Jonathan Woocher is to be commended for offering his thought-provoking "big picture" account of where the field of Jewish education has been and where, if it is to be successful, it needs to be going under the conditions of life in the 21st century. Woocher's capacity to use an array of relevant perspectives and literatures to illuminate the…

This article takes as its starting point the conviction that high quality Jewish education depends heavily on high quality teaching. Grounded in this idea and in a multileveled exploration--one indebted to recent Jewish thought--of the nature of excellence in teaching and its defining characteristics, the article proceeds to try to understand…

Building on insights of Seymour Fox, I explore the often-decisive role of "good timing" in the introduction of potentially powerful innovations (ideas, practices, etc.) into practical domains like education. After examining key readiness conditions that make for good timing, I argue that the field of Jewish education is in many ways now ready to…

In this article, the author talks about Jon Levisohn's discussion of "Visions of Jewish Education," which includes at least four valuable contributions. First, Levisohn offers an illuminating account of what a reader of the important book will find. Second, Levisohn draws attention to the ways in which the book will significantly enrich discourse…