Developing a New Set of Guiding Ideas for Jewish Education with Prof. Michael Fishbane The Visions of Jewish Education Project is currently working with Prof. Michael Fishbane of the University of Chicago to develop another set of guiding ideas for Jewish education.  His conception is the latest contribution to a series of collaborations between scholars and educators that resulted in the publication of Visions of Jewish Education. In Fishbane's conception, he emphasizes the study of Jewish texts as a spiritual exercise. Fishbane focuses on how participation in various traditional modes of textual analysis and interpretation enable religious experience, ethical transformation, and cultural renewal. Reading and text study have been central in every form of Jewish education. We see Fishbane's work as making a claim about the value of Jewish reading in a modern world that is increasingly alienated from text study. Prof. Fishbane is a leading scholar of religious studies, Bible and classical Jewish literature. One of the founding members of the chavurah movement, his works include Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel, Biblical Text and Texture, Garments of Torah, and the JPS Bible commentary on the Haftarot.  Recently, Prof. Fishbane was awarded the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Textual Studies.  An anthology of essays in his honor is forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and the new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica will feature an article on his scholarship.

Can Vision Make a Difference in a School?  A Cooperative Project with The Frankel Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit  One of the fundamental assumptions of the Visions of Jewish Education Project is that educational vision can make a difference in practice, and that educational vision can be informed by practice and practitioner knowledge. The chapters in Visions of Jewish Education by Seymour Fox and Daniel Marom address this assumption. The project has worked with educators in North America and Israel to develop its ideas and is currently training educational leaders and developing pedagogies so that the ideas of the book can be used in institutions, and so that the wisdom of practice can inform educational vision. To further explore these principles, the VJEP has undertaken a joint project with The Frankel Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, a community high school. Rabbi Lee Buckman, the Head of School, approached the project after the Jewish studies faculty had read Visions of Jewish Education.  VJEP staff members are working with a group of 15 teachers at the school to study educational vision. 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. VJEP Staff members and the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit have made a commitment to work together in a long-term professional development effort, meeting every four to six weeks in ongoing workshops. Topics are mutually negotiated. The Judaics faculty has elected to study the teaching of tefillah, for example. The group considers such questions as how vision can make a difference for teaching decisions in the classroom and how knowledge from practice can enhance conceptions of vision.   Click here to read about other recent and ongoing events and initiatives in the Visions of Jewish Education Project.

Bringing R. Twersky's Vision to Teacher Educators: Spritualizing Halakhic Education by Rabbi Jeffrey Saks R. Prof. Yitzchak Twersky’s chapter in Visions of Jewish Education generated a strong response among Modern Orthodox readers. Could his vision make an impact on education in these communities?  Rabbi Jeffrey Saks (Director of ATID: Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions) has argued that there is a need in the Modern Orthodox community to work on educational vision. In his article “Melamdim and Mehankhim: Who Are We?” in the ATID Journal, Saks calls for “an articulation of goals rooted in theoretical conceptions of general education and Torah education, which are then applied to enriching our practice.”  Click here to download the article.    Seeing Twersky’s vision as a resource for this task, Saks joined VJEP director Daniel Marom in leading a seminar in professional development using Twersky’s ideas as a basis for improving Modern Orthodox Jewish education.  In Spiritualizing Halakhic Education Saks reports on the findings of this experiment. His case study, while of special relevance to Modern Orthodox communities, also has broader applications as a model for deliberations on educational vision at the community level. Click here to download Spiritualizing Halakhic Education. To download the collection of sources on hashavat aveidah referred to in the case study as a pdf file, click here. To open the sources as a Word document, click here. To request a paper copy, please contact us at visions@mli.org.il.  For additional resources on R. Twersky’s conception, click here to go to the VJEP library.  Click here to read about other VJEP Publications.

Prof. Seymour Fox ז"ל         A collection of memorial tributes to Prof. Seymour          Fox is now available on the Mandel Foundation          website.

Readers' Forum: Can Judaism be Transmitted in Translation? A substantial investment of resources has made Hebrew an important part of most programs of Jewish education in North America, from supplementary schools to day schools.  Few institutions, however, have adopted full proficiency in Hebrew - the ability to read Hebrew texts without translation - as a central aim. In effect, most settings of Jewish education in North America today have “voted with their feet” for an approach that is dependent on English translations for tapping into Jewish literature. Moshe Greenberg has argued for a higher standard of Hebrew instruction. He believes that “the uniquely Jewish store of concepts and values cannot be transmitted in translation” (Visions of Jewish Education, page 130).  Click here to read more of Greenberg’s argument. To read "The Future of Hebrew in America" by Alan Mintz, click here. Click here to read "Judaism in Translation" by Gershon Shaked. Historically, there was a movement that saw the acquisition of Hebrew as the ultimate aim of Jewish education. Jonathan Sarna has told the story of the ivrit b-ivrit movement at the end of the 19th century.  Click here to read more. VJEP staff recently conducted a conversation with Rabbi Chaim Brovender, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaMivtar and President of ATID, on the place of Hebrew in halakhah and on making pedagogical choices about Hebrew in the curriculum. Click here to listen to this discussion. To subscribe to In Focus, write to us at visions@mli.org.il.