Experiential Programs For Jewish Groups

Bernard Reisman is in many ways the founding father of informal Jewish education as a full-fledged domain within the larger world of Jewish learning. His original volume, when it appeared in 1978, revolutionized much of Jewish educational practice for both youth and adults. Over the years, experiential education has proven itself to be a powerful tool not only for motivating, but for reaching generations of teenagers, young leaders, and veteran adult learners about Jewish issues, values, and their own identities. This new edition of Reisman's classic compendium of informal educational principles, guidelines, and activities enriches the storehouse of resources on which professional educators and lay program leaders can draw to address both timeless and timely concerns. For those for whom experiential and informal education are concepts whose importance is recognized but whose effective practice is not well understood, this book from the master will prove a highly valuable guide and companion.

The International Handbook of Jewish Education, a two volume publication, brings together scholars and practitioners engaged in the field of Jewish Education and its cognate fields world-wide. Their submissions make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the field of Jewish Education as we start the second decade of the 21st century. The Handbook is divided broadly into four main sections: Vision and Practice: focusing on issues of philosophy, identity and planning –the big issues of Jewish Education. Teaching and Learning: focusing on areas of curriculum and engagement Applications, focusing on the ways that Jewish Education is transmitted in particular contexts, both formal and informal, for children and adults. Geographical, focusing on historical, demographic, social and other issues that are specific to a region or where an issue or range of issues can be compared and contrasted between two or more locations. This comprehensive collection of articles providing high quality content, constitutes a difinitive statement on the state of Jewish Education world wide, as well as through a wide variety of lenses and contexts. It is written in a style that is accessible to a global community of academics and professionals.

This book, in its 113th year, provides insight into major trends in the North American Jewish community, examining Jewish education, New York Jewry, national and Jewish communal affairs, and the US and world Jewish population. It also acts as an important resource with its lists of Jewish Institutions, Jewish periodicals, and academic resources as well as Jewish honorees, obituaries, and major recent events. It should prove useful to social scientists and historians of the American Jewish community, Jewish communal workers, and the press, among others. For more than a century, the American Jewish Year Book has remained and continues to serve, even in the Internet age, as the leading reference work on contemporary Jewish life. This year’s volume, with its special reports on Jewish education and the New York community and its updates on Jewish population statistics, Jewish institutions, and the major Jewish figures who passed in the year past, continues this splendid tradition. Pamela S. Nadell, Chair, Department of History, American University and Co-editor, Making Women’s Histories: Beyond National Perspectives The 2013 volume of the American Jewish Year Book impressively demonstrates that Arnold Dashefsky and Ira Sheskin have restored this important resource in all its former glory. Bruce A. Phillips, Professor of Sociology and Jewish Communal Service, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles Having a current American Jewish Year Book on my shelf is like having a panel of experts on American Jewish life at the ready, prepared to give me thoughtful, accurate answers and observations on the key issues, trends and statistics that define our continental Jewish community today. Well into its second century, the American Jewish Year Book continues to be an essential resource for serious leaders, practitioners and students who seek to ground their work in solid research and up-to-date data. Jacob Solomon, Greater Miami Jewish Federation President and CEO

"All the important moral ideas of the modern world are based on the key biblical verses analyzed in this collection. What generally happens when someone picks up a copy of the Bible? Often it is put down within seconds because readers see endless verses which turn them off. Finally, here is an accessible book about the Bible that focuses on its great moral principles: --Human beings are created in the image of God. --""Love your neighbor as yourself."" --""You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor."" --""You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."" --""Justice, justice shall you pursue."" Dov Peretz Elkins believes that if a reader understands fifty verses of the five thousand in the Bible (only 1 percent), he or she will begin to grasp the essence of the Bible. This remarkable explanation of the Bible shows readers how it can serve as a light that illuminates a path through the confusion and problems in their personal and communal lives. The result is a life that is better and more serious--a life with meaning, purpose, and direction. The Bible's Top 50 Ideas: --Presents the Bible's essential ideas in readable, engaging fashion. --Focuses on the contemporary value of the Bible. --Uses commentaries and explanations from sources that are modern as well as ancient, Christian as well as Jewish, and popular as well as scholarly. Elkins not only simplifies the Bible but also demonstrates how its fundamental ideas and concepts have inspired four thousand years of civilization to follow its teachings. The result is a moral, legal, and literary foundation that remains the basis of all democratic and principled societies to this day. "

Dov Peretz Elkins, rabbi emeritus of The Jewish Center of Princeton, NJ, is well-known as a prominent rabbi and innovative Jewish educator. Dr. Elkins has been a pioneer in interactive, affective, and humanistic learning models for half a century. He was one of the first Jewish educators to promote family education in Jewish schools and in synagogue and other Jewish communal settings. Trained in human resource development by University Associates, the Gestalt Institute, NTL Institute, Esalen Institute of Big Sur, CA, the Hypnosis Institute, and many other prominent growth and learning centers in North America, his fifty pioneering books can be found on the shelf of every Jewish communal service worker, educator, and rabbi. He founded Growth Associates Educational Consultants in 1976. His website is www.JewishGrowth.org.

From time immemorial Jews have been studying the assigned Sidrah (Torah lesson) every week of the year. Jews study the Sidrah beginning Shabbat afternoon, when the Sidrah for the following week is read in the synagogue. A favorite time to study has always been at the Friday night Shabbat dinner table. As soon as all the prayers and rituals are chanted and performed, the delicious Shabbat meal has been consumed, and Birkat HaMazon (Grace After Meals) has been chanted and perhaps several zemirot (Shabbat hymns) have been sung with gusto a traditional family will turn to the parshah, as it is familiarly known. If they are more advanced they may open a Humash. Or they may have before them a copy of Sidrah Sparks. Serious discussion is a lost art at the family dinner table, and Torah study is surely not common among most families today. Using Sidrah Sparks is a wonderful way to revive the inspiring and enlightening Jewish custom of turning our attention to serious discussion, and to create opportunities for Jewish educational enrichment. Using traditional Torah texts to share our ideas, our philosophies, our values and our feelings is a wonderful way to enrich our minds and spirits, and also our closest relationships.