Israel Education and Scholarship: Between the Academy and the Community

VENUE CHANGED TO UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW ROOM 1347

Academic scholarship—including the academic study of Israel—is based on dispassion, a distancing from the subject matter. Israel education—certainly in Jewish schools—is  often aimed at cultivation of students’ Jewish identities and in strengthening  their connection with Israel. What do these two types of study have in common? Where do they part ways? What can one learn from the other? In what ways does each enrich the other, and where do they pose mutual challenges?

This panel brings together Israel's scholars and educators to explore these sometimes difficult issues in teaching about Israel.

Panel Participants:

Chair: David Suissa, President, The Jewish Journal

Hanan Alexander, University of Haifa

Annette Koren, Brandeis University

Metuka Benjamin, Milken Community High School

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Jacob Pressman Academy, Temple Beth Am

Respondent: Arieh Saposnik, University of California, Los Angeles

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP is required. "Pay-by-space" parking is available in Lot 2, accessed via Hilgard Blvd. and Westholme Ave. (Campus map).

Please note that this is the 3rd plenary, not the keynote address:"Zionism, Israel, and 'The World'" by Shlomo Ben-Ami. If you wish to purchase tickets to the keynote address, please visit its event page here.

About the Speakers

Hanan Alexander

Hanan Alexander is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Dean of Students at the University of Haifa, where he heads the International School and the Center for Jewish Education. A past chair of Haifa's Department of Education, he is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His research interests include political, moral, spiritual, religious, and Jewish education and the philosophy of social research. Educated at UCLA, Stanford, and the Jewish Theolgical Seminary, Alexander has taught philosophy and educational studies at the American Jewish University where he was Academic Vice President, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Bar Ilan University, the Gradate Theological Union, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He has also served as Editor of the journal Religious Education, Richard and Rhonda Goldman Visting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Visiting Fellow in St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University.

Annette Koren

Annette Koren is a research scientist at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. She is the principal investigator on projects related to enriching Israel education for Jewish youth and college and university students. Annette leads an ongoing evaluation of the Brandeis University Summer Institute for Israel Studies. She evaluated the Israel Scholar Development Fund of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and authored a report on youth educators’ preparation for teaching about Israel. She also published Searching for the Study of Israel: A Report on the Teaching of Israel on U.S. College Campuses 2008-09, a directory and report on courses about Israel offered on campuses in the United States. Her other CMJS research projects include an evaluation of Limmud NY; a census of community-based, supplementary Jewish high schools; and a study of Yad Vashem’s professional development seminars to enhance teaching about the Holocaust in European countries. Annette serves as a senior member of the JData team.

Annette previously served as Consultant for Research and Evaluation at the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Boston (BJE). At the BJE, she helped Jewish educators make evaluation an integral part of their practice, and she conducted evaluation research on various educational interventions. Her published work from the BJE includes Reach and Retention: Findings from the Boston Area School Census 2001-02 and Special Learning Needs in Day Schools: Parent and Community Responses on the experiences of families of children with special needs in day schools. Prior to her work in Jewish education, Annette was a senior consultant at PIMS Associates of the Strategic Planning Institute and Market Research Manager at GTE Sylvania. She has also been a faculty member at Fordham University in New York City and Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus has served as Head of School of the Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am since 2001. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), from where he was awarded the first Ed. D. from the Wm. Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and earned an M.A. in Judaic Studies. Rabbi Malkus pursued his undergraduate work at Columbia University, where he majored in Political Science and was awarded a B.A. He also studied at Yeshivat HaMivtar in Israel and has a certificate from the Principals Institute of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Before joining Pressman Academy, Rabbi Malkus served as Instructor of Jewish Education at the Davidson Graduate School where he also worked as program coordinator of the Meresman Synagogue School Initiative. Rabbi Malkus was on the faculty of the Solomon Schechter High School of New York where he taught Talmud, Halakhah, and Jewish Philosophy. From 1990-1991 he was a legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Malkus has written extensively on curriculum, educational leadership, and instruction. His articles have been published in a number of academic and professional education journals. He has presented papers at the Network for Research in Jewish Education and has been an invited presenter at conferences of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), CAJE Day School Conference, and the Curriculum Initiative at Princeton University. From 2004 - 2007 he was chair of the BJE Los Angeles Day School Principals Council. He was awarded the Milken Jewish Educator Award in 2009. He was a clinical faculty member at Hebrew Union College – Los Angeles from 2004 – 2009. Currently, he is a mentor in the Day School Leadership Training Institute and serves on the boards of the Solomon Schechter Day School Network, MERCAZ USA, and the American Friends of the Ariela Foundation.

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus has served as Head of School of the Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am since 2001. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), from where he was awarded the first Ed. D. from the Wm. Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and earned an M.A. in Judaic Studies. Rabbi Malkus pursued his undergraduate work at Columbia University, where he majored in Political Science and was awarded a B.A. He also studied at Yeshivat HaMivtar in Israel and at the Principals Institute of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Before joining Pressman Academy, Rabbi Malkus served as Instructor of Jewish Education at the Davidson Graduate School where he also worked as program coordinator of the Meresman Synagogue School Initiative. Rabbi Malkus was on the faculty of the Solomon Schechter High School of New York where he taught Talmud, Halakha, and Jewish Philosophy. From 1990-1991 he was a legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Malkus has written extensively on curriculum, educational leadership, and instruction. He has presented papers at the Network for Research in Jewish Education and has been an invited presenter at conferences of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), CAJE Day School Conference, and the Curriculum Initiative at Princeton University.  From 2004 - 2007 he was chair of the BJE Los Angeles Day School Principals Council. He was awarded the Milken Jewish Educator Award in 2009.

Rabbi Malkus was involved with Camp Ramah for many summers having worked first at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and then for four summers with Ramah Programs in Israel. He is a board member of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, the American Friends of The Ariella Foundation, MERCAZ USA, the DeLeT advisory board, and serves as a mentor in the Day School Leadership Training Institute. He and his wife, Caryn Bunder Malkus, live in Los Angeles, and their two children, Eitan and Coby, attend Pressman Academy.

Arieh Saposnik

Born in Oakland California, Arieh Saposnik grew up in Haifa, Israel. He received his Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies from New York University, and after holding the Jess Schwartz Chair in Hebrew Culture at Arizona State University, joined the faculty at UCLA in 2009 as Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and as Gilbert Chair in Israel Studies. His research focuses on the history of Zionism and Israel and on the varieties of Jewish nationalism. His book, Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine was published in 2008. He is currently working on two parallel book projects: a study of the shifting imagery and symbolism of the sacred in the making of Zionism and Israeli culture; and a history of Territorialism and the Jewish Territorialist Organization.

Cost : Free and Open to the Public