Innovators Gather to Shape Future of Jewish Education

Atlanta took center stage in Jewish day school education in April, hosting more than 100 Jewish educators, administrators, philanthropists, and practitioners from across the country for the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge’s (JEIC) 13th annual Innovators Retreat (IR), a three-day gathering hosted by the Mayberg Foundation. Their central question: “How can Jewish day schools stay rooted in timeless values while embracing artificial intelligence?”

The Innovators Retreat rotates to a different community each year. Atlanta was the chosen host city for the 2026 convening. The three-day gathering at The Dupree Conference and Education Center featured intensive learning, reflection, and forward-thinking dialogue. The retreat received sponsorship funding from The Zalik Foundation and the Jake F. Aronov Foundation, with support from Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

“Our work at JEIC proves we can design Jewish studies in a way that empowers students to deeply own their Jewish identity,” said Mayberg Foundation President and Trustee, Manette Mayberg.

That mission resonated with Atlanta educators who arrived hungry for that conversation across the community. “Day school educators are often siloed — we’re in our own school, we’re in our own community,” added Shelley Fogelson, manager of day school partnerships at Federation. “The Innovators Retreat offered an opportunity for participants to project beyond the day-to-day demands and come together as a community of professionals to learn, exchange ideas, and think about implementation.”

In the months leading up to the retreat, JEIC’s managing director, Sharon Freundel, worked closely with Jewish day school leaders to understand Atlanta-area schools’ priorities and shape the retreat’s content accordingly. The result was a dedicated pre-conference day for Atlanta-area educators and administrators, featuring hands-on workshops on AI applications in Judaic studies. One session had teachers experiment with tools that let students design Tanakh characters and evaluate their AI-generated images against textual sources and commentaries, using technology as a prompt for deeper engagement with the text — not a shortcut away from it.

In another session, educators compared two versions of a classroom creativity exercise: one done by hand, one with AI assistance. The AI version was faster and looked more polished — but left students with less to say to each other afterward. The room took it as a concrete illustration of what’s at stake: not whether to use AI, but how to preserve the struggle and the human connection on which Jewish learning has always depended.

For Amanda Abrams, executive director of The Zalik Foundation, the retreat represented something rare in the Jewish professional landscape — a space where educators, philanthropists, and practitioners could learn together around a shared purpose.

“These are conversations I have not seen in other Jewish professional or Jewish educational gatherings,” she said. She highlighted the value of mixing national and local voices: “It enabled our local schools and educators to hear perspectives they wouldn’t otherwise have heard — and on the flip side, the perspectives of local students and teachers give grounding to what national leaders are exploring.”

For Atlanta’s day school educators, the retreat offered inspiration along with connection to colleagues across town and peers from across the country, and practical tools to bring back to the classroom.

“It was so heartening to see the strong presence of Jewish day school education in Atlanta, with schools ranging from Reform through community to Modern Orthodox and Yeshivas,” Freundel shared. “This incredible model serves as an inspiring blueprint for what other Jewish communities across the United States can achieve.”

She added, “We are grateful to our partners who helped us provide the space for Atlanta’s Jewish day school educators to come together, learn, and explore emerging challenges and opportunities in Jewish education.”

As Atlanta’s Jewish philanthropic community continues to invest in day school education, IR26 made one thing clear: Atlanta’s Jewish schools are not sitting back to watch. They have boarded the AI train.

The Jewish Education Innovation Challenge catalyzes radical improvement in Jewish day schools, challenging them to optimize student internalization of Jewish wisdom, identity, and decision making. Learn more at jewishchallenge.org. Information about The Mayberg Foundation’s work in Jewish education can be found at mayberg.org; and information about The Zalik Foundation can be found at zalik.org.