BJE.

Yesterday, in a special meeting (it was telephonic--under our new bylaws, we can have a special telephonic meeting) the Board of Trustees voted to apply for re-affiliation with BJE (formerly the Bureau of Jewish Education), an agency associated with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Kadima withdrew from the Bureau several years ago, recognizing that the Bureau, with its focus upon personnel, instead of educational, issues, had lost its relevance to Kadima and was potentially shackling Kadima's efforts to improve itself.

Fortunately, over the last several years, the BJE engaged in its own strategic review to find better ways of promoting Jewish education Los Angeles. The BJE discussed these changes in a newsletter that you can read here. Importantly, the BJE recognized that its Code of Personnel Practices, which was designed primarily to apply to afterschool religious schools, no longer seemed particular relevant. As the BJE wrote in its newsletter:

"Recently, educators and school boards of Jewish schools served by BJE voted to “sunset” a longstanding Code of Personnel Practices. The Code, developed at a time when most Jewish schools were part time “Talmud Torah”programs, regulated aspects of the employment relationship between schools and educators who taught Hebrew and Jewish studies.

“Increasingly many stakeholder groups expressed concerns about issues that were seen as more appropriately managed between employee and employer,”said BJE Executive Director, Dr. Gil Graff.

As a result, effective June, 2009, the BJE has began to sunset the much maligned Code. The result is that the BJE will be seen by schools for what, in my view, it should be: a community organization dedicated to promoting and facilitating Jewish education, instead of a "super-personnel board" that serves little function but to review school personnel decisions and chilling school improvement efforts.

By becoming part of the BJE, Kadima will benefit from a variety of community services and grants, and we are excited about it. Like the BJE, Kadima has made its own strategic adjustments of late in order to improve itself. Together, Kadima and the BJE can do great things.