NewCAJE

10/26/2026

I have been thinking a lot about how Jewish educators are dealing with the subject of God in their classrooms. This topic got bigger for me when my 6 year old granddaughter came to our house for Pesach. She told me she’d watched a video about the Passover story, but she had a question about it. She said:” I know who Moses is and I know who Miriam is, but who is God?” I brought her question to the Seder table and the people gathered, somewhat reluctantly told her what they thought. She was mesmerized by the discussion. Who God is is a big question, an interesting one and a question that usually appears for the first time in children her age.
Thinking about this question is a very “Jewish” thing to do. Where we are in our lives influences how we answer it. Jewish schools should make room for this question and allow the children and their teacher to share their questions and beliefs. As we learned from the Jacob story, our name, Israel means God wrestler. No one knows the answer to my granddaughter’s question, so there are no right answers. I hope you will encourage your students to join periodically in this discussion.
When I was asked to write an article about the topic for the Lookstein Center, I couldn’t say no. They put out a great journal—this issue is called: Educating Toward Faith. It has many wonderful articles on the topic that I think you would find interesting. My article is called: Creating Space for Lifelong Conversation, Difficult questions and Spiritual growth in Jewish Education.
Here is the link to the journal: https://www.lookstein.org/journal-issue/f_26/
Here is the link to my article https://www.lookstein.org/journal-article/f_26/creating-space-for-lifelong-conversations-difficult-questions-and-spiritual-growth-is-jewish-education/
It would be wonderful if we could start a discussion thread here on this topic. I would love to know more about what you are thinking about faith education and what issues you are facing that might be giving you some difficulty. I would also love to hear about your successes. Happy reading!
Cherie Koller-Fox

Cherie Koller-Fox argues for open conversations about God, spiritual growth, and lifelong theological questioning in Jewish education.

10/23/2026

Hello friends,
I am writing to you from Jerusalem where I recently attended a conference sponsored by the Israeli ministry of the Diaspora and Antisemitism. It was called the Global Summit of Jewish Educators. There were 250 educators from 31 countries who gathered together to learn more about the work we are all doing.
There were lots of different languages as you can imagine, but with simultaneous translation services and many of us who spoke Hebrew, we were able to learn together.
I would say that the main thing the organizers wanted us to learn was how important the work that we all do is. That message was repeated by every speaker beginning with Isaac Herzog, Israel’s President, who took time to speak to a roomful of Jewish educators at the opening ceremonies.
In a time of growing antisemitism and disagreement about the place of Israel in our lives, Jewish educators are, in partnership with Jewish parents, on the frontlines. We are building Jewish knowledge, but even more important, Jewish identity, Joel Grishaver used to say that Hebrew School was the one place that a child could learn who they are and what values create a good life. What could be more important than that?
There were two rounds of workshops on topics ranging from AI to building professional resistance to the relationship between the home and the school. The second set of workshops included learning about the upcoming Israeli elections, teaching through crisis and how to use technology to teach Bible. There were too many topics for me to list here.
There were many frontal lectures—each one more interesting than the next. One of the most fascinating was listening to what the Department of Education did when the alarms rang on October 7th. They had to make sure their students were safe all over the country. They had to provide schooling to the many thousands of children who had been displaced from their homes and they needed to provide ongoing support for a traumatized nation of children. We heard from rabbis and philosophers and thought leaders.
The third day, the group went on a variety of field trips to the North and to the South. Many of the teachers had never been to Israel before.
The final day, we finally got a chance to speak to our colleagues—my group were all from English speaking countries—the US, England, South Africa, Australia. Other regional groups met to talk with each other. Everyone loved this session and felt there should have been more opportunities to learn from each other.
The Ministry of the Diaspora and Antisemitism promised another conference and if you hear of it, I hope you will find a way to attend. What was most amazing was looking around the room and seeing people from Morocco and Poland and Germany and Uruguay and Brazil and England and France and Spain and Russia, and, and and. All of them were so dedicated and loved being Jewish teachers. Ten of them were awarded prizes for outstanding teaching! I pictured them in their classes inspiring a new generation of Jewish students to be proud of their Jewish identity and to learn more about our history and texts.
So I thought I’d stop by today to share—sorry for the long post—and to tell you how proud I am of you. Never forget, how important you are to the future of the Jewish people and keep up the good works that you do!
Shabbat Shalom

10/22/2026

Proud to be Jewish!

08/01/2026

"What an extraordinary week at NewCAJE. We were privileged to learn from a talented group of younger Jewish educators who had a fire in their bellies for Jewish education. They want to improve Jewish education for themselves and for their students. They came up with action proposals to do just that. I am ready to support them! How about you? If you haven't been to NewCAJE in awhile, next year would be the time to come back. Put us on your calendar> Likely dates July 16-21. No announcement yet. Could also be the week before depending on the site. Now is the time to go to your board or ed committee and make sure you have professional development money for NewCAJE.
There is nothing like a NewCAJE conference for professional development, networking and making a difference. Nothing like a NewCAJE conference for re"jew"venation and gaining a national reputation in the field.
Thanks to all who came from all over the US to Boston. I for one, miss you already. Look for ongoing professional development and networking opportunities during the year.
We are 50 but we are like new and always exciting!
All of us at NewCAJE wishing you a restful Shabbat."
- Cherie Koller-Fox

07/24/2026

How good it is to be together...SO SOON!!! starts today 🥳

07/24/2026

I am really excited about NewCAJE 17 in Boston this week. Especially the celebration of the 50 th Anniversary ofCAJE and NewCAJE. If you can’t be with us in person, please come on the Zoom or the Zoom recording. Here is the URL:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/newcaje-50th-anniversary-celebration-live-stream

07/17/2026

It's almost time!! This is the last Shabbat before we get to spend together at 🥳

07/04/2026

Get those smiles ready! Just 3 Shabbats left until we get to spend together at 🤗

06/26/2026

We are SO happy we get to spend with you in just 4 weeks 🥳

06/19/2026

That feeling when... we can finally sing together at ! Just 5 more Shabbats to go until ❤️