Jewish Education

Judaism and education have long become synonymous. Jews have prioritized learning for millenia, and our love of words and ideas have kept Jews afloat throughout many diasporas. This month, we are exploring that relationship, from time immemorial until today, with an eye to where we are now and where we might be heading.

Central Questions

The Cost of Education: How much should a Jewish education cost?
The Goals of Education: What should Jewish education prioritize?
The Future of Education: What can we do to ensure that all Jews have access to a Jewish education?

EPISODES

February 7, 2023

Yisroel Kaminetsky: The Goal of Jewish Education

February 7, 2023
104 min listening

In this edition of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to David’s rebbe, Rav Yisroel Kaminetsky, longtime principal of DRS Yeshiva High School, about the state of Jewish education in America.

February 21, 2023

Michael A. Helfand: Church, State, and Jewish Education

February 14, 2023
94 min listening

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak to Michael A. Helfand, a Pepperdine Law professor specializing in religious liberty, about the meaning of the First Amendment as it relates to the funding of religious schools.

February 14, 2023

Leslie Ginsparg Klein: The Culture of Jewish Education

February 21, 2023
119 min listening

In this edition of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein—an expert on the history of Orthodox girls’ education—about the value of education for all people.

February 28, 2023

The Cost of Jewish Education

February 28, 2023
130 min listening

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to three different advocates for affordable Jewish education about the state of the tuition crisis.

ARTICLES

What Jewish Education Means to Me

By David Bashevkin
7 min reading
February 9, 2023

Lost in Translation: The Cost of Abandoning Hebrew

By Simi Peters
6 min reading
February 16, 2023

‘It’s Not Great’: What’s the Deal With Jewish Education?

By 18Forty Community
5 min reading
February 23, 2023

I’m a Rebbe, and I Can’t Afford to Be a Jewish Educator

By Anonymous
4 min reading
March 2, 2023

LISTEN ON APPLE

Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition

Naomi Seidman

Sarah Schenirer is one of the most important Orthodox changemakers in modern Jewish history. The founder of the Bais Yaakov school system in interwar Poland, Schenirer prompted a fundamental shift in the education of women in the Orthodox community. In her definitive book, Seidman considers the tensions inherent to this revolution, with an eye to the relationship between change and tradition. Seidman looks at the interacting forces that influenced the movement, and the movements that the Bais Yaakov system has went through since the Holocaust and post-war era. This book is for anyone with an interest in change, tradition, women in Judaism, and how we manage to change so much while staying the same.

Families, Rabbis and Education: Essays on Traditional Jewish Society in Eastern Europe

Shaul Stampfer

Judaism in Eastern Europe is often mythologized, which can sometimes lead us to forget the edges and nuances of that world that was. This classic work considers the intricacies of Jewish life, from marriage, to family, to leadership, with a look at the vulnerable points in this story. How learned were the common folk? How common was divorce, and women’s education? What was the rabbinate in this context? If these questions interest you, this book is a must-read.

Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning

Shaul Stampfer

The Lithuanian yeshivas have played an important role in shaping the Orthodox world we know today. This book is an important systematic study of these yeshivas, from 1802 to 1914. Looking at documents, memoirs, and newspaper articles, Stampfer shows us what these yeshivas were in their original context. These yeshivas have had a fundamental influence on the shaping of the contemporary state of Jewish education, so read this book if you want to know where many of the values and questions that shape our discourse emerge from. You’d be surprised, as the story of this world is always more complicated and interesting in its particularities than we might ever appreciate.

Jewish Education