1. Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA
2. Congregation Shaare Emeth, St. Louis, MO
3. Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, CA
4. Temple Emanu-El, San Diego, CA
5. Temple Shalom, Newton, MA
6. The Temple, Atlanta, GA
7. Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, NY

Second Cohort

1. Congregation Beth Torah, Kansas City, Kansas
2. Congregation Sinai, Milwaukee, WI
3. Har Sinai Congregation, Baltimore, MD
4. Isaac M. Wise Temple, Cincinnati, OH
5. Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills, CA
6. Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, TX
7. Temple Sinai, Stamford, CT

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DrEAMRS Consortium

Since 2001, the ECE has been working with four "advanced" congregations, all of which have been through either the ECE or another transformation process. All four of these congregations are now engaged in re-imagining their Religious Schools using materials and resources from the ECE's initiative to investigate and disseminate exemplary models and innovative practices in Jewish education. This consortium, known as the DrEAMRS Consortium (DrEAMRS stands for Disseminating and Exploring Alternative Models of the Religious School), includes:

1. Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA
2. Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, NY
3. Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills, CA
4. Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, New York, NY

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Kansas City Area Congregations

ECE is working in the Kansas City area with a multi-denominational group of congregations that is seeking to become both Congregations of Learners and Self-Renewing Congregations. Currently active in this group are Congregation Beth Shalom (Conservative), and Kehilath Israel Synagogue (Traditional), both of Overland Park, Kansas.

Leadership teams from both congregations met at a Kallah (gathering) in April 2002 to start the ECE process. Click here to learn more about the Kallah.

Two other congregations - one Reform and one Modern Orthodox - are preparing for possible entry into the project.

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San Francisco Bay Area Congregations:
Innovative Models of the Religious School

Innovative Models of the Religious School (IMRS) is a project of the ECE that is guiding congregations in re-imagining their supplementary synagogue schools. IMRS utilizes the methods of the ECE while focusing on only one specific educational arena within the synagogue. With support of grants from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and The Koret Foundation to expand its efforts to a broader range of congregations from all denominations, the ECE is applying new technologies to facilitate communication and transfer knowledge.

As part of that effort, the ECE is partnering with the Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties to pilot this new initiative. Following a carefully designed application process, with interest expressed by over a dozen congregations, the ECE and BJE selected five congregations* representing both Reform and Conservative denominations to be the first in the nation to work with the ECE's new:

• Distance learning module on Alternative Models of the Religious School;
• Process Guide filled with exercises, text studies and reference materials;
• Team Workspace, an Internet-based virtual meeting place that helps teams communicate, manage information and tasks, and stay connected.

The one-year project was launched at a Kallah (gathering) of leadership teams from each of the five congregations held in April 2002, and a second Kallah was held in early 2003 to review progress and to energize the groups in their future work.
Click here to learn more about the Kallah.


*The five participating congregations are:

• Congregation Beth Sholom
• Congregation Kol Emeth
• Congregation Sha'ar Zahav
• Peninsula Sinai Congregation
• Peninsula Temple Sholom

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New York Area Synagogues RE-IMAGINE Their Religious Schools

The RE-IMAGINE project aims to help synagogues rethink their approaches to religious school education. An ECE Consultant guides teams of leaders from each of the participating synagogues through a process to examine their community's interests, goals and needs. After experiencing unique Internet-based virtual visits to innovative educational programs across the country, synagogue teams will adapt aspects of those programs to fit their own communities.

ECE's RE-IMAGINE Project is about to begin working with its third cohort of congregations in New York. Participants in the first cohort entered into the process in the spring of 2003. They included:

• Forest Hills Jewish Center, Forest Hills, NY (Conservative)
• Oceanside Jewish Center, Oceanside, NY (Conservative)
• Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore, Plandome, NY (Reconstructionist)
• Temple Beth David, Commack, NY (Reform)
• Temple Israel of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY (Reform)

The second RE-IMAGINE Project cohort in New York began in the spring of 2004 and included the following congregations:

• Congregation Ansche Chesed, New York, NY (Conservative)
• Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Brooklyn, NY (Reform)
• The Reform Temple of Forest Hills, Forest Hills, NY (Reform)
• Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, New York, NY (Unaffiliated)
• Temple Israel of Jamaica, Holliswood, NY (Reform)
• West End Synagogue, New York, NY (Reconstructionist)
• Community Synagogue of Rye, Rye, NY (Reform)
• Scarsdale Synagogue Tremont Temple, Scarsdale, NY (Reform)
• Congregation Sons of Israel, Woodmere, NY (Conservative)
• Huntington Jewish Center, Huntington, NY (Conservative)
• North Shore Jewish Center, Port Jefferson Station, NY (Conservative)
• Temple Beth Sholom of Roslyn Heights, Roslyn Heights, NY (Conservative)
• Temple Beth Sholom of Smithtown,Smithtown, NY (Conservative)
• Temple Beth El of Belmore, North Belmore, NY (Conservative)

The RE-IMAGINE Project is sponsored and made possible by a grant from UJA-Federation of New York's Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal (CoJIR). Additional support for the first round of congregations came from The Covenant Foundation, a supporter of the ECE since 1992.

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