Parents are key to the transmission of family values and religious/ethnic identity. The Family Education Initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, stimulates families to learn about their Jewishness. It does this by helping Jewish institutions provide impactful educational programming for families through funding for Jewish family educators in western Massachusetts.
A family educator is comparable to a personal Jewish trainer who attends to the learning needs of both adults and children, while providing them with quality Jewish time together. The educator provides the family with the tools (Jewish values) that will allow parents to construct their family’s Jewish identity.
For most adults, learning alongside their children is a non-intimidating way to both grow Jewishly and to model the importance of lifelong Jewish learning. Equally important, the programs are fun for everyone.
Family programs also help to connect families, reinforcing the sense of belonging to a Jewish community and to the Jewish people.
The Family Education Initiative subsidizes quality, inter-generational programs at Jewish institutions in Western Massachusetts. It provides one year grants of up to $10,000 for Jewish family education programming.
The Goals of The Family Education Initiative
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To facilitate quality Jewish family education programming in Western Massachusetts, including outreach programming
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To support local Jewish family educators and provide them with networking opportunities
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Background and History of the Program
Since 1996, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has co-funded over 1200 family programs with 22 institutions. Programs have included such varied activities as mitzvah and tzedakah fairs, family workshops on the siddur and prayer, Jewish cooking demonstrations, workshops on Jewish approaches to the environment and on ethical decision-making, genealogical study culminating in a trip to the Lower East Side and Ellis Island, holiday events, and programs on the Jewish calendar using a portable planetarium.
In June 2008, the Family Education Initiative, previously known as Sulamot, was administratively merged with Teen Initiative to streamline and integrate the funding of these two programs, and both programs were placed under the directorship of Valerie Gintis.
Shoshana Zonderman, who directed family education at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation for 12 years and played a key role in developing a professional cadre of family educators in the region, will continue to be involved in the "Mothers Circle," a free, eight month course for non-Jewish mothers raising Jewish children that she brought to the region in 2006. The core course was developed by the Jewish Outreach Institute and adapted for our region by Zonderman. The Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts co-sponsored the Circles in Northampton and in Springfield, MA. An alumnae group, “More Mothers Circle,” was launched in Northampton in 2007 with an original curriculum for monthly meetings.
