An impetus of the Religious Education Association (REA) toward becoming an actively intercultural and interreligious agency emerged in the third decade of its existence. This article explores this period through an examination of the involvement of the REA members, Father John Elliot Ross and others (1884-1946) in a series of seminars conducted by…

How might one perceive the role of his or her "hevruta" partner in the "hevruta" learning relationship? Drawing on recent developments in the scholarship of rabbinics, this article offers an interpretation of a Talmudic legend that discusses three forms of interpersonal relationships in "hevruta" learning. Rather than considering "hevruta"…

Religious Education is one way to increase and maintain community involvement among teenagers. In many Jewish communities across the United States, participation in religious activities and religious youth movements have decreased. As research in this area is limited, this study sets out to identify the curricula that are more effective in…

This historical study focuses on how John Dewey's theory of education as socialization and Mordecai Kaplan's theory of Judaism as a civilization together served as an ideological base and pedagogical framework for the creation of "progressive," "reconstructed" American Jewish school programs in the early 20th century…

Fundamentalists and modernists seem, at times, to work in contrapuntal interdependency. While the fundamentalist's rhetoric markets its image as celebrating the renewal of an authentic past identity in modernity, modernists state the need for and possibility of adapting a cherished past to modern assumptions. Yet, it seems as if it is the…

This article notes a profound connection between the philosophy of Jewish law (halakhah) and the research of meta-halakah on the one hand and the philosophy of education on the other hand. The connection is, in principle, exemplified through an encounter between the educational philosophy of Joseph Schwab and the Jewish law (halakhic responsa…

The concept "informal education" is receiving new attention in Jewish education. That is a welcome development since this is an important idea in Jewish life. However, these developments are accompanied by a plethora of loose and sloppy use of terms, concepts, and ideas. Joseph Reimer's article, "Beyond More Jews Doing Jewish: Clarifying the Goals…

Over the course of the twentieth century changing circumstances have prompted American Jewish educators to develop new educational strategies to address these needs, and these developments are an important aspect of the sociology of American Jewish education. Using the method of historical sociology, I examine the educational configuration at…

Liberal day schools in the United States have long championed the ideology of integration between Jewish and secular subjects and values, and have made the "integration" of these subjects and values with one another a cornerstone of their curriculum. In recent years, the ideology of integration has been called into question, and an alternative…

In this article, the author shares insights from three decades of teaching graduate students preparing to be Jewish educators or rabbis. In particular, she discusses the inspirations for her work, which has been grounded in the study of Jewish texts and a belief in the importance of vision and optimism.

Samuel Huntington is famous for having used the phrase "clash of civilizations." Many other observers of the geopolitical scene have suggested that the reality is more like a clash "within civilizations," and that the response to this should lie in discovering the resources within each cultural tradition that could inform a…

This article will examine educational ideals by exploring the relation between the individual, the collective, and humanity in Kaplan's Jewish and educational philosophy. Generally the goals of individualism, nationalism, and universalism are seen as mutually exclusive. By contrast, Kaplan argues for the symbiotic relationship between…

Following Bennett Solomon's suggestion of the "integrating individual"--one who possesses the skill and interest to incorporate new knowledge into a larger and unified life-picture--this article explores how recognizing the coupling of the affective and cognitive can influence Jewish education. Emotions help construct our daily perceptions and our…

The present study examined the way in which children attending Orthodox Jewish schools internalize the value of both their Jewish studies and secular studies, as well as the value of Jewish cultural practices. A distinction was made between identified internalization, where children perceive Jewish studies and Jewish culture to be an important…

The emerging field of educational visioning is full of challenges and phenomena worthy of careful analysis and documentation. A relatively neglected phenomenon is the learning curve of the leaders (often lay leaders) involved in the visioning process. This article documents a range of experiences of the author serving as a vision coach to five…