Elevating Educational Work to the Realm of the Sacred: Kathy Schwartz

When Kathy Schwartz (EdD 2018), senior director of professional learning at Jewish LearningWorks, interviewed post b’nei mitzvah teens as part of her doctoral dissertation research, she learned that almost every young person, whether they were at a synagogue or in an alternative setting, reported the physical connection with a sefer Torah as one of the most meaningful parts of the rite of passage. The ritual of reading, holding, or passing the Torah was a highlight for teens and their families. “This was their moment to feel a deep sense of personal connection and pride,” Schwartz said. “They felt a deep appreciation for the people who guided them towards this moment—their tutors, clergy, and family members.”

What she learned about teens confirmed what she knew from decades of working with educators.

As a director of congregational education for 28 years, first in Milwaukee and then in Boulder, Schwartz infused her work with a sense of purpose. She created a ritual at the end of educator orientation where the team would gather in the sanctuary and take the Torah out of the ark, passing it one by one starting with the most senior educator on the team until the Torah was held by the newest members of the faculty team, a brand new teen madrich. “I would say ‘You are holding onto Torah in a different way now that you are a teacher of Torah; you have a new connection to Jewish tradition.’” 

Connections matter to Schwartz. “The secret to working with teens is knowing to ask them first, ‘What’s your story? What’s meaningful for you?’” said Schwartz. “We don’t ask people that enough, and the same is true for educators. We need to feel personally connected just as much as our constituents.”

Schwartz herself knew she wanted a career in Jewish education from the age of 14 or 15. “Growing up in Cleveland, I got a lot of support from my synagogue. They placed great value on my involvement,” she said. “They gave me agency to find my own voice and place.”

The adolescent ambition stuck with Schwartz through her undergraduate experience at Washington University in St. Louis, Project Otzmah, where she fulfilled her dream of spending a year in Israel, and at HUC-JIR where she received two MA degrees—one in Jewish education and another in Jewish non-profit management. 

Working in synagogues and serving as president of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators (ARJE), Schwartz felt she need to go deeper in her own learning and wanted to refresh her mindset. She applied to the executive doctoral program at the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, which she knew she could attend from Boulder with a mix of in-person and remote learning. The application asked her to reflect on a teacher who influenced her and she remembered a Catholic high school teacher. She emailed the teacher that week and then completely coincidentally ran into him after she graduated. 

“I was so grateful for the opportunity to do research and to think with high-level intellectual colleagues. My cohort is very close to each other and we are all pulling each other along to finish our degrees,” she said. “In my coursework I could think deeply about topics I am passionate about.”

Schwartz knows that such a direct path to a career in Jewish education is not typical of many in the field. “Many educators find themselves unintentionally in Jewish education, especially in sectors that are struggling to find staff like early childhood and congregational education,” said Schwartz. “One early childhood director I met recently is a chemist by training,” she said. This dynamic makes her commitment to providing professional development even more significant.

“We know from research what kind of professional development works—training that is supported by cohort-based learning and individualized coaching or mentoring.” Schwartz sees the cohort as especially critical because a group of peers can be accountable to one another and can elevate work to the realm of the sacred, exactly what she experienced with her William Davidson School classmates.

“We do a service to each other when we remind ourselves of the value of work,” she said. “Educators will always find reflection their go-to tool. Professional development can give people a chance to reflect on why they put their heart into their work and to learn, to play, to rehearse with their peers.”

Schwartz recently joined Jewish LearningWorks in San Francisco as senior director of professional learning. She works remotely from her home in Boulder, Colorado. “I haven’t had a new job for 25 years,” she said, excited about the prospect of expanding her impact beyond a single congregation.

Jewish LearningWorks elevates the field of Jewish education by nurturing educators, inspiring innovation, and building Jewish literacy. Schwartz leads their efforts to support educators, which involves both responsive work, such as connecting educators to coaches and providing one-on-one mentoring and individualized trainings for educators or teams, as well as proactive initiatives, such as the Voices for Good initiative designed to advance gender equity in Jewish life and support women in leadership.

While much of her work is focused on the San Francisco Bay–area Jewish community, Schwartz is excited about the prospect of leveraging Jewish LearningWorks’ reach more broadly. “The Mountain States share a lot of the ethos of the Bay Area,” she said, “We find a lot of similarities in what motivates people—creativity, individualism, the entrepreneurial spirit.” 

After completing a doctorate remotely, serving as a clinical faculty mentor and associate director of HUC-JIR’s Executive MA in Jewish Education, serving as the national president of ARJE and of course supporting educators and families remotely all through the pandemic, Schwartz is not daunted by the idea of working across time zones. “We learned from all the Zooming we’ve done that people can share across silos more than we had anticipated,” Schwartz said.

As she transitions from hands-on congregation work, Schwartz finds the switch fairly seamless. “I am moving from sharing intimate moments with families about their Jewish journeys to thinking about what educators need based on the reality of Jewish life today,” she said. “My work taught me the prevailing attitude among families, which is ‘I get to decide who I am as a Jew.’ We are missing the boat if we are not helping Jewish educators navigate this environment, lifting up individuals’ Jewish paths and their desire to connect to Jewish life and community.”

In recognition of her leadership in Jewish education, Schwartz was recently named an ARJE Distinguished Educator, a well-deserved honor.

Written by Suzanne Kling Langman