CASJE (Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) announced today that Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Head of School at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Washington, DC, will serve as co-chair of its Board of Directors. Rabbi Malkus has served as a board member since CASJE’s inception in 2013.
CASJE is a community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders committed to sharing knowledge to improve Jewish education. It has been supported generously by grants from The AVI CHAI Foundation, Jim Joseph Foundation, The Crown Family, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, and other foundations. Rabbi Malkus succeeds Dr. Lee Shulman, founding chair of CASJE, in this role.
“Rabbi Malkus is a dedicated and highly accomplished Jewish education leader, deeply committed to advancing the application of high quality research toward the improvement of practice,” says Dr. Michael Feuer, co-chair of the CASJE Board of Directors and dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University. “Mitch will bring decades of experience with teachers, learners, and education leaders to the challenges and opportunities of CASJE, and I am honored to welcome him as co-chair.”
Rabbi Malkus has served as Head of School at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School of Greater Washington, D.C. since August 2013. Previously he was Head of School of the Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, CA for 12 years. Rabbi Malkus also served as Instructor of Jewish Education at the William Davidson Graduate School at The Jewish Theological Seminary, and was on the faculty of the Solomon Schechter High School of New York.
“CASJE has produced important research to help Jewish educators, but there is much more we need to do,” says Malkus. “We need a more robust base of knowledge that practitioners can turn to for insights and best practices so they engage learners in the most effective ways possible.”
CASJE’s areas of focus include Hebrew language education, Jewish early childhood education, and Jewish educational leadership. It recently released a literature review series on lessons from research about heritage, second, and foreign language learning for the teaching and learning of Hebrew, and it is supporting a major project exploring how Jewish early childhood education can be a gateway for ongoing involvement in Jewish life.
Along with co-chairs Feuer and Malkus, CASJE’s Board includes Dr. Charles “Chip” Edelsberg, Dr. Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Dr. Ellen Goldring, Dr. Paul Goren, Ilana Horwitz, Dr. Benjamin M. Jacobs, Dr. Jon Levisohn, Bob Sherman, and Dr. Shulman.
“Five years ago we launched CASJE with a vision to connect Jewish education researchers, practitioners, and funders,” adds Dr. Shulman, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and President Emeritus of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, who will remain on the CASJE Board. “Other fields have research that informs and improves practice. Research in Jewish education must do the same, by better drawing on what we already know about Jewish education and being more thoughtful about what we might learn. I am delighted that Rabbi Malkus is taking on the important leadership responsibility for our consortium.”