Selected chronicle of Mandel Center news
"Jewish and Catholic Educators Unite to Examine Teaching in Faith-Based Schools" -- Retreat hosted by programs at Brandeis and the University of Notre Dame brings teachers and students preparing for careers in Jewish and Catholic schools together to learn from each other. “To this day, I share stories and learnings from the first ACE/DeLeT retreat four years ago,” said Andrea Schaffer, a DeLeT alum, now teaching second grade at JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School. “That weekend was remarkable, and filled me with ideas that anyone who chooses to teach in a religious setting should contemplate or wrestle with at some point. Recognizing the differences and similarities between Judaism and Catholicism and between the DeLeT fellows and ACE fellows was more than fascinating. I am eager to experience more of the same and whatever might be different.” (www.brandeis.edu, March 28, 2008)
"Mandel Center Convenes Leading Education Researchers for a Special Session on Jewish Education" -- "'The study of Jewish education poses big and important questions that can engage the interests of serious researchers and contribute to broader understandings inside and outside the field of Jewish education,' said [Sharon] Feiman-Nemser [Mandel Center Director]. 'The Mandel Foundation has given many researchers the opportunity to make such a contribution.'" (www.brandeis.edu, March 20, 2008)
"Teaching and Talmud: Exploring Beyond My Neighborhood" -- "Torah l’shmah, sacred study for its own sake, for the sheer joy of learning, is a mitzvah, and especially worthy when it deepens thinking and broadens community. Such was the pleasure I recently had when I attended a conference at The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, at Brandeis University. The conference theme was “Teaching Rabbinic Literature: Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy." (OnLion: The Behrman House Blog, February 19, 2008)
"Conference Bridges Divide Between Academia and Jewish Education" -- "'The enormous response to this conference [on Teaching Rabbinic Literature] shows how eager Jewish educators are to have this kind of interaction with colleagues,' said Jon A. Levisohn, conference chair and assistant academic director of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. 'These educators are passionate about teaching Talmud and mishnah and midrash, but have very few opportunities to think and talk and study the substantive issues in their teaching. This conference will help us bridge the divide between schools, synagogues, universities and yeshivot.'" (www.brandeis.edu, January 22, 2008)
"Brandeis gets $22.5m donation - Gift will fund new center for the humanities" -- "Brandeis University announced yesterday that it has received a $22.5 million donation, among the largest in the Waltham college's history, from [the Mandel Foundation] to build an interdisciplinary humanities center. School officials said the gift from the Mandel Foundation will establish a world-class center they hope will serve as a national model....Previous foundation gifts to Brandeis have established the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education five years ago and graduate fellowships in English, American literature, and the humanities." The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education will be located in the new Center for the Humanities upon its completion in 2010. (Boston Globe, December 19, 2007)
"Mandel Foundation Gift of $22.5 Million to Transform Humanities" -- "The Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis will stress the cultural and intellectual importance of studying fields such as literature, language and philosophy....A main goal of the project is to make the Mandel Center a preeminent base for interdisciplinary research, scholarship and teaching in the humanities." The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education will be located in the new Center for the Humanities upon its completion in 2010. (www.brandeis.edu, December 18, 2007)
Bridging Initiative joins with the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department to purchase the Bar Ilan University Responsa — Global Jewish Database, newly available online, for the Brandeis University library. -- “The online version [of the database]...is like Google for all of classical Jewish literature.” -- Jon Levisohn, assistant professor of Jewish education and Mandel Center assistant academic director. (WhoWhatWhere, www.brandeis.edu, September 21, 2007)
"Brandeis program trains day school teachers" -- "'[DeLeT] taught how to teach both general studies and Hebrew studies and how to integrate them....with this model we are fusing the two together. It is a really important message we are sending that the Jewish part is just as important as the general part,' [said Kathy Kanigsberg]." (Canadian Jewish News, Ottowa, August 16, 2007)
"Marblehead woman graduates from prestigious Brandeis program" -- "'It prepared me well. I loved DeLeT,' [Brenda] Dolan said. 'It was extremely rigorous, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.'" (The Lynn Daily Item, Lynn Mass., July 30, 2007)
"Program opens door for educators" -- "Fourteen months of intensive training came to an end Friday when a group of aspiring Jewish day school teachers closed one door and opened another. 'This marks a major achievement,' [program director Judy] Elkin said. 'This is an incredibly rigorous program. These guys have worked very hard on a lot of different fronts.'" (The Daily News Tribune, Waltham and Newton Mass., July 30, 2007)
"Watching new teachers at work" -- "Next June, see if you can attend the annual DeLeT Portfolio Review. You will leave both inspired and convinced of the value of a Jewish day school education. …knowing what DeLeT is doing in producing teachers such as these can inspire all of us who value day school education and education in general." (The Jewish Advocate, Boston Mass., June 29, 2007)
Mandel Center conference awarded grant from Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion -- "In addition to learning with and from one another, the conference will promote the power and the potential of teaching among the participants. And most importantly, the [Conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature: Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy] will contribute to the development of the scholarship of teaching rabbinic literature - a sub-field of the scholarship of teaching that is in its infancy - through the publication of papers and presentations." (www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu, June 1, 2007)
"Work in Progress at the Mandel Center" -- An update on recent accomplishments and the ongoing work of the Mandel Center, written by Assistant Academic Director Jon A. Levisohn. (Newsletter of the Network for Research in Jewish Education (NRJE), Spring 2007)
"A decade of learning" -- Looking back on ten years of Gann Academy in Waltham, and looking ahead to the future. Mandel Center Director Sharon Feiman-Nemser comments on the Mandel Center/Brandeis - Gann Academy relationship. (The Daily News Tribune, Waltham and Newton Mass., January 31, 2007)
"M.O.T. [Members of the Tribe]: Seeking success near and far" -- Seattle's JTNews profiles recent DeLeT graduate Ilana Glosser. (JTNews, Seattle, WA, September 29, 2006)
"DeLeT answers call for teachers" -- "...what [Judy] Elkin [Director of DeLeT] finds most compelling about the program is that it is answering the call for better teachers. As DeLeT gains more visibility with more graduates spreading out across the country, Elkin receives more calls from schools desperately in need of Jewish teachers." (The Jewish Advocate, Boston Mass., August 25, 2006)
"Congregational Schools Focus on Teacher Training" -- "Leaders in Jewish education agree that it’s time to focus more on the quality of congregational Hebrew schools — and a critical piece of that is teaching the teachers how to teach....[Pat Lukens'] teachers [at Congregation Kerem Shalom in Concord, Mass.] learned the technique of constructive peer observation at the nearby Boston-area offshoot of the Mandel Foundation’s Teacher Educator Institute." (The Jewish Daily Forward, August 11, 2006)
"Heading back to class to fill a void" -- Day School Leadership Through Teaching Program of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis graduates eight in ceremony. (August 1, 2006)
"A worthwhile experience: Newton resident completes Brandeis program for Jewish day-school teachers" (The Daily News Tribune, Waltham and Newton Mass., August 1, 2006)
"Jewish education program confronting shortage of qualified teachers" (July 13, 2006)
"The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education: transforming the quality of Jewish teaching and learning" (News @ The Mandel Foundation, Mandel Leadership Institute, Israel, July, 2006)
Publication of John Dewey and Our Educational Prospect (release date Nov. 2006), featuring a chapter by Sharon Feiman-Nemser, announced by SUNY Press (May 2006)
Of Human Potential by Israel Scheffler newly published in Chinese translation (April 2006)
Mandel Center event honors Israel Scheffler (Brandeis Reporter, Volume 23, Number 5)
Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center Director, selected as a Goldman-Carnegie Quest Fellow (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching website, June 2005).
Mandel Center DeLeT Fellows, alumni, and faculty attend retreat with Notre Dame University’s ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) teachers and faculty, May 2005.
Susan M. Kardos, post-doctoral research fellow at the Mandel Center, speaks to 900 attendees at Boston’s Holocaust Memorial (Yom HaShoah) Ceremony, May 8, 2005.
"A Tradition of Questioning Tradition", Bethamie Horowitz, consultant to the Choosing to Teach research project, writes about her experience on the Choosing to Teach retreat. (The Forward, May 27, 2005)
The Mandel Center: A long way in a short span (Brandeis Reporter, Volume 22, Number 6)
Counteracting darkness goal of new Mandel Center (Brandeis Reporter, Volume 22, Number 4)
"A Conversation with Visionary Educators" campus calendar listing (November 18, 2004)
Celebrate the Inauguration of the Mandel Center (October 29, 2004) View a video of the celebration.
Israel Scheffler joins Mandel Center (August 26, 2003)
Brandeis receives boost from Spencer Foundation for research in education (November 11, 2002)
Mandel Gift to establish Center for Studies in Jewish Education (December 6, 2001)