What do the thousands of Jewish congregational religious school students across the South have in common?

By some measures not much. The students range in age from toddlers to teenagers and are spread across a geographic region larger than Western Europe. Some students enjoy the benefits of large, professionally staffed schools, while others gather in single-room schoolhouses to learn from volunteers who may still be teenagers themselves. The students belong to a variety of Jewish denominations and adhere to different beliefs and traditions. They live in large central cities and small distant towns.

While some might lament a splintered Jewish demographic, the staff of the Goldring Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) based in Jackson, Miss., doesn't see things this way.

ISJL President Macy B. Hart only sees opportunities for cooperation. "Here in the South," he explains, "we have a vast network of congregational schools all dedicated to a single goal of promoting Jewish education."

To realize this potential, the ISJL established an Education Department dedicated to enhancing the quality of Jewish education region wide through partnerships with Southern congregational schools.

The cornerstone of the ISJL Education Department is a comprehensive, nondenominational curriculum. Every partnering school utilizes the curriculum, which contains a complete year of classes for every grade level from early childhood through 10th grade, and can be implemented by both professional educators and first-time volunteers. The unique curriculum contains a common body of Jewish knowledge, ensuring that every student receives a basic literacy in Jewish values and traditions.

"If Southern Jews are going to get together and work together across the region, we need a common language of Jewish literacy," Macy Hart explains. "If a student moves mid-year from Dothan, Ala. to McAllen, Texas, they can pick up their math classes right where they left off and fit right in, because the schools teach the same math concepts no matter where you go. We should be able to do the same thing with our congregational religious schools."

The strength of this model is most evident in towns where a combined religious school serves students from multiple denominations. Every Sunday morning in Chattanooga, Tenn., youth from both the Conservative B'nai Zion and the Reform Mizpah Congregation learn together with the ISJL curriculum. Later in the week, each group meets separately for Hebrew lessons and enrichment in the particular philosophies of their respective denominations. Members of both congregations, thereby, celebrate their unique perspectives on Judaism while uniting as a single community around a shared Jewish heritage.

The ISJL curriculum was developed for Southern communities. With this in mind, the curriculum architects included unique components highlighting the rich legacy of Southern Jewry. A special Southern History appendix contains lessons suitable for grades two through eight. The lessons examine the central themes of Southern Jewish history: immigration patterns, the pressures of assimilation and the Jewish role in the Civil Rights era. The program integrates artifacts, original documents and photographs that bring the history to life.

Even the most well thought out curriculum is still just a stack of spiralbound volumes until a teacher transforms the printed pages into an inspiring lesson. To ensure that the material is delivered effectively, the ISJL engineered an innovative delivery system. Every partnering community that uses the curriculum receives regular visits from the Education Department's full-time Education Fellows. On each visit, the Education Fellows conduct meetings with the teachers, deliver sample lessons, organize special programs, share ideas and help out however needed.

Each summer, the ISJL convenes educators, rabbis and lay leaders from every partnering community for an annual education conference. This essential third component of the ISJL Education Department provides three busy days of programs, discussion and networking. Attendees from communities large and small across the South develop new contacts, grow professionally and mutually reinforce their shared commitment to Jewish education.

News of the ISJL's groundbreaking model of Jewish education is traveling fast, and every year more and more Southern communities join the program. The program began in 2003 with just two Education Fellows serving 10 communities in four states. This year, the ISJL's nine Education Fellows and two Professional Educators regularly visit 61 communities in 11 states. Every year more and more schools across the South recognize the benefits of the ISJL program, and the number of partnering communities will likely rise further for the 2009-2010 academic year.

The ISJL currently partners with seven congregations in Tennessee. In Chattanooga, the ISJL supports the combined religious school of congregations B'nai Zion, Beth Sholom and Mizpah. Participating in the program for their second year are Knoxville congregations Heska Emunah and Temple Beth El. In Memphis, the ISJL partners with Beth Sholom Synagogue and The New Conservative Congregation of Memphis.

The partnering schools can be found as far west as San Antonio, Texas, and eastward all the way to Raleigh, N.C. Others can be found in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and the Florida Panhandle. The schools range in size from Congregation Ahavath Rayim in Greenwood, Miss., with just one student, to Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, N.C., a school just shy of 400 students. The ISJL partnering schools come from across the denominational spectrum. Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist and unaffiliated congregations all join together for a common goal: enhancing Jewish education in every Southern community.

A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ari Glogower currently lives in Jackson, Mississippi, where he works for the Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. His various responsibilities at the Institute regularly bring him into contact with fascinating Jewish communities and individuals across the South.