Abstract
Jewish history is arguably the least theorized subject in the Jewish school curriculum. Whereas Bible, Rabbinics, and Hebrew language instruction have lately benefitted from professionalization and standardization initiatives—such as the Legacy Heritage Instructional Leadership Institute, the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute, and Hebrew at the Center—no such large-scale effort has been undertaken in connection to Jewish history and social studies.
In the Spring 2016, the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University took an initial step in addressing this lacuna by hosting a conference on Jewish Historical Understandings. Over two days, participants workshopped 10 works-in-progress on the teaching and learning of Jewish history in a variety of educational venues. The discussions were generative and thought-provoking. Some of the works underwent a thorough reframing while others benefited from constructive engagement with literature in cognate fields. Four of the papers that emerged in the conference’s aftermath appear in this volume.
