This paper looked at ideological dilemmas for Orthodox Bible teachers in pluralistic Jewish high schools in North America. A phenomenological approach was used to identify sources of tension and drew on data from 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers of diverse Orthodox affiliations. Findings indicated that teacher tension resulted…

In this hybrid ethnographic case study, I explore how a cadre of Israeli-American parents in Los Angeles navigate the local Hebrew education landscape to seek linguistic resources for their children. I examine how participants envision Hebrew learning and determine the roles of Jewish, Israeli-serving, and public schools in transmitting Hebrew…

What are students' perceptions of havruta learning after osmotic socialization? This osmosis is achieved solely by observing and emulating behaviors from other havruta learners. Perceived benefits include improvement of thinking and social skills and correcting misunderstandings, whereas challenges include the limitation of one's freedom and a…

Research on Jewish day schools has long focused on the challenges they face in managing the tension between the "Jewish" and "general" components of their "dual curriculum." Interviews with 34 graduating seniors of a private, community Jewish high school found that students experienced another dual curriculum within…

"Chapters on Jewish Thought (Prakim BeMachshevet Yisrael)" by Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli is essentially a curriculum for teaching Jewish thought as a school subject in Jewish religious high schools in the 1940s. Therefore, we choose to analyze the book using curricular research tools. We searched for similarities between the curricular…

A Jewish high school adopted different models of online Zoom learning for the 2020-2021 schoolyear; research was conducted in two Israel studies classes that taught the same content, but one class was fully online and the other was a blended learning environment. The purpose of the study was to understand whether meaningful learning can be…

A qualitative study focusing on arts-based learning in Israel education was conducted at a community Jewish high school in North America. Building on studies that have shown students are able to simultaneously love and critique Israel, the purpose of the study was to assess whether producing creative work led to creative solutions to contemporary…

Jewish education in Israel's non-religious state ("Mamlakhti") schools is intended to support an open-ended, pluralistic dialogue surrounding the question of Jewish identity. The distinct features of Knowledge Building Communities (KBCs) set them apart as a pedagogical approach that is particularly suitable for achieving this educational…

What does it mean to be a Jewish girl today and how do Jewish adolescent girls navigate their identity? The study that I undertook is exploratory and designed to understand how three girls, who are recent day school graduates, experience the process of identity development as they begin high school. While the sample is small, the study reveals new…

The development of non-Orthodox Jewish day schools in Los Angeles in the 1970s to 1990s can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the city's geography, the deterioration of public education, court-ordered busing that began in the 1970s, and strong rabbinic personalities. Yet, as elementary day schools proliferated throughout the…

What do Jewish day school students believe constitutes good understanding and worthwhile learning in the context of their encounter with rabbinic texts in the classroom? This article shares findings from an interview study of Jewish day school students in grades 9 through 12 regarding their attitudes toward the study of Talmud. I argue that high…

This study examines changes to Jewish day school students' narratives of the history of Israel after a two-and-a-half-week trip there. Seventeen students were interviewed about the history of Israel before and after the trip. Before the trip, most students' accounts lacked logical connections among the different events. The observations on the…

This "think-aloud" study examines how a group of American Jewish teenagers read historical documents that addressed what it has meant over time to be American and/or Jewish. It demonstrates that students use a variety of sense-making strategies as they read about the past, many of which fall beyond the boundaries of critical historical…

The current field of Israel engagement has been significantly challenged by young North American Jews' reported alienation from contemporary Israel. Literature in the last decade has addressed this challenge in depth, offering a wide variety of theoretical analyses and recommendations for program development. The present study is the first to…

For Jewish education, digital badges can provide an alternative to traditional assessments. However, the emerging research on badges suggests a complex relationship between learning opportunities, the learner, and the design of the badge. An investigation of a digital badge system at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish middle and high school for girls…