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.     

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.     

Socialization into a Civilization: The Dewey–Kaplan Synthesis in American Jewish Schooling in the Early 20th Century

This historical study focuses on how John Dewey's theory of education as socialization and Mordecai Kaplan's theory of Judaism as a civilization together served as an ideological base and pedagogical framework for the creation of “progressive,” “reconstructed” American Jewish school programs in the early 20th century (1910s–1930s). In the main, progressive Jewish educators no longer conceived of Jewish education merely as a program of religious education designed to impart the ways and dictates of Judaism. Rather, Jewish education was conceptualized as a total program of socialization designed to prepare children for active and intelligent participation in American Jewish life.     

Rosenak Teaching Jewish Values

Rosenak’s Teaching Jewish Values (1986) is perhaps his most accessible book about Jewish education. After diagnosing the “diseases” of Jewish education, he endorses “teaching Jewish values” as the curricular strategy most likely to succeed given the chasm which divides traditional Jewish subject matter and the milieu in which Jewish education takes place—e.g., the values of home and peer group. A close analysis of the book reveals cracks in his commitment to Jewish values, and I explore alternatives to values education he himself presents, such as acquisition of norms or learning the “language of being Jewish.”     

THE BUREAUS AND THE DENOMINATIONS

Diversity and special interest have historically been the great builders of American Jewish communal life. Jewish hospitals, Jewish childcare services, Jewish schools in this country were all created by private “ideologues” — religious, Zionistic, or other — which special passions alone empowered them to create meaningful, workable institutions. Federations were formed to supply the infrastructure necessary to perpetuate these institutions: to systematize and coordinate the grant diversity of communal fund-raising efforts spanning the nation.     

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.     

Experiential learning and values education at a school youth camp: Maintaining Jewish culture and heritage

In our post-modern, globalised world, there is a risk of unique cultural heritages being lost. This loss contributes to the detriment of civilization, because individuals need to be rooted in their own specific identity in order to actively participate in community life. This article discusses a longitudinal case study of the efforts being made by Australian Jewish schools to maintain Jewish heritage through annual experiential religious education camps, coordinated in a programme called Counterpoint. The researchers’ aim was to analyse how a school youth camp can serve as a site for socialisation and education into a cultural and religious heritage through experiential learning and informal education. During research trips which took place over several years, interviews enabling insights into the process of experiential education were conducted with a total of three different Directors of Informal Jewish Education, two Jewish Studies heads, five participating teachers, seven youth leaders, as well as seven student focus groups. In their analysis of the semi-structured interviews, the authors of this article employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method, which enabled a more nuanced understanding of the main phenomenon investigated. Over the years, they were able to observe two philosophical approaches, one of which focused more on socialisation, with immersion into experience, while the other focused on education, with immersion into Jewish knowledge. Their findings reveal that some educators aim to “transmit” knowledge through “evocation”, with the students involved in active learning; while others focus more on students’ “acquisition” of knowledge through transmission. Experiential learning activities were found to be more meaningful and powerful if they combined both approaches, leading to growth.     

TRAINED WORKERS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

To ensure Jewish continuity, Jewish education must become minority education, heightening a Jew's sense of being different from other groups in American society. This approach runs counter to classic Jewish striving for acceptance in the majority culture, but it responds to other minorities’ relating to Jews as part of that majority. Such an approach is warranted on sociological and theological grounds and emphasizes commands and customs which reassert ethnic identity: food, festivals, fashion, and family. While this approach is likely to succeed, it runs the risk of engendering chauvinism. That risk may be reduced by a strategy of “transcending nested contradictions.”

     

论犹太民族崇智主义读书传统的形成与演变

犹太人的读书传统是犹太文化的重要组成部分。犹太人在漫长的历史中形成了一种宗教崇智主义读书传统,其实质是为上帝而读书,而宗教律法中对于教育义务的规定以及犹太教社会采取的其他种种措施保证了该读书传统得以形成和延续。在启蒙运动后,他们的读书由为上帝读书变成了为个人自己、为民族而读书,宗教崇智主义传统变成世俗崇智主义传统,在精神上读书成为一种世俗意义上的信仰,在实际中成为“走出去”“融入主流”“往上走”的途径。从犹太民族发展史来看,大体而言,犹太人的读书、教育热情与他们所在地的城镇化、产业转型以及他们自身职业的转变构成一种正向促进的互动关系。分析犹太崇智主义读书传统的形成与演变,能带给我们许多有益的启示。     

JEFFREY SCHOCHET,TAKING CENTER: A MORAL PORTRAIT

This article, based on field research, considers how an adolescent graduate of a New York Jewish day school constructs his moral identity now that he is in the larger setting of a large public high school in metropolitan New York. Jeffrey Schochet (a pseudonym), the subject of this article, wrestles with moral issues throughout his school day, defying conventional stereotypes about adolescent apathy. This article identifies three moral outlooks, “Permissive,” “Connected,” and “Standard-Bearing.” A “standard-bearer,” Jeffrey upholds a sense of duty, and he seeks to fulfill the traditional social roles of a male in his community. This research stands at the confluence of research on adolescence, moral education, religious education, and American Jewish sociology, focusing on questions of meaning and tradition.     

The Hyde Perk Guild,Chicago

Utilizing “teachable moments” within daily situations to impart knowledge and transmit values is a type of informal education. In a structured camp environment, such teachable moments may be integrated into the educational curriculum. “Jewish teachable moments” may be used to address Judaism and Jewish Peoplehood holistically, as the educators and counselors guide the campers through the Jewish summer camp environment. This article examines the Jewish Teachable Moments method through a case study conducted at a Reform movement affiliated camp in Texas. Theoretical and pedagogical implications of the Jewish Teachable Moments method are discussed.     

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.     

“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.     

CURRENT EVENTS IN THE JEWISH SCHOOLS

This article examines the application of a recent interpretive trend in the field of gender studies to the study of Talmudic texts as well as its potential role in the teaching of Talmudic literature. It explores what kind of contribution we can make to our students' education in seminaries and Jewish Day schools when we open our texts up to theories of interpretation drawn from the academy. As a theory that views women as “literary devices” rather than as “real” women who convey something about the status of women in antiquity, this method raises the question of what our students stand to gain from this type of feminist inquiry.     

SURVEY OF JEWISH EDUCATION IN NEW YORK CITY

This case study examines the contours of culturally relevant pedagogy in an undergraduate preservice teacher education program for Jewish women. The case describes how the assigned reading of Albarelli’s (2000) narrative of teaching in a Hasidic Jewish school, Teacha! Stories from a Yeshiva, disrupts the classroom community, diminishes student engagement with the course, and undermines student confidence in the instructor. This research explores what happens when “respect for” challenges “reflection about.” The study finds that differential cultural understandings surrounding the concept of “respect” mediate the discourse. The author raises questions about the ethics of social justice in religious teacher education, probes the poverty of educational reform in a landscape of nondiscussables, and offers strategies for navigating this tender terrain.     

A Review of: ““Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out,Materialistic, and Miseducated Students”

The views of Jewish education articulated by Rosenzweig in his essays “It is Time” and in “The Opening of the Lehrhaus” are quite different. So different, in fact, that an account of how one mind can produce such different accounts is necessary. Following the lead of a 1950’s popular television quiz show, the authors ask “Will the Real Franz Rosenzweig Please Stand Up?” The authors end by exploring how the tensions within Rosenzweig's educational thinking can yield new insights into the contemporary challenges of Jewish education.     

What Really Matters in Synagogue Education: A Comparative Case Study of a Conventional School and an Alternative Program

This article examines case studies of two part-time synagogue education programs, a conventional “Hebrew School” and an alternative program modeled after Jewish summer camp. Using the lens of teaching of Bible to children in Grades 3–5, the study provides insight into similarities and differences between the two types of programs and the impact of the program structure on the proliferation and/or staying power of one or the other. I found that factors of success in synagogue education may not be dependent on a program’s structure (“school”/“camp”) but, rather, on factors such as professional learning and content knowledge, among others.     

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.     

The Life and Character of Isaac Leeser the Educator

A frequent negative criticism directed toward Jewish education is its alleged “non-effect” or “effects” on most of its students. Most students are exposed to such a limited total amount of Jewish elementary and supplementary schooling, we are told, that it has little if any discernible effect on their subsequent adult Jewish knowledge, identity, and religiosity.     

Bringing the Text to Life and Into Our Lives: Jewish Education and the Arts

This article explores how arts-based learning can facilitate understandings of Jewish religious texts. Through practical examples drawn from our own research, from the worlds of dance, drama, and the visual arts in education, we demonstrate the ways in which arts can allow for the transmission of information and knowledge, as well as offer a “transformative” learning experience; a student can bring the text to life while bringing the text into his or her life. We stress the primary importance and centrality of sacred text within Jewish tradition and assert that the written text should serve in Jewish education as the starting point. The ultimate goal, however, is to enable learners' personal connection with texts. We argue that learning through the arts opens up opportunities for multiple shared interpretations of text, as well as accentuation of the “affective” dimensions of Jewish textual learning. By becoming more aware of the varied possible paths for generating learning activities, educators might choose learning strategies that enable an integration of both the cognitive and affective domains. The examples of Arts Reflective learning demonstrate possibilities for the structuring of “teaching towards transformation.”