Blog

Jewish education is the key to all the doors I will need to open later on in my life, and the road to my success.

Being a Builder of Jewish education means preparing our young people to embrace both tradition and modernity. It means creating educational programs that help kids think well, belong to something greater than themselves, and take positive action – now, and in the future.

BJE wishes you and your family a year rich and replete with blessings, as the pomegranate is rich and replete with seeds.

L'Shana Tova!

The Board and Staff of
BJE: Builders of Jewish Education

With the approach of the new year, BJE installed its Officers and Directors for the 2016-2017 term. We are fortunate that Dr. Alan M. Spiwak will continue as President for a 3rd one-year term and are  pleased to welcome to the elected board of forty-one directors and officers four new directors: Ilana Goldschein, Dr. Simona Heumann, Amy Leibowitz and Sheilah Miller.

With the approach of the new year, BJE has installed its Officers and Directors for the 2016-2017 term. Dr. Alan M. Spiwak will serve a 3rd one-year term as President. The elected board of forty-one directors and officers includes four directors who have not, previously, served on the BJE board: Ilana Goldschein, Dr. Simona Heumann, Amy Leibowitz and Sheilah Miller.

To me, being a Builder is really about providing people with the building blocks and the tools to go out into the community and make an impression. Hopefully, the work I do helps make young people want to be Jewish. 

BJE ensures that Los Angeles Jewish day schools and educators are the best they can be by providing professional development opportunities and working with schools to build endowments.  

We want to lay the foundation, the scaffolding, to get kids excited about being Jewish.

A Builder of Jewish education is not satisfied with the status quo. To build means to encounter challenges, and even resistance at times. But a builder perseveres, out of a passion for the mission, and recognition that without building, the mission fails. 

My family was always involved in different ways in the Jewish community. My grandfather – my saba – is a BJE board member and past president, and always talked about BJE and other Jewish organizations when I was growing up. I didn’t know what it meant then, but I knew my family was involved. I joined USY in high school and especially liked the social action programs.