CJPE News, November 2026: Zionism, a New Fellows Series and Two Peoplehood Papers

This fall, CJPE’s Circle of Fellows begins a new series on Jewish life after October 7th. Two new issues of the Peoplehood Papers look at how Jews build belonging at summer camp and in the classroom. Here is a look at each.

The Circle of Fellows on Zionism today

CJPE’s Circle of Fellows brings together educators, scholars and communal leaders who work on Jewish Peoplehood, Jews’ sense of belonging and responsibility to the Jewish people. Since 2024, the Fellows have met six times to discuss how Jewish life has changed since October 7th. At the sixth meeting, in December 2025, Alon Friedman, Amitai Fraiman and Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath opened a discussion of what Zionism means today for Jews in Israel and around the world. The full summary of that discussion, along with summaries of the five earlier meetings, is on the Fellows page.

A new series: Israel, Peoplehood, and Jewish Life After October 7th

In early December, CJPE and The Jewish Education Project begin four new Circle of Fellows meetings. Since October 7th, rising antisemitism and sharp disagreement over Israel have strained Jewish families, communities and organizations. The series asks how Jewish leaders committed to liberal values can respond, and what Peoplehood education can contribute.

The four meetings take up, in turn, how Jews now relate to Israel and to the Jewish people, who belongs in a Jewish group and who decides, what a group stands for, and how leaders build Peoplehood in practice. Fellows who wish will turn cases from their own work into articles for an issue of the Peoplehood Papers on the series’ themes. Educators and leaders who work on Jewish Peoplehood can learn more and apply to join on the Fellows page.

Peoplehood Papers 36: Cultivating Jewish Peoplehood at Camp

The Peoplehood Papers, CJPE’s publication, bring together short essays by Jewish leaders, scholars and educators on one theme per issue. The July 2026 issue gathers seventeen essays on summer camp, edited by Shlomi Ravid of CJPE and Avi Orlow of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. Scholars and camp practitioners ask how camp values and practices build a sense of belonging to the Jewish people, and how camps can make room for conflicting views of Israel. Erica Goldman, once Israeli dance director at Camp Alonim in California, tells hesitant campers that “you don’t have to know a dance to do a dance.” Read Peoplehood Papers 36.

Peoplehood Papers 37: Pedagogies of Peoplehood

Many people speak about Jewish Peoplehood, and far fewer know how to cultivate it, writes co-editor Mollie Andron of M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. Starting in 2023, M² and the Z3 Project of the Oshman Family JCC brought master Jewish educators from around the world together to develop new ways to teach Peoplehood. The September 2026 issue, edited by Shlomi Ravid, Clare Goldwater and Mollie Andron, presents ten of the 24 methods the educators developed, from Hasidic storytelling about Israel to a pedagogy of Jewish migration. Read Peoplehood Papers 37.

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