Schools J-Link

Schools J-Link was founded in 2000, and since then, they have become the only organisation of its kind to operate on a national basis. It is a branch of Aish HaTorah's UK operations, enabling Jewish students in secular education to start Jewish societies.

Events hosted, sponspored, and supported by Schools J-Link include:

*An event at a central London school hosted by Matt Lucas
*Several shwarma lunches at schools across the country
*Jewish Society excursions to Spain, Israel, and New York

Alongside the Schools J-link project runs JAMS (Jewish Activites in mainstream Schools). Managed by the Jewish Life Education centre at the UJIA, this scheme empowers pupils to create their own Jewish Education programme for themselves and their peers.

UJIA-JAMS is currently engaged with 20 schools nationally, mostly in the London and Manchester areas, servicing over 1000 pupils each term.

BackgroundUJIA-JAMS is a service for young people managed by UJIA–JLEC (Jewish Life Education Centre). The programme provides information and materials for pupils to debate and discuss Jewish life in the UK and Israel through peer led sessions.

Once the pupils leave school, UJIA-JAMS continues to engage with them through its pre - campus programme which includes ‘The UJIA-Student Survival Kit’. This guide is distributed widely in the Jewish community through Schools, youth movements and community centres.

Programme

Jewish activities in school

UJIA-JAMS provides speakers for Jewish/non-denominational assemblies and lunch time sessions on a broad range of topics. The programme currently has active links with around 70 organizations and 20 independent speakers. There is also a unique electronic library of over 50 Ready to Read Assemblies on a wide range of Jewish and Israel topics. This includes: Jews and Hollywood, Jews around the world, A snap shot of the history of the London Jewish communities.

UJIA JAMS is currently looking at developing a programme database for Jewish Societies to access, empowering them to run their own lunch time and after school sessions.

UJIA–JLEC in partnership with JAMS provides support, training and resources to Jewish Society members and individuals in places without Jewish Societies thus enabling them to carry out these assemblies effectively and efficiently creating a more meaningful impact on the participants.