Tenth International Directors Conference - Dynamics of Partnership
December 5-8, 2004

Directors of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, traveled from around the world to join their colleagues at the Tenth International Directors' Conference in Chicago, IL.

For four exciting days the directors studied together, looked at issues of professional development and shared experiences. We were honored to have the opportunity to study with Professor Barry Holtz, Professor of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary, who was the keynote speaker at the Conference. Another highlight of the conference was the session with Steve Yastrow, principal and owner of Yastrow Marketing and author of Brand Harmony, who shared with us the importance of good branding and the tools for its implementation.

At the opening Dr. Betsy Dolgin Katz, Director of the North American office, spoke about the contribution of Mini-School Directors in making adult Jewish learning a new Jewish profession and how their commitment and professionalism is facilitating thousands of people to move forward in their Jewish lives. Dr. Yonatan Mirvis, International Director, spoke of the partnerships that ensure the success of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School. It was Florence Melton, whom he compared to Judah the Maccabbee, who felt strongly that the survival of the Jewish people depends upon quality adult Jewish education and in order to do this a strong partnership was needed. As such she chose one of the greatest centers of Jewish learning in the world, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with which to form this partnership. This Israel-Diaspora partnership branches out to a partnership between the Israel and Chicago offices, and a partnership with our sponsoring agencies and schools around the world.

Mazal tov to our directors Hinda Miller, Rochester, NY; Teri Gross, New Orleans, LA; Sue Parker Gerson, Denver, CO, who were awarded with Certification I and Efrat Zarren-Zohar, Miami, FL who was awarded Certification II.

This tenth meeting of the Directors in Chicago greatly contributed to strengthening the partnership between Mini-School sites worldwide and the national and international offices. The directors return to their schools with innovative ideas and renewed motivation to further the mission of the Mini-School for quality adult Jewish education in their community. Special thanks to Irene Bennett, Kitty Hoffman and Jann Goldberg for the outstanding organization of this successful meeting.

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