Director of Israel Education
Center for Jewish and Israel Education
Hillel International
Role Overview
The Center for Jewish and Israel Education at Hillel International is a team dedicated to supporting Jewish college students on a pathway toward Jewish adulthood. We envision students as ready to make life choices informed by Jewish values, confident in crafting Jewish experiences for themselves & their peers, and eager to find their next steps in Jewish life. We support, train, and provide resources for campus professionals to guide their students along that journey while also providing direct to student Jewish learning and leadership programming.
We envision a world in which Hillel is the central meeting point for inspired learning about, and lasting engagement with, Israel. In line with the best practices of education and the deepest wisdom of Jewish thought, we hold ourselves to an approach that centers authentic inquiry, multivocality, and personal reflection. When we do this well, we embody an approach to Israel education that resonates with emerging adult learners and welcomes every student to meaningfully explore their relationship to Israel.
The Center for Jewish and Israel Education (CJIE) has been pioneering this work across a suite of programming and by more broadly influencing the ways Israel education manifests in the Hillel movement. Our Masterclass: Israel (MCI) designed to support Hillel educators toward great pedagogical and content knowledge is entering its fourth cohort and has had a deep impact on the ways Israel education is deployed on campus. Following the development of MCI, we launched Kol Yisrael, a series of curricula meant to broaden the repertoire of Israel learning opportunities led by campus professionals for students. Finally, the Israel Insight Fellowship, which consists primarily of a unique travel experience for select student leaders is creating new ways for those leaders to engage with the essential questions that Israel poses for contemporary students.
The Director of Israel Education will oversee this body of work with the goal of continuing the growth and impact of these various programs while also piloting and building new learning opportunities.
What You’ll Do:
- Have primary responsibility for extending and deepening our pedagogical approaches, opening up new ways of thinking and teaching about Israel.
- Be “on the ground” leading or co-leading various intensive experiences in both North America and Israel.
- Work closely with the associate director of Israel education and Israel program manager toward implementation of these various efforts.
What You’re Great At:
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Expert Educator and Architect of Educational Design: With deep experience in Israel education and more broadly in education, the director will pioneer new modes of thinking and teaching Israel in the Hillel context. As the primary architect of our pedagogical approach the director will build on the content we’ve already developed including the Inquiry Centered Model for Israel Education. They will oversee a body of student facing content, working toward aligning all material with our educational approach, updating content, and building new content as relevant.
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Experienced Facilitator and Israel Educator: The Director of Israel Education will be primarily responsible for a growing body of work in Israel education on the ground in Israel through the Israel Insight Fellowship. In this coming summer Hillel International will bring several groups of students and professionals to Israel to explore a series of essential questions from a multitude of perspectives. In line with our pedagogical approach, the Director must be comfortable presenting a multi-vocal approach to Israel and its conflicts while embracing ambiguity and complexity. They must hold their own sense of commitment and connection to Israel, as a central and inspiring commitment of the Jewish people, while also holding a broad understanding of the various ways our constituents relate to it. Practically, they will need to be able to spend up to three weeks in Israel engaged in “on the bus” leadership, and love working with students in this way.
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Big Picture Thinker: The Director must be capable of working on the campus level with professionals to support their development as educators while simultaneously thinking broadly on the organizational level about the way we deploy resources, policy, and perspective toward Israel education. They will find opportunities to collaborate and organize cross departmental strategy, seeing and supporting educational opportunities within the range of Hillel International’s organizational commitments to Israel.
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Strong Manager and Team Player: The director will oversee multiple projects, budgets, and colleagues. They should have experience leading and managing colleagues toward success. And we’re a small team with a big mandate, so we jump in to help others’ projects. This will likely lead the director to take on some responsibilities that aren’t listed here, but are critical to moving all of our projects forward.
Who you are:
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Intentional. You know your WHY and can articulate it to others. You build with purpose and understand the importance of “getting it right” as well as “getting it done”.
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Accountable. You own your mistakes and strive for growth. You deliver on your commitments and maintain clear communication with those who rely on you.
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Empathic. You can hold space for a diverse set of experiences, opinions, and backgrounds with radical empathy and compassion. When people speak to you, they feel seen, heard, and respected. You know how to be in meaningful conversation with those you disagree with.
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Passionate. You care about Jewish and Israel education from the core of your being. This work intrinsically motivates you, and your love of it comes through to those around you.
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Organized. You can hold multiple details, projects, and ideas at once. You can prioritize tasks and meet deadlines, especially when there are multiple projects running concurrently.
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Charismatic. You understand people, and others feel welcomed when they are in your presence. Relationship-building is a gift of yours, and you enjoy inviting others in.
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Curious. You are hungry to learn, and ask insightful questions before offering solutions. You are just as much a learner as you are an educator.
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Collaborative. You are willing to dedicate time to help others on your team, as you understand that your success is intertwined with theirs.
- Committed to our approach. You believe in our question-centric, multi-vocal approach to Israel education.
What You’ll Bring to the Job:
Required
- Deep familiarity with the social, political, and cultural landscape(s) of Israel (including Palestinian experiences/narratives)
- Passion and commitment to the field of education, born out of a love of learning
- 8+ years of professional experience and hold an advanced degree in a related field
- Significant experience with curricular and educational design
- Significant experience teaching
- Team player excited to innovate and scale while managing multiple projects and relationships at once
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Committed to question-centric, nuanced Israel education, in line with the Inquiry-Centered Model
- Travel to Israel for several weeks in the summer and 25% professional travel in North America throughout the year.
Desired
- Experience working in the field of Israel education, or Jewish education more broadly
- Lived experience in Israel
- Proven successful track work in educational design
- Proven successful track record in engagement work
- Professional or academic training in Israel education, Israeli politics, Israeli history, or Israeli culture
- Experience working with emerging adults, specifically college students
- Familiarity or experience within the Hillel movement
- Professional training in education and/or facilitation
- Hebrew proficiency
What You’ll Get Out Of It
This position has a salary range of $95 -$115k. This salary falls in Hillel’s Compensation Level 6A or 6B Director, depending on experience.
Hillel offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plan, life insurance, Long Term Disability (LTD), Flexible Spending Plan, unlimited vacation, generous sick time, parental leave, and flexible work from home policy. In addition, employees are enthusiastically encouraged to take advantage of professional development opportunities through Hillel or our partner organizations.
Time Zones and Workplace
While Hillel International’s headquarters are in Washington DC, we are a remote team, open to hiring anyone based in the United States with eligibility to work in the United States. We have a flexible work schedule, which aims to support our employees in maintaining maximally successful professional and personal lives. That said, we expect our employees to keep regular hours that are mutually agreed upon by the employee and their supervisor. While this position is remote, there are semi-regular in-person gatherings, trainings, and conferences that we expect our team to fully participate in. Regular travel is an expected part of this job.
A note for current Hillel professionals:
Current campus professionals may apply, and if a current Hillel professional is the finalist, we will work with them and their campus/supervisor to navigate a smooth transition on a mutually agreeable timeline. We are prepared to share time and resources during the transition so that a field colleague can wrap up their work on campus as they transition to a position at the SIC. We are open to considering other options that best support your campus, while working towards filling this important role for the Hillel Movement as a whole.
Reporting Line
The Director of Israel Education reports to the Associate Vice President of Jewish Education, Danielle Kranjec and will work collaboratively with other members of the CJIE and Meyerhoff teams.
Next Steps
If you’ve read this and thought this is you, this might be you, or this is sort-of you -- please apply! If you have questions, reach out to Jessica Rundle, from Hillel’s Talent Acquisitions team or Danielle Kranjec dkranjec@hillel.org.
Hiring Process and Timeline
- Applications will close on Wednesday, March 15th at 5pm PST
- The formal interview process will begin on March 16th and conclude by April 19th
- We hope to have someone in place by early May.
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About Hillel International
In 1923, Rabbi Benjamin Frankel started Hillel with humble means, a noble mission and a breathtaking vision: to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation. Today, Hillel International continues to enrich the lives of Jewish students and is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world at more than 550 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. As Hillel evolves as an organization, the mission remains steadfast: to create lasting connections with every Jewish student that foster an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel and train them to become the next Jewish leaders.
Hillel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an accepting and inclusive environment for all.