Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies
Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies was a multi-year research initiative of the Mandel Center from 2003 to 2013. The project was grounded in the following three convictions:
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Teachers of Jewish Studies at all levels and settings share common questions and may productively engage in collaborative inquiries, even if they arrive at different answers.
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Jewish education ought not to be isolated from the academic pursuit of Jewish Studies scholarship.
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Meaningful research into the practice of pedagogy in Jewish studies can and should be conducted by teachers at all levels and settings, both within and outside of academia. The sub-fields of Jewish studies will benefit from the development of a "scholarship of teaching," much as has occurred in the fields of mathematics, history, and elsewhere.
The Bridging Initiative convened research seminars and conferences, generated almost 30 working papers and produced an edited volume, Turn It and Turn It Again: Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts, Jon A. Levisohn and Susan P. Fendrick, eds. (Academic Studies Press, 2013).