Technological advances have given us unparalleled control over our environment and have helped us conquer space. The world is a global village; we can physically travel to places unthinkable previously and digital communication enables instantaneous communication...
Being educated Jewishly is a deeply embedded value with origins in the Torah, and reinforced in the Prophets, the Writings, the Tannaitic and Amoraic periods, and in every period since. The value of being knowledgeable about and engaged with Torah has never been...
Rabbi Zvi Grumet, Ed.D., is editor of Jewish Educational Leadership. Zvi Grumet highlights a number of different models, with specific examples, of schools which have built themselves as learning communities. The school as a learning community is not a new concept,...
My first year as a teacher was a deeply challenging experience. Armed with a rabbinical degree and a few graduate courses which provided me with some knowledge of educational theory, I found myself having to make it up as I went along. I made lots of mistakes in those...
In some Jewish circles, tikkun olam is the essence of Judaism. Drawing from select passages in the prophetic tradition, it represents for them the ultimate Jewish value and the sum total of what being Jewish means. Take away tikkun olam and there is little left. In...
I have never met a parent who wasn’t thrilled at their baby’s first steps or first words. I have also never met a parent who wasn’t terrified the first time their child walked to school by herself, rode a bicycle to a friend’s house, or took the car for the first...
Background The Israeli Knesset has 120 seats. Israelis do not vote for a specific candidate but for a party list. The system is one of proportional representation, whereby the number of seats each list is granted is in proportion to the number of votes it receives in...
Q: What’s the difference between a good student and a poor student? A: The poor student listens in class, takes notes and studies furiously before the test to remember everything – and forgets everything the minute the test is handed out to the student. The good...
The young man was bright, creative, energetic and sincere. I had taught him for a number of years in high school and was visiting him in his post-high school year in Israel in a very prestigious Yeshiva in Israel. Faced with significant intellectual challenges he was...
According to the 2008-9 AVICHAI study, there are approximately 230,000 students in Jewish day schools in the US alone. Figuring an average tuition of $12,000 a year, that amounts to a staggering 2.76 billion dollars each year spent on day school education. It is fair...
