RSVP to Elkan and Zelda Gamzu, Sunday May 31 10A to Noon
Remarks by Avi Bernstein-Nahar
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE NEW JEWISH ACADEMY?
The New Jewish Academy is a center for teacher-training and human sciences research, launching as a 501(c)(3) in January 2027, and currently building its financial resources with your help. All donations to The New Jewish Academy are tax deductible.
Our mission is to set a teaching and learning movement in motion – to every desiring person an opportunity to belong to the life of Torah, in a community of friends, to every desiring educator an opportunity to participate in a teaching profession, not merely as a career, but with fellow teachers and learners as a way-of-life.
Who serves on the Board of Trustees for the New Jewish Academy?
Elkan Gamzu, Director/Clerk, Leslie Belay, Director/Treasurer and Avi Bernstein-Nahar, President.
What is the rationale for such an ambitious enterprise?
Let’s suppose, looking around, you noticed an illness spreading rapidly through the North American population. If you had the antidote, you would act with great urgency to provide it.
If the disorder had already become widespread, would you try to deliver the antidote yourself? No, you would recruit the national guard and show them how to deliver it. You would recruit the most talented and dedicated people you could find; you would devote yourself to seeing that they were well-trained; and you would try to ensure that their impact was not just temporary, but that they evolved into a society of professionals who would be focused on the health and well-being of the community once the threat had passed.
This is the Jewish predicament at this moment. We are hurting: we are strangers in our own library, disoriented in our own Jewish world. Longitudinally, synagogues are contracting, and more of us than ever, especially people under 40, describe themselves as “religious nones.” Anti-semitism is once again out of control. The state of Israel is in crisis, and more than ever, the diaspora is uncertain how to support it. On the heels of October 7, a deep wound has opened and it’s festering.
This is a moment for action. We’ve been here before.
What is The New Jewish Academy Program?
The New Jewish Academy is a start-up in the process of acquiring its 501(c)(3) status. Its program is in formation. Current plans:
- teacher-training including periodic boot camps introducing rabbis and professors to learning design, collaborative/shared inquiry, and hermeneutics for educators; and 1-on-1 coaching in the context of formal and informal teaching;
- curricular innovation
- with priorities on “Gen Z,” including an honest engagement with their experience of Zionism and the State of Israel, and forthright efforts to put that experience into contexts that promote trans-generational understanding.
- with priorities on translating the visionary thinking of our crisis theologians into doable curricula for adult learning. Our crisis theologians include Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Hermann Cohen, Judith Plaskow, Franz Rosenzweig, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and Emil Fackenheim.
- consulting to assist leading Jewish organizations in hiring, training and mentoring the most talented teachers for their adult education initiatives and then expanding them.
- replicating a “Torah Chevre” model of sanctifying time with friends through listening and learning together. Bernstein-Nahar’s remarks on May 31 will elaborate on this item.
How can I support the growth of The New Jewish Academy?
Come to Elkan and Zelda’s on May 31 and learn about the vision! Any amount of financial support would be sincerely appreciated. If now or in the future you choose to become a major benefactor, the Boston or New York Friends of The New Jewish Academy will provide a community of supporters and advocates to accompany you.
What is a Torah Chevre?
A TORAH CHEVRE is an intentional community, sanctifying time through study and friendship. This chevre will meet in Newton Centre five times a year – in advance of Passover (Song of Songs), Sukkot (Ecclesiastes) and Shavuot (Book of Ruth), and in the course of the month of repentance (Elul) and the Days of Awe. You are invited to join. Avi will offer further context and elaboration on May 31. Hope you can make it!
A TORAH CHEVRE IS A PLACE OF LERNEN (לערנען). Discursive Learning (e.g. lots of back-and-forth) is the beating heart of Jewish civilization. If it fades, the civilization withers. It is the acquisition of knowledge to be sure, but it goes beyond knowledge acquisition; it carries moral and spiritual connotations. Engaged in LERNEN, we tap into ancestral wisdom and carve out novel understandings particular to us.
DISSEMINATING THE TORAH CHEVRE IDEA is core to the mission of The New Jewish Academy: Our aim is to set a teaching and learning movement in motion. The goal – to provide every desiring person an opportunity to belong to the life of Torah, in a community of friends, and every desiring educator an opportunity to participate in a teaching profession, not merely as a career, but with fellow teachers and learners as a way-of-life.
A TESTIMONIAL: “It’s the feeling of belonging that stands out – we become a family for the hours that we are together. We listen to our chaverim read it aloud. We bend over our books and peer into the Torah text. We squint our eyes and strain our ears so as to take in every last word – both the Torah on the page and the Torah on our lips; and Avi conducts the thing like an orchestra. Gently he encourages us to make music of the text, like a symphony, where one of us is never equal to the sum of us.” Marla, Newton, MA
THE TORAH CHEVRE at Newton Center is a benefit of membership in the Friends of THE NEW JEWISH ACADEMY~a center for teacher training and human sciences research~
What is a Friends of The New Jewish Academy and how will it work?
Boston and New York Friends groups will lend financial, and operational support to THE NEW JEWISH ACADEMY, and advocates for it in their communities.
As a condition of membership, every chaver will make a financial contribution on an annual basis. Giving tiers are listed below.
The Kaplan Circle: $1.8K to $3.5K Mordechai Kaplan pioneered the understanding that Judaism is not only a religion, but an entire civilization. In other words it is a broad and deep precious legacy that we cannot afford to lose.
The Shakla V’etarya Society: $3.6K to $5.9K These Aramaic words, shakla (taking) and v’etarya (and giving) refer to the back-and-forth movement of persons in deep conversation (listening and reply, listening and reply, where the questions are as important as the answers). Shakla V’etarya is characteristic of Jewish civilization at its best.
Abraham Joshua Heschel Society: $6K to $9.9K “More than textbooks we need text-people” I Asked for Wonder, 1983. Syntax slightly altered.
The Song of Songs Society: $10K to $99.9K “Love can outrun Death – Azah K’Mavet Ahavah,” Song of Songs 8:6, a creative translation.
Judith Plaskow Society: $100K to $249.9K Plaskow’s clarion call for women to “stand again at Sinai” was the perfect note to hit in 1990, and was instrumental in bringing women alienated from the Jewish experience back to the literary sources of Jewish civilization.
The Alasdair Macintyre Society: Founding Members and Foundations giving 250K and above become members of the Alasdair MacIntyre Society. MacIntyre famously defined a tradition as “an historically extended, socially embodied argument…about the goods which constitute” the way of life of those having it. A living tradition is a dynamic, self-correcting trans-generational conversation about its own foundations, values, and purposes. Of its participants it asks a pilgrimage, the exact destination being part of what’s contested between the various parties that inevitably form. Nevertheless, in a healthy tradition, the parties engage in the argument “for the sake of heaven,” and feel privileged for having the opportunity to do so.
All contributions are tax-deductible less the fair market value of our five meetings (=$400).
An online giving portal coming to this page very soon!
What if I’d like to participate in a Torah Chevre group but I am not in a position to join the Friends?
Anyone who is attracted to the form of learning described here, but is unable to participate is encouraged to approach the The New Jewish Academy leadership. Our organization is interested in seeding Torah Chevre groups and will help you find one or even start one of your own.
What if I am interested in the Friends group but I’m not certain? How can I learn more?
Anyone is welcome to join us on a one-time basis to give TC Fall 2026 a try, or speak with members of a Torah Chevre that Avi has been convening with partners for years. To arrange for either of these, please email info@36learningmatters.com.