Projects


Beit Midrash Research Project
Publications and Additional Resources

Working Papers [PDF]

Beit Midrash for Teachers: An Experiment in Teacher Preparation, Sharon Feiman-Nemser

Interactive Text Study: A Case of Hevruta Learning, Orit Kent

What Connects "Good" Teaching, Text Study and Hevruta Learning? A Conceptual Argument, Elie Holzer

These papers appeared in the Journal of Jewish Education, Volume 72, #3 (2006).

Publications

Holzer, E., and Kent, O. (in press). Studying in Havruta: What do we know and what can we hope to learn?  International Handbook of Jewish Education.  

Kent, O. Interactive Text Study and the Co-Construction of Meaning: Havruta in the DeLeT Beit Midrash, PhD Dissertation, 2008. 

Holzer, E. "Either a Hevruta Partner or Death: A Critical view on the Interpersonal Dimensions of Hevruta Learning," The Journal of Jewish Education.

Raider-Roth, M. and Holzer, E. Learning to be Present: How Havruta Learning Can Activate Teachers' Relationships to Self, Other and Text. The Journal of Jewish Education. 

Holzer, E. and Kent, O. The Voices of Study: Texts and People in Relationship [forthcoming]
This book discusses the various theories of learning and interpretation that inform our view of the design of a beit midrash and text study and havruta learning experiences.  The book explains how and why we designed our beit midrash and offers a series of pedagogical tools for engaging in text study and havruta learning.

Kent, O. The Dance of Havruta Learning: The Theory and Practice in Multiple Settings. [forthcoming]
This book discusses a framework for how havruta learners successfully engage with one another and the text, providing cases of eight adult learners studying in havruta.  The book also translates this framework into pedagogical tools for those interested in doing and teaching havruta learning in their own settings. 

Related Publications

Holzer, E. (2002). Conceptions of The Study of Jewish Texts in Teachers’ Professional Development. Religious Education, Vol. 97, no.4, Fall, pp. 377-403.

Holzer, E. (2007). Ethical dispositions in Text Study. Journal of Moral  Education, Vol. 36, 1, pp. 37-49.

Holzer, E. (2007). Allowing the Text to do its Pedagogical Work: Connecting Moral Education and Interpretive Activity. Journal of Moral Education, December, 36:4, pp. 497-514.

Holzer, E. (2008-09). Educational aspects of hermeneutical activity in text study. In J. Cohen and E. Holzer (eds). Modes of Educational Translation, Studies in Jewish  Education, Vol 13, Magnes Press, Jerusalem, p. 205-240.

Holzer, E. (2009). Listening to Significant Others in the Process of Text Interpretation: An Instance of Applied Hermeneutics. In A. Wiecinski (Ed.), Sprache ist Gesprach-Gadamer's Understanding of Language as Conversation, The Hermeneutic Press.


Related Research Articles

Jaffe, A. (1992). Two thousand years of Interactive Readers: The Jewish Tradition of Text Study and Commentary. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference. Kansas City: University of Missouri.

Halbertal, M. Hartman Halbertal T. (1994). The Yeshivah. In A.O. Rorty (Ed.), Philosophers on Education: New Historical Perspectives. New York: Routledge Stone.

Siegel, A. (2003). Hevruta Study: History Benefits and Enhancements. Jerusalem: ATID.

Ratzersdorfer Rosen, G. (2003). Empathy and Agression in Torah Study: Analysis of a Talmudic description of Hevruta Learning. In Wisdom from All My Teachers, J. Sacks and S. Handelman (Eds.). Jerusalem and New York: Urim, p.249-263

Brown, S. and Malkus, M. (2008). Hevruta as a Form of Cooperative Learning. Journal of Jewish Education, 73:3, 209-226.