Experiential Jewish Education Has Arrived! Now What?

Experiential Jewish education has been experiencing a time of growth, during which theory development, research, and practice have established a strong voice for the construct. Much of the focus to this point has been on definitions (particularly the distinction between experiential and informal Jewish education) and on outcomes of settings often associated with an experiential Jewish education (EJE) approach. Along with increased understanding of EJE comes the potential to explore a more nuanced set of questions about the nature of educational experiences. This point of development of the field also raises question of the relationship of EJE and the broader field of Jewish education.     

THE CHALLENGE OF QUALITY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This paper argues that, notwithstanding a few major exceptions, the modern commitment to studying educational thinking and practice in premodern Jewish societies has not been particularly intense, despite widespread agreement as to the importance of education in premodern Jewish life. Some suggestions for this lacuna are discussed in this article. In particular, it is urged that a major part of the problem lies in the definition of Jewish education and that—were definitions of Jewish education altered—a much wider swath of research would be seen to involve important aspects of the premodern Jewish educational enterprise.     

JERUSALEM 3000 — EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS & OPPORTUNITIES

There is a strong tendency in American Jewish education to promote the coordination of formal and informal Jewish education. This is not always possible for a variety of different reasons. One factor is the separate nature of the formal educational and informal educational organizations and their institutional goals and directions. Moreover, the formal educational agencies tend to hire staff that are not capable of dealing with informal education. They look at Jewish education as the transmission of cognitive skills; Jewish knowledge is viewed largely as a set of skills which demands long hours in classroom situations. On the other hand, informal educational institutions like the Jewish communal camps (in contrast to the ideological camps such as Camps Ramah, Morasha, Habonim Camps, Young Judea Camps, etc.) are generally social-work-oriented agencies. They do not always perceive themselves as the transmitters of Jewish culture nor as change agents in the complex process of Jewish identity. There is an unspoken tension between Federation-supported camping agencies and communal educational agencies.     

THE FUTURE OF CENTRAL AGENCIES FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

It is generally agreed that the central agencies for Jewish education (BJEs) are caught between the changes that have taken place in the Jewish educational system in the United States and the growing role of the federations in the field. The decline of supplementary schools in spread, scope, and intensity, and the rise of the day schools as the principal foci and loci of meaningful Jewish education, have left the BJEs caught in a bind.     

Educational Travel to Israel in the Era of Globalization

Travel to Israel has been a central feature of Jewish and Zionist education yet it is time for this educational travel to be examined in the context of current cultural trends of travel and transnational experiences. The Jewish educational community has not yet internalized the impact of global trends on the field of travel to Israel from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives. This article lays out the underlying assumptions of Jewish travel to Israel in the context of globalization and related cultural developments. The article refers primarily to the North American Jewish community, the largest demographic source of travelers.     

THE RATIONALE FOR JEWISH EDUCATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE JEWISH EDUCATION MAGAZINE — 1929–1955

Questioning-asking has not only long been seen as a central component of Jewish educational practice but has also been thought to be part of a broader culture of Judaism. In this article, we apply cognitive-developmental theories to advance the discussion of the use of questioning in Jewish education. Such theories allow Jewish educators to more fully understand the function of questioning and to appreciate affective elements involved in the context of question-asking. Further, these theories connect question-asking with issues of identity development. Recommendations are made for Jewish educational practice, including an example of a cognitive-developmentally based questioning strategy applied to a biblical text.     

True Integration

The current educational policies of limiting and constricting the curricular goals of the afternoon Jewish school are detrimental to this form of Jewish education. The afternoon Jewish school is the link between the Jewish child and the Jewish cultural heritage. Our task as educators is to provide a realistic curriculum that is both teachable and testable. Yet, the greater task is to provide our students with a total vision of the Jewish cultural experience. This demands a study of Bible, history, synagogue and prayer skills, Jewish social studies, holidays and Jewish practices and an insight into Jewish philosophical concepts. The afternoon Jewish school cannot become a Bar Mitzvah factory, nor a place where the rote skills of synagogue life are taught. Rather, it must be a setting where the young Jew can learn about the vast cultural and religious heritage of his people. This is often a difficult task but the various Jewish curricular institutes must provide the Jewish school community with educational materials that can meet the needs of teachers as well as students.     

Jewish Education and American Jewish Education,Part III

This is the last in a series of articles exploring the history of Jewish Education magazine, later known as the Journal of Jewish Education, with a particular emphasis on its intersection with the history of American Jewish education and, more generally, American Jewish life. Major themes and issues that preoccupied the magazine's editors and writers are isolated and analyzed as to how their discourse sheds light on their individual aims, values and philosophical outlooks, as well their collective efforts at educational reform. Particular attention is paid to how Benderly's disciples sought to reinterpret their mentor's vision in a changing American Jewish environment and why this vision was, at best, only partially realized.     

“My Heart Is in the East and I Am in the West”: Enduring Questions of Israel Education in North America

By examining writing about Israel education since the founding of the State, this paper highlights three questions that have surfaced repeatedly in Jewish educational discourse: What is the purpose of teaching American Jews about Israel? Who is best equipped to teach American Jews about Israel? How can Israel education foster positive identification with Israel without whitewashing over the imperfections of the Jewish State? By exploring how each question has manifested in Jewish education, it examines why—for very different reasons—these questions have endured over time, and considers what it might take to arrive at lasting conclusions about them.     

Jewish Education and American Jewish Education,Part I

This series of articles explores the history of Jewish Education magazine, later known as the Journal of Jewish Education, with a particular emphasis on its intersection with the history of American Jewish education and, more generally, American Jewish life. Major themes and issues that preoccupied the magazine's editors and writers are isolated and analyzed as to how their discourse sheds light on their individual aims, values, and philosophical outlooks, as well their collective efforts at educational reform. Particular attention is paid to how Benderly's disciples sought to reinterpret their mentor's vision in a changing American Jewish environment and why this vision was, at best, only partially realized.     

Jewish Education,Past and Present: Israel Friedlaender Re-Visited

A century ago, Israel Friedlaender—scholar, communal activist, and educator—played a key role in such educational institutions as the Teachers Institute of JTS, the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Menorah Society, Young Israel, and Young Judea. A JTS professor and prolific writer, Friedlaender has been described as “the teacher of the Jewish youth of that generation.” Yet, scant attention has been devoted to exploring his educational thought and action agenda. This retrospective focuses on Friedlaender’s activities and impact in advancing Jewish education and considers the relationship of his legacy to current directions in the field.     

JEWISH EDUCATION IN MOROCCO AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION: COMPARATIVE NOTES FROM THE FIELD ABOUT SEPHARDIC AND ASHKENAZIC SCHOOLING

Over the Past several years, a new and unprecedented challenge has been thrust upon professionals in the field of Jewish communal service—the development of effective instrumentalities to absorb into the American Jewish community masses of Soviet Jews. Jewish educators have grappled with the difficulties and frustrations of this task along with their colleagues in the other disciplines of Jewish service. Yet if the influx of these new Russian settlers presents the organized Jewish community with unique and seemingly intractable problems, it also offers Jewish educational agencies—and more particularly central Bureaus and Boards of Jewish education—with an unparalleled opportunity to play a leadership role in this orchestrated communal effort. This essay purports to analyze this potential and to describe how one central agency, the Atlanta Bureau of Jewish Education, has endeavored to exploit it.     

JEWISH EDUCATION IN EXTREMIS: A PROLEGOMENON TO POSTMODERN JEWISH EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT

Abstract In this article the author argues that for 150 years Jewish education has negotiated the tensions between modernity and Judaism by means of liberal religion, ultra Orthodoxy, and secular Zionism. All three are in crisis today due to the rise of postmodernism. Jewish educational thought therefore needs to create new syntheses between Jewish and postmodern life. To this end the concepts of Aliyah, modernity, and exile should be reevaluated and Jewish education should embrace the goal of working with God toward redemption. For more than 150 years Jewish education has focused on the tensions between rabbinic Judaism and modernity. Each of the models for negotiating these tensions-religious liberalism, ultra orthodoxy, and secular Zionism-succeeded beyond the imaginations of those who conceived them. Yet, each is in a state of crisis today, resulting from a deconstruction of both the rabbinic and modern assumptions upon which they are based. Addressing these crises requires reevaluation of key assumptions about the educational significance of Israel, modernity, and exile in order to lay the groundwork for more productive interactions between the Jewish people and its heritage on the one hand and the postmodern condition into which we are emerging on the other.     

Jewish Education and American Jewish Education,Part II

In this series of articles, I explore the history of Jewish Education magazine with particular emphasis on its intersection with the history of American Jewish education and American Jewish life more generally. I isolate major themes and issues that preoccupied the magazine's editors and writers, and analyze how their discourse sheds light on their individual aims, values, and philosophical outlooks, as well their collective efforts at educational reform. I am particularly interested in elucidating how Benderly's disciples sought to reinterpret their mentor's vision in a changing American Jewish environment and why this vision was at best only partially realized.     

Abraham H. Friedland — Educator

A century ago a group of educators led an effort to transform American Jewish education to enable it to operate successfully in the 20th century. Today, with American Jews living under very different conditions, a similar effort is needed to reinvent Jewish education for the 21st century. Changes and new initiatives already taking place on the educational landscape point the way toward a set of paradigm shifts that will make Jewish education more learner-centered, relationship-infused, and life-relevant. These changes at the level of educational practice need to be accompanied by a redesign of the educational system itself to make it better able to accommodate learners as “prosumers,” helping to create their own educational experiences, and to guide them on lifelong learning journeys. By maximizing the impact of ongoing innovations, by employing “design thinking,” and by forging stronger networks and collective impact initiatives across domains and settings, the Jewish educational system can be reinvented to meet the needs and aspirations of 21st century Jewish learners.     

From Integration of Curricula to the Pedagogy of Integrity

The literature on curricular integration in Jewish education has tended to focus on two basic paradigms. In the first paradigm, the integration of Jewish and general studies curricula represents the aspiration that the graduates of the institution will likewise integrate Jewish and general studies (or “Americanism” or “modernity”) in their lives. In the second paradigm, the integration of Jewish and general studies is conceptualized as a specific form of the more general educational desire for connection making. In this article, I critique specific articulations of these paradigms and argue instead for attention to the pedagogy of integrity.     

No Religion Is an Island: Teaching World Religions to Adolescents in a Jewish Educational Context

What is the place of teaching about other world religions in a Jewish educational curriculum for adolescents? This article explores a course in world religions that has been taught at the Genesis Program at Brandeis University since 2001. Based on a participant observational study during 2002 and 2012, the author traces how the teachers construct goals and implement plans that include site visits to places of worship of the religions they are studying. The questions raised and the struggles of students to make sense of Judaism in the context of world religions is the backdrop for considering both why and how other Jewish educators might thoughtfully include the study of other religions as part of their Jewish education for adolescents.     

Proficiency‐Based Instruction

The subject of Jewish family education has become prominent in the last few years. At one of a series of regional conferences on the subject, the author presented a keynote address¹, whose theme revolved around perceptions of the “client,” and the need for the community to become committed to the idea of Jewish family education. There is a widespread recognition that Jewish survival cannot rely only on the education of children, but must rely on the education of their parents, too. Though Jewish educators have always known that the home needs to reinforce the school, it is only recently that concerted efforts have been made to conceptualize and develop programs for Jewish family education.     

Keepers of the sacred flame: patriotism,politics and the Chinese history subject community in Hong Kong

Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from ‘history’) has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post‐1997 agenda of ‘patriotic education’, to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard.     

Mature Zionism: Education and the Scholarly Study of Israel

A new approach to Israel education has emerged to counteract what has been a tendency to romanticize Israel by avoiding criticism; it presumes that Israel engagement has much to offer a meaningful Jewish identity, but only when encountered critically, taking into account Israel’s many complexities. However, prevailing scholarly trends may not provide a clear stance on which to base critique and academic criticism may raise hard questions about the very idea of a Jewish and democratic state. This article addresses these concerns by offering a conceptual framework for scholarly study of Israel called “Mature Zionism” in which to ground a critical engagement with Israel that is genuinely educational.