good morning. welcome to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss. across the countries and communities we look for didn't ways to educate youth and we invite you into a conversation with the ceo to talk about this important perspective within the jaw wish jewish community. >> let's ask you what is jewish learning works? >> it is for jewish education. these are agencies that sprung up across north america about 100 year ago and often been

called the bauer re-of jewish education or the central agency for jewish education. jewish learning works used to be called the bureau of jewish education and it was called jaw wish education center. we changed our name about rate years ago. the purpose is to promoted, to advance jewish learning in the community. that is what it has always been. as schools began to develop in the mid 20th century in the san francisco bay area, the bureau's main strategy was to support the schools and make education better. the wayway did was by supporting the schools and providing training, professional development for educators, and we still do

that. education is much broader, not only in schools. we support formal education and parents striving to bring jewish learning into their families and we support a library. we have a jewish community library so a good clunk of our learning comes from reading. >> you bing up an interesting historic point which is that the jewish communities throughout the whole country establish these kinds of education organizational structures. they are driven by an immigrant population, immigrant impulse? >> actually if you go back 100 years, you had an enormous number coming to this country and getting right into american life. and leaving what many considered to bejewish life. it was the first time leafing the shed el or whatever area they lived in.

the first time they could participate in a general society and they embraced it whole heartedly. the teaching then was primarily done by what we called malone dim, teachers coming from the old country and using what were considered old country methods. they were not working here. community leaders started panicking because they were afraid of losing people. if you read what they were writing around 1911, 1915, 1920 similar to what we have have seen in the last decade, we're something. education was seen as the instrument to address this. they were living in america where you had john dewey, a modern nizing public elcation so the idea was let's learn from the science of ped da gong gy that is happening around us and modernize our jewish education. how are we going to do that?

>> let's create these burrows that will become a task force in each community to help modernize. and that was the idea then and that grew into develop our schools, not only jewishly but educationally. >> so similar to every faith community, it is a way of in some ways struggling being a laboratory and experiment for the ways in which you are at the same time american and at the same time your coolture, your face-off and background and how that conforms one to the other to be a resilient productive citizen in both communities? >> at the is really well said. je eour ancient times, babylonia, under the romans and going forward into europe and elsewhere, jewish elcation evolved because conditions changed and people had to figure out what is the best way to teach this stuff

now? >> and so it was with america. the whole different environment. so things had to change then and so it is in 21st century bay area. things are changing again. so part of the job description of an organization like ours and we have the luckily to d this is to look and understand what is changing, to read and to learn what are the most interesting new ideas coming out and then to share them, distribute them to practitioners, to teachers, to educational leaders and others involved in teaching and learning. >> fascinating. we'll take a quick break and come back to "mosaic" in just a moment.

good morningment welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host. we have a conversation with david. >> what isnew at jewish learning works? >> i mentioned. there are three areas we work in. the first is professional development supporting educators. last yearway worked with more than 1,000 educators in the bay area. i didn't even know we had

1,000. they came flew our programs, our seminars, fellowships, webinars, workups. way work with parents. we have among other things, we have a newsletter every month on everything jewish in the community. we have about 2,000 households that subscribe to that to so what is out there for their families and debra started something last year. she calls them shabbat labs or holiday labs and she gathers a small numbers of families and teaches people who want to learn, it happened because one parent said to herway would like to do more, but we don't know the secret handshake. i love that. [ laughter ] >> that so describes what it is like for people. people felt this message in jewish community, i'm not okay. so debra works with a small number of parents each time on a friday night or for a holiday

and teaches them the basics to give them information obviously but also to give them confidence. you can do this as it says. it is not in heaven, it is not across the sea. you can do this. the second thing, we empower parents to bring jewish life and learning into their home. and we have a library. we circulate about 8,000 books and media every year and with the thriving public programs with authors and artists and musicians, we had over 3,000 people coming to our programs last year, so those programs are all thriving and in terms of your question, what is the latest? i think as i mentioned education keeps changing because conditions keep changing. we understand two decades into this century, we see how some of the legacies of 20th century

thinking in jewish education are not serving us well. we have been forging a path in terms of what we need to do today to make education work for all of us. we finally feel we learned enough and we want to share that. we're going to gather a summit in january to look at the new paths in jewish education, to try to turn the corner and really implement it. we hold a summit because sometimes i speak with educators and they say i get it but i would like my leili leadership to understands this or i would like my rabbi to understand this, as well. i talk to a rab boy and rabbi and they get it and they want others to get it. we want a new understanding of jewish learning. >> when is this summit? >> january 13th, an all day gathering at the hyatt regency. people don't have to come all

day. >> in san francisco. >> in san francisco. our keynoter is dr. wendy mogul, a clinical cyclist, her book voice lessons for parents helps parents how to understand and listen to their children. she is a brilliant psychologist and she has often brought in jewish teaching into her family psychology. she is the key noter but we have close to 20 experts coming from across north america and some of the most creative minds in jewish education talking about how they are forming these new paths in jewish education. >> who would you like to come to that? >> we want educators, and bay educators i mean teachers, educational leaders, heads of congonscearly childhood educators. educators across the board. we want parents to come,

clergy, leiliders, philanthropists and for us. ents. grandparenting is a really important element actually in jewish learning. more and more grandparents are getting involved in the education of their grandchildren and in sharing their legacies, their love of jewish tradition, of jewish knowledge with their grand children and helping them navigate some of the complexities of doing that in these intergenerational environments is something we're starting to do. >> that is wonderful. we'll take a break-in a moment, but i know it is a big question, but what are some of the things you want somebody at the end of that day to leave with? >> great question. i want people to leave with one of the following: ha, i handn't thought about jewish education in that way. this gives me a new ac d abt

me methods that i can implement in my classroom. or i saw someone doing something that i think is great. i'm not ready to implement it in my classroom but i learned some of the steps i need to take in order to do that. or i took something a way i want to discuss with my colleagues, with my rabbi, with my lay committee that oversees education so we can begin to take on some of these new ideas that are so import. those are some of the take a ways. >> wonderful. we'll take a quick break and come back to "mosaic" in just a moment.

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good morning the welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your most. we're in the middle of a conversation about jewish education with david wax berg. welcome back. >> continuing our conversation, i'm curious to know in the arc of your tenure which is 13 years. >> my bar mitzvah. >> my bar mitzvah. >> it is a big question but what are the ways in which you have seen jewish education change in cot moun fi? i know some things recycle and spiral up. some things fend mentally change. >> when i started was the height of what i would call the

continuity boom which was the community and community leaders expressing concern that we were losing people. as i mentioned it last segment echoing what we saw 100 years earlier. the question is what do you do about that? and so there was an enormous focus on jewish identity. but let's create a strong jewish idea di and we won't lose people. the problem was what is actually jewish identity mean? i think often people were attracted by a shortcut. let's get people to -- let's create a shell called jewish identity. it doesn't matter what informs that i identity as long as they feel they are strong jews everything will be fine, but it was more on allegiance and less on understanding. among the problems with that is

if there is no understanding, that a lee gence is not going to last. historically, jewish education is about teaching us how to wishly, act jewishly and live j.b. pritzkerly. i think that, because of some of the challenges in america in in our coming to america in the 20th century and the legacy of the holocaust, there was such fear of losing people that there was less of a focus on understanding how to think, live and act jewishly and more on well, let's just create this identity so that people stay jaw wish without necessarily understanding what is involved. i think now in the 21st century that is beginning to change. the younger generation doesn't feel the same sense of liati

did growing up. i had a plaque. my grandmother's kitchen there was a plaque that said in hebrew translated what have you done today for your s up there i kind of internalized a sense of obligation. it wasn't until i became an ad dult hand i understand there was something in it for me. we're trying to advance a jewish learning that doesn't ignore obligation and celebrates people hood and belonging but at the same time can demonstrate for students and their families the value of what is in it for us that actually jewish learning opens the door to a life of beauty, of wisdom, of joy, of celebration, that is not all about do this, because we need you. right? i grew up thinking i have to be jewish because i should because

i'm supposed to anbeuse i get b methaul it fo celebrate that value and without losing the sense of belonging. >> we're going to fake a break- in just a moment. we have had this kind of arc of understanding judaism is a relationship to god of the transient didn't relationship to torah, our relationship to ourselves as people hood. i am wondering. what's your reflection would be about how faith has evolved in a post holocaust world to this point now wherein a jewish identity where you don't have to believe in god to claim jewish identity, sort of is there anything you reflection on like what is the role that

relationship to be different than the relationship to texture ral life to people and community? >> i love not question. >> if you have anything to say from your experience. >> first i want to say i love that you contextture ralize with relationshipping. relationships are hugely important for us and a core principle in jewish learning. the relationship to text, relationship to the teachers, relationship to peers and to hashem. we'll continue in a moment on moisture.

good morning the welcome back to moisture. we're in the middle of a lovely conversation about the state of jewish education with david. welcome back. >> thank you. >> we were ending the previous segment with a reflectstion on the role of faith and god. before we go on to anything else is there anything else you

want to add to that? >> the first comement is you don't have to have a professional faith to bow jewish. that is a great thing. it says in the torah, we will do and then we will hear. so just action,way don't have to have that faith. having said that i'm a big fan of art green, rabbi art green. he says the word, "god" gets in the word for people. if connection with the divine, with it universe, with our spiritual selves, with that piece of us, that still small voice. there are so many ways about talking about faith and talking about god. sometimes we're way too restrictive. it is an important part of being jewish but we need to give people room, space is to

find their connection to their way in and not force them into a too constricttive channel whether language or other ways. >> you remind me as a rabbi in the community regardless of people's age, they are both shy and hungry at the onbout god an is not necessarily that they want to profess faith as you said but want room to talk, to explore, to understands, to educate themselves in that room because play have a certain kind of let's say attraction to something trans sentence. a.i. wonder why the word, "god" in and of itself seems to be for some people already a stop light rather than a green light. i wonder what is that? why are people shy about it in

their hunger? >> a lot of reasons. it is a great question eric. partly it is that way live in a largely christian world in western society even though it is secular. it has the legacies of that and it comes with imagery and concepts that don't resonate for people and they haven't necessarily been exposed of different ways of thinking. many people have an experience from their youth of a coercive experience with regard to god weren't told i have to believe this or i was told i have to profess this. right? i had a class when i was a teenager on the 13 principles of faith. i told my rabbi i'm struggling with number one. number one is believe in good. i was 14. this is developmentally

appropriate. this is what i struggled with. >> he said if you can't buy into number one, you can't call yourself a jew. i was out of there. ipaof it elping class. people find their way. we used to have an embodies jewish learning component but we have people getting to this trans sentence through embodied jewish learning. >> so bleach it or >> so we have to encourage people to talk about this on their own beyond our time together, but how do people low kate jewish learning works? >> www jewish learning works.org. that is our website. and if you go there, you will find right off the bat information about elevate, that is our summit on january 13th and it is for anyone who cares about, concerned, interested in

jewish learning. >> david, thank you so much for this wonderful conversation. we invite yeah to continue this conversation abut faith develop the in your community and thank you so much for being with us here on moisture. you know when you're at ross and you realize it's time your sister stopped borrowing your sweaters? yeah! that's yes for less. stop stealing mine... never. holiday gifts everyone's sure to love at 20 to 60 percent off department store prices. at ross. yes for less.

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force live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. now at 6:00, a strategy on the tracks. a young boy killed. trying to piece together how it happened. >> plus tear gas and bows and aarons. violent clashes at a university campus. thick fog making way for heat in november warm upright around the corner. >> are they ready for collin kaepernick to make a comeback? what made him move from a league facility to a much less graham russ location? >> it is sunday, november