Section archive - Formal Education

This research identifies four profiles of Jewish day school (JDS) teachers and analyzes their association with teacher retention in JDSs and Jewish education. We employed a comprehensive sample of JDS teachers from the Educators in Jewish Schools Study and the DeLeT Longitudinal Project which tracks JDS teachers prepared by the DeLeT programs at Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR).

According to instructions issued by Education Minister Shai Piron, from now on, if half of the parents in state-religious educational middle and high schools request that their daughters study Talmud, they should be allowed to do so. This is the first time that the Education Ministry sets criteria for Talmud studies for girls in state-religious school.

This issue of HaYidion focuses on prayer, tefillah. The authors in this issue struggle with the fact that prayer in school is often rote, devoid of meaning, emotionless, irrelevant to the pray-ers. They analyze the causes of the impoverishment of what should be a transcendent experience, and they offer creative and often passionate suggestions for the enhancement of the prayer experience. Their analyses are cogent and enlightening, and offer meaningful pathways to enhance and enrich davening.

This issue of HaYidion focuses on The Whole Student. The writers whose work appears within the page of this issue of HaYidion will do much to illuminate aspects of student learning that are of particular relevance to today’s educational climate. They write about new and fascinating ways to bridge the span of centuries and generations to make Jewish learning exciting and relevant for those to whom we dedicate our life’s work: our students.