In this essay, I explore Jewish composer/singer/liturgist Debbie Friedman and her time in Houston (1978-1984) as a crucial moment in the history of Jewish education. Working as a music educator in two area synagogues, Friedman negotiated a changing environment as cantorial training rose to become a mark of communal musical authority. She…

Research on Jewish day schools has long focused on the challenges they face in managing the tension between the "Jewish" and "general" components of their "dual curriculum." Interviews with 34 graduating seniors of a private, community Jewish high school found that students experienced another dual curriculum within…

This paper intends to demonstrate how within the current contentious environment for teacher education in the U.S., two small teacher preparation programs conducted a voluntary coordinated long-term self-evaluation study, that partially responded to external accountability pressures by the Federal administration, state agencies and various private…

Forbidden Sounds: The Music of the Holocaust considers the historical events of the Holocaust in the context of music. The honors course explores diverse roles that music played during the years 1933-1945, including the Nazi use of music as a means for censorship and discrimination; music performance and creation in various Jewish ghettos and…

In this article, Dan Lyndon-Cohen makes the case that history departments should move from diversifying the curriculum to decolonising it. After reflecting on some examples of how he made the content of his lessons more representative, he explores how the influence of writers such as Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Emma Dabiri inspired him to find…

A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their own. However, when the focus of the course is…

This article examines the participatory impact of a storytelling project on a small group of Latinx English learners in a sixth grade classroom. The storytelling project unexpectedly emerged as a positive ripple effect from a Participatory Action Research (PAR) initiative to foster civic empowerment among middle school students in an English…

What is Israel in the minds and hearts of young American Jewish children? Through interviews and photo and music elicitation exercises, this research uncovers how day school kindergarten students conceive of Israel. This study, part of an ongoing longitudinal project, shows how 5- and 6-year-old children are able to form a multilayered conception…

This study investigated the voices of students interpreting Hebrew Bible texts in one fourth-grade classroom. Through think-alouds on the Biblical text with each student, exit interviews, teacher interviews, and classroom observations, this study found that those students whose interpretive stances were more aligned with the teacher's were given…

Educators at the secondary school level who teach History, or Integrated Social Studies more broadly, may be expected to possess at least some passing knowledge of the Holocaust, the genocide perpetrated against European Jews by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Yet, when it comes to the Pacific War and Japanese war crimes and atrocities…

This research explores the impact of a year studying in Israel on Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) rabbinical students' emotional connection toward and knowledge about the State of Israel and the Jewish People. We want to better understand the students' beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that emerge from their experience…

A family survey, ethnographic study, and quasi-experimental study investigated "Shalom Sesame's" potential to enhance understanding of Jewish culture and identity among preschool families. Preschoolers demonstrated significant learning, recognizing that people who looked different could be Jewish, and in knowledge about Hebrew words,…

The paucity of mental health studies with Orthodox Jews makes culturally competent counseling care unlikely. In this large-scale investigation of marriage among Orthodox Jews, most respondents reported satisfaction with marriage and spouse, although satisfaction was highest among recently married couples. The most significant stressors were…

This qualitative study (n=17) uses a multiple case studies design to interrogate how and why students understand events contained within "heritage histories." By this I mean that the students are too young to have been involved in the events, but that their parents, grandparents, other family members, or other members of an affinity…

Every year at Oakland Hebrew Day School (OHDS), a dedicated group of middle-school students comes together to study the Holocaust through art. This study culminates in an installation piece to be displayed at community commemorative events. The art curriculum at OHDS is choice-based, requiring students to assume responsibility for their art…