Mandel
Center for Jewish Education
Rabbi
Alvin Mars. Ph.D
Director, Mandel Center for Jewish
Education
 DR.
ALVIN MARS is director of the Center for Jewish Education
of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America,
a position he assumed in July 2002. The mission of the Center
for Jewish Education is to enhance and enrich the Jewish educational
experiences provided by JCCs so as to strengthen the Jewish
identity of each person touched by a JCC program or experience.
Alvin received
a B.A. in history from Temple University and a B.H.L. in education
and Hebrew literature from Gratz College. He studied at The
Hebrew University and the Hayim Greenberg Institute in Jerusalem.
In 1970 he received his Ph.D. in education from Dropsie College,
with minor concentrations in comparative religion and Hebrew
literature. Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan sponsored his doctoral
thesis. He received rabbinical ordination in 1995.
Alvin moved to
Los Angeles in 1977. He served for seven years as the director
of Camp Ramah in California, where he created the California
Tikvah program for learning disabled and emotionally challenged
children. He also established the Ramah Academy, a Jewish
educational outreach program providing Ramah experiences to
the adult Jewish community.
From 1984 to 1989,
Alvin was vice-president for academic affairs and chief academic
officer of the University of Judaism. He was the director
of the university’s undergraduate school, Lee College,
and its MBA program. He was also founding dean of the Fingerhut
School of Education.
From 1989 to 1998
Alvin was senior professional of The Brandeis-Bardin Institute
in California. In that capacity he supervised all of the many
Jewish educational programs offered by the Institute, directed
the Brandeis Collegiate Institute (BCI) and created a number
of new programs including the Young Artist Program, and the
Cotsen Family Foundation Institute for Newlyweds.
In January 1999,
Alvin was appointed founding headmaster of the American Hebrew
Academy. The Academy, located in Greensboro, North Carolina,
is the nation’s first liberal, pluralistic Jewish boarding
preparatory senior high school.
Alvin
was the Leo Honor Fellow of Jewish Education at Dropsie College
from 1964 to 1970 and was named the Camp Ramah Medallion Honoree
in 1985. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in pedagogy
from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1989 and received
the Distinguished Alumni Award at the 100th anniversary convocation
of Gratz College in 1995.
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