In the Hebrew year 5786 and the programmatic year 2025-2026, I, as your CEO, along with the ARJE leadership, have worked to address the suggestions, ideas, and priorities that emerged from our 2024 listening campaign.
Find Your Place in ARJE: We hope you have felt the shift in how we are working to ensure that every ARJE member feels that ARJE is for you. From initiatives that support those new to the field while recognizing the experience and expertise you bring, to shifts in language that acknowledge we don’t all work in synagogues, schools, or with youth, we want you to know that your membership is valued and that we're here for you and your specific needs.
We are thinking about insider/outsider dynamics in everything we do, and we hope you feel it in our communications, programs, and volunteer opportunities. We are especially proud to have awarded scholarships to over 27 members at our annual gathering. We engaged more than 110 volunteers in ongoing work and planning, and several dozen more as helpers at the annual gathering. These are just some of the ways we are working to make sure everyone feels like an ARJE insider.
Have Clarity and Specificity around organizational roles and opportunities: The ARJE leadership also understands that it is not easy to move from feeling like you belong to contributing in a meaningful way. Through the leadership of Julia Weisz we have been working to align our needs to meet the abilities and time constraints of our potential volunteers. We look forward to sharing more with you from our volunteer task force in the late summer and early Fall.
Should you want to get more involved or read more about our current volunteer structure, that information and the volunteer form are available on our website.
Nourish Creativity to feel rejuvenated: You told us you wanted opportunities to be creative. We know that dreaming and imagining are driving forces behind much of our work. You need not be artistic; each and every ARJE member creates a new world for their colleagues, staff, learners, and community.
I’m thrilled to let you know that our summer series will focus on using AI to aid in our creativity.
The Professional Learning Committee, with thanks to Kevin Kleinman, will host a series of four sessions on using AI in Jewish Educational Settings. The sessions will be both thought-provoking and provide practical skill development. Confirmed presenters include ARJE member Rabbi Dan Medwin and Rabbi Daniel Bogart. Full series details forthcoming. Sign up to attend one or all!
We are increasingly working to plan events like our holiday happenings, where members can gather and ideate together. Thanks to Debbie Helbraun, RJE, for leading these efforts. We are sharing more of the inventive, resourceful ways we engage in Jewish education on social media. Last summer, through the work of Carrie Vogel, RJE and the Elevating the Field committee, we saw what Jewish educators do through Instagram takeovers from across our community and got a look inside Sukkot and Hanukkah celebrations, and today, we are collecting stories of your wins to enable each of us to be inspired by one another's work. We continue to look for members who love to play on Instagram and generate engaging content, if you are that person please let us know.
Navigate ARJE and Understand the Diversity of our Membership: As we commit to highlighting members in diverse settings and with various paths to Jewish education, we need your help. The more that you post about your challenges or curiosities in our Facebook group, share ARJE’s programs with colleagues, and encourage those who have similar roles to join ARJE and participate, the stronger our network will become and the more useful it will be to you. We changed our mission and membership requirements over 10 years ago; our offerings and our language are changing, and we need you to ensure that our reach meets all those who might benefit from this sacred community.
We also know that the financial models need to shift. Reform Movement synagogues support the URJ and the professional organizations, including membership dues. While these systems are stable in some communities, other educators working in synagogues or organizations need help articulating the value of membership to their supervisors and lay leaders. We have created a new task force, chaired by Hannah Rubin-Schlansky, RJE and Barb Shimansky, RJE, to better understand who is making the financial decisions around dues and how we can help our current and prospective members access ARJE. In the meantime, whether you yourself need help advocating or understanding ARJE dues, or you are encouraging someone to join ARJE, please know that Stefani Carlson, our finance VP, and I are here to help. We value your membership because we want you to be part of this community, and we are grateful for your organization’s financial support or your personal charitable contributions.
Stacy informed to feel more connected to ARJE: As you see, we are thinking a lot about how we get the word out around everything we do. In the coming year expect to find us expanding our use of social media. Here’s the guide to what you can find where:
The ARJE Facebook page - different from our members-only group - will be the place to share movement announcements and amplify our members' voices
Instagram will continue to highlight our members' daily work and adventures
LinkedIn will feature content pieces from secular educational spaces and Jewish communal life
ARJE website continues to house our calendar, resources around negotiations, salary survey, hiring, ethics, and organizational history
Our ARJE Achshav weekly newsletter will continue to provide you with organizational announcements and events
I want to thank Ellie Tepper Schulman, RJE for her work in helping us vision and to the amazing Jennifer Greene in our office for being the magician behind everything that you see. And a word of gratitude to Amanda Wachstein, who is our temporary administrative assistant, who jumped in to support us over the winter.
We hope these efforts will inspire excellence among our members and help us share our voice with the broader Jewish community.
Celebrate our members' daily work and contributions: Finally, our work would not be complete without celebrating all of you. I am proud to lead an organization where every fundraiser is a way to elevate excellence and generate gratitude. This past winter, we raised over $75000 raised for our 70th anniversary. And these funds will be invested in ARJE leadership development and mentoring so that all our members benefit from them.
Our Distinguished Educator Award, Annual Ad journal and Spring Gratitude campaign are focused first on thanking all of you for your hard work and commitment. These funds will be used to further all of the programming and initiatives I have described.
On a personal note, I want to share that, for me, the best way to celebrate our ARJE members is to connect with you individually, hear about your work, visit your community, and represent you as your CEO. This year I traveled to the World Zionist Congress with a minyan of other AJRE leaders. I represented ARJE at movement meetings at the BBYO conference and at HUC. I am currently spearheading conversations with the WRJ and our movement professionals on how we can reenvision what it means to have healthy, thriving synagogue workplaces, and alongside amazing volunteers, we are focused on better understanding the pipeline and recruitment to synagogue education.
Thank you to all our leaders, those who have served for years and those who have just begun their journey with ARJE and thanks to all of you for being part of this organization. You matter to us, and you help us feel like we belong, we matter, and we have true purpose.
Sincerely,
Stacy Rigler, RJE