Jewish summer camps must hire quality counselors each year. Staff retention is crucial to achieving the mission of Jewish camping; the challenge is that it is often a struggle to retain counselors for more than one to two summers. This study aimed to understand and increase counselor retention for young Gen Z staff, ages 18-22, beyond one to two…

Discrimination has become a significant presenting concern among college students that is strongly correlated with distress, social isolation, and suicidal ideation, even after counseling treatment (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2023). Over the past several years, the surge in reported incidents of antisemitism on college campuses has…

Faith development in college students constitutes an important topic in higher education research, and Modern Orthodox Jewish college students are a small but particularly under-studied group of college-goers. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, this study explored how Modern Orthodox Jewish college students understood their religious…

This research focused on the teaching of diversity in Jewish early childhood environments. The problem addressed was that not all Jewish early childhood centers teach diversity sufficiently, and the purpose of this study is to gain more information about how Jewish early childhood educators teach about diversity by learning about their challenges…

This dissertation investigates the relationship between stigma, knowledge, and help-seeking attitudes among high school students in two New York City Jewish day schools: a Modern Orthodox all-boys high school and a Sephardic Orthodox Jewish all-girls high school. The primary focus is on understanding how these factors: stigma about mental illness…

This study examined the identity disclosure and campus experiences of current LGBQ Jewish undergraduate students studying at four different midwestern universities. This research was important as it studied the experiences of college students who hold two minoritized identities, which are often difficult to reconcile regardless of external…

This dissertation examines teachers' job satisfaction and discusses teachers' prediction of their longevity in Jewish day schools. These attitudes are researched through the lens of the teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership style. The hypothesis of this study is that the greater the role principals allow teachers to play in the…

The purpose of this research is to explore how Jewish students experience achieving a sense of belonging on campus. This research is important for understanding the experiences and factors that affect this group of students and might lead to suggestions for how Jews may achieve a healthy sense of belonging and avoid alienation, which might affect…

Civics using Holocaust Studies offer a variety of pedagogical advantages. Regardless of the topic, Holocaust events can be used to build critical analytical skills and cultivate essential literacy skills about the social world. Further, the Holocaust can be used to introduce and grapple with the complex/abstract ideas of the civics content. Given…

I set out to understand how memorial site educators conceptualize Holocaust education and how notions of history, memory, and place shape their ideas. I explored the teachings of four veteran memorial site educators at a site of memory of the Holocaust in Germany. The analysis was grounded in theories of collective memory broadly (Assmann, 2010;…

For Jewish immigrants to benefit from the resources and access job opportunities in the United States, they need to integrate. Acculturation is an important achievement in an immigrant's adaptation goals (Rosenthal, 2018) because it influences behavioral, affective, and cognitive functioning (Guler & Berman, 2019). Yeshiva schools were…

Philanthropy plays an essential role in meeting needs that are not fulfilled by government and the corporate sector. Its importance has recently been underscored by the health, economic, educational, and cultural needs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. If philanthropic behavior is to continue and become more widespread, programs and resources…

This autoethnographic exploration of my journey from college athlete to an adaptive athlete and an Israel educator. The emergent self-study leverages photographic and poetic inquiry to explore feelings surrounding my relationship to my acquired physical disability and my relationship with my Jewishness and Israel. My story connects the seemingly…

There has been a paucity of research investigating the illicit substance use habits of adolescent Orthodox Jewish males, particularly the contributing factors that moderate these behaviors. This research study represents an exploratory effort to ascertain the perceptions of Orthodox Jewish high school principals and classroom rabbis regarding the…

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the interaction between the constructs of spirituality and religiosity of Orthodox Judaism with marriage. Eight participants were selected to be interviewed for this study. All of the participants were from the Greater Cleveland area and considered themselves to be members of the Orthodox Jewish…