The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), founded as the Coalition for ''Alternatives'' in Jewish Education, was a non-profit organization based in New York City. Its activities included an annual conference that draws more Jewish educators than any other similar event{{Citation needed, date=December 2011, advocacy for Jewish educators, various education-related publications, and more. Its founding was the brainchild of Jerry Benjamin and

Cherie Koller-Fox Cherie is an English female given name. It comes from the French ''chérie'', meaning ''darling'' (from the past participle of the verb ''chérir'', ''to cherish''). Notable people with the name or stage name include: * Cherie, one of the stage n ...

. In 2009, CAJE closed. In 2010 a new organization called NewCAJE arose, led by founder Cherie Koller-Fox.

Conference

CAJE's yearly CAJE conference drew between 1,000 and 2,000 Jewish educators from around the world. Unlike other conferences of its size, the CAJE conference typically offered several hundred

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

s over the course of only a few days. The daily workshops were supplemented by evening keynote addresses and musical and

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

entertainment. In recent years, sub-conferences such as the "Consortium for the Future of the Jewish Family" ran concurrently with the CAJE conference. The first CAJE conference was held in August 1976 at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Around 350 people attended. Due to its size and nature, the CAJE conference was generally held on a university campus. The CAJE conference inspired similar conferences around the world, including the very popular

Limmud Limmud is a British-Jewish educational charity which, in the UK, produces a large annual winter festival and several other regional events throughout the year on the theme of Jewish learning. Limmud is not affiliated to any strand of Judaism, ...

conference in the United Kingdom.

Recent and future locations

* 2015: University of Hartford

* 2014: Sinai Temple and UCLA Hillel

* 2013: Nichols College

* 2012: Montclair State University

* 2011: American Hebrew Academy

* 2010: A new organization called NewCAJE arose, led by founder Cherie Koller-Fox. The first conference was held at Gann Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts. It had 350 attendees, most notably 75 young professionals. * 2009: CAJE went out of business * 2009: Trinity University (Texas), Trinity University (CAJE 34) This conference was canceled due to the economic downturn on 9 January 2009 via email to all CAJE members. * 2008:

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...

CAJE 33
chaired by Mel Birger-Bray an
Joel M. Hoffman
* 2007:

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

CAJE 32
chaired by Peter Eckstein, co-chaired by Iris Schwartz) * 2006:

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

(CAJE 31) * 2005:

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

(CAJE 30) * 2004:

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

(CAJE 29) * 2003:

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

(CAJE 28) * 2002: Trinity University (Texas), Trinity University (CAJE 27) * 2001:

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

(CAJE 26) * 2000:

(CAJE 25)

Highlights of CAJE 33 Aug 10–14 2008

]
The Future of Congregational Education: Evolution & Revolution

The Roundtable Fishbowl
*Green Judaism: The Moral Imperative to Care for the Earth *Early Childhood Conference @ CAJE 33: Sharing a Vision --- Early Childhood as the Gateway to Jewish Learning and Living *Hands-on Technology: Virtual Community, Actual Learning *Principals' Intensives *Teachers' Intensives *National Educators Institute with PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values

External links

NewCAJE

CAJE 33

CAJE 33 blogCAJE closes
Jewish educational organizations Jewish charities based in the United States Charities based in New York City