Director's Letter
February 18, 2020
Dear Friends,
This edition of Constructs is bittersweet. We are highlighting two new reports developed by my long-time colleague, collaborator, and friend, Amy Sales, and marking Amy’s retirement from CMJS. Her wonderfully productive career at CMJS has spanned more than 25 years.
As a social psychologist, Amy holds a situationalist view of how people understand themselves and their world and a belief that organizations and institutions have a central role in shaping behavior. Through their birth and development, organizations influence not only how people engage with one another, but also the character of the communities in which they operate. Amy’s work is distinctive for its use of multiple methods, both quantitative and qualitative, and her elegant and thoughtful presentation of technical findings. From her examinations of Jewish life on college campuses and the impact of Jewish overnight camp to her studies of synagogues and Jewish education, Amy’s work demonstrates that systematic research can result in significant changes in the fields of inquiry.
Amy’s final studies with CMJS colleague Nicole Samuel are illustrative of her analytic framework. Innovating JCCs looks at the ways that old institutional structures can become innovative. Advancing Jewish Retreating opens the door to a wide range of possibilities of how retreats can engage a new generation of Jews. I am excited about how these ideas can generate new programs and support efforts to enhance Jewish life.
On behalf of all of us at CMJS, thank you Amy for your important work and your countless contributions to the American Jewish community. Thank you, as well, for your friendship, leadership, and all that you have done to make us a better and more effective team.
Best,
Leonard Saxe, PhD
Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Social Policy
Director, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University