Contact Information

E-mail:
levisohn@brandeis.edu

Telephone:
(781) 736-2941 - office

Fax:
(781) 736-5020

Faculty & Staff

Jon A. Levisohn
Acting Director of the Mandel Center, Assistant Professor of Jewish Education at Brandeis

Jon A. Levisohn arrived at Brandeis and the Mandel Center from Stanford University in 2002.  Since 2005, he has served as Assistant Academic Director.  In July 2009, he assumed the position of Acting Director.

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, and has generated a series of working papers and a manuscript of an edited volume.  Third, he is pursuing a book-length project on the teaching and learning of history.



Within NEJS, Levisohn teaches Studying Sacred Texts (NEJS 170a), which incorporates modern European intellectual history, comparative religion, and hermeneutics; 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. 

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