Dr. Ron Wolfson has been named the Dean of the Center for Jewish Education. The CJE combines the resources and activities of the Fingerhut School of Education and the Whizin Center for the Jewish Future. Until recently Dr. Wolfson served as the Director of the Whizin Center.

"We are expanding our work significantly and widening the offering of degree granting programs," says Wolfson, alluding to the Fingerhut School’s new Master of Education program for working professionals. Created through the generous support of Janine and Peter Lowy, the new program will allow teachers to keep their daytime jobs while earning an advanced degree in two years by meeting one evening per week and over two intensive summer semesters. "The response has been fabulous. We thought we’d have seven students in our first year, we currently expect 14," says Wolfson.

He looks to offer specializations within the M.A.Ed. program in areas such as Family Education and Day School Education, as well as expand the Fingerhut School’s very successful Summer Institute for Jewish Educators. Dr. Wolfson is currently examining opportunities to extend the reach of the CJE beyond Los Angeles, including offering an M.A.Ed. program to students via video-conferencing.

Some rabbinic students simultaneously earn an M.A.Ed. and Dr. Wolfson would like to promote this joint degree option. "Some of the strongest job offers have been to those with both ordination and an M.A.Ed.," he says.

He would also like to create a five-year B.A./M.A.Ed. program for students in the UJ’s College of Arts and Sciences.

On the Whizin end, Dr. Wolfson would like to create satellite Whizin Institutes throughout the country, offering workshops and training in family education. The Whizin Center was also invited to create a program in Israel.

Dr. Rami Wernick, a recent graduate of the Jerusalem Fellows Program, will join the CJE staff as Assistant Dean of the School of Jewish Education, adding to an already strong administrative staff that includes Lois Rothblum, Director of Teacher Education, and Fanny Levy, Director of Special Programs. "We are blessed that many leading educators in L.A. and beyond are our alumni," says Wolfson who looks to tap that resource, calling on them to help envision a new future of Jewish education.

"I’m excited about our potential," says Dr. Wolfson, who in the past served as dean of the Fingerhut School. "For me it is coming home to my first vocation, which is helping to prepare new leadership for Jewish education."