Studies In Judaism And Jewish Education In Honor Of Dr Lifsa B Schachter

This book is a collection of essays in honor of the life and work of Dr. Lifsa Schachter . The contributors span a broad range of Dr. Schachter's 50-year involvement in Jewish education and scholarship. The three major foci of the volume--Bible, Hebrew, and Jewish education--reflect the three major arenas of her work. Within each of these areas, the essays encompass Dr. Schachter's commitment to thoughtful reflection (theory) and competent and creative implementation (practice). Also included are several essays by Dr. Schachter as well as reflections from Lifsa's students and colleagues on her contribution to their personal and professional growth.

This book is a collection of essays in honor of the life and work of Dr. Lifsa Schachter . The contributors span a broad range of Dr. Schachter's 50-year involvement in Jewish education and scholarship. The three major foci of the volume--Bible, Hebrew, and Jewish education--reflect the three major arenas of her work. Within each of these areas, the essays encompass Dr. Schachter's commitment to thoughtful reflection (theory) and competent and creative implementation (practice). Also included are several essays by Dr. Schachter as well as reflections from Lifsa's students and colleagues on her contribution to their personal and professional growth.

This volume gathers an array of voices to tell the stories of Cleveland’s twentieth century Jewish community. Strong and stable after an often turbulent century, the Jews of Cleveland had both deep ties in the region and an evolving and dynamic commitment to Jewish life. The authors present the views and actions of community leaders and everyday Jews who embodied that commitment in their religious participation, educational efforts, philanthropic endeavors, and in their simple desire to live next to each other in the city’s eastern suburbs. The twentieth century saw the move of Cleveland’s Jews out of the center of the city, a move that only served to increase the density of Jewish life. The essays collected here draw heavily on local archival materials and present the area’s Jewish past within the context of American and American Jewish studies.

In Rabbinic Discourse as a System of Knowledge Hannah Hashkes employs contemporary philosophy in describing rabbinic reasoning as a rational response to experience. Hashkes combines insights from the philosophy of Quine and Davidson with the semiotics of Peirce to construe knowledge as systematic reasoning occurring within a community of inquiry. Her reading of the works of Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion allows her to create a philosophical bridge between a discourse of God and a discourse of reason. This synthesis of pragmatism, hermeneutics and theology provides Hashkes with a sophisticated tool to understand Rabbinic Judaism. It also makes this study both unique and pathbreaking in contemporary Jewish philosophy and Rabbinic thought.

This book looks at the philosophical consideration of Jewish existence in our time, as reflected in Jewish education, its alternative visions, its purposes and instrumentalities, the values it should serve, and the personal and social character it ought to foster. Prevalent conceptions and practices of Jewish education are neither sufficiently reflective nor thoroughgoing enough to meet the multiple challenges that the world now poses to Jewish existence and continuity. New efforts are needed to develop an education of the future that will honor the riches of the Jewish past and grasp the opportunities of fruitful interactions with the general culture of the present. To promote such efforts, six leading scholars in this book formulate their variant visions of an ideal Jewish education for the contemporary world. This book also translates these visions into educational practice and, finally, articulates a vision abstracted from a case study of a school's ongoing practice.

The Festschrift honors a man who has had the utmost influence on Jeish education.