Abstract
Genesis at Brandeis is a pluralistic, academically focused Jewish learning and identity-building summer precollege program for students from ages 16-18. In a qualitative study, I conducted a total of 25 semi-structured interviews about Jewish beliefs, values, and practices with 11 different Genesis students throughout the course of the program. In these interviews, I utilized a professionally designed Jewish learning exercise alongside phenomenological strategies to bring forward students’ lived experiences of Genesis. Many interviewees spoke about transformational educational moments in which they evoked new knowledge learned from their peers at Genesis and used it to make meaning of their Judaism in impactful ways. Using psychological, sociological, and Jewish educational theory in tandem with my interview data, I link the everyday lived socialization experiences of Genesis students with the transformative educational goals of the program and modern Jewish education as a field. If Jewish educators wish to prioritize personal growth and meaning-making among their students, I recommend looking to Genesis as an example of a uniquely effective space for Jewish identity development that devotes the proper time and space for curious adolescents to have diverse and novel socialization experiences.