The Institute maintains a vigorous connection with front-line practitioners and draws on and seeks to enhance innovative work already underway that promises to dramatically extend Jewish education’s reach and impact. The Lippman Kanfer Institute pays special attention to learnings from beyond the field of Jewish education. The Lippman Kanfer Institute’s innovative ideas are brought to the field through vehicles such as conferences and colloquia, print and electronic publications; interactive media like wikis and blogs, and direct contact with educators and policy-makers working on the front lines.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute is an integral part of JESNA and contributes to its mission to improve and transform Jewish education by identifying and advocating for new and better ways of organizing and delivering Jewish education to communities, institutions, policy-makers, funders and practitioners. The work of the Lippman Kanfer Institute is supported by the Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, based in Akron, Ohio.


Lippman Kanfer Institute Staff


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Chief Ideas Officer
Director of the Lippman Kanfer Institute
(212) 284-6888

Jonathan Woocher is JESNA’s Chief Ideas Officer and directs its Lippman Kanfer Institute: An Action-Oriented Think Tank for Innovation in Jewish Learning and Engagement.  Jon served as JESNA’s chief professional officer for twenty years before assuming his new role in 2007.  In addition to guiding the work of the Lippman Kanfer Institute, he is a member of the agency’s senior management, working with his colleagues on JESNA’s strategic direction, new project development, external relations, and financial resource development. 

Prior to coming to JESNA in 1986, Jon was an Associate Professor in the Benjamin S. Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University, where he taught courses in Jewish political studies and communal service and directed the program in Continuing Education for Jewish Leadership.

He received his BA from Yale University, summa cum laude, in Political Science and his MA and PhD from Temple University in Religious Studies. He has also studied at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Monica Rozenfeld