Shows
Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 41: Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools Book LaunchWhat does the latest research in teaching and learning in Jewish day schools reveal about what’s going on in classrooms today? For this webinar, respondents Daniel Held (UJA Federation of Greater Toronto), Amanda Pogany (Luria Academy of Brooklyn), and Tali Zelkowicz (The Wexner Foundation) brought their questions to Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools, a new publication focused on presenting a better understanding of how day schools are educating diverse Jewish youth in a variety of content areas. In a generous and generative conversation with Ziva Hassenfeld and Jo...
2026-01-061h 09Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 40: How the Conflict Shapes the Israeli ClassroomIn a time of continued war and exhaustion, how are teachers in Israel teaching, and what do they prioritize in their classrooms? In a longitudinal study, scholars Ziva Hassenfeld and Hadar Fisher asked these questions of 41 teachers in Israel, beginning just three weeks after October 7 and continuing with a group of 12 for another two years. In this session, they share insights into these teachers' ethic of care and how they enact in their teaching varied ideas surrounding their diverse understandings of students' well-being.Originally recorded: 11/20/25At the...
2025-12-0828 min
Jewish Ideas to Change the WorldWhy Jewish Knowledge Matters: Rethinking Jewish LiteracyA virtual event presentation by Professor Jon LevisohnAbout The Event: Jewish educators worry about Jewish literacy. Jewish leaders worry about it. Jewish parents definitely worry about it. And sometimes individual Jews worry about their own Jewish literacy, too! “Jewish literacy” gets thrown around a lot, especially when people talk about American Jews being “Jewishly illiterate.” But what does that actually mean? Is there a Jewish pop quiz we all failed? In this thought-provoking session, Jon Levisohn will invite us to look beyond the anxious hand-wringing and ask deeper questions: Why does Jewish knowledge matter? W...
2025-11-2052 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 39: Spotlight on Jewish Education Two Years After October 7Two years after October 7, that date seems to mark a watershed in Jewish life around the world, including in North America. In this session, we explore how American Jewish educators and Jewish educational institutions have responded, how the changed environment has affected their work, and how they might need to think differently about the work of Jewish education in the days and years to come.Panelists included Nina Bruder (Jewish New Teacher Project), Alex Pomson (Rosov Consulting), Matt Reingold (Rosov Consulting), Miriam Heller Stern (BJE: Builders of Jewish Education...
2025-11-191h 03Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 37: Bringing the Big World into the Little ClassroomWhat issues in the contemporary world matter most to Jewish children, and how do children make sense of these issues? How do educators make sense of children’s ideas and their implications for the work of Jewish education? American Jewish 4th and 5th graders have concerns about many important world issues—climate change, homelessness, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, political polarization, and so much more—and their teachers face the complexities of addressing political issues, shifting cultural norms, and more. In this session, scholars Lauren Applebaum and Sivan Zakai discuss their findings from a coll...
2025-10-0630 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 35: Spotlight on Contemporary Jewish TheologyRecent years have witnessed an impressive outpouring of important new work in contemporary Jewish theology. In this Spotlight Session, we gather four leading scholars, each of whom has recently produced an important work of Jewish theology, to think together about the implications of their ideas for Jewish education. This webinar features the following panelists in discussion with Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University) about their books:Julia Watts Belser (Georgetown University): Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves WholeMara Benjamin (Mount Holyoke College):
2025-05-221h 06Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 32: Fluid Meanings of the Yarmulke Across Educational Contexts | Dr. Anastasia BadderIn her article, "When a Yarmulke Stands for All Jews: Navigating Shifting Signs from Synagogue to School in Luxembourg," Anastasia Badder asks: How do congregational school students experience moments in which they were confronted with Jewishness outside of the classroom, in their secular schools and public spaces? And taking a material approach, how does the presence (and absence) of yarmulkes influence those experiences? In this session, she discusses findings from fieldwork she conducted as an ethnographer and teacher in a Jewish congregational school researching the ways children learn about and how to do Jewishness.Originally recorded: 1/23/25
2025-02-0329 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 30: Spotlight on Jewish Education after October 7The attack on October 7th, the ensuing war, and the changed environment in the US have all led to questions about how American Jewish educational institutions have responded, and how they should. What do we know about the impact of the last year on schools, synagogues, camps, Israel trips, and other initiatives? How have educators been affected? How have children? What new trends are emerging? In this session, a group of scholars and educational leaders offer ideas for educators and educational institutions one year into this new environment.Panelists include Jonathan Krasner (Brandeis University), Matt Reingold (community...
2024-11-181h 05Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 29: How Educators Can Overcome Barriers to Engaging with the Conflict | Dr. Keren FraimanThere is a growing consensus that successful and holistic Israel education demands a sophisticated and nuanced engagement with critical questions within Israel, and in particular, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This feels especially pressing in a post October 7th world. Despite this critical need, many educators continue to express reticence about conflict education. In this session, Keren Fraiman explores why educators are hesitant to engage in conflict education, highlighting the greatest sources of challenge and a typology of barriers to entry. Importantly, she shares what we can do to support our educators, educational systems, and the community more broadly....
2024-11-1129 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 25: Visualizing Jewish Texts and Practices through the Graphic Novel | Dr. Talia HurwichWhat happens when students of classical Jewish texts encounter visual representations of those texts, not just words? In her recent study Reconsidering Religious Gender Normativity in Graphic Novel Adaptations, Talia Hurwich learned that students often respond in deeply personal ways to visual representations of topics that may otherwise be suppressed by social norms around Jewish texts and practices. In this session, she discusses the role graphic novels can play in mediating between traditional religious practices and modern social change.Originally recorded: 4/11/24At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational...
2024-04-1928 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 24: Spotlight on the Gap YearFor over a generation, many American Jewish young adults have spent a year between high school and college in Israel—the “gap year.” How does the gap year contribute to North American Jewish education? How does it complicate that work? What does it mean for young adults to go from “here" to “there" to participate in this important educational experience? What do we know about the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth of those who do a gap year? What are the elements that contribute to growth among participants in the gap year, and what are the impediments to growth?T...
2024-03-201h 08Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 23: Why Young Jews Love Yiddish | Dr. Sandra FoxOver the last two decades, talk of Yiddish as an alternate path of engaging with Jewishness comes up in the Jewish press almost cyclically — a journalistic evergreen. In this session, historian and Yiddish podcaster Sandra Fox explains how Yiddish became culturally significant, why young people are flocking to learn Yiddish in larger numbers than ever before, and what the growth of Yiddish says about American Jewish youth culture. More information can be found in her article, 'The Passionate Few': Youth and Yiddishism in American Jewish Culture, 1964 to Present.Originally recorded: 2/8/24At the Mandel Ce...
2024-02-2228 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 22: How Israeli-Americans Think About Their Kids’ Hebrew Learning | Hannah KoberLike other immigrants, many Israeli expatriates find themselves asking how they can maintain their culture on American soil. But what happens when their children learn their heritage language in American educational settings? In this session, Hannah Kober discusses the surprising finding from her recent research that the long-held narrative about Israeli-Americans as producers of Hebrew language education, and not as consumers, needs reconsideration.Originally recorded: 1/18/24At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference o...
2024-01-3127 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 20: Spotlight on Jewish Learning: Past, Present and FutureWhat have we learned about Jewish learning in the past, where are we today, and what do we still need to learn for the future? Join MCSJE for this special Spotlight Session in honor of Brandeis University’s 75th anniversary, at which Brandeis scholars of Jewish education share some of the most important developments in the field of Jewish education and why they matter for the flourishing of individual students and the vibrancy of the Jewish community.Panelists: Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Ziva Hassenfeld, Jonathan Krasner, Jon Levisohn, and Joe ReimerOriginally recorded: 11/30/23At the Ma...
2023-12-121h 04Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 19: Getting Serious About Play in Jewish Education | Rabbi Judd Levingston, PhDBeyond lifting the spirits of teachers and students, play in Jewish education spaces can also shape moral development and character. Drawing from his new research, Judd Kruger Levingston shares how teachers and administrators can cultivate "a moral ecology of play" in classrooms, hallways, gathering spaces, and playgrounds. In this session, Levingston speaks about ways in which a wide variety of approaches to play across the curriculum and throughout a school's culture can transform a young person's values and moral outlook.Originally recorded: 11/15/23At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish...
2023-11-2829 min
The Crimson Thread - May I Gently Suggest?What Does God Require?In both Deuteronomy 10 and Micah 6 the prophet asks, what it is that God requires of us. The answers are different in the two passages. That does not mean that God has changed His mind. This talk was inspired by Rabbi Fohrman and Ari Levisohn at AlephBeta.org.
2023-07-3019 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 17: What We Can Learn from Seymour Fox and the Visions of Jewish Education Project | Professor Jon LevisohnIn the 1990s and the early 2000s, Jewish educators and educational institutions started talking about “vision” in a new way, prompted by the efforts of the Mandel Foundation and especially its influential leader Seymour Fox. For many, the publication of Visions of Jewish Education (2003) was a landmark event in the field. Jon A. Levisohn discusses a forthcoming article in which he analyzes how Fox’s ideas about vision in Jewish education developed over time, some of the challenges that he encountered, and what we can still learn from them. This session is led by Professor Jonathan Krasner (MCSJE).Or...
2023-05-0827 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 16: What Girls Learn in Jewish Families | Professor Ilana HorwitzIn the past, Jewish families, like many others, offered girls fewer educational opportunities than boys. But that has not been the case for some time now. In her recent scholarship, Ilana Horwitz demonstrates the ways that girls raised by Jewish parents complete more years of college and attend more selective schools than girls from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds raised by non-Jewish parents. She argues that this is based on a distinctive “religious subculture” in the home.More information can be found in her article, From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes (Americ...
2023-03-3028 min
Jewish Ideas to Change the WorldAntisemitism in Admissions in Higher EducationA virtual event presentation by Professor Ari KelmanEvent Co-Hosted by Hebrew Education AllianceAbout the Event:The place of American Jews in higher education is a complicated story. It is at once a story that is central to American Jewish class mobility, yet it is also undercut by evidence of antisemitism at some of the United States’ most revered institutions. The story of antisemitic exclusion at many of the Ivy League schools in the early decades of the 20th century has been well-documented. What is less known is the story of ot...
2023-03-2159 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 15: Spotlight on MahloketMahloket—that is, dispute or principled debate—has long been celebrated as a Jewish ideal, not only within Jewish texts (where sages debate laws, interpretations and principles) but within the practice of engagement with those texts (where, for example, students might engage in debate about laws, interpretations or about principles). What does Mahloket look like at its best? How does Mahloket function as a kind of signature pedagogy (or at least a signature practice) within Jewish education? What does it mean to “educate for Mahloket,” and what are the benefits and challenges of doing so? In what ways is Mahloket...
2023-03-101h 00Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 14: Children’s Theories About Judaism | Dr. Anna HartmanChildren’s ideas about the world are rich, nuanced, sometimes amusing and surprising, and for Anna Hartman, always fascinating. In this session, she shares her doctoral research in the field of early childhood Jewish education, in which she explores the theories about Judaism that are held by young children, and provides a window into their process of exploring and participating in Jewish life.Originally recorded: 2/8/23At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on...
2023-02-2727 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 13: Why Jewish Day Schools Should Teach Students to Read Torah | Professor Ziva HassenfeldJewish day schools expend significant time and energy in teaching Torah. But what are they trying to accomplish in this work? In this session, Ziva Hassenfeld discusses her soon-to-be published research on students’ learning to read Torah, in order to argue that Jewish day schools can induct students into a way of reading texts that will serve them in all endeavors, from their academic studies to text messaging with friends.Originally recorded: 12/7/22At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to...
2023-01-1127 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 12: How Debbie Friedman (and CAJE) Gave Jewish Education a New Soundtrack | Professor Judah CohenIn this session, Judah Cohen discusses his recent article on the crucial role that Debbie Friedman played in making song leading a core part of the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE). He also addresses the changes in Jewish education that resulted from this alliance, and why it still matters.Originally recorded: 11/17/22At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community...
2022-12-0228 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 11: How Do Jewish Day School Kids Think About the Holocaust? | Professor Meredith KatzHolocaust education is a staple of Jewish day school education. What messages do day school students take from this education? In this session, Meredith Katz discusses her recently published study, which explores how a group of day school kids navigated questions of particularism and universalism, and how Holocaust education helped them to see themselves as civic actors in the broader community.Originally recorded: 10/27/22At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the...
2022-12-0228 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 4: Spotlight on Adult Jewish LearningAdult Jewish learning is flourishing in synagogues, JCCs, board tables, leadership cohorts, service cohorts, and of course, online. This session is an occasion to talk with a group of experienced educators about what they learned from their studies of adult Jewish learning opportunities—who the learners are, why they participate, what happens, and how they grow or develop through the experience. It features insights gathered from the research they conducted for the Mandel Center's Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning project.Sarra Alpert (Avodah), Rabba Yaffa Epstein (Wexner Foundation), Dr. Jane Shapiro (Orot: Center for Jewish Learning), Dr. Di...
2022-11-291h 00Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 5: Spotlight on Daf YomiRabbi Professor Jane Kanarek (Hebrew College), Rabbi Avi Killip (Hadar), Professor Barry Wimpfheimer (Northwestern), Sara Wolkenfeld (Sefaria), moderated by Professor Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University).For decades following its invention in 1923, Daf Yomi was practiced by experienced, mostly haredi Talmud scholars, and criticized by many as well. Over time, the practice grew in popularity in that community. But in the 21st century, the practice has expanded dramatically, both in terms of the background of the participants and in terms of the very concept of what it means to “do the daf.”In this session, four highly expe...
2022-11-291h 06
Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 10: My Second-Favorite Country Book Discussion | Professor Sivan ZakaiIsrael has long occupied a prominent place in the lives and imaginations of American Jews, serving as both a symbolic touchstone and a source of intercommunal conflict. Sivan Zakai's book, My Second-Favorite Country: How American Jewish Children Think About Israel, is based on the major findings from her research project with MCSJE on Children's Learning About Israel. This project is the first longitudinal study of how American Jewish children come to think and feel about Israel, tracking their evolving conceptions from kindergarten to fifth grade.In this event to mark the publication of the book, Zakai and...
2022-11-101h 06Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 1: How Camp Ramah Met the Challenges of the 1990s | Professor Jonathan KrasnerThe Jewish overnight camping industry was on the verge of major changes in the late 1980s, when Shelly Dorph became the head of the Ramah National Commission. Jonathan Krasner discusses the case of Ramah and how it reflects on the challenges and opportunities that Jewish non-profit summer camps faced in the 1990s and early 2000s, and what it means for Jewish camps today. Originally recorded: 10/14/21At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference...
2022-11-0124 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 2: Learning at a Jewish Museum | Professor Laura YaresWhat happens when young adults visit a Jewish museum? What do they learn about Jews and Judaism, and how are they changed by what they see, touch, hear and feel? In this talk, Laura Yares discusses findings from a pre-pandemic study of 30 young adult visitors to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, and describes the rich learning that can occur in episodic, leisure time Jewish educational settings. This study has been published as a chapter of the edited volume Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning: Making Meaning at Many Tables.Originally recorded: 11/11/21
2022-11-0124 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 3: How the Study of Jewish History Informs the Arts | Professor Miriam Heller SternHow does a Jewish theater company draw upon Jewish history to wrestle artistically with universal human questions? How do they weave new narratives through the work of interpretation? Miriam Heller Stern, in recent work published as a chapter of the edited volume Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning: Making Meaning at Many Tables, addresses these questions and analyzes how the model of a creative company can be a powerful way of conceiving of adult Jewish learning. Originally recorded: 12/10/21At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially...
2022-11-0124 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 9: How Jewish Communities Educate | Dr. Mijal BittonMost analyses of Jewish education, like most analyses of general education in Western, liberal society, emphasize the individual student. But some communities approach education very differently. Mijal Bitton discusses her research into how the Syrian Jewish community educates its members, formally and informally, to maintain bonds of commitment.Originally recorded: 5/4/22At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community. That’s...
2022-11-0127 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 8: What Can We Learn From Jewish Education? | Professor Ari Y. KelmanThe term "Jewish education" is used to refer to a broad array of practices, approaches, and institutions. Ari Kelman has written a new book, Jewish Education, forthcoming from Rutgers University Press in its Key Words in Jewish Studies series. The series includes books designed to "provide clear and judiciously illustrated accounts of terms currently in use and to chart histories of past usage." In this conversation, Kelman talks about a broad shift from what Jewish education has meant, in modernity, to what it might mean for Jewish life in the 21st century.Originally recorded: 4/11/22
2022-11-0122 minLearning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish EducationEpisode 6: Accentuating the American Jewish Hebrew Speaker | Professor Sharon AvniWhat can we learn about society, people's relationship with Israel, Jewish people, and themselves, through Hebrew accents? Possibly quite a bit! This conversation focuses on Sharon Avni's recent work on how the everyday acts of speaking, learning, and engaging with Modern Hebrew inform our understanding of contemporary American Jewish life.Originally recorded: 3/10/22At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish...
2022-11-0125 min
Prizmah Podcasts: Podcasts by Prizmah Center for Jewish Day SchoolsResearch Encounter: Educating Jewish ProducersWhat are we trying to achieve in Jewish education? What do martial arts have to teach us about pedagogy for Jewish learning? How do we think about community and autonomy, tradition and innovation, in day schools? Brandeis education professor Jon Levisohn is joined by heads of school Stephanie Ives at Beit Rabban in Manhattan and Rafi Cashman at Netivot HaTorah in Toronto to discuss what our schools are and might be.
2022-06-1747 min