As a follow-up to last year's online conference on teaching Hebrew, MOFET Institute's International Channel is delighted to offer an online seminar, Teaching Hebrew as an Additional Language, between February 1-11, 2016. This professional development seminar will expose its participants to a range of crucial issues in the field and afford them an opportunity to experiment with various methods and tools for teaching Hebrew as an additional language.

Of the many lessons of the Chanukah story, the importance of faith, is one of the most significant for students today. One way to teach this theme is with multimedia presentations provided by TorahLive. TorahLive provides teachers with high quality video productions, which excite and motivate students of all denominations and all ages. The films communicate Jewish values in a non-preachy, well organized, and energetic manner and speak in the language of today’s youth.

The Network for Research in Jewish Education (NRJE) and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ) are sponsoring a Joint Conference on Jewish Education. It will be held at Towson University in Baltimore on June 14-16, 2016. The conference will feature papers and discussions across the full range of issues in Jewish education, but will also include a significant component on the social scientific study of Jewish education. The program will encompass the academic study of Jewish education, including matters of particular interest to scholars, practitioners, policy makers and philanthropists.

Since the release of the Pew study in 2013, there has been much hand-wringing in the Jewish community, with some calling this, again, a time of crisis. There is fear of increasing rates of assimilation and growing disaffiliation from traditional institutions. This was especially apparent in the recent statement, Strategic Directions for Jewish Life: A Call to Action, signed by many respected colleagues. We do not accept this doom and gloom picture of a dying Jewish community, and we think the analysis and recommendations in the document are too limited. As leaders of Jewish social justice initiatives, we see instead an incredibly exciting moment in Jewish life, in which Jews of all generations are experimenting with new modes of practice, diving into learning, creating new Jewish cultural expressions, and drawing on Jewish wisdom and our Jewish traditions to inspire engagement with the world. Rather than mourning the changes in modes of affiliation, we should celebrate this moment and determine how the many different parts of our community might respond expansively and creatively. We want more new voices at the table and more ideas for next steps to be shared.

This article presents an educational action research study examining how one online, classroom-based role-play simulation offers middle school students the opportunity to strengthen their agency and voice. The Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT) is a web-mediated simulation designed for middle school classrooms where students take on roles of various characters throughout the world, history and literature to address an imaginary court case. JCAT is meant to develop students’ skills in writing, critical thinking, perspective-taking, historical empathy and communication, as well as subject literacy in social, historical and cultural contexts. Our research question focuses on how JCAT further encourages and supports the middle school students’ agency and voice. activities.

Jacob Richman published a rich updated listing of Chanukah educational and fun sites to help schools, youth groups and families learn about and enjoy the Chanukah Festival, including hundreds of websites, videos, trivia, clipart and more.