Special Report

ENGAGING YOUTH I ON THE COVER

Detroit's
Architect Of

need to think creatively about what Jewish
life will look like and what we want it to
look like."
Calling Jewish education "the prime
variable for greater Jewish identity:'
Lasday says Jews are running "in 10 differ-
ent directions all at once
He says that while more kids than ever
attend day schools, afternoon schools
or Jewish camps, many more are getting
no formal or informal Jewish education.
Likewise, while adults increasingly take
advantage of Jewish offerings, most still
opt out; and as more families choose to
keep kosher, many more couldn't care less.

EDU

CA

TION

Collaboration
and innovation
are priorities for
Jeffrey Lasday,
new Alliance for
Jewish Education
director.

Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

effrey Lasday is a Jewish archi-
tect. Instead of designing build-
ings, his focus is designing
viable, engaging, modern structures for
Jewish education.
"I enjoy being the architect of com-
munity programs and policies and see-
ing how all the pieces come together,"
says Lasday, 53, director of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Alliance for Jewish Education (AJE) since
late August. Lasday quotes computer pio-
neer Alan Kay: "The best way to predict
the future is to invent it:'
In collaboration with institutions, agen-
cies and organizations across the diverse
spectrum of our Jewish community, and
in consultation with the best and brightest

Jeffrey Lasday with Maya Siegmann, 8, of Oak Park and Rachel Freedland and
Isabella Abohasira, both 6 and of West Bloomfield, at Shalom Street at the Jewish

Community Center in West Bloomfield

in the U.S., Israel and around the world,
this is what Lasday hopes to do for Jewish
education in Metro Detroit.
Its a fascinating time period in Jewish
life, Lasday says, identifying a transition
phase he says began in 2000 and predicts
will continue for about another decade.
"We're in the middle of knowing what
was; we know that change is taking place,
but we don't yet know what it will look
like," he says.
"I enjoy coming up with an interesting
thought or idea, running it by others to
see if it has merit, bringing other people
together to obtain the dollars to make it a
reality, putting the people in place to get
it up and running, and then moving on to
the next project:"

America's open society and unprec-
edented acceptance of its Jews makes
identifying and connecting with Jewish
life boil down to a question of choice.
"Social, cultural and religious boundar-
ies have broken down in America;' Lasday
says. "It's great to be accepted for who you
are, but it's more difficult to maintain a
cultural identity if you are a minority"
In an open marketplace of ideas, Jewish
education needs to be able to attract and
compete.
"Our biggest challenge is apathy —
engaging those folks who just don't find
Jewish education as important or see
the value of it," Lasday says. "We need to
be able to answer the question: Why be
Jewish in the 21st century? To do so, we

Turning To Technology
"We're known as the People of the Book,"
Lasday says, as if explaining the obvious.
"A core value of being Jewish is lifelong
learning."
Jewish educators see the challenge of
connecting and educating Jewish youth
as only the first step in an ongoing educa-
tional process, while many parents see bar
or bat mitzvah as the end of the process.
"First, we have to teach them all about
the whats and the hows," Lasday says. "It's
not until the high school years that they
can start struggling with the whys. We lose
them just as things get interestine
To engage youth means reaching them
on their own terms, and that increasingly
means using technology
"We are living in a digital age," Lasday
says. And that provides great opportuni-
ties once educators figure out how to take
advantage of social media like Facebook
and YouTube, online learning and what-
ever is around the corner.
"It's a time of exploring," he says. "We
have a generation of digital immigrants
teaching a generation of digital natives
[people younger than 25]. We have kids
who think differently and learn differently.
We need to create a community that is
both high tech and high touch."
When Lasday talks of "the power of
experiences," it doesn't sound like edu-
cation-speak, but like an approach using
every avenue to engage and involve Jews.
He has firsthand knowledge.
Formal education in a synagogue
school? He did that as a youth in
Pittsburgh. Youth group? At 15, he joined
Young Judaea, Hadassah's Zionist youth
movement, and still champions it today.
Israel experiences? Following high school,
he went on Young Judaea Year Course
to Israel and then studied at Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. Camping? He
attended Camp Ramah and Young Judaea
camps before becoming Young Judaea's
program director at its Midwest camp,
which was at the old Camp Nahelu in
Education on page 20

December 16 • 2010

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