SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE 37th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

Although paired study (hevruta) has been a part of Jewish learning and an essential aspect of rabbinic education for centuries, over the past decade it has become an increasingly formalized vehicle in the training of rabbis in non-Orthodox seminaries. Little research has focused on its organization and process and what role it plays within the context of rabbinic education. This study seeks to investigate the practice of hevruta as it has developed in the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Methodologically, the study makes use primarily of standardized long interviews. The results of this study indicate that while hevruta shares many characteristics of cooperative learning in higher education, it remains a distinct Jewish learning strategy.     

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.     

THE COMMUNITY THEORY AND THE JEWISH SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Almost no literature in the academic field of Jewish education exists that studies congregational rabbis as teachers of adults. This article seeks to contribute to filling the gap in the extant literature base. Using portraiture, the study describes and analyzes the aims of rabbinic teaching of adults in a synagogue setting. The findings suggest that regularly facilitating learners' intellectual and religious development, democratically guiding their communities' evolution through an emphasis on learning, and collaboratively joining their congregants in shaping the construction of personal and communal Jewish narratives are central aims of congregational rabbinic teaching of adults.     

Applying Jewish Wisdom to Philanthropy: The Case of Aggripas and the Sages

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to test the hypothesis that Jewish wisdom can impact the real-life work challenges of non-profit/philanthropy power dynamics. By examining the narratives of King Aggripas and the sages, I explore an analogue to these power dynamics in rabbinic literature. In M Sotah 7:8, the rabbis flatter Aggripas by calling him their brother, even though he is not. The later rabbinic examinations of this interaction offer multiple ways of understanding this encounter, all relevant to modern-day applications. In addition, other stories of Aggripas reported in rabbinic literature further nuance this exploration.     

FORUM PROTESTANT,CATHOLIC, JEW: THE TRANSFORMATIVE POSSIBILITIES OF EDUCATING ACROSS RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES

A recent gift to establish a new rabbinic ordination program at the University of Judaism provides the catalyst for faculty development of a new philosophy of religious education that emphasizes morally and epistemi‐cally oriented conceptions of learning. This paper traces the plight of modernity in premodern conceptions of Jewish learning, reviews responses to this plight during the past 150 years, and proposes an alternative view of learning that promotes the re‐engagement of epistemic and moral authority in education.     

TORAH LITERACY IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM

As a lover of language and literature, as a serious yet secular Jew, and as a long-time educator in Jewish schools who strives to implement the best practices possible, the author found herself in an educational trap. Typically, even in liberal Jewish practice, Written Law, i.e. the Torah, and Oral Law, i.e. the rabbinic commentaries, are tightly bound together. In educational practice, this results in introducing commentaries on a primary text far earlier than done in Language Arts studies. According to the author, students are bound by a tradition and methodology that do not serve them well, as it recognizes the text but not the reader or the context. This article grows out of a desire to break out of traditional practices and teach Torah with the contemporary awareness of reading theory, without actually breaking with tradition.     

The New Journal of Jewish Education at Ten: An Appraisal

This article documents the Journal of Jewish Education’s acquisition by the Network for Research in Jewish Education, in 2004, and evaluates the contribution of the re-launched Journal to the field of Jewish education. I explore how the Journal contributed over the past decade in three discrete yet often overlapping areas, thereby realizing its editors’ vision. First, the Journal of Jewish Education became the venue for conversations between researchers, practitioners and funders about the direction of Jewish education research and policy; second, it became an outlet for the sharing of research and other Jewish education scholarship; and third, it became a venue where scholars introduced research and theoretical constructs from the field of general education and sought to demonstrate their relevance to Jewish education. Finally, I suggest some reasons why the editors had less success in realizing a fourth goal for the Journal; that is, making it a forum for new ideas and the charting of new directions in research and practice.     

“I’m Going to Israel and All I Need to Pack Is My Imagination”: Pretend Trips to Israel in Jewish Early Childhood Education

ABSTRACT

This article examines the practice of pretend Israel trips in Jewish early childhood education. Jewish early childhood educators who work in markedly different preschool settings, and who have differing beliefs about Israel and Israel education, nonetheless converge on a practice of pretend trips to Israel that remains remarkably stable across settings. This article examines how and why these pretend trips have become part of the “grammar” of Jewish early childhood education, illuminating a practice that is simultaneously beloved and unsatisfying for Jewish early childhood educators who care about early childhood education and Israel education.     

Jewish Creative Sensibilities: Framing a New Aspiration for Jewish Education

ABSTRACT

Proponents of building a “creative society” through educational innovation are calling for engaging learners in new modes of collaboration, problem solving, and original thinking. How might the enterprise of Jewish education contribute to this evolution in creative thinking and action? This article explores how “the Jewish sensibilities” can be adapted into a framework infusing Jewish “ways of seeing and being” into a vision of “Jewish education for a creative society.” The proposed conceptual framework aims to spark conversation, experimentation, research, and inquiry within the broader discourse of rethinking the aims of Jewish education for the future.     

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.     

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 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.     

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.     

Teaching Vision: Cultivating a Philosophical Disposition About Jewish Educational Practice

We are sometimes told that practitioners have a hard time with theory. But those who are committed to nurturing a certain kind of intellectual capacity among Jewish educational practitioners—the capacity to identify and critically engage with vision in Jewish education, a capacity that we can call a “philosophical disposition”—must accept the challenge to develop ideas, questions, resources, and learning activities appropriate to that goal. In this article, Levisohn presents a study of his own teaching of novice educators in order to contribute to a conversation about how we might contribute to the development of practical intellectuals in Jewish education in various ways and in various settings.     

Toward a Critical Study of Jewish Education

This article proposes a reconfiguration of the academic study of Jewish education that would (1) emphasize the “critical” analysis of an expanded range of issues (2) draw upon a broad range of disciplines and fields of study; and (3) formulate a new research agenda. The article argues that the focus on a “critical” approach to Jewish education studies is not a retreat from practice, but an important step in the enrichment of the academic study of Jewish education, as well as in the enhancement of the practical training of teachers, leaders, and communal professionals.     

COMMISSION ON BIBLE STUDY IN RELATION TO PUBLIC EDUCATION

Foundations of Jewish Education is a required course for masters degree students in Jewish Education offered by the William S. Davidson School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. As an introduction to the theory and practice of Jewish education, it seeks to integrate theory from a wide range of fields as a way of helping students conceptualize the practice of Jewish education. Using syllabi from three different versions of the course, including an online version of it, this study identifies three central themes that animate the syllabi. The nature of the relationship between theory and practice, a key component of this course, is examined in light of the interdisciplinary orientation of the syllabi. Finally, questions about the distinctly religious dimensions of the course are raised as part of an inquiry into the implications of religious pluralism in Jewish education.     

Worth Knowing: Talmud Study and the Intellectual Values of High School Students at Liberal Jewish Day Schools

ABSTRACT

What do Jewish day school students believe constitutes good understanding and worthwhile learning in the context of their encounter with rabbinic texts in the classroom? This article shares findings from an interview study of Jewish day school students in grades 9 through 12 regarding their attitudes toward the study of Talmud. I argue that high school students’ estimations of the value of Talmud study are shaped, not only by individually held tastes, talents, and commitments, but also by a set of shared intellectual values. These values, related to their beliefs about the purposes of learning and what good learning should accomplish for the learner, develop in the context of their schools and communities and frame how students set goals for and assess their own understanding of Talmud.     

BUREAUS AND MOVEMENTS TOWARD COOPERATION AND SYNERGISM

For some eighty years, Bureaus of Jewish Education, working under a variety of names, have served the cause of Jewish education and the Jewish community. From time to time, as have all agencies of the Jewish community, the Bureaus have had to rethink their roles. Because of radical shifts in the way Jews live their lives, the nature of Jewish community, and the emergence of Jewish education as a priority, at least, in the rhetoric of Jewish life, this would appear to be such a moment. In doing so, agencies have to understand the questions and problems that are specific to their times and also revisit old questions to find new answers. An example of the former is what happens to the advocacy role of the bureau when the Federation, at least rhetorically, adopts Jewish education as a priority. An old question that, perhaps, requires new answers is “What ought to be the relationship between Bureaus of Jewish Education and denominational movements?” In this article, I wish to turn my attention to this question, and, perhaps, provide some basis for formulating policy and ideas about practice. My response cannot help but be affected by my experience as Director of the Department of Education of The United Synagogue of America but it should not be taken as the official position of The United Synagogue.     

If You Will It?: The Early History of Non-Orthodox Secondary Day Schools in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

The development of non-Orthodox Jewish day schools in Los Angeles in the 1970s to 1990s can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the city’s geography, the deterioration of public education, court-ordered busing that began in the 1970s, and strong rabbinic personalities. Yet, as elementary day schools proliferated throughout the city, educators struggled to keep secondary day schools afloat. Contributing factors to the challenges secondary schools faced included sprawling city geography, lack of communal support, and parental desire to send children to established high schools with proven track records for college preparation and admission.