Jon A. Levisohn
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Educational Thought
Director of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University
Raised in Boston, Jon Levisohn studied classical Jewish texts at Yeshivat Sha’alvim in Israel for two years before earning his AB in Philosophy at Harvard College. He then spent a year studying Jewish thought and Jewish education at the Hebrew University, as well as studying Talmud at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Returning to the U.S., he taught Jewish studies at a Jewish day school for three years, and then earned MA degrees in Philosophy and Religious Studies and a PhD in Philosophy of Education at Stanford University, where he was a Presidential Fellow and a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
Levisohn has been a faculty member at Brandeis since 2002, teaching, producing scholarship in philosophy of Jewish and general education, and leading research projects at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. In 2014, he was appointed as director of MCSJE.
At Brandeis, he has also chaired the Seminar on Contemporary Jewish Life (CJL), chaired the Jewish Education Working Group (JEWG), served as an editor of the Mandel-Brandeis Book Series in Jewish Education, chaired the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and led and served in numerous other institutional roles. He has chaired or co-chaired eight conferences.
In addition to his appointment within the NEJS Department, he is affiliated with the Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership, the Education Program, and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.
Levisohn is a member of the Network for Research in Jewish Education, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the Association for Jewish Studies. He has held fellowships at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Repair the World, the Jacobson Family Foundation, and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and at NYU. He consults to and teaches for Jewish educational institutions, drawing on his academic expertise and thirty years of experience as a Jewish educator. He currently serves in leadership roles at NRJE, Encounter, OneTable, Atra, Congregation Shaarei Tefilah and Minyan Yedid Nefesh.
Research Agenda
Levisohn has produced numerous studies of the teaching of history, the teaching of classical Jewish texts (Bible and Talmud), and the purposes of Jewish education.
His current research agenda focuses on the concept of Jewish literacy: what it usually means, how the concept has been used, and how we might think about the concept in more productive ways. His book on this topic is under contract with Rutgers University Press.
He is also pursuing smaller projects on educating for democracy within Jewish educational spaces, and on how the gap year in Israel is experienced by its participants.
MCSJE Projects and Programs
Current
- The American Jewish Gap Year in Israel
- Boston Jewish Education Roundtable
- Exemplars of American Jewish Civic Education
- Jewish Literacy Project
- Seminar on Guiding Principles in Jewish Education
Past
- Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies
- Conceptualizing the Outcomes of Religious Education
- Learning Agenda Project
- Pedagogies of Engagement in Jewish Studies
- Pedagogy Lishma: Using Studies of Teaching to Promote Learning
Highlighted Publications
- Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools
- Teaching Historical Narratives: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Virtues of Historical Interpretation
- Rereading the Story of the Oven of Akhnai: From Interpretive Rights to Interpretive Responsibilities
- Producers, Not Possessors: A Direction for Jewish Education in Turbulent Times
Brandeis Courses
At Brandeis, Professor Levisohn teaches the following courses:
- A Philosophical Introduction to Judaism (NEJS 156b), which explores a set of issues that are central to Jewish thought and practice;
- Studying Sacred Texts (NEJS 170a), which incorporates modern European intellectual history, comparative religion, and hermeneutics;
- Tikkun Olam/Repairing the World: Service and Social Justice in Theory and Practice (NEJS 171b), which explores the challenges of trying to make a positive difference in the world;
- Philosophy of Jewish Education (NEJS 235b), which examines the animating ideas behind diverse Jewish educational visions.
Featured Events
- Learning about Learning: What We Can Learn from Seymour Fox and the Visions of Jewish Education Project
- Spotlight on Jewish Learning: Past, Present and Future | A panel of Brandeis faculty in recognition of the University’s 75th anniversary