Having families with young children participate in Jewish learning benefits the future of the Jewish community.

The good news is that it’s also one of the best ways to engage their whole families in lifelong participation in Jewish life. The other news is that reaching out to such families and encouraging them to “choose Jewish” when considering preschools is an ongoing challenge.

The Chicago Early Engagement Learning Initiative (CEELI) is a groundbreaking early engagement leadership project for the Chicago Jewish community. With support from the Chicago-based Crown Family Philanthropies, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) is deepening its commitment to expand Jewish engagement by creating a pilot for 12 early childhood education centers. Susan Zukrow, in her role as Project Director, is supporting leadership teams as they work together to strengthen their work of engaging young children and their families.

CEELI leadership teams are learning with one another and from subject matter experts. CEELI is focusing on outcomes including program and teacher excellence, family engagement, enrollment, marketing, and operational flexibility.

“The URJ is proud to bring together a vibrant, cross-denominational cohort to collaborate and network,” said Cathy Rolland, URJ Director – Engaging Families With Young Children.

Fern Katz is the Early Childhood Education Director of the Sinai Preschool Chicago at Sinai Congregation, and a CEELI participant. “This particular team approach has been critical to the work that we are doing,” she said. “By bringing together a lay leader, teacher, and director, I am developing a deeper understanding of the different perspectives of each person as well as each role. I am discovering new insights into our school and organization that I believe will not only help us achieve our goals, but strengthen me as a director.”

“I have gained so much from my experience with CEELI,” said Stacey Reingold, a teacher at the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Pre-School of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park. “Continuing to create an environment in which children and their families are integrated with high levels of teacher excellence has been very rewarding. I am excited to be part of this initiative to continue building awareness and ensuring the future growth of Jewish early childhood education within our community.”

By strengthening Chicago’s Jewish early-childhood offerings, CEELI aims to bolster the Jewish identities of Chicago’s children and their families, with more children attending more and better Jewish early-childhood activities.

Deborah Cooper, JUF Assistant Vice President of Young Family Engagement sits on the advisory board of CEELI and has been working closely with the program to ensure their work is integrated with JUF efforts in this area.

For more information and insights into the work of our cohort teams, email Susan Zukrow at [email protected] or call (312) 259-4493.