Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-First Century [Paperback]

At a time of heightened interest in Jewish supplementary schooling, this volume offers a path-breaking examination of how ten diverse schools have remade themselves to face the new challenges of the twenty-first century. Each written by an academic observer with the help of an experienced educator, the chapters bring these schools vividly to life by giving voice to students, parents, teachers, school directors, lay leaders, local rabbis and other key participants. The goal of the book is to uncover the building blocks each school put into place to improve its delivery of a Jewish education. Employing qualitative research, Learning and Community is filled with moving and inspiring human-interest stories. Collectively, these portraits offer models of how schools of different sizes and configurations can maximize their impact, and in the process revitalize the form of religious and cultural education that engages the majority of Jewish children in the United States.

JACK WERTHEIMER is Professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. He is the editor of Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice (2007) and Imagining the American Jewish Community (2008). This research project was sponsored by the AVI CHAI Foundation.

Contributors Introduction INNOVATIVE SMALL SCHOOLS Kehillah  Isa Aron with Nachama Skolnik Moskowitz The Power of Their Commitments: Lessons for the Jewish Community from a Small Synagogue School  Susan L. Shevitz with Marion Gribetz Between Entrepreneurship and Jewish Mission: The Making of a Chabad Hebrew School  Jack Wertheimer with Serene Victor RE-THINKING LARGE SUBURBAN CONGREGATIONAL SCHOOLS Belonging Before Belief  Harold Wechsler with Cyd Beth Weissman Adath Shalom Religious School: Strengths, Challenges, and Transitions  Randal F. Schnoor with Billy Mencow Innovating Inside the Box: An Ongoing Process to Improve a Congregational School  Susan L. Shevitz w