News Archive 2007-08
"Mandel Center Preparing Teachers to be Students of Their Own Practice"
"Too few teachers are encouraged to ask questions about their own teaching practice. This is as true for Jewish day school teachers as it is for any educator. Yet asking these questions is an important way that teachers improve as professionals. That’s why when the members of the 2007-08 DeLeT (Day School Leadership Through Teaching)/MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) Program at Brandeis University mark the end of their fellowships later this month, they’ll enter their own classrooms having gone through a unique program that features ongoing, careful examination of their own teaching." (www.brandeis.edu, July 15, 2008)
Conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature
"In January I attended a conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature which was sponsored by the Mandel Institute at Brandeis University. They have now posted videos of most of the sessions online. There were a number of interesting sessions, including at least one, AFAIK, by a reader of this blog." (Menachem Mendel [blog], May 20, 2008)
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)
"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)