Consultant recommends ‘new entity’ to replace Jewish Education Association

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

Described by its own leadership as “fragmented” and lacking focus, the Jewish Education Association of MetroWest may be replaced by a “new entity” whose aim would be to provide more emphasis on fewer areas, but with greater effectiveness.

Transforming the JEA into a new entity is just one of the recommendations in a report by an outside consulting firm presented earlier this month to JEA board members, federation leaders, and a strategic planning task force representing leaders from both groups. The task force was chaired by Shelley Levine, current JEA president, and Gary Aidekman, chair of the Unified Allocations Council of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey.

The report, prepared by TBF Consultants of Potomac, Md., suggests the JEA is currently trying to address too many areas at once, according to those who heard the presentation.

The report “recommends that we consider a new entity that would exist in place of the current JEA that would be structured in a different way to address the new foci and directions of the agency,” said Arthur Sandman, associate executive vice president for program services at UJC MetroWest.

One area discussed in the report’s first phase — a look at the state of Jewish education in MetroWest and the community’s attitudes toward it — was an expanded emphasis on services to teenagers.

The study was conducted by TBF president Ted Farber, a former executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

At its most recent meeting the UJC board authorized TBF to continue the research and discussions in order to “further flesh out the issues,” said Max Kleinman, UJC MetroWest executive vice president. He said the process will entail more discussions with agencies, synagogues, rabbis, communal professionals, and lay leaders.

According to Levine, who lives in Montclair, Farber’s “70-page PowerPoint presentation contained general findings that the JEA was seen as fragmented and to have lost focus on its objective.” To strengthen the agency’s effectiveness, Levine said, “it may be necessary to create a new identity. JEA already faces shrinking resources. That is a reality. We can no longer be all things to all people.”

Saul Andron, who has been the agency’s acting executive director since January, also acknowledged that the report noted a lack of focus and that an emphasis on teens was one of the areas discussed in it. “There was a sense throughout this community that we are not maximizing the opportunities to impact on the lives of young Jewish people,” said Andron. “There is a window of opportunity to work with adolescents and teenagers.”

‘Inevitable’ changes

Currently the JEA — which is housed on the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany — administers training programs for teachers in area supplementary schools and consultation services for specialists in early childhood, adult, teen, special needs, and family education. Its direct programs and services include regular teacher learning and early childhood conferences, the B’tzelem Hebrew School for the Learning Disabled, and. in conjunction with JCC MetroWest, the Melton Adult Mini-School and the MetroWest Center for Adult Jewish Learning. The JEA also administers the Central Hebrew High School, serving more than 200 students from 12 synagogues, and the Waldor Memorial Library on the Aidekman campus.

Andron said it was “inevitable” that in a revamped JEA some programs will be curtailed or eliminated. “It will tend to be more focused and targeted,” he said. “We can’t do everything. We will be examining what else happens under the auspices of this agency and other communal auspices and what JEA services need to be phased out or transferred to other auspices. That’s the heavy lifting work.”

Although members of the JEA’s 17-person staff declined to speak on the record, some told New Jersey Jewish News that they are very concerned about the impact of the report on teachers and schools, and on their own jobs as well. Andron said the JEA will be entering the new fiscal year in July “with the anticipation there will be a phasing in and phasing out of certain services over the next period of time. In all likelihood, a phasing in and phasing out of employees will happen.”

UJC MetroWest officials emphasized, however, that the recommendations are preliminary and talk of staff changes is premature.

The UJC’s Sandman said, “By and large, the report has not done a review of each program area to make specific recommendations” on each aspect of the JEA. “That needs to take place next.”

Sandman, whose organization’s allocations make up slightly more than 50 percent of the JEA’s $2 million annual operating budget, said the agency has had successes as well as shortcomings. “I think its professional development programming that assists congregational schools in providing Jewish education…has been consistently seen as very valuable at synagogues, and we get very positive feedback on it. It has been a good program that has not been as visible to the broader community because the direct recipient of the service is the school teacher or principal; but the indirect beneficiary of the service is really the child who is in the school setting. It is one of those secret successes in the community.”

In addition, he said, the JEA’s special education program “is just critical. So many families are really grasping for good solutions to bring Jewish education and social experiences to children who wouldn’t be able to find them without the approaches that the JEA offers.”

Like many MetroWest budget items, the JEA allocation “has been under a considerable amount of stress for the last several years,” said Sandman. “This community has worked hard to protect the JEA from budget cuts that have taken place to the extent it has been able to. Two years ago, its cut was smaller than those at other agencies. This past year the allocation was in fact increased while allocations to some other agencies went down. What will happen for next year remains to be determined.”

Sandman declined to make a copy of the report available to NJJN, saying he was “reluctant to release it, precisely because its findings and recommendations were not accepted as is by the board. What is in the report has value in terms of future reference, but it is not something that can be quoted as a blueprint for what is going to be.”

Like Sandman, Farber also declined to discuss the specifics of his work, telling NJJN, “We’ve got a long way to go yet. This is a complicated matter, and information discussed now could be damaging to the process.”

“The report that Ted delivered is by no means a blueprint for moving forward,” said Sandman. “Rather, it was a initial recommendation of directions we might take. Absolutely nothing can happen without a great deal of additional work, both in terms of defining more specifically what the agency should and should not be doing, and then dealing with how.”

Robert Wiener can be reached at rwiener@njjewishnews.com.