Association for Jewish Studies Conference

A special session at the 2003 Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) Conference in Boston addressed the topic, "What do Jewish Scholars and Jewish Educators Have to Speak About?" Barry Holtz chaired the panel, which included Seymour Fox on "The Role of Jewish Scholarship in the Development of Vision in Jewish Education" and Daniel Marom on "The Role of Jewish Studies Scholars in Early Zionist Education." David Ellenson responded to the presentations in terms of the relevance for Jewish studies scholars in America; his response is available here. Click here to listen to an audio recording of the session (running time: 1 hour).  Additional resources from this conference are available in Current Events and Initiatives.  

Rabbi Chaim Brovender on the Place of Hebrew in the Curriculum

VJEP staff 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.

The Graduates Seminar

The May 2006 meeting of the Visions seminar for graduates of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows and the Mandel Teacher Educator Initiative (MTEI) included a conversation with Daniel Marom about his work with the Magnes School. His experiences as a vision consultant at the school, which are the basis for his chapter "Before the Gates of the School" in Visions of Jewish Education, are considered as a model for the kinds of work that graduates will undertake in their institutions (running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes). Follow the links to listen to the audio files: part one; part two; part three; part four. The excerpts from Marom's chapter that are discussed in the session are also available here. To read more about the Graduates Seminar, click here to go to Current Event and Initiatives.

The Modern Orthodox Seminar and Scholars Forum

Two recordings from the ongoing VJEP project with the Modern Orthodox community in North America have been added to the Audio Library. The first is a classroom session conducted by Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, VJEP staff member, with students at a North American Orthodox high school. 

The second recording was produced in January 2007 at the first meeting of the Modern Orthodox Scholars Forum. Papers were 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.

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) also responded to the presentations.

To request copies of these recordings, please contact us at visions@mli.org.il.


Rabbi Jeffrey Saks at the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Graduates Colloquium

Jeffrey Saks, a graduate of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows and staff member of the VJEP, presented his case study Spiritualizing Halakhic Education as a model of teacher development to other MJF graduates at their winter colloquium at the Dead Sea. Saks spoke about the experiment in working with R. Twersky's ideas to reconsider the spiritual aims of a traditional education and how they can be achieved in practice. The presentation is in Hebrew; copies are available by contacting us at visions@mli.org.il.