SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH RELEVANT TO AMERICAN JEWISH EDUCATION

The recent Jewish holocaust has cut deep into the flesh of every Jew, In practically every Jewish home there is mention of relatives lost, of the agony of the Hitler days, the Warsaw Ghetto, the Eichmann trial, etc. If the Jewish school is to be an organic part of home and life, it cannot overlook an event that had so shattering an impact on the existence of all of us. It should further examine the extent to which the tragic phases of Jewish history be included in the curriculum of the Jewish school. At one of the sessions of the 37th Annual Conference of the NCJE, three speakers considered the educational implications of introducing the tragic events in Jewish history, especially the recent Jewish catastrophe, into the Jewish school curriculum, and the most effective method for making the coming Jewish generation cognizant of the heroic and spiritual values of Jewish tragedy. Their statements follow in order of presentation.     

Bagels,schnitzel and McDonald's—‘fuzzy frontiers’ of Jewish identity in an English Jewish secondary school

Using data gathered during a case study of the ‘culture’ of a Jewish secondary school, this article explores the indeterminate boundaries of Jewish identity. By examining the mechanisms that control what and who comes into the school, and what is approved and disapproved of in the school, a picture emerges of what and who is counted as ‘Jewish’. There is detailed consideration of the admissions policy, the rules about kosher food, the explicitly religious symbols in use, the importance of Israel and the contested issue of McDonald's. Sometimes the boundaries are very clear‐cut, but in some cases there is ambiguity and disagreement that make the frontiers of English Jewish student identity decidedly fuzzy.     

Meeting the Challenge: The Jewish schooling phenomenon in the UK

The development of a Jewish schooling system in the UK has reflected sociological, political and historical situations spanning four centuries. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the proportions of Jewish children receiving full time Jewish education. The causes of this change, and its impact on both the Jewish and wider community will be considered in this article, which seeks, within a historical framework, to understand the factors which have led to a resurgence of commitment to Jewish schooling in the past 25 years. The unique relationship of Jewish schooling to the State as it exists in the UK will also be explored as a means of contextualising the Jewish school system within a state denominational system.     

Applying Montessori Principles in China: The Impact of Being a Situational Minority in a Particularistic Jewish Heritage School

ABSTRACT

The aim of the research is to investigate a Montessori pedagogic approach, enabling a Jewish school to be part of the Chinese international-school system, while fostering Jewish identity. We conducted semistructured interviews with principals (2), teachers (8), parents (12), and students (10) and recorded class observations (8) over two visits. The analysis employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method. The main result was that Montessori principles enabled the school to foster a strong particularistic Jewish identity for this situational minority while also developing a broad understanding of the host (Chinese) culture.     

Jewish education in Dublin: organizational development and conflicts

The aim of this paper is to dwell on the trends in the development of Jewish education in Dublin. The discussion is based on books written about the Jewish community and central figures in it, on interviews with people who were involved in shaping the Jewish education and with others who were familiar with it, on community magazines and documents found in the community and in the Jewish school.

The findings show that the Chief Rabbis were always the initiators and the driving force behind the founding of the Jewish educational institutions and in determining their educational policies. They were always assisted by the Education Ministry of Ireland, by the State of Israel and by members of the local community.

The Jewish elementary school in Dublin was founded in 1934 by Rabbi Herzog. At the initiative of Rabbi Jakobovitz they founded the Jewish secondary school in the early 1950s, together with an additional Jewish elementary school.

The problem of the Jewish schools was always the limited enrollment figures. Because of this, the Rabbis Cohen and Rosen unified the schools into a single educational institution where students studied from the age of three until the final year of secondary school.

The principals and teachers of secular subjects at the school were always non-Jews. In contrast, in most cases, the directors of the Jewish studies were emissaries from Israel. The teachers of Jewish subjects were residents of Dublin and rabbis who supplemented their rabbinical positions with teaching jobs. Good work relations always prevailed between the Jewish and non-Jewish staff, but the relations of the Israeli emissaries with the teachers of Jewish subjects and the rabbis were characterized by conflict.     

Teacher Professional Development in Congregational Settings 1

This article describes the impact of sustained professional development programs in two Jewish congregational schools. This research suggests that contrary to common assumptions, part-time teachers in Jewish congregational schools will invest time in professional development when it is of high quality, interactive and engaging and based at their school. These programs have significantly affected teacher collegiality, knowledge of pedagogy and Jewish content, and reflection about teachers' own teaching practices and practice of Judaism. The role of the educational leader is a salient feature of the program success.     

WHEN PUBLIC SERVICE RENDERS PERSONAL CHANGE: PORTRAITS OF SIX AVOCATIONAL TEACHERS

This paper presents portraits of six parents who became actively involved as avocational teachers in their synagogue's religious school. Based on two in‐depth interviews, the portraits trace avocational teachers' public commitment to the school and personal renewal as Jews. The portraits provide us with a closer look at the powerful impact that teaching and learning had on participants' views of themselves and their relationship to Jewish texts.     

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.     

Kadimah: The Pursuit of Scholastic Excellence and Religious Commitment

This study uses phenomenological analysis to examine the perceptions of students attending a supplementary Hebrew school in a New England suburb. These students have ambivalent feelings about being Jewish. They equate being Jewish with being different, and they believe being Jewish has only a minor effect on their lives. They perceive the goals of Hebrew school on three levels: 1) The immediate level of learning prayers, learning about their religion, and learning Hebrew; 2) The long term goal of Bar/Bat Mitzvah; and 3) The ultimate goal of transmitting Jewish traditions to future generations. Their perceptions about Hebrew school differ markedly and range from boring to fun. Positive aspects of Hebrew school mentioned by all students include socializing and informality of classes. A negative aspect was the inconvenience of the Hebrew school schedule. Implications drawn from this study are that the Hebrew school ought to strive to maintain practical goals and a flexible curriculum, classroom environment, and school schedule.     

Leading Jewish Educators of Blessed Memory

The popular image connoted by the term “Jewish education” is the teaching-learning process in the classroom of an all day school, yeshiva, and afternoon school. The students are typically children of elementary school age. As the image expands, it includes adolescents in the high school, college students in special courses, and adults in synagogue-sponsored adult education courses. Jewish education for professionals in Jewish communal service agencies has not been part of the public's perception of Jewish education. To be sure, the professional's primary concern is helping clients with their problems and his knowledge base is primarily geared toward that objective. The “Jewish” component in the preparation for professional practice has not been a primary concern of Jewish educators.     

Israel Engagement in Practice: An Empirical Look at the Impact of The Year of Service Emissaries

The current field of Israel engagement has been significantly challenged by young North American Jews’ reported alienation from contemporary Israel. Literature in the last decade has addressed this challenge in depth, offering a wide variety of theoretical analyses and recommendations for program development. The present study is the first to thoroughly focus on one of these programs, the young emissaries (shinshinim) program, a joint initiative between the Jewish Agency for Israel and a growing number of Jewish communities around the world. Data were collected in the Greater Toronto Area, out of which the local Jewish Federation operates the largest shinshinim program worldwide. Levels of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with Israel were assessed in 47 local institutions’ representatives, 84 host families, and 197 high school students in relation to their interaction with shinshinim. Changes in attitudes toward Israel, Jewish tradition, and peoplehood, following their Year of Service, were also assessed in 36 shinshinim. All data were collected using questionnaires developed especially for the purposes of this study. Results show that the shinshinim program has a significant and positive impact on host families’ level of Israel engagement and that the Year of Service has a significant and positive impact on the shinshinim inclination to adopt Jewish traditions and to affiliate themselves with a Jewish Peoplehood. Results also show that the program is positively associated with Israel engagement among students and Jewish institutions’ representatives. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

NOSTALGIC NOTES ON MY DAY SCHOOL YEARS

Schools Necessarily reflect the conditions of the society which they represent.¹ As Elazar Notes,² Jewish schools so accurately reflect the ambiguities of American Jewish life that the experience of the schools necessarily creates conflicts within the Jewish community. This paper examines that important relationship between the Jewish school and American Jewish life. In particular, it looks outside the school to the loss of a substantive identity among Jews and to the dissolution of community among Jews. Within the school, it describes a disturbing picture of Jewish education that is reflective of those wider conflicts.     

ENHANCING CHANGE IN PUBLIC AND JEWISH EDUCATION

This article deals with educational change in public education and its implications for Jewish education. It outlines steps taken by a public‐school district in California to enhance student‐achievement test scores. This report sorts the fundamentals of this case, emphasizing the role of evaluation‐driven leadership in bringing about significant changes. Next, it applies these fundamentals to Jewish education, focusing on changes designed to strengthen Jewish identity and Jewish continuity. The article ends with practical implications about training school leaders in evaluation knowledge and skills.     

"בגיל ורעדה "הוראת ישראל ותהליך השלום

The Challenge

Jewish day and overnight camps are fertile settings for inculcating a positive attitude toward Jewish knowledge and identity. The number of activity hours available in a single summer exceeds by far the number of hours spent in three years of supplementary Hebrew school studies and a full year of Jewish studies in a Jewish day school.     

The Crisis in Jewish Education

What will the Jewish supplementary school be in the 1990's? A more definitive question might be what will it supplement? In the beginning “supplementary” schools brought Jewish knowled[ggrave]e to the student who was already experiencing living Judaism in the home. In the 1960's, heyday of Jewish afternoon schools, the school supplemented secular knowledge and secular living with Jewish knowledge and some Jewish life experience as the home contributed less and less.     

Secondary School Choice as a Window on Jewish Faith Schools in Contemporary British Society

ABSTRACT

Research into school choice has generally explored both the processes by which choices are made and the considerations that parents explore when making this important decision on behalf of their children. This article examines the secondary school choices of Jewish parents in the United Kingdom. It explores parents’ reasons for choosing to select Jewish faith secondary schools. We frame our arguments against the backdrop of the wider faith-school phenomenon in the UK, and as with the Christian communities, we find a disconnect between the small number of Jewish adults attending places of worship regularly and the growing number of Jewish children attending Jewish faith schools. We show that for many parents, schooling is synonymous with Jewish socialization, or enculturation; developing networks of Jewish friends, providing sufficient cultural resources to enable participation in Jewish life, and nurturing distinctive values. We show how Jewish schools have become more than places for academic advancement for these families; they have become the primary locus of Jewish community.     

Continuity of Higher Hebrew Study and Jewish Home Environment

Observers of American Jewish education are wont to cite the persistent failure of Jewish ed ucators to incorporate the unfolding events of Jewish life and the world at large within the instructional program of the Jewish school. During the Holocaust period, for example, Jewish schools in America blithely ignored the evolving drama in Europe as they contin ued to focus in narrow, irrelevant fashion on their traditional curriculum of Jewish text study.     

Back To the Basics

The supplementary school has been the mainstay of the American Jewish educational system for almost a full century. It continues to this day as the primary schooling instrument for the majority of Jewish children in America. The relative success of the supplementary school system through the decades can be discussed and debated. Today, however, it is generally conceded that in the last quarter of a century the effectiveness of the supplementary school and its ability to fulfill its goal of preparing children for adult Jewish life has been severely limited. The reality and the perception of inadequacy is manifest in drop-outs before high school, transfers to day schools, and the disenchantment that comes from the realization that most students are left without the critical mass of Jewish knowledge necessary to sustain them through adulthood.     

SHOULD JEWISH SUPPLEMENTARY RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS BE LIKE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Whether the Jewish supplementary school should be operated as if it were a public school depends on the goals of Jewish education. “In terms of ultimate goals, however, Jewish education is now at a crossroads.”¹ While all Jewish educators would probably agree with Harold Schulweis' statement that “it is our sacred task to create Jews,”² educators are not in agreement over what type of Jews we are to create and how we are to create them. Jewish educators can be divided into two groups. One group wants to create “educated, thinking Jews” — goal #1—while the other desires to shape children into “feeling Jews” —goal #2.     

Assessment of the laboratory learning environment in an inquiry-oriented chemistry laboratory in Arab and Jewish high schools in Israel

An inquiry-oriented laboratory in chemistry was integrated into the chemistry curriculum in Jewish high schools in Israel, and after a short period was also implemented in Arab sector. In this study, we investigated the effect of culture on the perceptions of laboratory classroom learning environments by comparing the perceptions of Arab and Jewish high school students who learned the inquiry-oriented chemistry laboratory. The learning environment is influenced by student-teacher relationship and we thought that this relation is an important issue in the inquiry laboratory and is different between the Arab and Jewish populations. However, until recently, the Arab teachers have remained in the centre of the learning process and their students perceived them as the main source of knowledge and information. In this study, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine whether the laboratory learning environment was different in Arab and Jewish classes that learned in the inquiry-oriented laboratory in chemistry. A statistical comparison of Arab and Jewish inquiry groups revealed significant differences in their actual and preferred perceptions. From the qualitative part of the study, we found that the teachers and students from the Arab and Jewish sectors were statistically similar in the categories that we measured during the inquiry phase, but they were statistically different during the pre-inquiry phase of the laboratory. From the interviews with the teachers and the students, we found that there were differences in the student-teacher relationship between the two sectors.