Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Parshischo, Poland, (1765-1827) said that people should have two slips of paper in their pockets. On one should be written: “For me the world was created.” And on the other: “I am but dust and ashes.” Wisdom, he said, is knowing which slip of paper to read when.
Bunim lived in tumultuous times and was considered a bit of a rebel in early Hasidut. This teaching suggests that he understood the complexity of human experience, driven by both conflicting truths and ever-changing realities.
What was true in late 18th and early 19th century Poland seems even more relevant in today’s rapidly world where technology, politics, and social paradigms shift all too quickly. Jewish day schools and yeshivas of all types recognize this challenge very well as they promulgate their own unique “traditional” educational experience while nearly constantly adjusting to meet continually changing realities. In the past five years alone, our schools have reinvented themselves to serve students virtually, returned to in-person learning with critical accommodations, and invested deeply to promulgate a love of Israel during time of existential war.
“Welcome to the state of VUCA, aka our new normal,” reads the headline of the recent insightful reflection in eJewishPhilanthropy by Barry Finestone, president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “We are in a state of VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — a concept coined by the U.S. Army College in 1987 and popularized by the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus.”
Living in VUCA times, says Finestone, means that “instead of reacting to emergencies and then waiting to ‘get back to normal,’ we must recognize that we are living in a new normal.” For day schools and yeshivas, there is truly no “going back” to what our schools looked like before Covid or before 10/7/23. Schools by nature adapt to changing realities just as the best educators instinctually modify their teaching to the needs of the new students and culture in their classrooms each year. We might even say that classrooms are in a perennial state of VUCA. You could say that this is our sweet spot, the moment we can soar.
Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools has learned much alongside our schools, especially about how to develop, support, and promote the overarching goals of full-time education while at the same time responding to emerging needs. Since the first Strategic Plan we created for the new organization in 2018, we have gained knowledge, experience, and the respect of the field. Our initial strategies have been pressure-tested by challenges we could never have anticipated, like covid, and we now can double down on what works as we move forward.
As we plan for the next five VUCA years, Prizmah aspires to integrate the two approaches Finestone described:
Both funders and grantees still need to engage in strategic planning and remain focused on long-term goals and outcomes. It can’t just be our exclusive approach anymore. We need to train ourselves, to strengthen our adaptive "muscles" so we are ready to quickly and effectively react to issues and unanticipated developments in as close to real-time as possible.
We have to work–in the same breath– on long-term vision as well as rapid response. Having a strategic direction provides a lens through which we can face unexpected challenges and make quick decisions.
We are proud to share Prizmah’s new strategic plan for 2024-29, which is dependent on, in service to, and in partnership with the hundreds of day schools and yeshivas throughout North America. We believe that these schools are where the Jewish future grows and thrives.
The recent successes of our day schools and yeshivas enabled Prizmah to envisage ambitious goals for the field over the next five years. The goals include: growing enrollment by 10,000 students; moving the needle on affordability and raising $400 million in endowment funds; and investing in strong and stable leadership for our schools through increasing head of school tenure and growing the pipeline of future leaders.
We are committed to delivering these goals and to continue to strengthen the field through the Prizmah Network, building on our existing platform of programs and services in the areas of school advancement, talent, educational excellence, as well as expanding data-driven decision-making for schools.
Focusing on these ambitious goals and delivering programs and services that truly meet schools’ and communities’ needs represent the slips of paper we carry in our pockets, to build on Rabbi Bunim’s wise advice. Creating opportunities and responding to needs will enable us to simultaneously deepen and widen the reach and success of our schools.
Yes, it is for us that the world was created, and we are compelled to treat that responsibility with the utmost seriousness. And yes, we are like dust and ashes, in need of very basic supports to remain viable. May the wisdom of our plan help us use both perspectives as we face a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world that continues to surprise us.