Source: JOFA Conference
We are pleased to announce that the upcoming Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) conference, December 7-8, 2013 at John Jay College in New York City, will feature an Educators' Track for Jewish educators working from pre-school through high school. The Educators’ Track will give us the opportunity to have difficult discussions about issues related to gender and sexuality, to hear from top educators in the field, to brainstorm with one another, and to take home tools to build more gender-aware Orthodox day schools. Perhaps most importantly, the Educators’ Track will allow us to build a community of educators who can continue our dialogue even after the JOFA Conference is over.
Each of the building blocks of yeshiva day school education, whether it is tefillah, Jewish texts or halakhic practice, at times stands in tension with modern sensibilities about male and female roles. Despite the centrality of gender issues in our schools, Orthodox educators have little guidance or space to truly think through and discuss how they want to address them. The frenetic pace of the school calendar and the reluctance in Orthodox environments to raise uncomfortable questions about gender roles leave us without a forum for dialogue. The Educators' Track will provide a meaningful forum within which to grapple with these important concerns. Session topics include: best practices for gender sensitive education, tefillah and gender in a day school setting, getting the best out of a post-high school year of study in Israel, and more!
For more information and registration visit the conference web page.