Programs
MCSJE has developed programs that engage and inspire established and emerging researchers and practitioners with the goal of driving impact in the field of Jewish education scholarship.
Featured Content Slideshow
Research
MCSJE’s faculty and community of affiliated scholars conduct research that promotes a deeper understanding of learners and learning in Jewish education.
Conferences and Events
MCSJE offers a robust schedule of events throughout the year. Many events are open to the public, while others are tailored to audiences of scholars or educational leaders.
The Leading Research Center for Jewish Educational Scholarship
The Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education (MCSJE) is dedicated to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship through expansive research on teaching and learning and by convening and catalyzing other scholars and practitioners in the field through important programs, events and conferences.
Upcoming Event
Fluid Meanings of the Yarmulke Across Educational Contexts | Dr. Anastasia Badder
January 23, 1 PM - 1:30 PM
Learning About Learning | In her article, When a Yarmulke Stands for All Jews: Navigating Shifting Signs from Synagogue to School in Luxembourg, Anastasia Badder asks: How do congregational school students experience moments in which they were confronted with Jewishness outside of the classroom, in their secular schools and public spaces? And taking a material approach, how does the presence (and absence) of yarmulkes influence those experiences? In this session, she will discuss findings from fieldwork she conducted as an ethnographer and teacher in a Jewish congregational school researching the ways children learn about and how to do Jewishness.
Featured Videos
Jewish Creativity: An Essential Aspiration for Jewish Education | Professor Miriam Heller Stern
November 7
Learning About Learning | Habits of creative thinking have sustained the Jewish people through centuries of crisis and opportunity. How might the enterprise of Jewish education reclaim and teach creativity? Weaving together a wide range of theory and research, including affective neuroscience, Jewish philosophy and education, and studies of creativity and arts education, Miriam Heller Stern discussed a framework for fostering Jewish creativity that can be pursued across the Jewish educational ecosystem.
Spotlight on Jewish Education after October 7th
October 31
The attack on October 7th, the ensuing war, and the changed environment in the US have all led to questions about how American Jewish educational institutions have responded, and how they should. What do we know about the impact of the last year on schools, synagogues, camps, Israel trips, and other initiatives? How have educators been affected? How have children? What new trends are emerging? In this session, a group of scholars and educational leaders offer ideas for educators and educational institutions one year into this new environment.
How Educators Can Overcome Barriers to Engaging with the Conflict | Keren Fraiman
October 10
Learning About Learning| There is a growing consensus that successful and holistic Israel education demands a sophisticated and nuanced engagement with critical questions within Israel, and in particular, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This feels especially pressing in a post October 7th world. Despite this critical need, many educators continue to express reticence about conflict education. In this session, Keren Fraiman explores why educators are hesitant to engage in conflict education, highlighting the greatest sources of challenge and a typology of barriers to entry. Importantly, she shared what we can do to support our educators, educational systems, and the community more broadly.
How American Activists Helped Free Soviet Jews | Professor Shaul Kelner
September 26
Learning About Learning | Shaul Kelner recounts the compelling stories of heroism that helped to free Soviet Jews. In this session, he discussed how this activism reached Jewish educational spaces — through bar and bat mitzvah twinning, school field trips to rallies, summer camp programming, and much more — and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan-Bush years.
Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field
May 30
How do educators from differing pedagogical orientations learn, undertake, and ultimately improve the work of teaching Israel? In this conversation, "Teaching Israel: Studies of Pedagogy from the Field" editors Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold discuss the complex issues facing those who teach about Israel, along with respondents Lisa Grant (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) and Alex Pomson (Rosov Consulting), and moderator Sharon Feiman-Nemser (Brandeis University).