This webinar, led in Spanish by Dr. Daniel Fainstein on Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 7:00-8:30P.M. - Israel time. 12:00 – 13:30 EST – 5:00-6:30 GMT, will explore structural and conceptual issues regarding the status of Jewish Studies in Latin-American Jewish schools. Due to structural elements emanating from various sources, Jewish Studies have become fragmented and irrelevant subjects rather than a space for the exploration, experience, creativity, comprehensive study of Jewish identity and the dilemmas faced by young people today. We argue that if this issue were approached in a systematic manner without resorting to partial solutions, we could re-think a space for Jewish Studies and their function as framework for the construction of our students' 'cultural memory'.

We hope The Shmita Project website will provide you an opportunity both to learn some of the Shmita texts and begin thinking about how you would like your life, your community, and your world to be measurably healthier and more sustainable at the start of the next Shmita cycle. You are invited to join together, with excitement and anticipation, as we ask: What might this Shmita year look like in today’s world and how can we best prepare for it? How might Shmita hold the key to approaching the economic, environmental and societal challenges we are facing today?

School-to-school collaboration has emerged as a key paradigm for fostering personal and institutional connections between Israeli and Diaspora youth, educators, and schools. Using the findings of a multi-year case study of a high school level twinning initiative, this article describes the challenges to this form of transnational collaboration and takes the first steps to articulating a theory of intervention of Israeli-Diaspora school twinning at the organizational level. The article suggests two processes, collaborative capacity and cultural competence, critical to development of positive and productive relationships in school partnerships. Institutional twinning is suggested as the goal of these interventions at the organizational level.

Over 2,400 Spanish-speaking Jewish children will be reading age-appropriate books in their native language this month, thanks to the expansion of the PJ Library program into Mexico. PJ Library is a free Jewish children's book program conceived and implemented by the Agawam, Mass.-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Through monthly mailings, it delivers the gift of free books and music to more than 100,000 children throughout North America.

As educators, synagogue rabbis frequently devote a great deal of time to teaching adults. Yet little empirical research exists about what they do. This study describes and analyzes the teaching of three congregational rabbis who have excellent reputations as teachers of adults. In particular, it focuses on how these rabbis incorporate personal stories into their teaching and examines the ways that sharing such stories is integral to their teaching approaches. Rabbis who use stories in their teaching potentially occupy a crucial place in the Jewish identity development of their adult learners. This study offers rabbinical seminaries recommendations for how to incorporate the results of the research into their curriculum.