Hebrew Union College, a leading institution of Reform Judaism, and its Conservative counterpart, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), have embarked on their first-ever joint project, a cross-denominational leadership institute for principals of US congregational schools. School directors from about 40 New York-area synagogue schools will participate in two extensive 10-day training sessions starting in the summer of 2005. Workshops will focus on enhancing Jewish studies curricula and developing strategies for staff development. Participants will also be assigned veteran synagogue school administrators as mentors, take part in six one- or two-day seminars over the next three years, and visit Israel. The leadership institute is being funded by a US$ 1.8 million grant from UJA-Federation of New York. Steven Brown, dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Education at JTS, said the grant recognized at last the importance of supplementary Hebrew schools.
