Jewish Education for Future (JE4F)

Location:Zagreb, Croatia, countries of former Yugoslavia
Name of implementing organization:The Jewish Community of Zagreb
Date of initial project approval:October 2006

Brief description of the local Jewish community

Membership: 1,583
Institutions: Mirjam Weiller Kindergarten; Lavoslav Schwarz Old Age Home; Pirovac Summer Resort; Chevra Kadisha Society in Zagreb;Holocaust Survivors Association; CENDO - Holocaust Documentation Center; M.Shalom Freiberger Cultural Society; Magen ltd.

Project aims and objectives

The aim of the project was to make Jewish educational tools more accessible to the local population in Croatia and neighboring countries, whose languages are similar to Croatian. The materials developed will be used for educational projects within local Jewish Communities, and for individual learning, and also will be available to the public.

Project Description

The project is producing three text books: a Kindergarten text book of 100 pages; aTeam Building text book of 25 pages; and a Hebrew text book of 150 pages, with appendices for teachers. 1,000 copies of each book will be produced. The project is supervised by a Steering Committee comprisied of experts in the field. The project is directed by a Croatian native speaker who graduated from the University of Haifa.

The project includes seminars for Jewish educators, field surveys, and a project web site.

Main budget elements

Writing; editing; illustration; translation; printing; and website development

The project's successes

The project has produced and published a Kindergarten Text Book of 115 colorful pages, comprisied of biblical stories in verses, Jewish holidays, Jewish symbols, Israel and many exercises for pre-school and early school ages. The book contains original drawings.

A Team Building Text Book of 42 pages was developed for Jewish educators in formal and informal frameworks.

A Hebrew Text Book of 164 pages was produced, and is the first Hebrew learning tool in the Croatian language. Two new Hebrew classes were opened in Zagreb and use the book. The book contains original drawings.

1,000 copies of each of  the books were produced.

A special seminar for educators took place in May, 2008, and was attended by educators from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo.

A special web site was designed to serve as an additional source of information and help.

Difficulties encountered along the way

During the implementation the Project Team faced many problems, due to lack of technical  facilities  necessary for the production of Hebrew texts. Most of the technical difficulties were connected to the design, layout and printing of the Hebrew text book. These problems and the lack of cash flow caused some delays in completion. Design, layout and printing were done by specialized firms who encountered severe difficulties with Hebrew parts of the text, especially while mixing Croatian and Hebrew texts.