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A long-standing assumption at the heart of synagogue Hebrew education is that if our children learned to read English, it should not be that hard for them to learn to read Hebrew fluently. Yet, even with four years or more of “Hebrew school,” young learners struggle with prayers and blessings. The culprit is often identified as lessened days/hours of learning time or competing family priorities. But, consistent and well-replicated reading research offers us another possibility – countless studies conclude that reading fluency is “… a by-product of having instant access to most or all of the words on the page.”
Published: 2019
Updated: Jan. 08, 2020
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Once, we educated children; now we educate families. This change in focus holds true in Jewish education as well, as reflected in a recent series about family engagement in eJewish Philanthropy, which highlights the many ways that Jewish education is now understood to be a family endeavor. Whether in day school education, bar mitzvah preparation, or Jewish camp, an educator most effectively reaches the Jewish child by including the parent in that enterprise.
Published: 2019
Updated: May. 15, 2019
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Something significant happened in Los Angeles on June 11, 2017. The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and Builders of Jewish Education – Los Angeles partnered to create a cross-denominational day of learning on transforming religious school education, “Ascending the Mountain of Innovation.”
Published: 2017
Updated: Jul. 23, 2017
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This study is an in-depth examination of two synagogue education programs, one a conventional “Hebrew School” structure and the other an alternative program modeled after Jewish summer camp. Through the lens of the teaching of Bible to children in the Grade 3-5 age range, I provide thick descriptions of an alternative and a successful conventional congregational supplementary education program and compare them in order to gain insight into what distinguishes the two models, where they are similar and the impact these similarities and differences might have on the proliferation and/or staying power of one or the other type of models. The programs are presented as case studies organized according to four domains of curricular function: the educating institution, the educational leadership, the teacher (or unit head) and the observed classroom/camp session. How do the organizations or individuals associated with each of these domains understand the teaching of Bible in their respective program structures? In what ways does the programmatic structure influence the choice of content knowledge and pedagogy?
Published: 2016
Updated: Nov. 02, 2016
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Gleanings is the ejournal of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Ever since the 1992 National Jewish Population Study, many of us—educators, clergy, philanthropists—have been engaged in heroic efforts to revitalize congregational education. While we have had made notable progress for which we should be rightly proud, this field has remained stubbornly resistant to deep transformation. This past October, The Davidson School of JTS brought together a group of scholars, rabbis, educators, and change practitioners from across denominations and North America to learn together and begin to design an innovative path forward. Out of this gathering came a renewed sense of hope, a desire for collaboration among diverse institutions, and a revitalized sense of transformative purpose. In this issue of Gleanings, we present a selection of the papers that participants wrote for our deliberation which stimulated rich dialogue. Included first in this issue is a nascent, overarching vision of education toward covenantal community, which emerged during the gathering.
Published: 2016
Updated: May. 10, 2016