Academy BJE reinvents itself

ACADEMY BJE is dead – long live the NSW Board of Jewish Education.

The board, which provides Jewish education to children in state and non-Jewish private schools across NSW, has spent considerable time and energy rebranding itself, culminating in an awareness campaign aimed at informing the public not just about its new moniker, but also the services and programs it provides.

Principal and co-CEO Rachele Schonberger said the time was right for the change.

“After four years of curriculum rewriting for teaching programs for almost half of the community’s children in government schools, and five years of running successful Israel programs, as well as building fruitful relationships with other communal organisations such as the Jewish day schools and the Sydney Jewish Museum, the time was right to let the NSW Jewish community know,” she said.

Schonberger said the decision was made to drop “Academy” from the name because it did not reflect the NSW Board of Jewish Education’s (BJE) services for public school students.

But the changes go beyond a mere name change, with all program names also being changed – and all featuring the word “Emet” in their titles – to tie them together.

“Every program that BJE offered was named with an acronym. They did not link, which meant that our parents and students did not realise the vast scope of Jewish education BJE delivers,” Schonberger said.

Core work will be called Emet and other programs will be based from this.

“So Emet Extension refers to supplementary Jewish education, Emet Traditions incorporates Jewish studies and Hebrew, and Emet Outreach educates non-Jewish students and teachers in Judaism and so on,” Schonberger said. “It seems to makes so much sense.”

In addition, all curriculum books are now in colour, which BJE says will be more appealing to students.

BJE’s new campaign slogan, “Cut from the same cloth”, refers to its mission to bring together individuals who are cut from the same cloth, that being, Jews.

Soon BJE will bid farewell to 35 Emet Israel students as they commence their communal involvement with a program in Israel.

“It is really exciting to be part of this wonderful organisation. We are so keen to let the community know who BJE is and what BJE does,” Schonberger said.

Enquiries: (02) 9365 7900 or www.bje.org.au.

GARETH NARUNSKY

From left: Rose Bay Public School students Charlie Trachtenberg, Zephyr Damari, Lila Greenberg and Lewis Saul show off their new BJE workbooks.

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