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The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis organized a forum to tackle critical questions surrounding Jewish education on March 24th at Brandeis House in New York City. The event was concurrent with the annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) meeting.
The forum has brought leading Jewish and general education researchers from the US and Israel together to discuss the current state and future directions of research in Jewish education.
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Prof. Sam Wineburg | According to Dr. Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Mandel Center director, the field of academic studies in Jewish education is still in an early stage, but a growing number of researchers are interested in building the field. The forum was meant to reflect and support the trend of recruiting general education researchers into Jewish educational research.
This has been an explicit strategy of Brandeis’ Mandel Center and its partner, the Mandel Foundation of Cleveland.
“The study of Jewish education poses big and important questions that can engage the interests of serious researchers and contribute to broader understandings inside and outside the field of Jewish education,” said Dr. Feiman-Nemser. “The Mandel Foundation has given many researchers the opportunity to make such a contribution.”
Annette Hochstein addresses the forum |
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| Participants in the discussion included Adam Gamoran, Professor of Sociology and Educational Policy Studies and Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin; Miriam Raider-Roth, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture, University of Cincinnati; and Sam Wineburg, Professor of Education and History at Stanford University.
Ms. Annette Hochstein, President of Mandel Foundation-Israel, delivered welcoming remarks and a greeting on behalf of Morton Mandel, Chair and CEO of the Mandel Foundation.
In 1991 the Commission on Jewish Education in North America, convened by the Mandel Foundations, the Jewish Community Center Association (JCCA), and the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) in collaboration with CJF (forerunner of United Jewish Communities), and chaired by Morton L. Mandel, published the groundbreaking report “A Time To Act” which moved Jewish education to the top of the communal agenda in North America. The Commission relied on accomplished researchers from general and Jewish education to develop research-based policy recommendations. The Mandel Foundation has consistently relied on and recruited accomplished researchers from general education to the study of Jewish education.
In addition to the forum at Brandeis House, two sessions at the AERA meeting featured Mandel Center research, including a symposium, “Context–Specific Teacher Education: Identity, Coherence, and Career Commitments” and the session “Examining the Roles of School and Policy Communities in New Teacher Induction.”
About the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis
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The Mandel Center at Brandeis University |
The Mandel Center is dedicated to transforming the quality of teaching and learning in Jewish education by working at the intersection of scholarship and practice. The center is a partnership between the Mandel Foundation of Cleveland and Brandeis University.
To learn more, visit the Brandeis Website http://www.brandeis.edu/mandel
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