Judah Isaacs is one year into his role
of leading the Agency for Jewish
Education of Metropolitan Detroit.
/-
In addition, she said, Jonas has
been very involved with planning for
the agency's upcoming move to the
Max M. Fisher Jewish Federation
Building in Bloomfield Township.
Jonas' wife, Nancy, is president of
Temple Israel's sisterhood. The couple
has three daughters: Jennifer, a mechan-
ical engineer who is studying for a mas-
ter's degree in business at the University
of Michigan; Jessica, who plans to grad-
uate in December from Eastern
Michigan University with a degree in
elementary education; and Julie, a
junior at U-M. The Jonases also recent-
ly welcomed a son into the family with
Jennifer's marriage to Brad Carlson.
In an interview last week, Jonas was
upbeat about the future of the AJE, and
of Jewish education in the Detroit area.
"Are we in better shape than a year
ago? I really think so," he said. "I
think we have made great additions to
the staff, and we've focused our efforts
on services the community requests."
For example, the Seminars for
Adult Jewish Enrichment program,
co-sponsored with the JCC, succeeded
"beyond our dreams." More than 500
SAJE class members proved that what
the community wants is a two- or
three-night class schedule, rather than
a traditional college semester, he said.
In educating young people, the AJE
must maintain a delicate balance
between encouraging quality in Jewish
education and dictating curriculum or
standards, Jonas said.
"In this community, we don't have a
Jewish school board," he said. "The
community has told us over the past 15
years by where they send their children
that they want decentralized services.
"Choice of curriculum is one of the
strengths of this community," Jonas
said. "People like the synagogue pro-
viding continuity. Synagogue to syna-
gogue, there's not only a choice of reli-
gious observance, but also in the edu-
cation they provide, with each
responding to its own membership."
The AJE advocates continuous
improvement, the belief that, to remain
relevant and exciting, Jewish educators
must constantly seek to add to their
knowledge and techniques, Jonas said.
Attendance for the NIRIM
Professional Enrichment Program for
Jewish Educators underlines this corn-
mitment to continuous improvement.
Of the more than 400 DetroitJewish
educators, 117 completed 10 hours or
more of NIRIM classes during the
past year. In all, NIRIM racked up
about 1,300 class registrations.
While.e advocates keeping control
of education within the individual
synagogues, Jonas said he is open to
discussing centralized evaluation pro-
cedures. "Some say we need a method
of evaluation, a set of standards. I
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