Public Launch of JCF's Reducing Barriers and Increasing Access to Jewish Life Initiative
By Laura Mason, Senior Program Officer
As part of the public launch of JCF’s Reducing Barriers and Increasing Access to Jewish Life Initiative, the JCF gathered educators, rabbis, synagogue and preschool directors, foundations and Federation supporters to consider how we, as a community, can effectively tackle the key challenges facing Jewish Early Childhood Education as a profession and as an important gateway to Jewish life. The top issues identified by experts included affordability, teacher compensation, serving children with special needs, creating and adopting standards of excellence, and the need for a collective approach to advance on these issues.
The moderated panel discussion was led by Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO of the Federation, and featured: Rabbi Ed Feinstein a leading scholar on issues of Jewish identity and engagement; Marcy Whitebook, Ph.D., the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California at Berkeley and the preeminent expert on teacher compensation; Jennifer Splansky, a Senior Consultant at FSG, a global consulting firm dedicated to helping nonprofits and entire communities discover new ways to solve social problems and create large-scale change; and Janet Harris, the Director of the Early Childhood Education Initiative at the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.
