Search results for: Pluralism

Students in “community” (nondenominational) Jewish high schools represent a diversity of denominational affiliations, including those who affiliate with more than one denomination and those that affiliate with none. These schools strive to create communities in which students with varying Jewish beliefs and practices are, at the very least, respected and comfortable. At the same time, schools work to avoid internal Jewish communal fragmentation. In this article, the approach to diversity in three such high schools is compared. Each school, in addition to presenting an approach distinct from the others, has created opportunities for communal Jewish engagement through the enactment of practices that are rooted in Judaism and in the ethos of the school, and allow individualization within universal participation. Further, the range of approaches to Jewish diversity exhibited raises questions about pluralism as it relates to the Jewish educational goals of these schools.

Join NewCAJE 5 at Sinai Temple and lodging at UCLA dorms on August 10-13, 2014. Register now for conference early registration and for the optional pre-conference Shabbat, Aug. 8-9 at UCLA Hillel. NewCAJE conferences bring together all those involved in the transmission of Jewish education and culture. Participants come from most states and many countries. They represent every stream of Judaism and they teach every age group. They are principals, teachers, professors, clergy, musicians, artists and storytellers from across the denominational spectrum. They are lay leaders and parents, entrepreneurs and social media gurus. They work in camps, Day Schools, Hebrew Schools, Jewish Centers and synagogues to name but a few.

Secular Israelis are reconnecting to Judaism in an increasingly growing range of ways. This trend has been accelerating over the last ten years. The article draws on theories of transformative learning as well as the analysis of scholars who have examined the elements that contribute to integration and formation of healthy Jewish identity. It locates this phenomenon in light of changes taking place in the North American Jewish community and liberal Jewish communities in Israel, as well as the mutual, ongoing influences between and among these organizations.

The Shalom Hartman Institute and Hebrew College announced the establishment of Hevruta, a unique gap-year program in Israel for 20 North American and 20 Israeli high school graduates designed to build a new generation of leadership built on a new narrative of Israel-World Jewry relations, commencing in September, 2014.