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Abstract
This article documents the Journal of Jewish Education’s acquisition by the Network for Research in Jewish Education, in 2004, and evaluates the contribution of the re-launched Journal to the field of Jewish education. I explore how the Journal contributed over the past decade in three discrete yet often overlapping areas, thereby realizing its editors’ vision. First, the Journal of Jewish Education became the venue for conversations between researchers, practitioners and funders about the direction of Jewish education research and policy; second, it became an outlet for the sharing of research and other Jewish education scholarship; and third, it became a venue where scholars introduced research and theoretical constructs from the field of general education and sought to demonstrate their relevance to Jewish education. Finally, I suggest some reasons why the editors had less success in realizing a fourth goal for the Journal; that is, making it a forum for new ideas and the charting of new directions in research and practice.
Notes
1 Typically, Michael Zeldin coedited these volumes with the conference chair.
2 Michael Zeldin, interview with the author, December 20, 2013; Carol Ingall to Bernard Ducoff, May 21, 2001; Carol Ingall to Morton Summer, January 7, 2002; Carol Ingall to Morton Summer, July 18, 2002; Carol Ingall to Morton Summer, October 28, 2002; JJE Asset Purchase Agreement, March 2012. The author thanks Carol Ingall for sharing these and other related documents with him.
3 The University of Judaism changed its name to American Jewish University in 2007, after merging with the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
4 Isa Aron, interview with the author, January 3, 2014.
5 Isa Aron, interview with the author, January 3, 2014.
6 NRJE Newsletter 22 (Fall 2004), p. 2.
7 Carol Ingall, interview with the author, December 12, 2013.
8 Carol Ingall, interview with the author; Asset Purchase Agreement.
9 NRJE Newsletter 21 (Spring 2004), p. 1; Taylor & Francis Group, “Proposal to the NRJE to Publish the Journal of Jewish Education,” June 24, 2004; NRJE Draft Contract with Altamira Press, undated (c. 2004); Alex Pomson, email communication, December 17, 2013.
10 In 2013, the name of the foundation was changed to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.
11 Gail Dorff, interview with the author, January 2, 2014.
12 Michael Zeldin, “Statement of Vision for a New-Look Journal,” (undated) c. 2004; “A Preliminary Plan for the New Journal of Jewish Education,” (undated) c. 2004.
13 “Proposal for the Publication of the Journal of Jewish Education,” (undated) c. 2004.
14 See, for example, Cohen (Citation1998) and Tobin and Weinstein (Citation2000). Despite the resources invested in overnight camping and the anecdotal evidence suggesting a link between camp and Jewish identification, few studies were conducted before the 1990s. See Himmelfarb (Citation1989).
15 The foundation later changed its name to the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
16 On coalescence, see Fishman (Citation2000, pp. 9–13).
17 Isaacman’s methodology was critiqued by Shargel (Citation1987, pp. 56–57).
18 See Prell (Citation2006).
19 One could argue that Daniel Pekarsky’s (Citation1997) article, “The Place of Vision in Jewish Education Reform,” initiated the public conversation on vision. But this seminal article was published before the NRJE’s re-launch of the Journal. Indeed, Pekarsky’s thinking played a significant role in crystallizing Fox’s views, and vice-versa. However, Pekarsky was not involved in the “Visions” project that culminated in the publication of the book.
20 I would like to thank one of the anonymous reviewers of this article for encouraging me to explore this line of thinking.
21 ”Proposal for the Publication of the Journal of Jewish Education,” p. 1.
22 These articles and others were subsequently published in Levisohn and Fendrick (Citation2013).
23 See also Grant & Kopelowitz (Citation2012), Pomson, Wertheimer, & Hacohen-Wolf (Citation2014), and Sinclair (Citation2013).
24 Originally a doctoral dissertation, it was revised and published in 1989 as Ethnic Survival in America: An Ethnography of a Jewish Afternoon School.
25 Lynn-Sachs borrows this term from David Tyack and Larry Cuban’s research on the structural reasons for public schools’ seeming imperviousness to reform efforts.
26 Bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls did not become common until the 1950s in the Conservative and Reform movements, and even later within the Orthodox community. See Stein (Citation2001).
27 See, for example, Goldblum (Citation2013) and Sales (Citation2013).
28 Technically, the Journal, which was inaugurated in 1929, is 85 years old. But there were a number of times during its history when financial problems delayed publication. As a result, the Journal has only published 80 volumes.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jonathan Krasner
Jonathan Krasner is Associate Research Professor of Jewish Education and holds the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Education Research at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, Brandeis University. E-mail: [email protected]