Viktor Lowenfeld (1903-1960), one of the most influential art educators of the 20th century and author of "Creative and Mental Growth" (1947, 1952, 1957), barely talked or wrote about his early teaching experiences at the Chajes Realgymnasium, a secondary school for Jewish youth in Vienna, where he taught art and math for 14 years before…

The aim of the research has been to evaluate the contribution of the genre of bilingual literature, Arabic and Hebrew, to citizenship education. Since the Israeli society is a multicultural society comprised of both nations, Arabs and Jews who live in conflicted environment, one must regard those textbooks as civic agents. Literature is a…

This essay analyzes the place of Israel in American Jewish schooling from the beginning of the 20th century until the early years of the 21st century. It utilizes curricula, textbooks, and instructional units, as well as other primary and secondary sources to delineate four distinct periods of Israel education. The subject of Teaching Israel is…

Reflective journaling is frequently employed to help preservice educators make sense of fieldwork experiences. Analyzing the weekly journals of eight preservice educators, I offer conceptual language to describe how journal writing provides a window into students' capacity for reflection. This capacity is described in terms of three continua:…

A century ago a group of educators led an effort to transform American Jewish education to enable it to operate successfully in the 20th century. Today, with American Jews living under very different conditions, a similar effort is needed to reinvent Jewish education for the 21st century. Changes and new initiatives already taking place on the…

Jonathan Woocher is to be commended for offering his thought-provoking "big picture" account of where the field of Jewish education has been and where, if it is to be successful, it needs to be going under the conditions of life in the 21st century. Woocher's capacity to use an array of relevant perspectives and literatures to illuminate the…

Conflicts between different religious groups occasionally arise in my Christian and Muslim Israeli-Arab EFL students' school and area. In an attempt to increase students' knowledge of and respect for other faiths in the region, I conducted practitioner inquiry research in my religiously diverse Middle-Eastern classroom. Grounded in critical…

Civic studies in Israel and elsewhere are unlike any other school subject. This course of study has a higher purpose--to transform students into good citizens. In contrast to other core subjects, civics, in essence, strives to realize ethical goals. While other subjects perceive the instilling of values as a secondary outcome, in civics the…

The Holocaust, which occurred at the hands of the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 is the term used to describe the systematic torture and murder of approximately six million European Jews and millions of other "undesirables" (World War 2: Nazi Germany, 2010). The purpose of this dissertation was to provide a deep understanding of student…

In the summer of 1893 financial panic struck Colorado. The price of silver, in a protracted downward spiral since the conclusion of the Civil War, finally crashed. With economic and political turmoil come angry responses, as people search for scape-goats to explain their new and unexpected poverty. And in Gilded Age Colorado, one of those angry…

This article explores the approach to transformative education utilized by Sadaka Reut, a binational civil society organization in Israel that works with Jewish and Palestinian youth. I examine three central tools Sadaka Reut uses to achieve its goal of educating youth for social change: using personal experiences as the basis for discussion;…

A scenario of Holocaust education gone awry, which was constructed from a real event in one author's experience, and a 2010 critique of Holocaust education by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, are used to explore key issues and dilemmas for Holocaust education. The authors argue that we should pursue clarity about the empirical and moral…

Ultraorthodox men spend years studying religion and delay entry into the workforce until their early 30s. They then face barriers such as insufficient education and work experience, religious restrictions, and a lack of career information and self-knowledge. Although there is considerable interest in assessment, no measure has been validated…

This study assesses whether more frequent participation in Jewish activist learning events is associated with higher levels of engagement in social justice-related activities and conceptions of Jewish identity. The study design was cross-sectional and comparative. An online survey was completed by 165 participants in an activist learning program.…

Practitioner research was conducted on Grade 10 students' arts-based projects of Numbers 12 in order to assess the value of using the arts in Jewish secondary schools. Based on interview transcripts, projects, and written statements, three themes emerged that demonstrated why teachers should use the arts in their classes. The arts provided…