Empowering learners
Thanks very much for your thorough and upbeat description of Amy Dorsch’s new position at The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life and our emphasis on empowering families with school-age children (“Seeking an antidote to ‘drop-off Judaism,’” July 30).
This development is a natural evolution of the Partnership’s strategy which now joins our on-going efforts with families with young children and for preteens and teens. In fact, Amy’s job description is based on the one created for Leemor Ellman who was referenced in your article as the director of engagements for families with young children. Actually Leemor’s title was changed as well and she is director of empowerment for families with young children. We appreciate that the article fleshed out the idea behind this seemingly semantic word change. The change of one word reflects a different goal than the more common term, engagement.
Our goal has been to empower families and young people to take the lead in their own Jewish journey. The title change was preceded by an article that Leemor and I coauthored and that has been shared with our colleagues globally on the eJewish Philanthropy blog, “It’s Time to Move from Engagement to Empowerment.” It is also available on our own web site for those who are interested in learning more about the ultimate goal in any educational venture, empowering the learner.
Robert Lichtman
Executive director
The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life
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