Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

There is great scholarship being done in the field of Jewish education, but it’s not always accessible. And even when it is, it’s not always obvious why people in the field of Jewish education should care about it. That’s what this podcast is about—making really interesting scholarship on Jewish education accessible and talking with scholars about why it matters.

Learning About Learning draws on live conversations, originally conducted as Zoom webinars. Regular episodes feature discussions between core faculty members at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education (MCSJE) at Brandeis University, and a single scholar about a specific piece of their research. Bonus episodes include multiple voices, often discussing a newly released book, recently held conference, or other topic in Jewish education.

MCSJE is committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference in the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community. That’s our mission. Thanks for being here, and we hope that you enjoy Learning About Learning as much as we do.

Contributors

Host

Dr. Jon Levisohn

Jon A. Levisohn holds the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Educational Thought at Brandeis University, and directs the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education.

Levisohn studies philosophy of education and philosophy of Jewish education. His particular focus has been on understanding how we make sense of texts -- both religious texts and secular texts -- especially in the contexts of teaching and learning. More recently, Levisohn has expanded his focus to general questions about the desired outcomes of Jewish education. Typically those outcomes are conceived in terms of the transmission of content, or the promotion of "Jewish identity," or at the communal level, in terms of the replication or continuity of the Jewish community. None of these conceptions are satisfactory. Instead, Jewish educators ought to develop a conception of the desirable outcomes of Jewish education in terms of the moral and intellectual dispositions that they seek to foster.

https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=ece7ee21fe48178f7dc350f7f91e0b3821c1a817