Portraits of Jewish Learning: Viewing Contemporary Jewish Education Close-In

Portraits of Jewish Learning brings together colorful accounts of the ways that Jewish students today are having meaningful learning experiences in day school classrooms Hebrew programs synagogue-based schools and high school and college courses that push students out of their comfort zone. Whether the students are second graders engaged in text analysis sixth graders solving complex mystery puzzles about Jewish values or teens encountering counter-narratives about Israels history these stories--informed by careful and disciplined inquiry--prompt readers to reflect on questions of what Jewish learning is what we can discover by studying experiences of learning at close range and over time and how Jewish education can respond to the needs and interests of Jewish learners who seek a Judaism that is relevant in todays world. The work of researchers and practitioners who are changing the landscape of contemporary Jewish education these portraits are designed to encourage critical discussion among educational leaders clergy policymakers philanthropists and parents as well as teachers and those aspiring to work in Jewish education. They invite us to think about the many ways that todays Jewish education can be enriched by experimentation and innovation. Diane Tickton Schuster has assembled an important-to-read casebook unmasking complexities of twenty-first-century Jewish education in a collection of adeptly rendered contemporary stories of todays myriad forms of Jewish teaching and learning. Each of the portraits provides reflective and analytic insights into diverse settings where engaging Jewish education occurs. Portraiture as a form of study reveals how intentional teaching for meaning observed self-critically by educators delivering instruction can lead to profound discovery. You will enjoy--and be edified by--this read. --Charles Chip Edelsberg Leadership Coach and Founding Executive Director Jim Joseph Foundation These essays are essential reading for educators and communities of practice who seek to understand how Jewish learning happens and the educational practices that make learning possible. Readers of these portraits will be treated to a sophisticated guided tour of teaching and learning in a wide variety of Jewish settings. --Miriam Heller Stern National Director of the School of Education and Associate Professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Transformational education requires the integration of school experiences with the totality of the Jewish community. Portraits of Jewish Learning provides real and replicable models that bring this concept to life with astonishing results. These models remind us that we must never underestimate the spiritual curiosity and energy of learners of all ages. --Barry Shrage Professor of the Practice Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program Brandeis University Each chapter offers a colorful and textured portrait of powerful student-centered Jewish learning. Each can stand alone as an inspiring example of what can be but the full glory of the volume is in the collection. Feiman-Nemsers final chapter brings the portraits together to draw lessons and raise questions of importance to educators funders researchers clergy communal leaders parents and students. This volume is for anyone who cares about the future of Jewish education. --Susan M. Kardos Senior Director Strategy and Education Planning AVI CHAI Foundation Diane Tickton Schuster is director of the Portraits of Jewish Learning project at the Jack Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts. Jordana Battis Stefani Carlson Rafi Cashman Allison Cook Nicki Greninger Rachel Happel Ziva Hassenfeld Orit Kent Jon Levisohn Nachama Moskowitz Matt Reingold Diane Tickton Schuster is director of the Portraits of Jewish Learning project at the Jack Joseph and Morton