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

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Mandel Center Spotlight Sessions

Join us virtually as we shine a spotlight on an important area of focus in Jewish education, bringing together several diverse scholarly perspectives for a shared conversation that will deepen our understanding.

These events are free and open to the public but registration is required.

Recent Session

Spotlight on Mahloket

February 28, 2023

Mahloket—that is, dispute or principled debate—has long been celebrated as a Jewish ideal, not only within Jewish texts (where sages debate laws, interpretations and principles) but within the practice of engagement with those texts (where, for example, students might engage in debate about laws, interpretations or about principles). What does Mahloket look like at its best? How does Mahloket function as a kind of signature pedagogy (or at least a signature practice) within Jewish education? What does it mean to “educate for Mahloket,” and what are the benefits and challenges of doing so? In what ways is Mahloket a model for substantive engagement across difference?

This session brings together: Aaron Dorfman (A More Perfect Union: The Jewish Partnership for Democracy), Robbie Gringras (educator, performer and writer/For the Sake of Argument), Orit Kent (Pedagogy of Partnership powered by Hadar), Abi Dauber Sterne (For the Sake of Argument), and Mike Uram (Jewish Federations of North America), in conversation with Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University).

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Spotlight on Mahloket, February 2023 (01:15:45)

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Participant Bios

Aaron Dorfman is Founder and Executive Director of A More Perfect Union: The Jewish Partnership for Democracy, an effort to mobilize the American Jewish community to protect and strengthen American democracy. Previously, Aaron served as President of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, Vice President for Programs of American Jewish World Service, and Director of Informal Education at Temple Isaiah of Contra Costa County. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in English and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Robbie Gringras is a British-born Israeli living in the Galilee, working in education, performance, and writing. Since emigrating to Israel with a Literature degree from Oxford University, a teaching qualification, and his own theater company, he has trained hundreds of educators in generating honest complex connections to Israel. He is also a successful international theatre artist, whose original plays have performed globally and on the West End.

Orit Kent is a long time Jewish educator, teacher-educator, researcher and writer, with experience teaching both children and adults. She has been involved in the design and implementation of numerous professional and leadership development programs and was a lecturer in the education program at Brandeis University for many years. As a senior research associate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, she led a multi-year research and design effort focused on developing conceptual and practical tools for improving peer-based learning. She is the co-creator of The Pedagogy of Partnership, an innovative research-based pedagogy for the design of relationship-centered education. An alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Orit holds a doctorate in Education and Jewish Studies from Brandeis University, an Ed.M. in Teaching and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in history from Yale University.

Abigail Dauber Sterne has worked in the United States and in Israel as an educator and organizational leader for more than 20 years. Throughout her career, her focus has been on deepening people’s Jewish experiences, while also promoting a deep pluralism amongst those who live in community together. Through her roles in senior management at two international organizations -- Hillel International and The Jewish Agency for Israel's Makom: Israel Education Lab -- she has relationships that span the globe. She has worked with rabbis, students, educators, and organizational leaders around the world. Abi is a recipient of several fellowships in the Jewish communal world, including the Muehlstein Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership, the Tikvah Fellowship, the Schusterman Fellowship, and is currently a rabbinical student at the Shalom Hartman Institute/HaMidrasha at Oranim. She has spoken at many international conferences, and contributes opinion pieces to several online and print publications.

Rabbi Mike Uram is the Chief Jewish Learning Officer for Jewish Federations of North America. Before that, he served as the Chief Vision and Education Officer for Pardes North America building a new platform for Jewish education in North America. Preceding his time at Pardes, Mike served as the Executive Director and Campus Rabbi at Penn Hillel for over 16 years. He is the author of the best-selling book entitled, Next Generation Judaism: How College Students and Hillel Can Help Reinvent Jewish Organizations, which won a National Jewish Book Award. He is a sought-after speaker and consultant on the changing nature of the American Jewish community, Jewish innovation, cutting-edge engagement and how legacy organizations can reinvent themselves in the age of millennials. Mike holds a BA in History and Religious Studies from Washington University and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Past Sessions

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Spotlight on Art and Artistry as Jewish Learning video

What is the relationship between art and artistry, on the one hand, and Jewish education, on the other? In what ways might we think about engagement with Jewish art and culture as a kind of Jewish learning? Building on the 2022 Mandel Center spring conference, Art and Artistry as Jewish Learning, this Spotlight Session brought together conference chairs Laura Yares (Michigan State University and director of the MCSJE project on Jewish Learning Through the Cultural Arts) and Galeet Dardashti (NYU), along with Eva Heinstein (Mandel Foundation), Miriam Heller Stern (HUC), and Laura Mandel (Jewish Arts Collaborative), to explore these questions and their significance for the field of Jewish education.

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Spotlight on Art and Artistry as Jewish Learning, pre-recorded video release October 12, 2022 (01:08:34)

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Hadar

Spotlight on Daf Yomi

Rabbi Professor Jane Kanarek (Hebrew College), Rabbi Avi Killip (Hadar), Professor Barry Wimpfheimer (Northwestern), Sara Wolkenfeld (Sefaria), moderated by Professor Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University).

For decades following its invention in 1923, Daf Yomi was practiced by experienced, mostly haredi Talmud scholars, and criticized by many as well. Over time, the practice grew in popularity in that community. But in the 21st century, the practice has expanded dramatically, both in terms of the background of the participants and in terms of the very concept of what it means to “do the daf.”

In this session, four highly experienced educators helped us think about what Daf Yomi means, now, as a Jewish cultural or spiritual practice. What does it mean as a unifying practice (everyone who participates is "on the daf") that actually comprises many distinct and diverse practices? What does Daf Yomi represent, as a mode of engagement with the Jewish tradition that is both continuous and discontinuous with traditional modes of study? How does it bring people together in shared purpose? How does it meet individual needs or advance individual goals?

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Spotlight on Daf Yomi, February 2022 (01:20:00)

Spotlight on Adult Jewish Learning

Sarra Alpert (Avodah), Rabba Yaffa Epstein (Wexner Foundation), Dr. Jane Shapiro (Orot: Center for Jewish Learning), Dr. Diane Tickton Schuster (Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education), moderated by Professor Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University).

Adult Jewish learning is flourishing in synagogues, JCCs, board tables, leadership cohorts, service cohorts, and of course, online. This session was an occasion to talk with a group of experienced educators about what they learned from their studies of adult Jewish learning opportunities—who the learners are, why they participate, what happens, and how they grow or develop through the experience. It featured insights gathered from the research they conducted for the Mandel Center Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning project.

Spotlight on Adult Jewish Learning, December 2021 (1:13:59)