Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning
Making Meaning at Many Tables
Edited by Diane Tickton Schuster
Foreword by Jon A. Levisohn
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
What do we mean by "adult Jewish learning"? Where is contemporary adult Jewish learning taking place? What kinds of learning matter to adult Jewish learners in the twenty-first century? Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning boldly tackles these questions through the exploration of various learners' experiences in diverse circumstances: couples exploring a Jewish museum, actors co-creating a Jewish-themed play, social justice activists consolidating their Jewish values and identities, Jewish preschool educators visiting Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish staff at a Jewish social service agency studying traditional texts together, Latinx converts seeking to understand "how to be a good Jew," members of a Torah study group producing their own commentaries, Jewish community leaders coming to terms with the challenges of Jewish pluralism. Using the social science methodology of portraiture, the authors provide nuanced detail about the wide range of participants, settings, subject matter, and ways of meaning making that characterize adult Jewish learning today. Viewing these narratives side by side enables readers to think "outside the frame" about programming, curricula, pedagogies, and contexts that encourage meaningful adult learning. This book will capture the imagination of educational leaders, clergy, policymakers, philanthropists, teachers, and adult learners, and will spark conversation about how to enrich the field of adult Jewish learning overall.
Diane Tickton Schuster is Director of the Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning project at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
“These portraits beautifully capture the variety of adult Jewish learning happening across our community. It’s an incredible resource for reflective educators to glean insights on andragogy and to better understand what drives adult learners at different stages of their lives. As a practitioner, it is thrilling to consider the possibility of incorporating these rich models into our work!”
—Rachel Bovitz, executive director, Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning
“For many people, the image that comes to mind when they hear ‘adult Jewish learning’ . . . is of something like a Torah study class in a synagogue library, populated by retirees of largely Ashkenazi descent. The essays in this book begin to give us a far richer picture of the extraordinary breadth, depth, and variety that constitute both adult Jewish learners and adult Jewish learning in North America today. I was surprised and delighted at the portraits presented in this volume.”
—Josh Feigelson, executive director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality
“This book invites the reader into a series of textured and distinctive landscapes in the field of adult Jewish learning; the insights in this volume will prompt both the educator and the learner to reflect upon the possibilities embedded within this radically diverse enterprise.”
—Deena Aranoff, faculty director, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union
“Being Jewish today is a choice—regardless of parentage or upbringing—and specifically a choice often made in adulthood. As such, the need to develop new approaches to adult Jewish learning is urgent. To engage in such learning is itself a choice. The models illustrated in this volume show a variety of emergent directions that are in fact being chosen by contemporary Jewish adults. They point to promising directions and opportunities for future experimentation.”
—Dan Libenson, founder and president, Judaism Unbound
“At a time of tremendous disruption and innovation for the Jewish community, Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning invites us to inhabit and explore the vibrancy and diversity of ways that adult learners are engaging with Jewish learning and tradition. It also inspires and challenges us to break existing mental models about what it means to be an ‘educated Jew’ and to reimagine a learned and learning Jewish community of the future.”
—Marc Baker, president and CEO, Combined Jewish Philanthropies
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