Meet Dasee

Dasee Berkowitz, MA, Founder and Lead Consultant is an experienced Jewish educator who has been making Jewish life meaningful for young adults and families worldwide for the past fifteen years.
 
Dasee has a gift for working with people from different backgrounds through her extensive international experience. She has led workshops and designed specialized curricula for Jewish communities around the world. While at the JDC (the Joint Distribution Committee), Dasee worked with teenagers and families in an exploration of their Jewish identities in residential summer camps throughout the Former Soviet Union and India. She has brought her talents as an educator and facilitator to the Dorot Foundation's fellowship in Israel and to AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps in NY.
 
She currently applies her educational skill teaching Jews, their non-Jewish family members and those who are interested in Judaism through several life cycle classes held in Manhattan's premier community institutions including the JCC of Manhattan, the 92nd St. Y, the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning and the Jewish Community Project (JCP) Downtown.
 
In addition to her direct client work in classrooms and private consultations, Dasee serves as an educational consultant and researcher for leading Jewish organizations throughout the country including JCCA (the Jewish Community Center Association), ARZA (the Association of Reform Zionists) and the Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and Charles H. Revson Foundation.

Dasee graduated Cum Laude from Barnard College, Columbia University and received her M.A. in Jewish Education from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Dasee has achieved excellence in Jewish communal service and was awarded the Ralph I. Goldman fellowship from the JDC. Dasee currently serves on the Board of Limmud NY, a volunteer run conference that celebrates Jewish life and learning and attracts over 900 participants annually.

About JLife Consulting

  • JLife Consulting's mission is to make Jewish life accessible, engaging and empowering to individuals, couples and families, specifically at the time of their life cycle event.
  • JLife consulting offers exceptional private educational consultations for Jewish life cycle events and familiarizes clients with the structure, content and the range of innovations that have been developed around life cycle events over time.
  • JLife's educational methodology is client centered and each private consultation is tailor made to the needs of the individual, couple or family. We include a dialogue with Jewish sources and use classical and contemporary Jewish texts to help frame and ground conversations about ritual planning in Jewish life. We encourage clients to reflect on what they are learning so that it can resonate with how they see themselves Jewishly.
  • Clients leave their time spent with JLife Consulting empowered to take another step along their Jewish journeys.

Acclaim

"Dasee's depth of Jewish knowledge, which she pairs with creativity and humor, made her presentations as substantial as they were sparkling. Dasee's warmth and genuine interest in people made it very easy for the participants to connect with her and receive what she had come to share."
-Rachel Brodie, Executive Director, Jewish Milestones referring to Dasee's role as Scholar-in-Residence for the "Facilitating Jewish Weddings 101" seminar, San Francisco, CA.

"Dasee's warmth, wisdom and incredible ability to listen enables Dasee to serve her clients and students as an inspiring, thoughtful and excellent teacher and guide. The most rewarding aspect of working with Dasee is her genuine expression of kindness and her deep commitment to helping individuals, families and communities create and connect to meaningful Jewish life experiences."
-Elana Paru, Associate Executive Director, ARZA referring to Dasee's role as Educator and Trainer for ARZA's Biennial Conference, Baltimore, MD.

"Dasee Berkowitz was engaged as a senior consultant for JCC Association's Mandel Center for Jewish Education because we judged her to be bright, articulate, creative, knowledgeable Jew, good curriculum writer and a gifted teacher of adults. We have not been disappointed!"
-Rabbi Alvin Mars, Ph.D. Director, Mandel Center for Jewish Education at the JCC Association referencing Dasee's role as a senior consultant for "Journeys: Adult Jewish Living and Learning" New York, NY.

"I have been blessed to work with Dasee as a friend and colleague, and have been deeply impressed with her creativity, initiative, conceptual skills, and ability to elicit extraordinary insights in her interviews with a wide diversity of philanthropists."
-Professor Steven M. Cohen, Sociologist, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion refering to her role as researcher for project to understand Philanthropic Values of major American Jewish donors as they relate to funding innovative projects led by Jewish social entrepreneurs, New York, NY.

"Thank you for working with us on our Israel at 60 program and for developing thought provoking and engaging source materials. It was a great success. I received wonderful feedback from a lot of people who loved the whole evening and felt their connection to Israel has been renewed and increased. Thanks a million again."
-Rabbi Roly Matalon, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, New York, NY.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Alisa Grace Photography