Thinking about what the Bat Mitzvah experience means to today’s 12-year-old girls raises important issues. For most girls, this rite of passage comes somewhere around the onset of puberty or adolescence, a long period of cognitive, emotional, and physical development that culminates in adulthood with the achievement of full psychosexual maturity. It is very clear […]
Bat Mitzvah: Creating a Communal Space Read More »
It was when I was four that my educational adventure began. I went to a nursery school where little girls and little boys played together. Those were the wild days—when we would play tag together and the boys and girls would hide in the same spot during hideand-seek. (There were even a few scandalous kissing
Although I go to SAR High School, a progressive, coeducational modern Orthodox institution, I am not particularly ideological about educational models. I believe that some girls learn better in single-sex environments, whereas others thrive in coed schools. However, my years at SAR have made me realize that coeducation has many benefits that a single-sex education
A year into my high school teaching career, I began teaching a class called Mishpacha: Jewish Family Life. My previous nine years of teaching experience had been with elementary and middle school students in yeshivot and congregational schools. This opportunity, at Yeshivah of Flatbush [in Brooklyn, New York], enabled me to craft a course that
Lessons on Gender: A Class on Jewish Family Life Read More »
As this issue of the JOFA Journal, focusing on Jewish education, came together, a topic of concern emerged—like an elephant in the room—that cried out for further investigation and analysis. This topic is the disparity in salaries between male and female teachers and heads of school in the day school/yeshiva system. To be clear, these
Kevod HaRav, Kevod HaMorah = Kevod HaTorah Read More »
I teach rabbinics in the middle school of the Jewish Community Day School of Boston (JCDS), a pluralistic school just outside Boston that runs from kindergarten to eighth grade, with nearly two hundred children whose religious affiliations range across the spectrum of Judaism. I have been involved with JCDS for the past twelve years, since
Pluralism in Practice Read More »
Feminist discourse in the Orthodox Jewish community—where it has been allowed in—has largely been driven and shaped by the voices of women; and unsurprisingly so. As women sought equal access to Jewish learning and practice, as women shared the pain of exclusion and missed opportunities, it was the female perspective that was being heard, debated,
Educating Our Boys Read More »
“One of the long term goals of early education is to strengthen and support children’s inborn tendencies to be curious and deeply engaged in making the best sense they can of their experiences.”1 Life in our modern Orthodox communities is changing. What might have been true about the role of women only a generation ago
Tales from the Field: Anecdotes and Reflections on Gender in Early Childhood Education Read More »
Summer camp is an informal but powerful part of girls’ education in contemporary Orthodox society. It is generally accepted that camps are so effective in transmitting educational values and knowledge because of their emphasis on experiential learning. In addition, sleepaway camp settings often offer ideological choices that may not be available in terms of Jewish
The Role of Summer Camps in the Education of Orthodox Girl Read More »
It is incredibly easy to start a group on Facebook. A few clicks of the mouse, a name and an icon, maybe a picture selected for the top of the page, and there you have it. I did this myself one night, upon the realization that I had a few friends with similar interests, and
Emerging Voices: Teen Feminists Find Facebook Read More »
