The university was the setting for the 33rd annual convention of CAJE, the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education, which is the largest gathering of Jewish educators in the world.

Hoffman typically spends his summer writing from his home in Westchester, NY, but this August he headed north after a year of planning to chair the 2008 CAJE conference.

CAJE brings together rabbis, cantors, and supplementary-school directors, but mostly it's a forum for synagogue teachers. The majority of Jewish children in the United States learn Hebrew and Jewish culture from supplementary schools located at synagogues.

"Teachers are the future of Jewish life," says Hoffman. "Today's classroom content becomes tomorrow's living Judaism." Hoffman and his co-chair, Melanie Birger-Bray, were thrilled at the overall turnout, which topped 1,500, and particularly pleased at the number of young educators who made the trip to Vermont.

Hoffman divides his energies between academia and synagogue-based education. "I think that who we teach is more important than what we teach," he says, adding that he uses his academic background to find challenging and accurate material for religious-school students.

Hoffman, who has taught at venues ranging from Brandeis University in Waltham to the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, currently teaches at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and serves as Director of Education at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester in Croton on Hudson, NY. He has authored or contributed to 13 books.

More information about CAJE and Dr. Hoffman is available from www.CAJE.org and www.Lashon.net.

The action-packed, world-wide gathering will draw a plethora of authors, speakers, performers, teachers, clergy, storytellers and other headlining personalities. Over 1500 participants are anticipated, as educators from across America - including students and dozens of others from overseas -- will have the chance to attend master classes and network in an environmentally-friendly setting with important leaders from the eco-Jewish movement, the world of Jewish education and beyond.

Presenters at CAJE 33 include Dennis Ross, Arthur Waskow, Ellen Bernstein, Nigel Savage, Steven M. Cohen, Jack Wertheimer, Amichai Lau-Lavie, Ed Feinstein, Lawrence A. Hoffman, Alon Tal, Joel Grishaver, Ellen Dreskin and many others.

As in previous years, CAJE 33 offers four days and nights of non-stop workshops, lectures, classes, films, musical performances and other exciting offerings from world-class presenters. Against the backdrop of eco-awareness, participants will also have the opportunity to go on hikes, study Earth Torah while biking, learn about celebrating Shabbat and the holidays with an environmental awareness, dance, sing, compete in an American Idol-like venue, learn how to create mentor-teachers, brush up on Hebrew, observe Tisha B'Av, learn how to integrate curriculum about Israel, attend a workshop on how ecology can engage Jews in communal life, study mysticism and the cosmos, attend an Eco Bet Midrash and study Eco-Kashrut, learn about their carbon footprints; bring their classroom into the 21st century and much more.

Included at CAJE 33 is the annual Early Childhood Conference, a much-anticipated event. This year, Lyndall Miller, coordinator of Jewish early childhood education at Gratz College, serves as keynote speaker. Sessions will focus on such subjects as how to utilize the Montessori model in a Jewish early childhood setting; what's new on Shalom Sesame; how to partner with parents and reaching out to the entire family through early childhood education and much more.

CAJE 33 also features Evolution and Revolution - a bold, re-examination of synagogue-based Jewish education. Though these schools educate the majority of Jewish children in America, they have widely been deemed ineffective. Is this assessment correct? Evolution and Revolution will explore the facts on the ground with the help of Jewish Theological Seminary professor Jack Wertheimer, director of the Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism, as well as a new, eye-opening report by JESNA.

Following on the success of last year's spirited gathering at Washington University in St. Louis, executive director Jeffrey Lasday hopes to raise the bar even higher in Vermont.

"CAJE 33 is the ultimate expression of holistic Jewish identity," he stated. "Jewish education is about a strong Jewish future and we are excited to present an opportunity for educators and others to examine our relationship to the environment through a Jewish prism."

To think, however, that Jewish eco-awareness is only about the earth and trees, is short-sighted, added Lasday. "It is about every aspect of our lives from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, to the schools and synagogues we pray in. It is about viewing Jewish education as being critical to Jewish continuity and great teachers as being critical to Jewish education."

Lasday further stresses the significance of Evolution and Revolution, pointing out that between 65-70% of all children receiving a Jewish education do so in a supplementary Jewish education setting. In other words, 250,000 children are currently being taught by approximately 25,000 teachers in over 2,000 congregational and community school programs.

By convening PhD's, clergy, educators and experts in the field for an honest examination of the state of congregation-based Jewish education, CAJE 33 will likely become a watershed event, leading to important reforms.

"CAJE would like to create a place and a time where practitioners, teachers, educational directors, rabbis, lay leaders, researchers, policy makers, and donors can all come together and reveal what we know, challenge our beliefs, explore what we don't know and use our collective knowledge towards transforming our schools," he said.

The Vermont gathering will also host the first ever Roundtable Fishbowl, which brings together David Behrman, Mara Braunfeld, Steven M. Cohen, Ed Feinstein, Lawrence Hoffman, Linda Klonsky, and Danny Zemel in a public conversation about the current state of supplemental Jewish education, what it should look like and how to get from here to there. CAJE participants will have a chance to audit the conversation and contribute by sending text messages or email to the moderator on the two consecutive afternoons of the program.

Building on last year's popular program on technology and education, CAJE 33 will also offer participants further instruction on bringing their classrooms into the 21st century.

The convention also features a Consortium for the Jewish Family, which aims to engage the entire family in the effort of Jewish education.

CAJE is the largest and most significant group representing Jewish educators worldwide and over the past few years it has become an important destination for a diverse group of leaders and participants in Jewish communal life. Attending the convention are twenty-something bloggers alongside established heads of organizations; students as well as seasoned professionals; well-known authors and journalists; mavericks and entrepreneurs; innovators, researchers and entertainers of a variety of ages and religious lifestyles.

College students contemplating a future in Jewish education will be in attendance through the Schusterman College Program. College credit is available through Boston's Hebrew College and Cleveland's Siegal College of Judaic Studies.

A multitude of offerings at CAJE 33 reflect partnerships with other Jewish organizations, noted Lasday, adding that attendance this summer promises to be at the highest level in the past few years. Hundreds of sessions will be offered at the four-day gathering on a variety of timely and relevant topics.

In addition to the formal sessions, the educators and participants will have an opportunity to spend Tisha B'Av together. CAJE prides itself on providing a wide tent for all Jewish educators across all settings, across all denominations. CAJE offers a unique opportunity to participate in a wide variety of minyanim (prayer services) across the Jewish spectrum and study with leading scholars from the different movements. Press is invited to attend any of the prayer services as well.

A host of collaborative programs are being offered through the Union of Reform Judaism, including the Mitkadem Institute and the CHAI Curriculum Training Institute. PANIM will host a National Educator's Institute for Jewish Servicing Training and the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History is offering a teacher-training seminar based on the Challenge and Change: History of Jews in America multi-media curriculum project. An innovative workshop on utilizing the curriculum for Facing History and Ourselves: Teaching the Holocaust, will be led by Jan Darsa.

The evening programs at CAJE are legendary. After dark, participants can attend concerts and performances by such artists as Blue Fringe, Joshua Nelson, Sam Glaser, Craig Taubman, Yom Hadash, New House Rising and many other exciting personalities. CAJE Rising Star, which pays homage to American Idol, offers participants a chance to showcase their talents and compete for star status.

Additionally, the CAJE EXPO, one of the largest Jewish malls outside of Israel, will feature Judaic textbook and trade book publishers, software and computer applications developers, educational institutions, Jewish organizations and programs, and ritual and fine art craftspeople and displays.

CAJE is the only national organization that supports front-line Jewish educators across all denominations and all educational settings. As in years past, the convention affirms the organization's mission to advocate on behalf of Jewish educators, advance their skills and knowledge and increase the resources available to them by building partnerships with local and national organizations.

The 2008 Conference is organized by the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education with support from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, UJA-Federation of Greater Toronto, the Jewish National Fund and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Further program support is provided by Behrman House Publishers, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the GAIA Fund, the Covenant Foundation, the Myra Reinhard Foundation and Torah Aura Productions.

For additional information, or to schedule an interview with Jeffrey Lasday, the executive director of CAJE, or the chair and co-chair of CAJE 33, please contact Shira Dicker at 917.403.3989/845.238.5542 or by e-mail at shira.dicker@sd-media.com. For further information about CAJE or CAJE 33, please visit www.caje.org or www.caje33.org, from which a complete schedule is available.