MCSJE News & Events -I- January 2025

NEWS

In this special edition of the MCSJE newsletter, we are sharing updates and articles from the many scholars and educational leaders who make up our team. Get to know our program and project leaders, our fellows, and others who are contributing to our mission to advance the field of Jewish educational scholarship.

• Project Leader Sharon Avni: The Sanctity of Decoding: Reframing Hebrew Literacy in the United States and Europe (research article)

• Program Leader Ilana Horwitz: Pious pupils in America perform better. But that does not justify Republican efforts to put Christianity into classrooms (in the news)

• Program Coordinator Shaul Kelner: How a Small Holiday Became a Symbol of Jewish Resistance (in the news)

• Research Professor Vardit Ringvald: Expanding the Pipeline: Brandeis Consortium Develops Hebrew Education to Meet Global Needs (in the news)

• Doctoral Fellow Orna Siegel: Entering its 2nd year, preschool teacher training program ElevatEd expands to seven more cities (in the news)

• Senior Fellow Daniel Smokler: Be ready to greet ‘The Surge’ (in the news)

• Senior Fellow Laura Novak Winer: The Census in Context: Expanding Our View of the Field of Part-Time Jewish Education (research article)

• Project Leader Laura Yares: Jewish Sunday Schools, Then and Now (podcast)

• Project Leader Sivan Zakai: Research Encounter: Teaching Israel (podcast)

UPCOMING EVENTS

MCSJE events are free and open to the public. Registration is required.

Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

Fluid Meanings of the Yarmulke Across Educational Contexts

Dr. Anastasia Badder

Date: Thursday, January 23, 2025

Time: 1 - 1:30 ET via Zoom

In her recent article, Anastasia Badder asks: How do congregational school students experience moments in which they were confronted with Jewishness outside of the classroom, in their secular schools and public spaces? And taking a material approach, how does the presence (and absence) of yarmulkes influence those experiences? In this session, she will discuss findings from fieldwork she conducted as an ethnographer and teacher in a Jewish congregational school researching the ways children learn about and how to do Jewishness.

Where the Rubber Hits the Road: Bringing Research into Practice

MCSJE at Prizmah Conference

Professors Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Ziva Hassenfeld, and Jonathan Krasner

Date: Monday, February 3, 2025

Time: 9 - 10:00 ET

Attending the annual Prizmah Conference in Boston February 2-4? Hear Mandel Center faculty members Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Ziva Hassenfeld, and Jonathan Krasner present some of their recent scholarly work, and explore together the implications of these ideas for our Jewish day schools and yeshivas. Join this unique opportunity to learn directly from some of the leading scholars in the field of Jewish education.

PAST EVENT

AJS Boston Gathering

AJS Gatherings were opportunities for local Jewish studies scholars to meet in person prior to the start of the annual Association for Jewish Studies conference, which was held online in December. The Boston event included brunch and a tour of the Rose Art Museum, and it was cosponsored by Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies/Steinhardt Social Research Institute, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department, Rose Art Museum, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

Stay Connected with the Mandel Center

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education is 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. Watch our videos on our YouTube channel or listen to our podcasts on Spotify, Amazon, or Apple.