Search results for: Ultra - Orthodox

In the UK, most ultra-Orthodox schools operate as public institutions and are therefore subjected to frequent scrutiny by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). Recently this has caused particular friction because these schools refuse to comply with requirements that they teach elementary-school students about homosexuality, transgenderism, and so forth. Ḥaredi schools have received frequent surprise inspections during which students were asked invasive questions about sex and “lifestyle choices,” to the consternation of teachers, parents, and administrators. Thus British Ḥaredim are understandably relieved that OFSTED ruled last month that their elementary schools would no longer be under pressure to teach about same-sex marriage.

The present study offers a systematic analysis of the evolution of talk practices of ultraorthodox Jews learning in dyads called Chavruta. We investigate whether and how these practices contribute to the maintenance of traditional legal discourses and or move in a transformative direction. We answer this question by observing two learners in a Chavruta setting in consecutive sessions. We show that the Chavruta learners are constantly seeking for finding methods of their own while discussing legal texts. We show that the study of Chavruta learning is relevant to both educational change and to civil law in Western countries.

Leshomra is a two-year-old Israeli organization that helps plant gardens at nursery schools, kindergartens, schools, and community centers in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in an attempt to connect children in a tactile way to nature and how things grow. It aims to build environmental awareness and green practices from the bottom, through a real understanding of Haredi culture and how best to relate to people in that community.

The words of the Admor (Grand Rabbi) of Talne echoed poignantly at the main session of Yad Vashem's Tenth Annual Conference for Teachers from the Ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel, which took place on July 6-7, 2016. Close to 2,000 ultra-Orthodox educators, principals and school inspectors – men and women separately – took part in the conference, which was organized by the Ultra-Orthodox Section of the Department for Teacher Training in Israel at the International School for Holocaust Studies. “This conference marks the peak of the intensive work of the Ultra-Orthodox Section, which has been active at Yad Vashem for 15 years, in the world of Torah-based education,” explained Sarit Hoch-Markovitz, Director of the Department for Teacher Training in Israel. “It was on the one hand an opportunity to summarize our achievements, and on the other an opening for future activities aimed at bringing ultra-Orthodox teachers the newest pedagogical tools and knowledge in the fields of Holocaust education and research, while emphasizing the struggle of observant Jews during the Holocaust.”