Other Past Events

In the summer of 2020, the Mandel Center with partial funding from the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, launched the Online Jewish Education project, a set of investigations of online teaching and learning in five diverse Jewish educational settings. During this two-day presentation, "Teaching Choices That Stay With Us: Pandemic Teaching Decisions and Their Lasting Impact for Jewish Education," the researchers of this study explored their findings and discoveries in discussions with study participants during five half-hour sessions, ending with a half-hour question-and-answer session.

September 30, 2021: Installation of Professor Ziva Hassenfeld in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Education

On Sept. 30, 2021, Ziva R. Hassenfeld was formally installed as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Assistant Professor of Jewish Education, where she outlined her research agenda and presented a talk entitled "Children's Voices and the Prophetic Possibilities of Education."

September 14, 2021: Through the Lens of a Child: Understanding How Children View the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

What does the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict look like through the eyes of Jewish children in the United States? How do children’s thoughts and feelings about the conflict develop over time? This workshop led by Dr. Sivan Zakai explored these questions, helping Jewish educators understand how American Jewish children (K-8) learn, think, and feel about the conflict. Toggling back and forth between a big picture understanding of children's development and a detailed case study tracing one particular child's development from kindergarten to 8th grade, educators had a chance to investigate both children's thinking and their own assumptions about conflict education, peace education and the role(s) of each in Jewish education.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

June 7-8, 2016: Learning to Read Talmud Workshop

Project co-directors: Prof. Jane Kanarek and Prof. Marjorie Lehman

Related Project: Learning Talmud

Reading Talmud requires sophisticated textual interpretive abilities and has its own particular characteristics. But, how do students learn to read Talmud? How can we assess that process? What can we learn about the pedagogic practices that foster successful reading of Talmud?

Drawing on a relatively new and growing body of scholarship in the field of Talmud pedagogy, this project was built on the earlier Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies.

May 24, 2016: Jewish Historical Understandings

March 20-21, 2016: Transformative Jewish Education

2015

May 7, 2015: Inspiring Teaching book release event

Related Project: Choosing to Teach

Because context matters in teacher preparation, "Inspiring Teaching: Preparing Teachers to Succeed in Mission-Driven Schools," edited by Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Eran Tamir and Karen Hammerness, draws on rich case studies to show how high quality teacher preparation prepares educators to serve particular groups of students or specific kinds of schools.

Educational leaders from four different contexts discussed how "Inspiring Teaching" illuminated their experiences.

Participants:

Rabbi Marc Baker, Gann Academy
Mariam Hashmi, Al-Hamra Academy
Marya Levenson, Brandeis University
Rev. Joseph M. O'Keefe, Boston College
Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Brandeis University — respondent

2014

May 7, 2014: Uncovering the Hidden Resources for Deep Text Learning

Lunch Seminar: Orit Kent and Allison Cook

What can deep Jewish learning look like and what resources do learners use to help make it possible? Using video and classroom artifacts, Orit Kent and Allison Cook zoomed in on an episode of two seventh-graders studying Jewish texts to uncover the educational resources they bring to bear in this instance of deep learning. They also explored select pedagogical elements that were developed to support this learning.

Orit Kent is senior research associate at the Mandel Center, where she directs the Beit Midrash Research Project and does research on pedagogical approaches to havruta text study and student learning. She draws on her research to help teachers create learning environments that foster high quality study of Jewish texts and values.

Allison Cook is a project associate with the Beit Midrash Research Project. Allison has years of experience as a teacher-educator, curriculum and program designer and teacher of children and adults. Allison is also currently on the faculty of Hebrew's Congregational Education Initiative as well as The Early Childhood Initiative, teaching both pedagogy and Jewish studies to program directors and teachers.

April 9, 2014: For Everything There is a Season: A Time to Act and American Jewish Education

Lunch Seminar — Jonathan Krasner

The late 1980s–early 1990s are often identified as the moment when Jewish education rose to the top of the communal agenda. Symptomatic (and arguably a catalyst) of this re-prioritization was the convening of the Commission on Jewish Education in North America. Convened by philanthropist and community leader Morton Mandel, the commission, which included leading philanthropists, academics, rabbis and educators, met between 1988-90 and issued an landmark report on Jewish education, "A Time to Act."

Jonathan Krasner, a visiting scholar at the Joseph, Jack and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, and associate professor of Jewish history and education at Hebrew Union College, discussed the origins and impact of the Commission and "A Time to Act," and invited us to reflect on the extent to which the issues and priorities that preoccupied commissioners and staff members 25 years ago continue to resonate today.

March 30-31, 2014: Conference on Rethinking Jewish Identity and Jewish Education

Related Research Project

If Jewish education is to respond to the needs of American Jews and their communities in the 21st century, we need to rethink the assumption that Jewish identity is the goal of Jewish education. This conference gathered scholars, practitioners, policy makers and thinkers to focus on a set of questions that examine what we mean by "Jewish identity" and what alternatives are available for conceptualizing and assessing the outcomes of Jewish education.

March 19, 2014: Experiential Jewish Education at a Crossroads: A Conversation about Future Directions

Lunch Seminar — Jeffrey Kress

There is evidence — in the form of increased research, funding and training programs — of growing interest in the area of experiential Jewish education (EJE). While EJE is not new, efforts to define the construct (and, in particular, to distinguish it from informal Jewish education) have helped strengthen our understanding of it. The question of the distinctiveness of EJE from Jewish education in general, a recurring theme in the literature, continues to be relevant. In this session, Jeffrey S. Kress shared ideas about, and led discussion of, the pros and cons (both conceptual and strategic) of maintaining EJE as a distinct area within Jewish education.

Kress is associate professor and area coordinator of Jewish Education, and academic director of the Experiential Learning Initiative at the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary. His interests include developmental issues in Jewish education; program implementation; and the varied social, emotional and spiritual elements of Jewish educational contexts. He is the author of "Development, Learning, and Community: Educating for Identity in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools," (Academic Studies Press, 2012) and is editor of "Growing Jewish Minds, Growing Jewish Hearts: Promoting Spiritual, Social and Emotional Growth in Jewish Education" (URJ Press, 2012).

Feb. 25, 2014: Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of "Fiddler on the Roof"

Alisa Solomon

Theater critic and scholar Alisa Solomon discussed why a show about tradition has itself become a tradition, and shared reflections on the writing of her new book, "Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of 'Fiddler on the Roof.' "

Jan. 26, 2014: The Moral Dilemmas of Teaching: Small Moments that Matter

Teacher Forum (6th Annual) — Anna Richert

Anna Richert, Mills College of Education professor, presented a stimulating workshop exploring the moral dilemmas of teaching. She is the author of "What Should I Do? Confronting Dilemmas of Teaching in Urban Schools."

2013

Dec. 4, 2013: What’s a Jewish Camp Director to do? Setting Priorities for Educational Leadership at Camp

Lunch Seminar — Joseph Reimer

Two contrasting visions for leadership at Jewish camps have been articulated. One focuses on the camp director as the educator-in-chief and the other as the producer of a great show. Clearly these visions set different leadership priorities. How can future research on Jewish camps help guide the choices that camp leaders need to make to ensure they are running camps that are both financially healthy and educationally effective?

Joseph Reimer is an associate professor in Jewish education who splits his teaching and advising time between the Education and Hornstein Programs. He also serves as faculty advisor to the Office for High School Programs at Brandeis. Trained at Harvard as a developmental psychologist, he currently focuses his research on experiential Jewish learning, Jewish camping and the professional development of educators. His book, "Succeeding at Jewish Education," won the National Jewish Book Award in 1997. His recent publications have focused on leadership in Jewish summer camps.

Nov. 13, 2013: Show Me Your Badge: The Educational Potential of an Emerging Alternative Assessment

Lunch Seminar — Sam Abramovich ’98, University at Buffalo

Educational stakeholders, armed with technological innovations, are now challenging established methods of educational assessment. For example, Mozilla and the MacArthur Foundation have begun to explore badges and badging systems as a way to connect and enhance learner interests. And while the implementation of educational badges is underway by many organizations, the Jewish Day School movement is currently leading the way in terms of badge design and use. A Jewish Day School has one of the most advanced badge implementations for formal K-12 education in the United States while other schools are implementing badge systems for use in teacher professional development.

However, the research community is just now beginning to uncover how badges can best serve students. As one of the first researchers exploring the educational potential of badges, Sam Abramovich shared the results of two studies examining badge system design and impact. His findings indicate that different types of badges affect different types of learners' motivation depending on the abilities of the learners. He has also found that educational badges rely on interdependence between reward, student interest, and recognition. In addition, he discussed the future growth of educational badges both inside and outside of Jewish education and shared preliminary results from an analysis of badges used for Jewish Day School teacher professional development.

Oct. 2, 2013: Dialogue and Discourse: The Ongoing Relevance of Martin Buber's Thoughts on Education

Lunch Seminar — Ursula Reitemeyer, University of Munster

Democracy and participation in a civil society require a political and educational theory of inclusion. Our present school systems, however, using examinations and other "standards" for promotion and assessment are, at heart, functionally exclusive. According to Buber, teachers need to accord each student with whom they interact, at whatever level, a respect for his or her ideas, however uninformed they may be. This includes less-mature learners and people new to a field or domain of expertise. Martin Buber's dialogic understanding of education, based on the principle of pedagogic inclusion, has not lost its relevance in the pedagogic discourse about democratic and moral education, not even when we consider that Buber understands inclusion as one-sided and asymmetrical when practiced by the teacher.

Ursula Reitemeyer is professor in the department of Educational Theory and Research at the University of Munster in Germany. Her fields of study include Philosophy of Enlightenment; Philosophy of the 19th and 20th Century; Theory of Modern Education; Ethics; and German-Jewish Philosophy during the Weimar Republic. She edits the series "Ethics in Education and International Feuerbach Research."

Sept. 18, 2013: A Model of Teacher Development Grounded in Teaching Practice: Report on a Study Visit to the University of Michigan

Lunch Seminar — Nili Pearlmutter

The University of Michigan has two unique summer programs, one for novice teachers in its elementary MAT program and one for experienced math educators. What ties them together is their use of teaching practice as the central site for learning and their use of technology to support reflection and research on teaching. Nili Pearlmutter described these two innovative programs, reflected on their impact on her practice as a teacher educator, and led a discussion on possible implications for teacher education at Brandeis and beyond.

Pearlmutter is a senior education specialist in the Delet/MAT program. She teaches the Fundamentals of Teaching course and serves as director of field experiences. She has served as a field instructor for pre-service teachers, taught the Reflective Teaching seminar in the MAT-JDS program, co-facilitated a beginning teacher’s study group, and worked with the Teacher Learning Project to help schools implement systems and practices that support and develop beginning teachers and make schools good places for all teachers to teach and learn.

May 6, 2013: A Seat at the Schoolhouse? The Organizational Context of Immigrant Parent Involvement in Two New York City Elementary Schools

Lunch Seminar — Marci Borenstein

Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research in two urban elementary schools, Marci Borenstein looked at how the organizational structure of the school impacts involvement. She showed how involvement is an organizational construct in which what, who and when involvement takes place is as much about how schools are structuring opportunities for involvement and allocating educational responsibility as it is about individual families.

Borenstein is director of the office of high school programs at Brandeis. She has many years of experience working with educators, youth and communities in the United States, Israel and the former Soviet Union. Marci has a doctorate in Education from New York University where her research focused on diverse immigrant families, urban schools and parent involvement.

April 24, 2013: Redefining "Context" in Education

Lunch Seminar — Philip Wexler

The paradigms for social analyses of education are changing. In his presentation, Philip Wexler explored ways to situate these new paradigms within changes in society and culture. He considered several models of change and implications for new ways of thinking about the social context of education. Philip examined what it means to "widen the margins" of social analysis and bring this to bear on the question of education in society. His talk was informed by his work at the intersection of social theory, sociology of education and religious mysticism.

Wexler was the 2012–13 Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Professor in Jewish Communal Innovation in the Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service. He is professor of sociology of education at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and serves as the Bella and Israel Unterberg Chair in Jewish Social and Educational History.

His recent publications include: "Mystical Interactions: Sociology, Jewish Mysticism and Education," "Symbolic Movement: Critique and Spirituality in Sociology of Education" and "Social Theory in Education." He is working on the relationship between social theory and mystical traditions, particularly Jewish mysticism and, relatedly, on Hasidism and education.

March 11, 2013: The Contribution of David Hartman to Jewish Education

Lunch Seminar — Ari Ackerman

Ari Ackerman examined one of the most significant cultural trends in contemporary Israeli society: the resurgence of engagement with Jewish texts and religiosity among circles of secular Jews. He placed particular emphasis on examining the educational philosophy of David Hartman. Hartman's philosophy developed during a period of renewed interest among secular Israeli Jews in their cultural heritage and it can be viewed as attempting to fortify, deepen and direct this educational-cultural movement.

Ackerman is a lecturer at Schechter Institute in Jerusalem where he teaches Jewish thought and educational philosophy. He received his PhD in Jewish philosophy from Hebrew University. He is the author of "The Sermons of Zerahia Halevi Saladin" (Ben Gurion University Press, 2012) and has published articles on various aspects of modern and medieval Jewish thought and philosophy of Jewish education. He is also the academic director of the educational leadership program for the TALI schools.

March 3, 2013: Silence: A Form of Classroom Participation

Teacher Forum (5th Annual) — Katherine Schultz, Dean of the Mills College School of Education

Each year, the Mandel Center Teacher Forum presents the work of an innovative educational thinker to an audience of educators and educational leaders from Jewish and general education.

Feb. 25, 2013: Orthodoxy and Pluralist Jewish Education: Possibilities and Incompatibilities

Lunch Seminar — Michael Gillis

Some argue that pluralism and pluralistic Jewish education pose distinct problems for Orthodoxy. In this lunch seminar, Michael Gillis guided us through some of the issues by making use of the quite differing perspectives of Jonathan Sacks and Avi Sagi. We discussed how even where there are possible philosophical solutions, educational solutions can remain a challenge.

Gillis is a member of the faculty of the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University. His work is concerned with the ways in which different paradigms of reading rabbinic literature can be a resource for teaching and curriculum. He also teaches and writes in the field of the philosophy of Jewish education. He is the co-editor of a forthcoming volume on pluralism and Jewish education.

2012

Dec. 10, 2012: Using Literacy Assessments to Inform Instruction in the Elementary School

Lunch Seminar — Shoshana Jacobs

At this lunch seminar, Shoshana Jacobs took a close look at literacy assessment in elementary school. Participants were guided through a variety of assessment possibilities in reading and writing and looked at how we can use assessment data to inform and enrich teaching and learning.

Jacobs is a literacy coach at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston. She has been a classroom teacher and literacy coach for the last 19 years in public, private and charter schools. She launched her career as a classroom teacher in the New York City Public Schools. After several years, Shoshana was selected as a mentor teacher under the auspices of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University.

During her time with the Project, she worked with many literacy leaders, including Lucy Calkins, on the craft of Reading and Writing Workshop. After moving to Boston, Shoshana began coaching teachers, helping them enrich their literacy practices. She worked in several Boston Public schools and in private school before joining the CLCS staff in 2009.

Nov. 19, 2012: Pluralism Expanded: Teaching Judaism as a World Religion

Lunch Seminar — Professor Joseph Reimer

The Genesis Program at Brandeis University offers an experiential-based course called World Religions, which views Judaism as one of the world religions and invites students to consider the similarities and differences among several religions as they are practiced locally. This past summer, Professor Reimer was able to observe the course from the perspective of its co-teachers. He explored questions about how we interpret "pluralism" and what it means to invite high school students on a tour of the worship sites of these several world religions.

Reimer is an associate professor in Jewish education who splits his teaching and advising time between the Education and Hornstein Programs. He also serves as faculty advisor to the Office for High School Programs at Brandeis. Trained at Harvard as a developmental psychologist, he currently focuses his research on experiential Jewish learning, Jewish camping, and the professional development of educators. His book, "Succeeding at Jewish Education," won the National Jewish Book Award in 1997. His recent publications have focused on leadership in Jewish summer camps.

Oct. 22, 2012: Career Commitments of Jewish Day School Teachers: Findings from Two Longitudinal Surveys

Lunch Seminar — Eran Tamir and Sally Lesik

Eran Tamir and Sally Lesik presented four profiles of Jewish day school teachers, focusing on factors that explain their commitments to day school teaching and Jewish education. They drew on data from a comprehensive sample of JDSs teachers from the Educators in Jewish Schools Study (EJSS) and the DeLeT Longitudinal Survey. They explained how they developed distinct teacher profiles (looking particularly at teachers’ personal motivations, background variables, and school conditions) and discussed what can be learned from the comparison of DeLeT and EJSS teachers about the potential value of teacher preparation programs like DeLeT. Finally, they discussed the implications of these findings for Jewish day schools and teachers and for other stakeholders in the field.

Tamir is a senior research associate at the Mandel Center and lecturer in education at Brandeis University. A sociologist and an educational policy analyst, his research focuses on the social context of educational policy, teacher certification policy, program evaluation, teacher careers, teacher professionalism in religious and urban public schools, and the politics of education reform.

Lesik is a professor of mathematical sciences at Central Connecticut State University. She holds bachelor's degrees in engineering from the University of Hartford and mathematics from Trinity College. She also holds two master's degrees: one in statistics from Yale University, and one in mathematics from Wesleyan University. Her doctorate is from Harvard University, with specializations in quantitative research methods and education. Her research interests involve applying new and innovative statistical methods in educational research.

Oct. 14, 2012: Tenth Anniversary Colloquium and Celebration — Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

We celebrated the Mandel Center's 10th anniversary with a colloquium and festive dinner celebration. The colloquium explored the response "A Time to Act," the 1990 report of the Commission on Jewish Education in North America, considered more recent innovations in Jewish education and considered questions for the future.

Chairs: Annette Hochstein, Mandel Foundation and Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center

Participants:

Harlene Appelman, The Covenant Foundation
Stephen Hazan Arnoff, 14th Street Y
Marc Baker, Gann Academy
Nina Bruder, Jewish New Teacher Project
Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center
Stephen Hoffman, Jewish Federation of Cleveland
Aliza Kline, formerly at Mayyim Hayyim
Alisa Rubin Kurshan, UJA-Federation of NY
Sara Lee, HUC-JIR
Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, Hebrew College
Jon Levisohn, moderator, Mandel Center
Larry Moses, The Wexner Foundation
Robert Sherman, Jewish Education Project
Lee Shulman, moderator, Stanford University

Sept. 24, 2012: The Baby with the Bathwater: Evaluating a National Jewish Early Childhood Project

Lunch Seminar — Susan Shevitz

Professor Shevitz based her presentation on an evaluation she conducted with Heller School professor Lawrence Bailis of JECEI (the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative). It looked at some promising findings about the effect of the initiative on young families as well as on early childhood education staff and settings and considered reasons why, despite these findings, the program was not continued.

Shevitz is professor emerita at Brandeis University where, for over 20 years, she taught in and then directed the Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service (now Jewish Professional Leadership). Her research and teaching focus on organizational culture and change, leadership, and pluralism in Jewish life. She currently works with a wide range of Jewish organizations, including major foundations, schools, synagogues and agencies to help them plan, implement and/or evaluate innovative programs.

She teaches in the JTS executive doctoral program and at the rabbinical school of Boston's Hebrew College. The constant in her career has been bridging the worlds of Jewish educational practice and research by helping educators make use of research findings and by conducting research that takes seriously the complexities of practice.

May 7, 2012: Islamic Schooling in America: Competing Visions

Lunch Seminar — Nadeem Memon, Islamic Teacher Education Program, Razi Group, and Continuing Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto

This seminar painted a picture of the diversity of Islamic education in America, examining settings, contexts, ideology and other characteristics. We asked how do these different factors shape the competing visions for Islamic education? What do these competing visions look like? What are the ideological, conceptual and/or practical challenges that Islamic schooling is facing?

April 2, 2012: Fanning the Flame of Idealism: How City Year Develops Leaders Through National Service

Lunch Seminar — Max Klau, CityYear

City Year unites diverse young adults — ages 17-24 — for a demanding year of full-time citizen service. As tutors, mentors and role models, our young leaders help the children they work with stay in school and on track, transforming schools and communities across the nation. At this session, you will learn about our innovative effort to address the nation's high school drop-out crisis, as well as our comprehensive leadership development model. The session will blend presentations, discussion, and experiential leadership development activities.

Dr. Max Klau is the director of leadership development at City Year, Inc., a national service program headquartered in Boston. His efforts focus on leveraging a year of full-time citizen service as a transformational leadership development experience. Max received his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2005; his studies focused on civic leadership education. An alumnus of four service programs, he has completed two years of service in Israel and led service programs in Israel, Honduras, Ghana, and the Ukraine. He has written about leadership development for the Washington Post, the Harvard Business Review and the Huffington Post.

March 29, 2012: Celebrating New Books from the Mandel Center and the Brandeis Education Program

Brandeis staff, faculty and friends enjoyed a reception and signing to celebrate these new works by Mandel Center and Education Program faculty.

Helen Featherstone, contributor: "Smarter Together: Collaboration and Equity in the Elementary Math Classroom"
Sharon Feiman-Nemser, "Teachers as Learners"
Susan Jean Mayer, "Classroom Discourse and Democracy"
Vivian Troen and Katherine Boles, "The Power of Teacher Teams"

March 5, 2012: Israel Matters: A 21st Century Paradigm for Jewish Education

Lunch Seminar — Lisa Grant, HUC-JIR

At this Mandel Center Lunch seminar, Lisa Grant presented her work with Ezra Kopelowitz to develop a new conceptual framework for Israel education in North America. Over the past decade, Grant and Kopelowitz have been among the key researchers investigating the questions about the purposes and practices of Israel education in American Jewish life. Their upcoming book, "Israel Education Matters," provides a synthesis of this work in order to help advance a deeper understanding of Israel as a resource for Jewish life. When viewed this way, Israel education must address the "why Israel for me?" question head on.

Grant provided the context and framing for "Israel Education Matters" and invited conversation about making Israel education a more integral aspect of Jewish education. Their work focuses on core dimensions of Israel educational practices that provide learners with opportunities to engage in critical thinking and meaning making about Jewish life and Jewish collective belonging.

Feb. 12, 2012: Seeing Learning

Teacher Forum — Steve Seidel

It was a stimulating and inspiring afternoon, as Steve Seidel showed us how we can see students’ learning by learning new ways to see their work. We explored:

How does student work make learning visible?
How can collaborative study of student work inform and improve teaching and curriculum?
What can this teach us about the life of a classroom?

Feb. 6, 2012: "Israeli" is Good Enough for Me: Expression of Identity in Jewish and Arab Adolescents' Discussions About the Jewish-Arab Conflict

Lunch Seminar — Tsafrir Goldberg, Mandel Center

The seminar will present insights from qualitative analysis of small group bi-national discussions about the history of the Jewish Arab conflict. Using excerpts from students' self-led discussions, we shall try to track the ways Jewish and Arab adolescents' identities are presented and enacted in conversation. The data and preliminary findings will help us follow possible and diverging interpretations of adolescents' explicit and implicit expressions of identity, belonging, legitimacy and historicity in relation to the other.

2011

Dec. 5, 2011: The Power of Jewish Stories to Shape Young Children's Ideas and Values

Lunch Seminar — Howard Deitcher, Melton Centre for Jewish Education

This presentation, by Howard Deitcher of the Melton Centre at The Hebrew University, addressed three key issues that shed light on how reading Jewish books impacts young children's ideas and values. He examined competing understandings of "good children's stories" and their implications for Jewish children's literature, followed by a review about how children's literature shapes and impacts ideas and values. We concluded with an analysis of several examples which demonstrate how these stories attempt to impart ideas and values to young Jewish children.

Nov. 14, 2011: Israeli Jewish and Arab Adolescents Studying the Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem

Lunch Seminar — Tsafrir Goldberg, Mandel Center

Tsafrir Goldberg, a postdoctoral fellow at the Mandel Center this year, presented a research project that explores the effects of alternative and conventional history teaching approaches on Arab and Jewish high school students' understanding of a controversial historical topic. The project is based on an elaborated empirical notion of national identity as orientation to the nation and it seeks to track the effects of students' modes of national identification on their learning and vice versa.

Nov. 3, 2011: Tending the Garden: Creating Conditions to Nurture Excellent Teaching

A Community Conversation: We talked about how to build on our community's successes in creating day schools that promote the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. Together we shared what we know from research and practice about how to create cultures of professional learning.

June 15, 2011: What Does It Sound Like When American Jewish Teens Talk About Israel?

Alex Pomson, Hebrew University and Daniel Held, Jewish Theological Seminary

A post-AIS conference seminar.

April 13, 2011: Inspiring Teaching: Brandeis Researchers and Alumni Talk about Teaching in Public and Jewish Day Schools

Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Professor of Jewish Education and Marya Levenson
Harry S. Levitan Professor of the Practice in Education

Brandeis House, New York, NY

Related Project: Choosing to Teach

April 4, 2011: The Challenge of Progressive Education in the Jewish Supplementary School

Lunch Seminar — Jonathan Krasner, Hebrew Union College

The search for a new curricular road map for the Jewish school between the World Wars was heavily influenced by the example of progressive educators associated with John Dewey. In their desire to reproduce the educational process that Americanized a generation of immigrants, Jewish educators sought to refocus the agenda of the Jewish school from heritage transmission to enculturation. Yet the results of this experimentation were uneven at best. The application of Dewey's philosophy in the Jewish school was indicative of the struggle that progressive Jewish educators encountered in their efforts to reconcile seemingly conflicting values and priorities.

At this lunch seminar, Jonathan Krasner explored this case study of Jewish educational reform and discussed its implications for educational transformation efforts today.

Jan. 30, 2011: Third Annual Teacher Forum Cultivating an Ethic of Excellence in Schools

Ron Berger, chief program officer at Expeditionary Learning

He explored:

How can we help students to engage in excellent, original work?
How can we promote high standards?
How can we nurture the capacity for rigorous and respectful critique?

Ron Berger, a dynamic and visionary educator, is author of "An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools." He has over 30 years of experience as a teacher and professional developer.

Jan. 24, 2011: Preparing Teachers for Jewish Schools: Enduring Issues in Changing Contexts

Lunch Seminar — Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center

In this lunchtime seminar, Mandel Center director Sharon Feiman-Nemser presented two cases that illuminate enduring issues in Jewish teacher education. Professor Feiman-Nemser looked at the early years of the Teachers Institute at the Jewish Theological Seminary, when it was under the leadership of Mordecai Kaplan, and at the Delet program at Brandeis and HUC-JIR, which prepares teacher-leaders for the day schools of today.

In both cases, the creation of full-time programs of Jewish teacher preparation was derived by the emergence of a new kind of Jewish school, requiring a new kind of Jewish teacher. Professor Feiman-Nemser also outlined a research agenda to inform policy and practice in Jewish teacher preparation.

2010

Dec. 19, 2010: The Purposes and Practices of Teaching Rabbinic Literature

Panel Discussion, Association for Jewish Studies, Boston

What are our goals in teaching rabbinic literature? Why do we choose to teach the texts or themes that we choose? How, aside from the selection of texts, do we attempt to enact these goals? In this roundtable, three instructors of rabbinic literature will examine their purposes and their practice. They represent diverse institutional settings for the teaching of rabbinic literature. Each instructor will introduce a particular university-level course that they teach, articulating the orientational background to the course and discussing their rationale for the curricular choices that they make. Through the presentations by the instructors, the responses of the roundtable chair to those presentations, and the subsequent discussion, we will pursue a grounded conversation about the affordances and limitations of different approaches to the teaching of rabbinic literature. By sharing our teaching in this way, the panel and the audience will come away with new perspectives on their own practice.

Chair: Jon A. Levisohn, Mandel Center
Panelist: Charlotte Fonrobert, Stanford University
Panelist: Jonathan Schofer, Harvard Divinity School
Panelist: Marjorie S. Lehman, Jewish Theological Seminary

Dec. 6, 2010: Text Study, Collaborative Research and Meaning Making: Design Research in a Supplementary School

Lunch Seminar — Orit Kent and Allison Cook, Mandel Center

This lunch seminar grows out of our most recent work in the Beit Midrash Research Project, which is studying how to adapt a theory of havruta for use in professional development and classroom settings. We will describe the professional development program we created in a supplementary school and share some of the impacts of our work on teachers and their classrooms. We will also explore what we have learned as design researchers.

Nov. 15, 2010: How Has the Recession hit Jewish Day Schools? New Findings from the DeLeT Longitudinal Survey

Lunch Seminar — Eran Tamir and Raquel Magidin de Kramer, Mandel Center

Eran Tamir and Raquel Magidin de Kramer will present emerging findings from the recent 2009–10 survey of DeLeT alumni who graduated from Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The presentation will focus on new findings concerning the impact that the economic recession has had on Jewish Day Schools and the DeLeT graduates who are employed by them. We will discuss data on past, current, and future career trends and share alumni reflections on their own working conditions and their schools at large. The presentation will be followed by discussion.

In keeping with the Mandel Center's commitment to generate usable knowledge for the field of Jewish education, the DeLeT Longitudinal Survey explores key issues regarding teacher education, retention and quality. Over time, we will create a unique source of longitudinal quantitative data for research on the evolving careers and lives of Jewish day school teachers.

"The DeLeT Alumni Survey: A Comprehensive Report on the Journey of Beginning Jewish Day School Teachers" is available for download on the project website.

Oct. 18, 2010: Virtual Encounters: Challenges and Questions in Coaching Schools Online

Lunch Seminar — Sarah Birkeland, Mandel Center

The Mandel Induction Partnership Project, now in its second phase, works with leaders of Boston-area Jewish day schools to design and implement strong induction programs for new teachers. We began working face-to-face, but now the partnerships have gone virtual: We coach school leaders at three schools by phone, SKYPE, and web conference, using ideas and teaching tools we developed in the project's first phase. It is a strategy for reaching more than a handful of schools at a time by putting those ideas and tools onto our website, harnessing technology to reduce the intensity of necessary coaching. At this Lunchtime Seminar, we will share the current version of the website, a work in progress not yet "launched" for public use, asking attendees to consider a few specific questions about its usability, organization and potential. We hope to spark an engaging discussion about the role of the web in disseminating our ideas and fostering school change.

March 10, 2010: Teaching Confusion: Crossing Dimensions of Time in a Jerusalem History Classroom

Mandel Lunchtime Seminar: Chava Shane-Sagiv, doctoral candidate, Hebrew University

This talk addressed the inherent difficulties of learning history in high school-inherent, because unlike disciplines that use a specialized vocabulary for discussing knowledge and ideas, history draws on the linguistic resources of everyday life. Relying on an eight-month classroom ethnography in a Jerusalem high school, Shane-Sagiv showed how seemingly straightforward notions such as "anti-Semitism" become, in the transaction of classroom life, a site of confusion reflecting the complexity of "school history": learning about the past while struggling to find a common ground between disciplinary terms and student knowledge and interests. A close investigation of this confusion called attention to how the disciplinary — the everyday and schooling — may be at cross purposes, and how we may become more astute in dealing with this.

Feb. 22, 2010: New Theory for Effective Practice: How Does Great Jewish Education Happen?

Mandel Lunchtime Seminar: Jacob Cytryn, Mandel Center

Jacob presented an early draft of the conceptual background to his dissertation, a study of how learners (students, campers, participants, etc.) experience intentionally content-permeated Jewish educational settings (ICPEs). This background included theories that attempt to bound the category of ICPEs and to postulate how learning — including but not limited to classroom-based learning — occurs within them. Jacob started exploring an alternative approach that highlights the essential commonalities between all maximally-effective settings, whether they are found in schools, summer camps, supplementary schools, Israel trips or elsewhere.

2009

July 24, 2009: Brandeis MAT Mini-Research Conference and Graduation

As members of the MAT graduating class of 2009, DeLeT Cohort 7 presented their classroom research projects and celebrated their graduation with an assembly of families, friends, colleagues and faculty.

July 23, 2009: Tekkes HaSiyum: Celebration of Completion

Cohort 7 designed a program for family, friends and faculty that included reflections, thanks, text study and song.

July 22, 2009: DeLeT Cohort 8 Community Tea

The first of a four-part series, the Community Tea gave Cohort 8 the opportunity to publicly reflect on their learning. Reinforcing the belief that teaching should not be a private affair that happens behind the closed doors of a classroom, the interns were invited to share and discuss their learning from the first summer of DeLeT.

July 13-17, 2009: DeLeT Alumni Summer Institute

The first of its kind, the Alumni Summer Institute welcomed five local alumni for a weeklong session to begin work on individual projects. Alumni supported each other as they began work on projects related to teacher development that will continue on throughout the academic year.

June 28-30, 2009: 2009 Mandel Center Induction Partnership Summer Institute

The Induction Partnership welcomed its three new sites to the center for a kickoff session. New school sites include:

Frankel Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, West Bloomfield, Michigan
Lander Grinspoon Academy: The Solomon Schechter School of the Pioneer Valley, Northampton, Massachusetts
Seattle Hebrew Academy, Seattle, Washington

Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education