Section archive - Trends in Jewish Education

This paper will examine how we instill and inspire Modern Orthodox identities within our students by analyzing three separate facets of the school system that serve to communicate our values: the structure of the school itself, the curriculum taught in the school, and the pedagogies employed by its teachers. Along the way, I seek to identify the factors within schools that reinforce the reality of compartmentalization, while also highlighting initiatives that may allow for a more integrated religious educational experience within Modern Orthodox day schools.

Gleanings is the ejournal of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary. This issue of Gleanings informs us of various forms of Jewish expression that are currently trending and transcending our landscape, and how Jewish educators can craft their vision and practice for their learners, while being both proactive and responsive to today’s landscape of Jewish expression. We are pleased to offer pieces by our JTS faculty, alumni, as well as several partners and key voices from the field of Jewish education. We hope you find these discussions helpful to your work as we each aim to keep the faith of Jewish life, however it may be expressed, long into the future.

A few years ago, Brandeis professor Jon A. Levisohn and Jewish Theological Seminary professor Jeffrey Kress began a conversation about what Jewish education might look like if educators shifted the focus to students’ learning, rather than teachers’ teaching. Levisohn is a philosopher; Kress is a psychologist. But together, they wondered how to shift the focus of discussions about Jewish education. How might those discussions pay more attention to shaping character, creating meaning, and making connections, and less to what teachers say or do?

This research stems from the understanding that a mapping out of major trends in contemporary Israeli theory and philosophy of education will be of value to researchers of philosophy and multiculturalism in education. The research focuses on interviews with prominent theorists of education in Israeli academia and aims at identifying trends of thought in contemporary Israeli philosophy of education. The research results in a map of trends encompassing solutions for redirecting Israeli education amidst postmodern cultural and technological developments of the 21st century. The common denominators identified may serve as a basis for future collaborations among different cultural sectors in Israeli education and provide a lens through which to analyze and improve education in other multicultural societies.