Spotlight on Annette Raij, ECEE Chair
Posted on 08/16/2024 @ 06:00 AM
Annette Raij is the chair of the Early Childhood Education and Engagement (ECEE) committee of CAJE’s Robert Russell Department of Early Childhood Education. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Middle Eastern politics and specialized in the politicization of Islam under Imam Khomeini.
Upon graduating, Annette studied religious studies at Neve Yerushalayim in Har Nof, Israel. After completing her studies there, she attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and then worked as an international corporate lawyer at Foley & Lardner LLC for 6 years.
Following that, Annette became the Chief Operating Officer of Olami Manhattan. Upon completing her work there, she returned to private practice at the law firm Cole Schotz, PC, where she practiced domestic corporate law. She currently works as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami Law School and lives on Miami Beach with her husband, Irwin, and her 4 children- Asher, Amalia, Meir, and Levi.
Tell us about your Jewish background.
I come from a partially Jewish family who became so disengaged and unaffiliated with Judaism that it almost died. Because of this, I feel a deep responsibility to revive Judaism in my own family and make sure that my children are raised with a very strong Jewish education and Jewish values, so that what happened in my family previously doesn’t happen again.
That is why I am so passionate about Jewish education in general, and specifically, why I feel such a deep responsibility to instill it in my own children.
What motivated you to take this leadership position as the Early Childhood Education Engagement (ECEE) committee chairperson?
I think that education begins when one is a tiny little human, and if we don’t start with a good foundation, then everything else will crumble. I personally have had my own challenges in the early childhood education space, so I felt deeply that if I could be a voice for people to effect change in an area of Jewish education that I think is so fundamental for our children, then I most definitely want to be that voice.
Why is early childhood education important to you and to our community?
Early childhood education is so important to me because it is the foundation of all education for children. If that is not strong, then the rest of Jewish education doesn’t stand on a strong foundation.
When children are young, their ideas of being Jewish are formed through songs and art, so if they have a Jewish education that is authentic and not just glorified babysitting, then they will actually build those core memories early on. Those songs and Jewish memories from their early years become so deeply embedded and woven into the fabric of their identities that they know nothing other than how to be tall and proud Jews.
What would you like to accomplish during your tenure or see happen here in Miami in the early childhood education world?
I would love to see an infrastructure created where we can support early childhood education directors and educators and give our fellow ECEE lay leaders the tools to be a part of this support system. I would also love to share resources with our lay leaders so that they can help support their community members and parent communities.
We are creating a few resource guides that we have prioritized within our committee to help fill this gap within the current ECE landscape.
What have you learned during your involvement with CAJE?
Well, I’ve learned what CAJE stands for [laughs]! I’ve learned that there are a lot of different branches of CAJE that I didn’t realize existed.
I also didn’t fully grasp the depth of CAJE’s reach and I don’t think enough people within the Miami Jewish community realize how much CAJE does and how many people they touch through their work.
Through my work with the ECEE committee, I’ve seen the diversity among the constituents that are involved. It is so beautiful to see all the different walks of Jewish life come together within CAJE and work harmoniously together. To me, that is the biggest lesson that I take away from my experiences working with CAJE and on the ECEE committee.
All of us as Jewish educators or people who are passionate about Jewish education can come together as Jews, irrespective of what our religious affiliations are. We can all unite in our shared belief and understanding that Jewish education – whatever that means to each of us – is so incredibly important.
What is something you would like our readers to know about Jewish early childhood education?
I think it’s so important to understand that our Jewish education never ends; that it is a journey, and that one is never too old to learn something new.
The essence of being a Jew is being growth-oriented. We should all strive to be growth-oriented, whether it is in our spirituality, in our religious observance, in our involvement in Jewish education, or whatever it means to each person.
We should always reach for more knowledge and more understanding of who we are as Jews and try to be as well-versed as we can in what it means to each of us to be a Jewish person.
