In-person

Jewish Futures 2026: Becoming Tomorrow's Educators

At a time when everything about how we learn, connect, and find meaning is being remade, what does it mean to be a Jewish educator? How do we grow into a role that looks different than it did even five years ago — and might look unrecognizable in twenty more? And what in Jewish education is so

In-Person
Cost:
$0.00

Jewish Futures Conference

October 26, 2026, In-Person: Temple Emanu-El

$36.00

About this event

At a time when everything about how we learn, connect, and find meaning is being remade, what does it mean to be a Jewish educator? How do we grow into a role that looks different than it did even five years ago — and might look unrecognizable in twenty more? And what in Jewish education is so essential, so irreducibly human, that no amount of change can touch it?
 
Join The Jewish Education Project for Jewish Futures 2026: Becoming Tomorrow's Educators, a day of learning, honest conversation, and bold imagining — for educators who want a hand in shaping the future, not just adjusting to it.
 
 
Schedule*
12:30 - 1:00 pm Registration & Check-In
1:00 - 2:30 pm   Welcome & Keynote by Sam Glassenberg
The Jewish Neuron at Play: What Games and AI Can Teach Us about Learning, Identity, and Our Kids' Future  
Today's students are surrounded by systems engineered to capture their attention. What if Jewish educators could  wield the same tools? Drawing on decades of game design, neuroscience, and hands-on work with AI, Sam Glassenberg will show how games train the brain through challenge, feedback, and dopamine. From the Cairo Geniza to the Jewish genome, Sam will explore how AI unlocks new ways to investigate our history, our identity, and our relationship to both biological and artificial intelligence. 
2:45 - 4:15 pm   Tzomet Games: Shaping the Jewish Future
What will it take to build the Jewish future we actually want? Tzomet Games is a strategic foresight experience where we will work in teams to tackle scenarios for Jewish life in 2050, uncover challenges and opportunities, and consider what it means to be the educators who get us there.
4:30 - 5:45 pm   Closing Session with Shoshana Bloom 
Educators Assemble!
What if our superpowers, both individual and collective, are exactly what's needed to shape the future of Jewish education? After a day exploring what the future may hold, our closing session puts that question to the test. Shoshana Bloom will guide participants through an interactive experience designed to surface individual strengths, reveal how they complement one another, and chart concrete next steps forward. The future depends on the people building it, and that work begins with the educator at the center.
5:45 - 6:45 pm   Dinner
7:00 - 8:30 pm   A Conversation with Sarah Silverman: Finding Jewish Joy
 
Sarah Silverman
 
*Subject to change
 
 
Please be in touch with Tova Perlow at tperlow@jewishedproject.org with any questions.
 
 

Speakers

Sam Glassenberg Sam Glassenberg

Sam Glassenberg has flown Star Wars spaceships for LucasFilm, led Emmy Award-winning game technology teams at Microsoft, built one of the early success stories of the Israeli videogames industry, and created a new genre of medical videogames.

As CEO of Tel Aviv’s FTX Games, Sam helped establish Israel as a go-to games partner for Hollywood, releasing titles based on films and TV shows including The Hunger Games, Mission: Impossible, Rocky, and Narcos.

Sam later founded Level Ex, the world’s first medical videogame company. Level Ex unleashed videogame technology and neuroscience-based design on medical training, helping millions of medical professionals build mental models of complex systems, practice difficult decisions, and master new techniques. Its videogames were the first to offer AMA Category 1 Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit and have been used by leading medical societies, life science companies, NASA, and SpaceX to train clinicians and astronauts.

Sam’s current work spans AI research, genetics, and game development. He also heads Emerging Healthtech Initiatives at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, where he drives AI research and collaboration with the Israeli videogames industry. He speaks internationally on the future of games, medicine, AI, and the crucial role of play in learning.

Shoshana Bloom Shoshana Bloom

Shoshana Bloom is an ICF PCC certified coach, facilitator and keynote speaker who specialises in the Four Horsemen of the Stress-pocalypse: Burnout, Overwhelm, Imposter Syndrome, and Procrastination. 

She works globally across the UK, Israel, Europe, North America, Australasia and beyond. She creates spaces that sustain impact over time - and knows how to support you from the very first conversation.

Her approach is warm and direct. She works with people and teams to understand their triggers, traits and tendencies, decipher patterns and create interventions so that they - you - don’t have to burn out. And for those who have already experienced burnout, she helps you to move through and beyond it, with the tools to prevent it coming back. 

She holds additional qualifications in grief, loss, and navigating change and is a certified hypnotherapist. 

She works in-person and online and is mildly obsessed with Mr Rogers, the Jewish origin story of the superhero genre, her favourite cultural decade: the 90s - especially Buffy, and how people deeply misunderstand To-Do lists. 

Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath

Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, Ed.D., is the Senior Director of Knowledge, Ideas and Learning at The Jewish Education Project. A lifelong Jewish educator and learner, Samantha has lived and worked in Jewish communities in Israel, Washington DC, Cleveland, and New York. Samantha is a recognized expert on Israel education, Jewish teens, antisemitism education, and Jewish peoplehood. She is the author of #antisemitism: Coming of Age During the Resurgence of Hate, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Education and Jewish Identity. She is an alumna of the University of Pittsburgh, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Gratz College. Samantha lives in Westchester with her husband, two children, and two beloved rescue dogs.

David Bryfman Dr. David Bryfman The Jewish Education Project

Dr. David Bryfman is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Jewish Education Project. After working in formal and informal Jewish educational institutions in Australia, Israel, and North America, David earned his Ph.D. in Education and Jewish Studies from NYU, focusing on the identity development of Jewish adolescents. David has authored several articles and presented broadly on topics ranging from the Jewish teenage experience, innovation and change in Jewish life, Israel education and more broadly about Jewish education. He is a founder of the annual Jewish Futures conference, helped direct the 2019 study GenZ Now: Understanding and Connecting with Jewish Teens Today, and was the lead researcher of the groundbreaking 2016 study, “Generation Now: Understanding and Engaging Jewish Teenagers Today,” and editor of “Experience and Jewish Education,” a compendium of essays written by and for Jewish experiential educators. David is a member of Cohort Three of Leading Edge's CEO Onboarding Program. He is an alum of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program and the Schusterman Fellowship.