The Jewish Educator’s Distance-Learning Handbook

By Rena Yehuda Newman April 9, 2021

Best-practices gleaned from a new generation of Jewish Educators, making the Zoom makom meaningful.

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What Talmud Has Taught Me About Twitter

By Nicholas Chrapliwy January 22, 2020

While the two may have dramatic differences, I think that the successful model of the millennia-long conversations that make up Talmud can teach us a lot about how to argue – and understand each other – on Twitter.

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“What Are You Going to Do With a History Major?”

By Yisroel Ben-Porat November 30, 2016

Originally published in The Commentator, the official student newspaper of Yeshiva University. As a history major, I’m often asked, “What are you going to do with that?” This question reflects a dismissive attitude toward the study of history. Although such a view is understandable – as scholar Peter Stearns points out, “Historians do not perform…

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Embracing Uncertainty: Why You Don’t Need To Have Everything Figured Out

By Amber Ikeman November 5, 2014

Do you ever get so overwhelmed about your future that you want to just stop what you’re doing, run out into a field and scream, “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE?!?” Yeah. That’s about where I am right now. I left Yellowstone National Park three weeks ago, where I was working seasonally….

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In (a Somewhat Surprising) Defense of Jewish Education

By Amram Altzman February 3, 2014

I am a product of thirteen years of primary, elementary, and secondary Jewish day school education. I’ve been enrolled in a Jewish day school since I was three years old, and the idea of starting my school day at nine in the morning and ending at 2:30 in the afternoon is totally foreign to me….

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Eat the Food Without Drinking the Kool-Aid: How to Get the Most out of Orthodox Outreach Programs

By David G. January 21, 2014

When I first started to attend a local Orthodox shul, I approached with what could be considered a strong level of trepidation. I grew up mainly Conservative, and considered myself as falling somewhere between the lines of Conservative and Reform. When I thought of Orthodoxy, I thought of my Pop’s narrow-minded uncle who never struck…

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A Jew in Catholic school [Huh?]

By John Propper April 23, 2012

A few days ago, our Required Reading ran a story about Stonybrook University in New York. College officials have announced that the school’s schedule will now be fixed according to a secular calendar. In other words, no cancellations due to the High Holy Days for Jewish students. Certain Christian holidays, barring things like Christmas, will…

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