“In Israel, the women’s learning movement…was not viewed as threatening, but rather as a natural outgrowth of women’s changing position in the world”
In Israel, the women’s learning movement preceded the Orthodox feminist movement. It was not...
Category Archives: Jewish Education
“Where are the Torah graphic novels?”
For many people, the texts of Torah learning are themselves the biggest obstacles. They...
“Which brand of Judaism has the most credibility on which topic? How did you know?”
I asked the new president of a growing synagogue about their brand. “Young couples...
“The prevalence of “cafeteria Judaism” is part of what frustrates so many Jewish professionals in their search for how to promote a greater interest in Judaism among their constituencies”
The prevalence of “cafeteria Judaism” is part of what frustrates so many Jewish professionals...
“We must promote rigorous study with honest and critical analysis, making it accessible to all and moving away from unchecked centralized rabbinic authority”
We must promote rigorous study with honest and critical analysis, making it accessible to...
“We are ingenious in fund-raising, which is good; we are shipwrecked in raising our children, which is tragic”
We are ingenious in fund-raising, which is good; we are shipwrecked in raising our...
A Significant Challenge in teaching rabbinic and biblical texts to children and young adults
“Rabbinic texts and biblical texts were initially written for an elite, adult community,” he...
Teaching Hafrashat-Challah and Tzenius should not be so different…
When I poll Bais Yaakov graduates about their emotional associations with certain mitzvos, I...
“to be Jewishly educated today, he or she must know the history of the past 300 years”
Given what we now know about this pervasive sense among secular Jews, it is time to invest more seriously in educational endeavors that reinforce it and build upon it. Simply put, for a Jew to be Jewishly educated today, he or she must know the history of the past 300 years. We must learn and understand our achievements, and explore the background and basis of our success. Was it DNA? Social cues? Pressure from persecution? Education? We need to educate more thoroughly in this area than we have in the past.
Michael Steinhardt, “The 94 Percent”, eJewish Philanthropy (24 June 2014) {http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-94-percent}
“To feed the hunger for knowledge that exists among American Jews, we need education that doesn’t talk down to people or make them feel like children”
Today’s Jews, he said, are better educated in general education, which...