CALL FOR PAPERS

Jewish Educational Leadership invites proposals for its Winter 2027 issue focusing on

Much of Jewish education focuses on ideas, values, and texts. This makes sense, as for most of Jewish history people learned “what to do as a Jew”—the day-to-day practice—from the home and the community. For some communities and families that is still true, but for the vast majority of youth it is not, and many families rely on formal schooling to provide that knowledge. It can span from topics such as learning to recite Birkat Hamazon and what to do when visiting a shiva home to intricacies of how to eat certain foods on Shabbat. These can be especially difficult for schools which have not articulated clear goals or educational plans for achieving them. To be sure, there will be great variations depending on the ideological orientation of the school and the nature of the parent body. Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from those who have developed effective pedagogies. This issue of the journal is devoted to sharing those, and is interested in questions such as (but not limited to): 

1. How do we teach halakha or Jewish practice while respecting students who come from a broad range of family backgrounds with diverse ideological positions, levels of observance, and ethnic traditions?
2. Should teaching halakha focus on practice, on the origins and development of the halakhic system, on the ethics or values or meaning underlying the halakha, about commitment, or something else altogether?
3. What pedagogies or programs have teachers found effective in transforming the learning of halakha or Jewish practice from rote memorization of lists of dos and don’ts?
4. In what ways and to what extent should schools strive to include families in educating for Jewish practice and halakha?
5. Where does the teaching of Jewish practice fit into the educational program? Is it its own subject taught in class, integrated into other subjects, conveyed through informal programming?
6. What can teachers and schools learn from informal Jewish education regarding acculturating students into Jewish practice and Jewish “life skills,” preparing students to function as Jewish adults in their communities?
7. How can school norms or policies be used to help convey knowledge or value of halakha or Jewish communal practice while avoiding a sense of coercion?
8. Some students want to just “know what to do” while others need a conceptual framing for their learning. How can teachers accommodate the range of learning needs when teaching Jewish practice? 
9. The question of what we do as Jews, whether the result of custom, culture, or halakhic source material, is often divorced from the question of how our Jewish practice connects us to God. How can we bridge that divide?

The journal is intended for teachers, educational leaders, and interested laypeople across a range of Jewish educational settings. Proposals should be 150-250 words and briefly share the focus of the proposed article and the key points the article will present. Please send proposals or queries to the Editor-in-Chief by June 28, 2026.

Full articles will be 1000-2000 words in length, with no footnotes or academic references.