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The organization that resurrected the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) is cutting costs and recruiting young professionals for its first conference.

The Founding NewCAJE Conference, Aug. 1-4 at Gann Academy--The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston and Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., is expected to draw 300 educators, Rabbi Cherie Koller-Fox, conference chair, said in an interview with The Jewish State.

That's a far cry from the heyday of CAJE, when the organization's national professional development conferences included 200-300 sessions and as many as 2,800 attendees. Those conferences usually cost $950 per educator to attend, but the upcoming conference will cost $550 because NewCAJE (New Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education), unlike CAJE, has no paid professional staff, Koller-Fox said.

CAJE went bankrupt in March 2009, and dialogue about the identity of NewCAJE began that August at the MANAJE (Mid-Atlantic New Alternatives in Jewish Education) Conference, held outside Baltimore for about 200 Jewish educators. The new organization is trying to attract at least 50 "young professionals" to its first conference, Koller-Fox said, referring to educators between the ages of 25 and 40 who need mentoring and support for their creative ideas. The next generation of leaders in Jewish education shouldn't have to start from scratch, she said.

"They're the best and the brightest that Jewish education has to offer," Koller-Fox said.

Dina Maiben, director of religious education at Temple Shaari Emeth in Manalapan and co-chair of the daytime program at MANAJE, said she plans to attend the NewCAJE conference and run a session on teaching Hebrew, but doesn't think it will be "a conference like the old CAJE conferences." CAJE conferences, which Maiben attended for 25 years, had "hundreds and hundreds of sessions" and a conference booklet "as large as most university course offerings," she recalled.

Though less than what it used to cost to attend a CAJE conference, the $550 price for NewCAJE's program could be "a stretch for a lot of people," Maiben said. The main cost of an education conference is the site, and there is a significant cost difference between accommodating the 200 people who attended MANAJE and the 300 expected to be at the NewCAJE conference, she said. MANAJE cost $350 per educator.

Despite the cost issue, Maiben said she is "cautiously optimistic" about the NewCAJE conference.

After she was one of only two Jewish educators from Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties to attend the MANAJE conference, it became clearer than ever to Sharon Frant Brooks of Flemington that most local teachers simply can't afford to attend large national conferences anymore. Therefore, Frant Brooks, who coordinates special-needs services and alternative learning at Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville, is organizing an Aug. 29 conference called "Day of NewCAJE -- Jewish Education for a New Age" at the Flemington Jewish Community Center. The one-day conference, which will cost just $65 to attend, will feature a primarily local pool of talent because "there's not enough information exchange going on" locally, Frant Brooks said.

"We tried to use as many local, wonderful people as we could," Frant Brooks said.

Frant Brooks said she is collaborating with NewCAJE on her conference, rather than competing with the organization (Koller-Fox will be presenting in Flemington), but that local educators needed to realize that national conferences aren't the only place for them to pick up valuable skills. Specifically, Frant Brooks' conference will focus on "takeaway" skills -- things that teachers can use immediately when the school year begins.

While the former CAJE conferences included exclusively in-depth analytical sessions of either one-and-a-half or three hours, the NewCAJE conference -- much like Frant Brooks' event -- will also feature one-hour "How To" sessions for things like tying tefillin, making paper mache, playing a simple instrument, and baking challah, Koller-Fox said.

"The idea is one thing, to learn one that would be helpful to you," Koller-Fox said, emphasizing the value of teachers sharing the "tricks of the trade" with each other.

The conference will also feature young musicians who "really need to be given a stage," as well as young storytellers and artists, Koller-Fox said. Sometime in the mid-afternoon of each day during the conference, there will be a prayer or other spiritual activity that "makes sure we will really take care of our soul," she said; there will also be night club/bar style event so teachers can sit down with each other more informally.

As of March 3, NewCAJE had $19,536.20 of cash on hand and $29,573.13 in total assets, according to its latest quarterly report; Koller-Fox said NewCAJE plans to release a new quarterly report soon. One of the organization's primary means of fundraising has been a series of Webinars called Lehrhaus Online.

NewCAJE also remains in the process of resolving CAJE's case in New York State bankruptcy court, Koller-Fox said.

To help with programming and logistics for the NewCAJE conference, or to volunteer in another manner, email volunteer@newcaje.org.