In this paper, the author begins with a brief classroom scene that illustrates a number of significant features of contemporary American Jewish life. The engagement of adult students with Jewish text study is an example and outgrowth of the flourishing of programs of adult Jewish learning over the past two decades. Thousands of similar Jewish…

This paper traces the mainstreaming of American Jewish history and social studies in the American Jewish school curricula, a process which began in the 1920s and picked up momentum in the mid-late 1930s and 1940s. From the beginning, the "raison d'etre" for teaching American Jewish history and community studies was articulated in terms of…

The study of hermeneutics has been a growing focus of Jewish educational research in recent years. The significance of hermeneutics to Jewish education is its concern with how human beings read and respond to texts. Several scholars have addressed hermeneutic questions from a variety of different theory-to-practice perspectives. Many of their…

Adequate response to mail health surveys by minority populations has proved problematic. The impact of mail survey design features utilized to promote Orthodox Jews' responses (N = 138; 82 eligible synagogue member households) to a mailed questionnaire used to measure walking behavior are described and assessed. An examination of response…

Jewish education needs a philosophy if its practitioners are to be considered part of a "real" profession and its professors are to be thought of as having mastered a legitimate academic discipline. A strong cadre of researchers who have produced a valid and reliable body of research also is required to earn a respected place in the academy. Until…

This study investigated perceptions of differing generations of Ashkenazi Jewish Americans regarding the concept of their "race," and also their understanding of their "White privilege." In labeling their race, participants constructed an overall spectrum of terms, some reflecting a chosen ethnoracial identity and some reflecting a given…

Contrasting explanations of Jewish survival form the backdrop to this article. For Jonathan Sacks (1994) the crucial factor has been the role played by Jewish education; indeed, he claims that the demographic threat currently facing Anglo-Jewry is largely the result of the community having neglected the Jewish education of its children over the…

This paper focuses on an innovative curriculum for teaching culturally valued texts and the issues around the curriculum's implementation by teachers. The writers of this curriculum considered the subject-matter of this curriculum as a cultural "language" containing specific concepts, attitudes, and modes of thought. The curriculum…

Exposes the sources of anti-Jewish education in Zionist thought and praxis by examining an unsuccessful attempt to educate for sensitivity to the suffering of others in Israel. Argues that this form of education conflicts with themes of Jewish tradition leading to oppressions of the Palestinian "other." (CMK)

A schism now exists between Blacks and Jews in the United States, 2 groups that were strong allies during the civil rights movement. The authors describe the historical antecedents of and contributing factors to this schism and present information on and lessons learned from 2 Black-Jewish dialogues that were conducted.

The "Children Teach Children" (CTC) program aimed to educate Jewish and Arab children in Israel for tolerance and coexistence is first described against the general background of coexistence programs in Israel and in other countries. Results of a study that examined the influence of the program implementation in Grade 7 in a pair of…

This paper explores a unique and controversial case of Israeli English-language teachers working with Palestinian inmates incarcerated in prisons around Israel for involvement in terrorist activity against Israelis. This phenomenon is profoundly complex as the prisoners in question have been convicted of terrorist crimes against Israeli soldiers…

Little empirical research is currently available on Jewish distance learning, a nascent but growing field of practice. By way of qualitative case study methodology, this research explored the learning experience of a group of adult learners participating in a Jewish education Master's degree program that is offered by way of videoconferencing…

This study sheds light on the achievement gap between two culturally diverse populations in Israel by employing a diagnostic model for analysing responses of a representative sample of Jewish and Arab fourth graders on a national mathematics test. The results indicated large significant differences, in favour of the Jewish group, on most…

Teaching about intersecting, fluid and historically contingent identities has been taken up extensively within the sociology of race, class and gender and women's studies. Oddly, the case of Jewish women has been virtually left out of this robust literature. This article explores the challenges raised through teaching the course "Jewish Women in…