Barabbas has a small role in the Gospels, but his presence influences the way the Christian story has been told and received over the centuries. While he is mentioned in all four Gospels during the account of Jesus' Roman trial, he never appears "on-stage" in the Gospels. His main purpose is to exculpate the Romans of responsibility for…

Over a period of 13 years, I taught a class in photography to high school students, using a taxonomy I developed based on my own understanding of what makes for excellence in photography. Five of the elements of this taxonomy are explained and illustrated by photographs taken by my students; I submit these as evidence of my success in this…

The Jewish Passover seder meal is one of the central celebrations for Jews. The commemoration of the Exodus annually celebrated in this ritual meal has attracted the attention of Christians in recent years who seek to replicate the experience of Jesus of Nazareth in his Last Supper in Jerusalem. However, the practice of a "Christian…

Jewish Schools spend a significant amount of time on the teaching of Halakha--Jewish Law, custom, and ritual. The practice is most prevalent in Orthodox schools, although in truth all Jewish schools spend some time on the instruction of this discipline. Schools differ widely as to the approach they take in the teaching of Halakha, and this…

This paper reviews the taxonomies and characteristics of Israel education articulated by Benji Davis and Dr. Hanan Alexander while suggesting that their specific educational philosophy, Mature Zionism, ought not be siloed only to educating about Israel but rather extended to Jewish education writ large. Developing a framework of Israel literacy…

This paper provides a response to B. Davis' and H. Alexander's article "Israel Education: A Philosophical Analysis," (EJ1384540) published in this same issue of the Journal of Jewish Education. The authors provide a valuable conceptual map of six distinctive, sometimes intersecting and sometimes conflicting ideologies and purposes that…

In their new study, Benji Davis and Hanan Alexander propose a conceptual taxonomy of six types of Israel education. But it is not at all clear that the different types of Israel education are associated with different pedagogies, or indeed, whether they are significantly distinct from each other. Davis and Alexander also propose their own version…

This study explores the perspective of day school parents as they engage with questions of race with their children and in the context of their day school choice. We convened a book group in summer 2020. Nine White mothers of school-aged children met over four ninety minute sessions to discuss Margaret Hagermans' (2018) White Kids: Growing up with…

Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners access to a multiplicity of experts. While these outlets empower lay-learners, they create competition amongst clerical and knowledge authorities. This article addresses the question: "how is religious authority understood and negotiated by learners,…

Existent research on intercultural exposure and cultural intelligence has been largely conducted in management and management education, the latter with business student subjects. Aiming to attain a more holistic view in this regard, we attend to a civic-related outcome, namely, the emergence of (cosmopolitan-based) global citizenship attitudes,…

Malka Haas (1920-2021) was a key pioneer in the founding of Israeli kibbutz kindergartens, and she profoundly influenced both the curriculum and practice of early childhood education (ECE) for the entire country. The article reviews Haas's biography, her professional development, and the main principles in her educational approach: "the…

Introducing students to the similarities and connections among the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an is a means to introduce students to a shared source of humanity, beauty, wisdom, and solace. This article outlines a literature class that uses comparatist strategies to introduce these three foundational religious texts as literary works.…

The recent war in Europe, the Ukraine-Russia war, has had a huge impact in the lives of millions of people in the European continent--in the lives of both those who have fled the conflict and of those who have welcomed them with open arms. In this paper, we conduct a philosophical investigation into the issue of hospitality to others, to…

When Israel, Jewish identity and education are each in a state of profound flux, Israel education for Jews will necessarily be dynamic. In response, an orienting prism is proposed which seeks that Jews inquire appreciatively into Israel with diverse Israelis, whilst using historical thinking. The aim is that there emerge numerous ethical paths to…

The contrast between student-centred and knowledge-centred teaching is explored through a qualitative case study exploration of the pedagogies (Bruner's 'folk pedagogies') of six teachers of Jewish studies. These teachers, based in orthodox Jewish schools in the UK and Australia, discussed their roles as teachers in the context of their…