2019-08-29 | Blog

Introducing: JIMENA’s Journey to the Mizrah Curriculum

Since our founding, the core of JIMENA’s mission has been to educate students, of all ages, on the heritage and history of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. Each year, we receive a high volume of requests for support and leadership in designing and implementing Sephardic and Mizrahi programs in Jewish educational settings throughout the United States. As a lean organization with a small staff, we ambitiously meet every request for content, information and leadership at a demanding pace.

In 2016, The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco recognized our work as a local leader in bringing rich educational and cultural content to Jewish learning spaces and they generously provided us with a grant that enabled us to take a step back to research, strategize, implement an educational pilot program, and build a sustainable curriculum. With additional support from the Koret Foundation, we were able dig in deep and assess the needs of students and educators in building curriculum, content, and partnerships that reflect the growing diversity, and shifting trends, of young Jewish Americans. It is with great delight JIMENA invites you to visit our new website, Journey to the Mizrah which includes a comprehensive curriculum designed for Jewish Day Schools.

The rationale for our Journey to the Mizrah curriculum, and additional educational programs, is based on five key factors including: Diversity and Inclusion, Sephardic Studies as a Missing Piece, Answering Contemporary Questions, Empowering ALL Students, and Educating the Educators. There is still so much work to be done to ensure that every Jewish student and educator is seen, is represented, and values their own unique and important place amongst the Jewish people. We hope this curriculum, and our educational programming, is a step towards building a truly inclusive Jewish community that actively embraces and integrates the depth of heritage and histories of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews.