Finding Rest to Better Support Educators: JES Reflects on Its First BREAKWEEK
Perhaps for the first time in her life Yael did not feel like she was missing out when she booked her ticket to Montreal. During this vacation she planned a fun week in a new city with her mother. This experience was a one of kind experience as Yael usually used her limited time off from work to take care of her children and grandchildren who live several hours away in other parts of the country as well as a plane ride away in Israel. This one-on-one time with her mother felt like a special bonus giving them extra time together that they don’t usually have. To make this time even more precious, the entire staff at Jewish Educational Services (JES) took this time away as an organization. A Breakweek is an entire organizational-wide shut down where no emails would be flying and no internal work plans were being made, so Yael did not miss anything while she was out. She came back to work feeling “appreciated, recharged, and eager to give back 110% to the agency.”
In June 2026, JES joined a growing national movement focused on addressing workplace burnout through collective rest. From June 22-26, the entire JES team paused its day-to-day operations and participated in Breakweek, an initiative of R+R (Rest of our Lives) that encourages organizations to close for a week so employees can fully disconnect, recharge, and return with renewed energy.
The experience proved overwhelmingly positive. According to a post-Breakweek staff survey, 100% of respondents rated the experience as positive or very positive, while 84.6% reported that the week reduced their stress and feelings of burnout. Before the break, nearly 70% of respondents reported experiencing significant stress, and almost half reported feeling burned out. By creating space for dedicated rest, this week gave staff an opportunity to step away from the constant demands of mission-driven work and focus on their well-being. One team member said, “Knowing that everyone was off at once reduced pressure that I might have otherwise felt if I were holding others up.
The most important revelation was that the Breakweek gave JES staff a renewed sense of purpose once they returned to work. One team member said, “It gave me a renewed sense of hope and rejuvenation.” Another said, “I feel much more connected to my organization as they invested in us, so I feel more invested in my job.” Another noted that the week offered valuable perspective on the importance of intentional rest in sustaining meaningful work over the long term. These reflections reinforce growing evidence that employee well-being and organizational effectiveness are deeply connected.
As JES looks ahead, the organization hopes to build on these lessons by engaging schools and educational leaders in conversations about burnout prevention and workplace well-being.
According to the research, 60% of teachers nationally reported feeling burned out in 2024. This number is incredibly high and has many negative repercussions to the educational system as a whole as well as the individual effects of such as new teachers leaving the field or students receiving sub-par education. By JES modeling healthy workplace practices and openly discussing the importance of rest, JES hopes to support educators not only in their professional growth but also in their long-term sustainability and well-being in the field of education. The organization’s first BREAKWEEK demonstrated that creating intentional space for rest is not time away from the mission. Rather, it can be an investment in the people who make that mission possible.