Mandel Center News & Events -I- December 2022

SCRoLL Lab: Diversity Informs and Inspires Research

The Student-Centered Religious Learning and Literacy Lab (SCRoLL Lab) at the Mandel Center provides opportunities for Brandeis students to develop social scientific research skills, as they participate in a range of collaborative empirical studies all focused on how children read and understand sacred texts.

The SCRoLL Lab is comprised of students from a wide variety of religious, academic, and cultural backgrounds to ensure the group arrives at insights that only come from a mixing of perspectives, experiences and training. The Lab includes students majoring in Near Eastern Jewish Studies, Linguistics, Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. There are students who attended Jewish Day School as well as Muslim, Catholic and staunchly secular students.

Read more about the Mandel Center’s students’ experiences with the SCRoLL Lab here.



Job Opportunity available at MCSJE

The Mandel Center is looking to hire an Associate Director to be a part of its leadership team. The Associate Director is not expected to be an active scholar and while an academic background is helpful it is not required. Application reviews begin on December 12th. Read more information about this exciting position here.



MCSJE is committed to sharing its research findings broadly with other scholars and practitioners in an effort to strengthen the field of Jewish education scholarship. To that end, please find links to past MCSJE research:

Ziva Hassenfeld & Jon A. Levisohn, "The Challenge of Professional Development in Jewish Studies: Why the Conventional Wisdom May Not Be Enough" Journal of Jewish Education, 85.1 (2019)

This article examines the ways that Jewish studies teachers think about their teaching. It analyzes data from a three-month teacher study group in which teachers read educational research articles as a framework for reflecting on their own teaching. The data suggest that Jewish studies teachers take one of two approaches in talking about their teaching. Half the teachers focused on the process of teaching, the specific modalities and teaching moves they employed, while the other half focused on the goals of teaching, the specific outcomes they wanted to see in their students. The authors also found that those teachers who were more focused on outcomes (rather than process) saw personal identity as an essential ingredient in effective Jewish education. This article raises questions about the efficacy of transferring professional development models from general education to Jewish education, without special attention to the specific cultural context of Jewish studies.

Beyond Jewish Identity, edited by Jon A. Levisohn and Ari Y. Kelman (2019)

The edited volume emerged from the 2014 MCSJE conference titled, "Beyond Jewish Identity: Rethinking Concepts and Imagining Alternatives". It was published in 2019 by Academic Studies Press and is available via Open Access here. It was recently reviewed by Stephen Frosh in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 21:4. Read the review here. 

Beyond Jewish Identity explores such questions as:

• What work does the phrase "Jewish identity" do in discussions of Jewish education? What kinds of educational efforts does it promote, and what does it inhibit?
• Where does the language of "Jewish identity" come from? How did it come to be so dominant in Jewish policy discourse?
• If the construct of “Jewish identity” no longer satisfies us, what alternatives are available — especially in conceptualizing the desirable outcomes of Jewish education?

UPCOMING EVENTS

Learning About Learning

A Conversation with Professor Ziva Hassenfeld

Why Jewish Day Schools Should Teach Students to Read Torah

Date: Wednesday, December 7

Time: 1 - 1:30 p.m. ET via Zoom

Jewish day schools expend significant time and energy in teaching Torah. But what are they trying to accomplish in this work? In this session, Ziva Hassenfeld will discuss her recently published research on students’ learning to read Torah, in order to argue that Jewish day schools can induct students into a way of reading texts that will serve them in all endeavors, from their academic studies to text messaging with friends.

Learning About Learning

A Conversation with Dr. Anna Hartman

Children's Theories About Judaism

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 8

Time: 1 - 1:30 p.m. ET via Zoom

Children’s ideas about the world are rich, nuanced, sometimes amusing and surprising, and for Anna Hartman, always fascinating. In this session, she will share her doctoral research in the field of early childhood Jewish education, in which she explores the theories about Judaism that are held by young children, and provides a window into their process of exploring and participating in Jewish life.

PAST EVENTS

Learning About Learning

A Conversation with Professor Judah Cohen

How Debbie Friedman (and CAJE) Gave Jewish Education a New Soundtrack

In this session, Judah Cohen discussed his recent article on the crucial role that Debbie Friedman played in making song leading a core part of the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE). He also addressed the changes in Jewish education that resulted from this alliance, and why it still matters. Watch the video or listen to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, or Google.

Learning About Learning

A Conversation with Professor Meredith Katz

How Do Jewish Day School Kids Think About the Holocaust?

Holocaust education is a staple of Jewish day school education. What messages do day school students take from this education? In this session, Meredith Katz discussed her recently published study, which explored how a group of day school kids navigated questions of particularism and universalism, and how Holocaust education helped them to see themselves as civic actors in the broader community. Watch the video or listen to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, or Google.

Stay Connected with the Mandel Center

Did you know the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education is now on Facebook and LinkedIn? Stay connected with us and hear about our upcoming events and innovative research by connecting with our pages.

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The Mandel Center offers a robust schedule of events to convene scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to advance thinking, generate new questions and, in some cases, generate new work for future publication. See our full list of recent conferences and events, watch videos of our past events,or listen to our podcasts on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, or Google.