The NEWCAJE3 Conference 

August 5-8th 2012 

 Montclair State University, Montclair New Jersey.

               Welcome to NewCAJE!

Our History

CAJE was founded in 1976 and over the next 32 years changed the landscape of Jewish education in the United States and beyond.

It brought together over 30,000 people over the years to share ideas, learn from each other, and grow as teachers. Everyone one of those people went back home and taught others what they’d learned at the annual CAJE conference. Do the math. In those 32 years, conservatively speaking over 600,000 children and adults were enriched by the fact that their teacher had been to CAJE.

CAJE defined teacher as anyone involved in the transmission of Jewish education and culture. That meant that classroom teachers, principals, rabbis, cantors, camp directors, youth workers, academicians, writers, artists, storytellers, parents, communal service professionals—all are teachers in our eyes. CAJE believed in pluralism and brought Jews together from every part of the denominational spectrum to learn together and even to celebrate Shabbat as one people.

CAJE celebrated Judaism and Jewish learning and Jewish culture. It strengthened us and made us proud to be doing the holy work of linking one generation to the next. It inspired us, broadened our perspective and lifted our spirits. We in turn did the same for our students.

Our Future

NewCAJE is ready to move forward with a new agenda for the 21st century.

NewCAJE will not be the same as CAJE. It is a NEW century and there are NEW and different demands on Jewish educators. There are NEW technologies and NEW approaches and NEW students and a NEW generation of educators. We will explore all of these alternatives with an open heart. The seasoned educators are both mentoring and partnering with talented educators of the next generations. We will inspire each other and learn from each other. NewCAJE is a NEW beginning for Jewish education. NewCAJE will ask NEW questions and find NEW solutions to the problems old and NEW facing us. That is what the New in NewCAJE stands for.

So here’s what’s happened so far:

• NewCAJE purchased the intellectual property of CAJE
• NewCAJE sponsored a conference in August of 2010 in Waltham MA with over 350 attendees. Here you can access the program book from that conference. Click here and access the evaluation of the conference.
• NewCAJE sponsored its second conference July 31st-August 3rd at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro North Carolina. A post-conference with exciting intensives and a Young Professionals Conference were held from August 3-4th. Here you can access the program book from that conference.
• NewCAJE published the first edition of our new journal:  Jewish Educator. Read it here.
• NewCAJE published the second edition of our journal: Jewish Educator.
• NewCAJE instituted a Great Speakers Webinar series. To sign up for the 2012 series, go to the Webinar button to the right of this letter. To learn about how to access our library of webinars, go to the link on the left navigation that says GENERAL WEBINAR INFORMATION. 
• NewCAJE has an active Young Professionals Group--please join them by sending a note to mail@newcaje.org

If you want to be in the leadership or want to be added to our mailing list, or have an idea you'd like to share, please write mail@newcaje.org 

We are waiting for your leadership and your new ideas. Bring them to NewCAJE and find a national stage on which to share them. We welcome you to become a founding member and an active participant in the process of designing a new public face and a new strong voice for Jewish education.