From Fracture to Future
The Collaboratory:
Revitalizing Israel Engagement through Education and Innovation
Baltimore, MD
150 leading Educators and Entrepreneurs in North America
July 8-10, 2025
$300
This event is a partnership between M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education and UpStart.
Through dynamic workshops, participants will cultivate the skills and mindsets needed to build sustainable, high-impact experiences in educational and entrepreneurial initiatives focused on Israel engagement.
Registration is closed as of June 5th.
What?
The Collaboratory is a conference intentionally designed to foster collaborative leadership among Jewish educators and entrepreneurs from across North America. Participants will explore new models for partnership, gain practical tools for scaling impact, and connect with peers who are passionate about strengthening Israel engagement through education and entrepreneurship.
Why Israel?
Israel education has become an urgent priority because it is where personal identity, communal belonging, and complex geopolitical realities intersect. In today’s environment of polarization and uncertainty, there is a crucial need for nuanced approaches that help people navigate challenges while maintaining meaningful and enduring connections to Israel.
How?
The Collaboratory brings together educators and entrepreneurs — two groups with distinct but complementary strengths. Educators focus on values, goals, and community needs, while entrepreneurs bring flexibility, risk-taking, and imaginative problem-solving. Together, they create powerful, visionary solutions grounded in practical realities. Participants will tackle real challenges, walk away with new commitments, partners, and tools to strengthen Israel engagement and Jewish education.
If you are an educator or organizational leader:
Seeking to shift a strategy to include Israel-related topics post October 7
Looking for a way to navigate differing values held by your Board, leadership, and staff
Interested in translating increased interest in Israel into new programming
Committed to bringing an increasingly fractured community together
Join us!
Schedule 2025
Let’s dive deep into Jewish wisdom about the creative power of brokenness, and reflect on Israel’s and our own fractures in this moment.
Drawing from adjacent fields to explore how disruption can be a catalyst for positive change and creativity.
An interactive dinner experience designed to create new connections between participants with diverse relationships to Israel.
Creating a shared language about Israel and the Jewish People that can be a foundation for communication and repair.
Multiple modalities for engaging with Jewish ideas to enrich the work of leaders and educators.
Diverse voices on the question of why Israel is – and should be – a critical component of a thriving Jewish life and identity today.
Putting values at the center of all education and innovation allows us to focus on what really matters. Learn how to do this and identify new ways and approaches for engaging with old Israel issues.
Hone the skills you need to address concrete organizational and educational challenges. Choose from multiple options.
An extended session of “imagineering”; small group ideating that addresses our pressing Israel-related challenges. Learn tools for creative-thinking to generate new ideas and directions based on collaboration.
Multiple modalities for engaging with Jewish ideas to enrich the work of leaders and educators.
Concrete next-steps for the future; taking it home.
You will:
Featured Presenters
FACULTY AND STAFF
FAQ
On site registration opens at 11:00 on Monday and our first session begins at 1:00pm. We’ll conclude by 4:00pm on Wednesday. Both Newark and Kennedy are approximately 45 minutes away (but don’t forget to account for traffic!)
Yes, space permitting! Please let us know before May 10th.
Yes! Your registration form included questions about allergens and we will do our best to make sure that you have a nourishing and filling experience during the Summit.
There’s no code – please dress in clothing that is comfortable for you. There will be one festive dinner that we encourage you to wear “what you would wear to a Shabbat Dinner”.
There won’t be an organized daily minyan, but there will be prayerful experiences each day. If you would like a minyan, we will have space available and invite you to self-organize.
We hope you don’t have to cancel, but if you do, your registration fee is fully refundable before May 20th.
You are invited and welcome to wear a mask during the program. We will be following local and national recommendations, and at this time masks and pre-event testing are not required.
Yes. We asked you to identify them in your application and we take them seriously and will work with you to accommodate your needs.
Collaboratory is made possible by the generous support of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; Crown Family Philanthropies; Jim Joseph Foundation; Maimonides Fund; and Mosaic United, an initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.