MCSJE News & Events -I- October 2025

NEWS

A New Cohort for the MCSJE Doctoral Fellows Program

Mazel tov and welcome to the members of the sixth cohort of the Doctoral Fellows program:

Anne Ebersman, Jewish Theological Seminary

Steven Feldman, Indiana University Bloomington

Tidhar Gutman, Hebrew University

Malki Poryes, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The MCSJE Doctoral Fellows Program provides intellectual and professional support to a small group of current doctoral students in North American and Israeli universities whose research is related to Jewish education.

Faculty Essays Featured in Brandeis High Holiday Reader

MCSJE Professors Jon Levisohn and Jonathan Krasner are among the six scholars who share reflections and insights for the High Holiday season, in a new reader, designed to "remind us all that the renewal we seek is made possible through community, learning, and the enduring strength of Jewish life.”

MCSJE RESEARCH

The "Unsettled Center" of Jewish Students' Opinions on the War

MCSJE has released a new report, "You Stand Out No Matter What You Say": Jewish College Students Reflect on Israel-Gaza and Campus, authored by Professor Jonathan Krasner, along with colleagues Dr. Cheryl Weiner, Meka Greenwald, and Lance Rothchild. The report shares findings from the research project Jewish College Students and the Israel-Gaza War.

Helping Students Become Speakers of Jewish Language

In a new article in Journal of Jewish Education, Professor Jon Levisohn argues that we should think about the purpose of Jewish education as "the development of the capacity to produce language" in a metaphorical sense.

New Research on Rabbinical Students

Professor Jane Kanarek (Hebrew College), director of MCSJE's Talmud and Rabbinic Formation project, has published a new study on emotions and the cultivation of subjectivity in Talmud study among female rabbinical students.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

What Rabbinical Students Say They Need From Their Training

Cantor Laura Stein

Date: Thursday, October 23

Time: 1 - 1:30 ET via Zoom

Spiritual formation has long been considered an important part of theological education for seminary students in Christian contexts, but what about students in Jewish seminaries? In a recent study of Jewish seminarians' perspectives of their formation needs, scholars learned that rabbinical students at a progressive seminary seek training in areas such as mental health, diversity, and social justice; relational spaces for cultivating virtue capacities; and opportunities for meaningful reflection and processing of their growth. In this session, lead researcher Laura Stein will discuss with Professor Ziva Hassenfeld what can be learned about the future directions of Jewish clergy students' formation, and what can be done to address their evolving needs.

Spotlight on Jewish Education Two Years After October 7

Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Time: 1:30 - 2:45 ET via Zoom

Two years after October 7, that date seems to mark a watershed in Jewish life around the world, including in North America. In this session, we will explore how American Jewish educators and Jewish educational institutions have responded, how the changed environment has affected their work, and how they might need to think differently about the work of Jewish education in the days and years to come.

Panelists include Nina Bruder (Jewish New Teacher Project), Alex Pomson (Rosov Consulting), Matt Reingold (community educator/independent scholar), Miriam Heller Stern (BJE: Builders of Jewish Education) with Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University).

PAST EVENT

Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

Bringing the Big World into the Little Classroom

Dr. Laura Applebaum and Professor Sivan Zakai

What issues in the contemporary world matter most to Jewish children, and how do children make sense of these issues? How do educators make sense of children’s ideas and their implications for the work of Jewish education? American Jewish 4th and 5th graders have concerns about many important world issues—climate change, homelessness, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, political polarization, and so much more—and their teachers face the complexities of addressing political issues, shifting cultural norms, and more. In this session, scholars Lauren Applebaum and Sivan Zakai discussed their findings from a collaborative study with Jewish children enrolled in both day and supplementary schools, and their educators.

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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.