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.     

The Socialization of Values in Israel's Educational System

When the history of 20th century American Jewry will be written, the central agency for Jewish education will play a prominent role in the story of the local Jewish community. In the first place, the bureau of Jewish education is one of a handful of Jewish organizations spanning the entire century. Moreover, with few exceptions, its constituents represent the total spectrum of the local Jewish population.     

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.     

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.     

The Jewish Educational System—A Plea for Organic Unity

This article analyzes the career commitments and retention patterns among graduates of the DeLeT program (Day School Leadership Through Teaching) who were prepared for day-school teaching at Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Employing t-tests to analyze survey responses, we identify factors that shape and support teachers' career commitments to Jewish day schools. Our findings suggest that those who stay in Jewish day school teaching are likely to do so because of more commitment to the Jewish community, greater perception of effective teacher preparation experience, and better school support in comparison to those who leave teaching in this setting. These findings are consistent with a multi-layered understanding of teachers' lives and career commitments, which is illustrated in the interaction between person, program, and setting.     

THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE CENTRAL AGENCIES

Central agencies for Jewish education were developed along the model of the American public school system. They were to fulfill the same functions, in their unique settings, as the public schools board of education. The central agencies were assigned duties and tasks that could not be performed by single schools such as teacher certification, setting educational standards and teacher training.     

THE ROLE OF HEROES IN JEWISH EDUCATION

Rosenak has shown that contemporary Jewish education must negotiate the tension between relevance and authenticity. For those who embrace authenticity as a goal, education is often mediated through heroes--who are ideal cultural types. Such education is hampered by the diminution of heroes in contemporary culture: The hero has been replaced by the role model, and the aspiration to be like the hero has been replaced by individualism. This article explores the idea of heroes in education both in the philosophic literature (Taylor, McIntyre, Rosenak) and in various aspects of Jewish education in the United States, including a look at wider American Jewish culture in this regard. A brief comparison to Israeli Jewish education is also included, where similar tensions and dilemmas are found.     

Definitions of Integration Can Be Misleading

The discussion in this paper departs from a fundamental premise: that in the foreseeable future local central agencies for Jewish education will not be receiving from their parent Federations the degree of increase in allocations which will enable them to significantly expand — let alone sustain at the current levels — the array of services which they deliver. This situation can be traced to a number of factors. To begin with, in many communities the ability of the Federation to raise funds through its annual campaign has leveled off. As a result, the total amount of money available for distribution to all Federation constituencies, including local bureaus of education, is no longer increasing in step-function fashion. Secondly, other Federation beneficiaries are staking claim with ever greater determination to their perceived share of the community dollar. Over the years most central agencies for Jewish education have become inured to this sort of competition for Federation funds from such sister agencies as the Jewish community center, the local Jewish home, and the like. But in recent years, allocations to local Jewish Day Schools have climbed to record levels, often making these institutions prime “competitors” with bureaus of Jewish education for community funds, more particularly with that portion of the total pie which has been allotted to education. This places bureaus in a difficult dilemma: On the one hand, they must support — indeed, encourage — increased funding for Jewish day school education. At the same time, bureaus are confronted with the uncomfortable fact that each community dollar allocated to day school education is a dollar which, potentially, might have been assigned to the central agency.     

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.     

THE CENTRAL AGENCY AND EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE LEARNER,THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY

During several of the sessions of the Council of Jewish Education at the annual Conference of Jewish Communal Service held in Baltimore, June 2–5, 1985, the critical relationships of the central agency for Jewish education were examined. The symposium that follows represents three of the papers delivered at the conference with an introduction by Dr. Elliot Schwartz, who coordinated the CJE sessions.     

ON THE ROLE OF CENTRAL AGENCIES

Central agencies of Jewish education, like any organization or institution, can benefit from a review of new conditions. This will determine whether it should carry on with established approaches or institute alterations in goals and practices. A look at central agencies is especially apt at this time because of community ferment about Jewish education.     

CONFRONTING THE RABIN ASSASSINATION IN OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

PART II The Subject Matter

Despite the Differences noted in the various curricula under consideration here, all three are dedicated to the proposition that knowledge is central to the forming of the Jew. The 1978 curriculum, appearing as it does at a time in which many Jewish educators have opted for an emphasis on affective experience, reaffirms the assertion that “An empty-headed person cannot be sin fearing, nor can an ignorant person be truly pious.” The centrality of subject matter in each of the curricula invites a comparison of the levels of achievement to which they aspire. In this section we propose an analysis of several areas of the curricula and thereby to arrive at an estimate of what the student “knows” and is capable of doing if the course of study in these subjects is completed as planned.     

SOME USES OF PUPPETRY IN JEWISH EDUCATION 44

For the first time in the history of the American Jewish community, delegates from all corners of the country and from all groupings in Jewish life gathered at a national conference on January 13–14, 1951 to discuss not fundraising and philanthropy, not emergencies and responsibilities overseas, not even the frequently raised spector of anti-Semitism, but Jewish education.     

The Gender Question and the Study of Jewish Children

Although some researchers argue that a generation of feminist innovations and changes in American Jewish life has produced an egalitarian generation in which gender differences among Jewish children and adolescents are insignificant, this article argues that the salience of gender differences is a factor of the kinds of questions that children are asked by researchers. When the question of gender was explicitly posed to 67 Jewish children, subtle differences did emerge. Jewish girls were found to be more sensitive to issues of equal rights and sexism, more ambivalent about their proper roles, and more aware of the contributions of Jewish women than boys.     

Learning From a Mussar-Based Initiative in a Community Day School

Mussar, an approach to character growth emerging as a movement in the 18th century, has increasingly been incorporated into contemporary Jewish education. The purpose of mussar—the cultivation of character—is consistent with the goals of Jewish day schools and other settings. This article examines the implementation of a mussar-based program in a Jewish community high school. Particular attention is given to questions raised by the introduction of this program into a pluralistic school setting. Implications are discussed in terms of the broader goals of Jewish education.     

FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR CENTRAL AGENCIES OF JEWISH EDUCATION

There is an ancient Chinese saying: “May you live in interesting times.” While some would classify this as a blessing, others would perceive it as a curse. The topic for this morning's discussion arises from a comparable state of ambiguity in regard to Jewish education, for these are certainly the most interesting times for us. Some voices are heard decrying the sorry state of Jewish education in North America and projecting a weakening of Jewish life because of the failures of Jewish education. Others are pointing to the extraordinary potential of Jewish education in the service of Jewish continuity, if we are willing to think about Jewish education in new ways. For those of us who tend the vineyards of Jewish education and maintain the institutions which have served Jewish education, we see great opportunity and serious challenges to existing assumptions in these interesting times. It is in this context that I share some observations about the implications for the future of central agencies of Jewish education.     

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.     

Understanding the Study of Religion in Undergraduate Programs of Religious Studies as Religious Education

The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27], and documents) were analyzed, thus enabling triangulation. Findings show that there is an incongruity between what the adult community defines as the central components of Jewish and religious identity, which are more particularistic, and the perspectives of Jewish youth, which are more universalistic.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ISRAEL

As I look back on my experiences in Jewish education in the United States I am struck by the extent in which we, as leaders and researchers, misread sociological factors which affect the development of the Jewish community and their consequential effects upon Jewish education. The unpredictable element, even under the most scientifically researched procedures, are characteristic of our modern Jewish history.