Jewish Community Centers across the United States have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about how to inspire their local communities to preserve and sustain meaningful connections to Jewish life. In an effort to touch as many members of our Jewish community as possible, the ERJCC has made a conscientious decision to design Jewish education and arts and culture programs in a collaborative fashion. To more effectively reach community members through all means of Jewish expression, while recognizing that many members of the Jewish community participate in both our cultural and educational Jewish opportunities at the ERJCC, a strategic alliance has been formed to include Jewish education with the visual and performing arts, film, literature, text study, Jewish history, language and thought.

 

Jewish Arts and Culture and Jewish education programming began a collaboration that we believe enhances all of the Jewish opportunities at the Center. To reach this goal, the ERJCC has founded the Center for Jewish Learning and Living, a collaborative process that brings together the arts and culture programming of the Center, such as the Book and Arts Fair, the Jewish Film Festival, and the Jewish Music Festival, and the education initiatives of the Center, such as the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, and the Bunny and Leo Horvitz Scholar-in-Residence Program. In addition, this collaboration brings additional programs and staff to the Jewish initiatives of the ERJCC, with high hopes that more members of our community may be touched by meaningful Jewish experiences.