By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — In its campaign to encourage more people of all ages to attend Jewish classes, the Agency for Jewish Education is changing the way it does business and is adding new programs to San Diego County’s educational mix.

Implementing these changes is AJE Executive Director Alan Rusonik, who says both he and Michael Rassler, executive vice president of UJF, represent a new generation of Jewish communal workers who believe in interagency cooperation and cooperative decision making.

Until recently the AJE had a 42-member board that attempted to deal with both fiscal issues and with developing programs. Beginning in September, there will be a new structure with a 16-member AJE board to handle fiscal matters.

Simultaneously, there will be a Jewish Education Leadership Council that will include AJE’s board members and an additional 20 to 30 members representing congregational and day schools as well as other agencies and individuals interested in Jewish education. AJE President Monica Handler Penner will chair both boards.

The JELC “will focus on the programs of Jewish education in the community and on how the AJE can help facilitate those,” Rusonik said.

He said that the council will “evaluate the existing programs both at the Agency and in the Jewish community that are Jewish education programs” and will recommend “what kinds of new programs we want for our community and how we can develop community partners in these programs.”

The AJE operates the High School for Jewish Studies, where Mickie Targum serves as principal; an adult education division, headed by Noah Hadas, and a teacher-training division overseen by Marcia Tatz Wollner.

Rusonik, from Toronto, says, “I think investing in Jewish education is a statement about your community — that you are putting up dollars to make a difference today and investing dollars for your future. I am excited that it is happening here in San Diego.”

He believes there are many pathways to Jewish identification and Jewish continuity, among them spiritual development such as is offered at the synagogues; social programming such as offered at camps, the JCC, and through Jewish Family Service, and his own particular specialty, Jewish education.

 “I believe that Jewish education is the key to Jewish survival,” he said. “Being educated, knowledgeable and involved Jewish youth will lead to greater Jewish identity and greater Jewish involvement in adult life….What we are trying to do is to eliminate whatever barriers there are — be they financial or transportational or whatever — so that anyone who wants a Jewish education can get one.”

Rusonik provided this overview of local education programming:  

High School of Jewish Studies

With campuses at Temple Emanu-El and at the San Diego Jewish Academy, the HSJS enrolled 205 students in the previous academic year. In the coming term, there appears to be an equal number of students being enrolled, but curiously enrollment has increased at the East County campus while decreasing at the North County campus.

Each year, new courses and teachers are offered at HSJS in “a very dynamic program,” Rusonik said. Last year, 13 students participated in the “March of the Living” experience, which takes them on a trip to the former Nazi concentration camps in Poland and then onto Israel.

On alternating years, Rusonik said, students can participate in the Jewish Civics Initiative, which enables them to spend four days as advocates for Jewish causes in Washington D.C. Whereas it had cost students $1,000 for the four-day trip in the past, scholarships are being sought to bring the cost down to half.

Teacher training

Back-to-school workshops have been a regular feature of the AJE’s offerings to teachers in the congregational and day schools, but this year a new program, San Diego Jewish Educators Clusters of Excellence, will also be offered.

Rusonik said that three clusters will be created. Each will bring together seven or eight teachers from congregational and day schools of San Diego County once or twice a month to meet with people who are experts in the three fields. This year, those fields will be Jewish ethics and values, modern Israel and pedagogy.

“We worked in conjunction with the day schools and the congregational schools in developing this programming and laying it out to the community,” Rusonik said. “There is nothing like this, it is really unique.”

Teachers who attend the classes will receive stipends both for participating in the clusters and for subsequent programs growing out of them. Rusonik said the teachers attending the clusters should take the knowledge and skills they gain back to their congregational and day schools.

Adult education

The Hebrew University-developed Melton Mini School again will be offered by the AJE. It is a two-year program in which students delve into Jewish philosophy, history, ritual and ethics, life cycles and Jewish holidays. Rusonik said recruitment of students is ongoing, so people who are interested should call the AJE at 858-268-9200.

The Limmud Day of Learning, which made its debut last year, has been scheduled for Jan. 21 at the Lawrence Family JCC, with Rusonik predicting that attendance will exceed the more than 800 people who came last year. The all-day Sunday program will include “something for everyone” with offerings for students, teachers, and adults planned to feed into a concert finale featuring Visions, an all-female teenage singing trio who have recorded several Jewish-oriented CDs.

One speaker already confirmed for the program is Dr. Rachel Korazim, an Israeli expert on the Holocaust, who members of the recent UJF-sponsored mission considered one of the most inspiring speakers they heard on their trip.

The monthly adult education program in Coronado, paid for by members of that community, will get underway in November and offer lectures by UCSD professors on a variety of topics. Some examples: David Goodblatt discusses “Are the Jews a Nation?” Sanford Lakoff tells of “Islam and the Jews;” Steven Cassedy talks about the effect of Jewish immigration on American politics.

The next edition of the Makor catalogue will be published by the AJE in time for distribution at the high holidays. The catalogue, as well as its online version (http://www.ajesd.org/makor) is intended to keep the community informed of Jewish educational programs throughout San Diego County.

Yet another program of the adult education division is San Diego Ulpan — a program to teach Hebrew as a second language. “Our goal last year was to start with three classes of 20 people each and we got four with 20 people each in different parts of the county,” said Rusonik. “This year we want seven classes of 20 people each — both first and second year. Most of the students who have taken our first year classes will be continuing.”

Although it is called “ulpan,” the classes are not nearly as intensive as the immersion classes of the same name that immigrants to Israel undergo. The classes have been taught by Alana Schuster, who will be joined this year by Prof. Zev Bar-Lev.

TIP Program

The AJE is administering a program funded by UJF to encourage unaffiliated Jews to enroll their children in congregational schools and to take trial memberships in those congregations.

Under the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), parents may receive reduced rates for synagogue memberships and also enroll their child into a congregational school without additional charge.

The hope is that after the parents experience congregational life and see the benefits to their children of a Jewish education, they will transition to regular synagogue memberships. In return for offering these families reduced rates, the congregations receive subsidies ranging from $750 to $1,500 per student.

 “Last year we had a reasonable and small goal to get 30 people into the program,” said Rusonik. “Funding was limited and we had a lot of interest. We had to stop at 33 people. We are doing it again this year, and are adding a number of synagogues that were not included the first year. We have another modest goal of getting 50 people in for this year.”