By , Special to JTNews
NEW YORK — Late last month, the Mandel Foundation convened the third assembly of a new tier of senior professionals in Jewish education. Thirty-five alumni of the Teacher Educator Institute (TEI) met to exchange the most innovative approaches to the professional development of teachers in Jewish schools.
“TEI is the only program of its kind in the United States to focus on excellence in teacher education,” says Dr. Gail Dorph, director of TEI. “Our graduates “˜teach the teachers’ who work in Jewish classrooms across the country, affecting thousands of children and adults every day.”
Representing the greater Seattle Jewish community at the TEI assembly were: Carol Oseran Starin, director of the Jewish Education Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle; and Joanne Glosser, director of education at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation. Other TEI alumni from Seattle include Rivy Poupko Kletenik of the Jewish Education Council; and Beth Linder Weisberg, educator at Temple Beth Am.
TEI was established in 1995 as an initiative of the Mandel Foundation to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Jewish schools. An intensive two-year program, TEI has approximately 90 alumni from 25 communities nationally. Representatives of every denomination as well as of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School have attended.
The next cohort of TEI held its first meeting on June 10—14 in Chicago. The Mandel Foundation was established by Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel, of Cleveland, Ohio. Its primary mission is to help provide outstanding leadership for the nonprofit world. The foundation supports leadership education programs in its own institutions and at selected universities and organizations. The foundation has these areas of priority: higher education; Jewish education and continuity; the leadership and management of nonprofit organizations; and urban neighborhood renewal.