Synagogue+educational+change+consultants


 * Additional synagogue change consultants** may be found on the STAR (Synagogue Transformation and Renewal) website by clicking **[|here]**


 * Judith Beck** is Director of the Synagogue Leadership Initiative at the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, which focuses on the mission and challenges of the 81 congregations within the service area of the UJA Federation. The SLI program design creates dissatisfaction with the congregational status quo. At seminars, capacity building workshops, affinity group meetings, consultations and a guided strategic planning process, congregational leadership is encouraged to vision, create action plans, develop new strategies and implement new initiatives which meet the spiritual and Jewish educational needs of their congregants and those individuals not yet in their congregation in the 21st century. Her services include compression planning facilitation, strategic planning, program design and evaluation, board orientations, outreach strategies to the unaffiliated, family education, and organizational change. She may be contacted at 201-488-6800 or judyb@ujannj.org.


 * Sandy Waldman Dashefsky** has served at a consultant/evaluator in Greater Hartford, CT for a variety of initiatives including: //La’atid: Synagogues for the Future (Director, 1998-present)//, Federation Leadership Task Force (2005-present), Community Leadership Initiative (2005-present), Commission on Jewish Education Evaluation (2006), Synagogue-Federation Relations Committee (2008), as well as serving as an instructor at the Hartford Institute of Jewish Studies: An Affiliate of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies of the University of Hartford. She has also served as consultant and evaluator nationally, consulting with all denominations and many different communities, including working with JESNA, Star’s Synaplex, and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Areas of focus include: systemic, organizational change, synagogue/school transformation, Jewish family education and life-long learning, leadership development and collaboration, and evaluation. In these efforts, she strives to cultivate a strong sense of Jewish identity and knowledge and enhance spiritual opportunities for synagogue members of all ages.

Areas of expertise include consulting with communities on: visioning-strategic planning, articulating goals, determining objectives, setting priorities, creating experimental action programs, and developing on-going evaluation as well as guiding in leadership development and collaborative team work of professionals and lay leaders, always through the lens of Jewish study and values. Areas of expertise in evaluation that interweave with a strategic planning process include understanding communities through the development of needs’ assessments, environmental scans, and “backward design” models, as well as expertise in formative (on-going) and summative evaluation, including structuring and guiding interviews, focus groups, and surveys. She may be contacted at dashhome@cox.net.


 * Marion Gribetz** and **Billy Mencow** work together and individually to help congregations align their program with their vision. We work closely with senior staff and key lay leaders to develop a team approach that advocates for clear improvements in education. Together with any combination of Rabbis, Education Directors, Family & Youth Educators as well as chairpersons and executive committee members, we help your site to design strategies and tactics which promote your educational goals. As you share with us information about your infrastructure (curriculum, staffing, history, budget, job descriptions, timelines) we guide a process that will help you to make decisions that will strengthen your educational programming and work environment. We have worked with many congregations over the years and can supply references upon request. We are available for support of initiatives as well as implementing evaluation tools. Please check out our website - [|www.gribetzmencowconsultants.com]. Marion may be contacted at 781- 308-3069 or mariongribetz@gribetzmencowconsultants.com ; Billy at 781-910-1743 or billymencow@gribetzmencowconsultants.com.


 * Jewish Outreach Partnership of Greater Philadelphia** provides education and consultation services to 90 synagogues in the Philadelphia area through Reshet: The Network for Synagogue Strength and the Synagogue Mentorship Program. Private consultation is available to individual synagogues primarily throughout the Mid-Atlantic area; services include planning, visioning, conflict resolution, leadership development, and group facilitation. JOP combines the study of traditional Jewish text with contemporary organizational principles so that synagogue professional and lay leaders can work together to create a kehillah kedosha, sacred community. JOP has worked with four Legacy Heritage grant congregations since 2007. Contact: Rabbi Philip Warmflash (rabbiphil@jopp.org) or Kathy Elias (kelias@jopp.org) or by phone at 215-635-2877.


 * Vicky Kelman** specializes in family education and parenting programs development (from concept to actualization), professional development of staff to work with families, development of vision in the area of working with families that include young children; she also has a special interest in families with teens and families that include kids with special needs. Contact her at vicky.kelman@gmail.com


 * Linda London,** MSW, has been helping not-for-profit organizations identify, articulate and attain their goals since 1983. With extensive experience in the areas of strategic planning, program evaluation, volunteer leadership development, marketing and all facets of fundraising, Linda helps organizations develop creative, comprehensive, and practical plans to attain their goals and evaluate the impact of their programming. Using a variety of evaluation methods including logic models, online surveying, focus groups and personal interviews, Linda engages communities in enhancing programming while increasing their commitment to the organization. You may contact her at 518-458-8562 or Linda.London@earthlink.net.


 * Evie Levy Rotstein** is the director of the Leadership Institute for Congregational Educators, a joint endeavor sponsored by the New York School of Education at HUC-JIR and the Davidson School of Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary. She was formally a congregational educator for 26 years. Evie has taught as courses at Hebrew Union College, JTS and at Fairleigh Dickenson University School of Education in the area of Education Leadership and Staff Development. She is also a consultant for the ECE RE-Imagine project. She completed her doctorate at the Davidson School of Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary. She may be contacted at erotstein@huc.edu.


 * Rabbi Jeffrey Schein** can assist congregations in developing their educational vision, weaving that vision through the total congregation, initiating family and intergeneration programs that are reflective of that larger visioning and developing the human/educational resources of the congregation. Contact Rabbi Schein at Jschein@siegalcollege.edu or 216-464-4050, ext. 123.

A Ph.D. in Jewish History, Dr. Schwarz has been on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Temple University and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He has served as faculty for the Wexner Summer Institute and the Whizin Family Education Institute. Rabbi Schwarz is the co-author of //Jewish Civics: A Tikkun Olam/World Repair Manual// (1994) and //Jews, Judaism and Civic Responsibility// (1998) and //Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World// (Jewish Lights, 2006). His 2000 book //Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue// (2000) is one of the seminal works in the field of synagogue transformation as it outlined the elements of a new paradigm for the American synagogue. Sid has been a scholar in residence and consultant at dozens of synagogues, helping them become more empowered, creative and engaged communities of faith, learning and action.
 * Rabbi Sidney Schwarz** is the founder and president of PANIM, an organization that educates, inspires and empowers Jewish youth to a lifetime of activism, leadership and service on behalf of the Jewish people and society at large. Dr. Schwarz previously served as the executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington D.C. He is the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD where he continues to periodically lead services and teach.

**Jane Shapiro Associates** ([|www.janeshapiroassociates.com]) specializes in visioning and planning, teaching, mentoring, coaching and curriculum design. They assist congregations in identifying their core vision and connecting it to their work, as well as developing customized curricula and learning experiences. Beyond developing a congregational vision, they help congregations move to the next level through strategic planning. Finally, they help congregations refine new projects to maximize impact, through writing materials, professional or faculty development sessions, marketing and recruitment, technology and social networking enhancements, teaching and program evaluation.


 * Cyd B. Weissman** is Director of the New York Re-Imagine Project, part of the Experiment in Congregational Education. She is available to support congregations in developing an educational system aligned to vision by enabling congregations to: govern in a vision driven decision way; articulate goals (higher purposes) that guide organizational and learning strategy, develop curriculum that fosters learning that results in transfer and meaning, design professional learning that is aligned with the new model of learning and identified learner outcomes, includes developing a toolbox of assessment, develop infrastructure, governance, and resources to support development of system to support vision, nurture leaders to think and act systemically, and foster a culture of inquiry, reflection, assessment and experimentation Cyd also provides personal coaching to individual leaders with the goal to practice vision driven leadership and build a community of engagement. She may be contacted at cydbeth@comcast.net or 347-200-1515.