Kohelet Fellowships
The mission of the Kohelet Fellowship Program is to dramatically improve the effectiveness, affordability, and enrollment of American Jewish day schools by offering incentive based Jewish learning programs for parents of day school students. We believe that a parent’s participation in this program deepens the value of their children’s educational experience by encouraging and enriching the parent’s own sense of Jewish identity and access to the wisdom of our rich heritage. We also recognize the significant financial commitment a family must assume to place and keep children in day school. To support this dedication on the part of day school families, the Kohelet Fellowship Program provides a stipend for participation in its programs to make the cost of this commitment more affordable.
To learn more about how you can bring Kohelet Fellowships to your school or community, contact Holly Cohen at holly@koheletfoundation.org.
The foundation of the program is based on four core values:
1. Family Learning
The Kohelet Fellowships reinforces for your children the value you as parents have placed on Jewish learning. By participating in this program, parents are saying to their children: “Every Jewish person needs to learn, to connect through study with our heritage; your parents do it -- and we have homework too!” This will increase the impact of the education for the children as they see and feel that Jewish learning infuses the home.
2. Unified Messaging
The Kohelet Fellowships reconciles the apparent conflicts that can impact a child’s Jewish identification by ensuring the message of Jewish learning conveyed in the day school is consistent with the message conveyed in the home. In that a predominant amount of Jewish expression is experienced in the home, particularly in the context of the holidays, the home becomes the practical workshop integrating the Jewish lessons of the school.
3. Parental Identification and Involvement
Another core value of the Kohelet Fellowships is the strengthening of the bond between parents and the schools. Regardless of the affiliation, loyalty, or identification parents now feel with respect to their child’s day school and its goals, it will be increased because the parents themselves are benefiting educationally.
4. Life-Long Learning
There is no concept of “completing” one’s Jewish education with a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or a basic fluency in Hebrew or Jewish practices. Indeed, in our tradition the opposite is true; a Jewish person is always working on their character, their knowledge of our heritage and the greater questions of life. This crucial lesson will be conveyed to the children of participating parents in a direct and personal way.