The Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit
The VJEP has undertaken a joint project with The Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, a community high school. Rabbi Lee Buckman, the Head of School, approached the VJEP after the Jewish Studies faculty had read Visions of Jewish Education.
VJEP staff members are working with the school to study educational vision together. Thus far, the group has read works by Moshe Greenberg and Joseph Schwab, analyzed videotaped records of classroom teaching, and studied traditional texts that portray teaching and learning. Click here to read more about this project.
MTEI-MLI Alumni Visions Project
A select group of graduates from two programs - the Mandel Teacher Educator Initiative and the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows - gather regularly to continue their study of Visions of Jewish Education. These educators, who come from settings ranging from early childhood to adult education, and from day schools to JCCs, undertook individual projects designed to use and expand the concept of educational vision. Click here to see a list of their projects.
Modern Orthodox Scholars Forum
As part of its work with the Modern Orthodox community in North America, the VJEP is undertaking a new project with a group of six scholars of Jewish studies. The work of this group will be modeled on the original Visions of Jewish Education scholars group. Each participant will write a paper on a topic related to educational vision, which will be presented to the group for their responses and discussion.
Papers have been presented by Rabbi Jack Bieler (Kemp Mill Synagogue, Silver Spring, MD; and Berman Hebrew Academy) on the critique of hergel in the musar movement; Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer (MTA Yeshiva University High School for Boys) on moral development in rabbinic sources; and Dr. Michael Berger (Emory University and Yeshiva Atlanta) on educational communities.
Dr. Berger has also published "Jewish Education in an Age of Personalized Religion" in the PEJE report Ten Years of Believing in Jewish Day School Education on the basis of his participation in the VEJP project.
Respondents (and future presenters) include Dr. Rivka Blau (author and former principal) and Rabbi Shalom Carmy (Yeshiva University). VJEP staff Dr. Daniel Marom and Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, along with Rabbi Mark Gottlieb (Principal, MTA Yeshiva University High School) will also respond to the presentations.
Though this Scholars Forum is focused on the Modern Orthodox community, the VJEP hopes its work may be a model for other denominations and communities in the future.
Colloquia with Prof. Michael Fishbane
The Visions of Jewish Education Project has begun to develop another conception of "the educated Jew" with Prof. Michael Fishbane of the University of Chicago, a leading scholar of religious studies, Bible and classical Jewish literature. He is one of the founding members of the chavurah movement and has written works for the general public, including Text and Texture and the JPS Bible commentary on the Haftarot. Prof. Fishbane is working with a group of scholars and educators from the Mandel Leadership Institute in a series of ongoing colloquia.
Monthly Visions Colloquium
Sharon Feiman-Nemser and Barry Holtz lead an ongoing seminar with 20 local Jewish educational leaders and graduates of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows program in Boston. Their first meeting was dedicated to exploring the conception of educational vision. Their focal point was Daniel Pekarsky's paper, "Vision and Education," which was published in Judaism and Education: Essays in Honor of Walter I. Ackerman, ed. Haim Marantz (Beersheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 1998). At the second meeting, Prof. Israel Scheffler spoke about his chapter, "The Concept of the Educated Person: With Some Applications to Jewish Education" (Visions of Jewish Education, pages 219-32).
Pedagogical Seminar for University Faculty
The Visions of Jewish Education project has convened a pedagogical seminar for college and university faculty teaching Visions of Jewish Education in courses on Jewish education and philosophy of Jewish education. The seminar is directed by Barry Holtz (The Jewish Theological Seminary of America). Ten participants from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Siegal College of Judaic Studies, Brandeis, Hebrew Union College, and other academic settings exchange ideas and pedagogies and document their work in writing. The first meeting took place on January 13, 2004 in New York. The second meeting took place at Brandeis University.