- Scully and the Smartphone
Looking for an easier way to frame the complexities of your (or your students’) relationship to technology? Meet Scully – Rabbi Jeffrey Schein’s Granddoggy. In this short video graphic novella, Scully simplifies his own complex explorations into two questions we might ask ourselves about our own relationship to technology.It’s Complicated: Scully and the SmartPhone is part of the Text Me project’s reflective ...
- Webinar: New way to explore the hidden treasures of Shavuot
Come explore the hidden treasures of Shavuot celebration with Rabbi Jeffrey and Dr. Deborah Schein in this engaging webinar, “Saving Shavuot, Counting the Omer, and Family Educator”.The webinar, presented by The Mordechai M. Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood, explores Shavuot through the multiple intelligences model of Howard Gardner and Mordecai ...
- The Vision is Launched!
Join the creators of the 21st century Kaplanian Vision of Jewish Education in learning about the new vision and how to connect it to your role in Jewish education: Watch the video of the official “launch party” here.
- The Masked Rider
I have been wondering what might account for the waning motivation to be “masked” in public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You will most likely connect with my questions and observations (posted in my education column at the Mordecai Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood) if:
a) You are puzzled or perturbed by the reduction in mask-wearing as a mitzvah/act of civil obedience;
b) You are old enough to remember the Lone Ranger radio and television shows and its clarion call to pay attention to “the masked ...
- Tithadesh: Renewing Jewish Education by Going “Retro” with Mordecai Kaplan
Education requires a guiding vision. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, had a vision for Jewish education unlike any other; and yet we now find ourselves in a very different world than the one for which Kaplan described and took action on his vision.
We invite you to come and explore how the Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood (for which I am the Senior Education Consultant) has evolved Kaplan’s vision for Jewish Education for the 21st Century. This project should excite Rabbis, scholars, educators, theorists – AND ...
- A Virtual Lag B’Omer and Shavuot, or (with apologies to Prince) “Let’s Go Crazy” with Numbers, Words, Nature Experiences and Other Forms of Multiple Intelligences
Hakdama
So Lag B’Omer without a picnic is like:
a) Lox without cream cheese
b) Pesach without matzah
c) A golden opportunity
My answer is C. I never cared much for Lag B’Omer picnics (always thought the Romans were going to get me) but of course I can be nostalgic for the free play and company that was part of them and missing from our lives at this moment.
I am sharing some resources and ideas about alternative ways to do Lag B’Omer and some Shavuot resources, particularly a ...
- Wading Our Way to the Core Kernels of a Jewish idea: Food Justice and Counting the Omer
- Two Brachot for the COVID-19 Pandemic
In an attempt to be responsive to zarchei zeman (the exigencies of the moment), I share my thoughts about technology and Jewish blessings in the age of COVID-19, which was recently published on eJewishPhilanthropy.com.
- The Huppah Above the the Marriage of Experiential and Content Based Jewish Learning: A Fresh Conceptualization
Exploring Adin Steinsaltz, Renate and Geoffrey Caine, and the Amphibious Jew
In this article I will be linking the understanding of the implications of the research in neuroscience for education explored by Caine and Caine with an insight I have amplified from Adin Steinsaltz, noted Jewish scholar of Talmud and Jewish mysticism (this insight was passed on to me by Rabbi Barbara Penzer). I call this concept the amphibious Jew. Underlying the confluence of both these texts is a deep appreciation for the value of the immersive, water-like quality of the ...