JECELI | Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute

JECELI is a multi-layered intensive learning institute for directors, assistant directors and emerging teacher leaders of Jewish early childhood education programs.
JECELI Fellows become leaders of their programs and communities, able to provide generative Jewish life and learning experiences for young children and their families.
This institute, grounded in Jewish text study, provides tools and guided opportunities for understanding intentional relationships, for reflective practice, and for leadership development, all within a supportive community of practice.
We accept applications from directors with five years of experience or less and those who aspire to be leaders or directors of Jewish early childhood education programs from any branch of Jewish life. We want to welcome you into the JECELI community.

“As the leader, so the generation; as the generation, so the leader.” – Talmud Yerushalmi, Arakhim 17a

What We Want You to Know

Click on the images at right to learn more about JECELI's areas of study.

Jewish Learning and Dialogue

Reflective Practice in a Jewish Social Context

Community Building

More About JECELI

Our April seminar is taking place from the 24th-26th. See our blog for more information about the ideas that we will be exploring with the fantastic fellows of JECELI Chicago Cohort 2! You can meet the fellows themselves by clicking here. We really look forward to being with them again.

JECELI supports leaders and aspiring leaders by providing a grounding in Jewish learning, reflective practice, and community building. Leadership tools are used to promote collaborative work in the group and in the schools of the JECELI fellows. Challenges in the field are used as examples of opportunities to promote thoughtful, intentional changes that reference core Jewish values. To these ends, the organization of JECELI is transparent, so that the leadership skills, knowledge, and processes that inform the program are those that can be used by participants to develop their own schools.

JECELI is a collaborative effort between The Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, originating in consultation with the Bank Street College of Education, and operating with the generous support of The Crown Family. For more information on these institutions, click here.

May 8, 2018 |

What We Want You to Know

More About JECELI

What's New

An intensive three days!

What’s developing in the JECELI April Seminar?

From Hannah Bloom Hirschberg, the Chicago Project Coordinator