taken care of, and it’s part of what we’re doing to honor the work that they do,” Koller-Fox said.
Teachers can spend time with people who understand the unique challenges of the job and get some education into how best to advocate for themselves in a decentralized Jewish educational system.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on with teachers that people may not know about. By the beginning of the summer, they’re exhausted and feeling underappreciated, for sure. And it’s especially a problem in Jewish education because the salaries and the benefits are really not what they should be,” Koller-Fox said.
Koller-Fox said that the conference is for anyone who teaches in a Jewish setting, whether it be to preschoolers, adults, various denominations and more.
The goal of the conference is for people to take something new back home with them. Koller-Fox said that every demographic group has strengths and weaknesses in their educational practice.
“We’re all teaching Torah; we’re all teaching Hebrew. We have a lot that we have in common, and we can learn from each other. I think some of the movements do a better job in one thing, and others do a better job in another thing. We’re learning from each other,” Koller-Fox said.
The conference offers attendees hundreds of sessions in the form of workshops, panel discussions, special programs and more. Koller-Fox said that people attending can sign up to lead a workshop if they have something interesting to share, so everyone at the conference has the opportunity to both teach and learn over the four days.
The conference and its yearly rotating host cities also allow for people with a wide range of Jewish communal backgrounds to go and experience a different Jewish community culture and structure.
Koller-Fox said that NewCAJE is excited to come to Baltimore this year.
“Baltimore is an outstanding Jewish community. And these people who are coming from Iowa and South Dakota, wherever else they’re coming from, they’re really coming in part to see what it’s like to be in a community like Baltimore, where there’s so many services, so many restaurants, so many people who care about Jewish life there,” Koller-Fox said.
Koller-Fox said that NewCAJE is working to provide easier opportunities for Baltimore-area educators to attend the conference, which can cost over $800 dollars per person.
NewCAJE is collaborating with the Crane Foundation in Baltimore, which is providing half scholarships for any Baltimore County Jewish educators looking to attend.
Koller-Fox said that the conference is important because people around the world want to know what other educators are doing that’s working, especially in today’s world with the conflict in Israel and a rise in antisemitism.
“We’re living in very difficult times right now. [It’s] hard to be Jewish, hard to be in a Jewish community where there’s so much discord and disagreement about what’s going on, how to handle it. It’s important that [educators] can come and learn how to understand, for example, antisemitism, understand what’s going on in Israel, understand how to teach it to the littlest kids, the biggest kids and everybody in between,” Koller-Fox said. “They’re reaching into their own pockets. They shouldn’t have to pay for this at all. But a lot of them are paying for this conference because they want to do the best job they can do.”
For more information about the conference, visit newcaje.org.
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