Contact Information

E-mail:
levisohn@brandeis.edu

Telephone:
(781) 736-2941 - office

Fax:
(781) 736-5020

Faculty & Staff

Jon A. Levisohn
Assistant Academic Director of the Mandel Center, Assistant Professor of Jewish Education (NEJS)

Jon A. Levisohn arrived at Brandeis and the Mandel Center from Stanford University in 2002, and has served as Assistant Academic Director since 2005.  Between July 2009 and June 2010, he served as Acting Director of the Mandel Center.

Levisohn is Assistant Professor of Jewish Education in the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies at Brandeis, and is also affiliated with the Philosophy Department and the Education Program.  As a philosopher of education, his research and writing has encompassed three broad areas. 
 First, he has sought to bring a critical lens to issues in contemporary Jewish education (e.g., curricular integration, community as a goal in Jewish education, and the future of modern Orthodox education). 


Second, he has developed and led a research initiative at the Mandel Center on the teaching and learning of classical Jewish texts (Bible and rabbinic literature) in multiple settings, from early childhood through university.
  This project, the Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies, has involved a diverse set of educators in research seminars and large conferences, has generated a series of over two dozen working papers, and has produced an edited volume titled Turn It and Turn It Again: Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts (Academic Studies Press, forthcoming).

Third, he is pursuing a book-length project on the teaching and learning of history, titled The Interpretive Virtues: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Teaching and Learning of Historical Narratives (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming).



Within NEJS, Levisohn teaches Studying Sacred Texts (NEJS 170a), which incorporates modern European intellectual history, comparative religion, and hermeneutics; A Philosophical Introduction to Judaism (NEJS 156b), which explores a set of issues that are central to Jewish thought and practice; and Philosophy of Jewish Education (NEJS 235b), which examines animating ideas behind diverse Jewish educational visions.  He also teaches Introduction to Philosophy of Education (EDUC 159b) and Philosophy of the Humanities (PHIL 148b).  In addition to his university teaching, he has taught Jewish Studies in a day school, in supplementary schools, and in adult education programs.

 An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program, he holds graduate degrees from Stanford in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Philosophy of Education. He is active in the Network for Research in Jewish Education, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the Association for Jewish Studies, and he is a fellow of the North American Scholars Circle of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

• More information: Jon Levisohn's page in the Faculty Directory
• Jon Levisohn's most recent publications