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At a time of heightened interest in Jewish supplementary schooling, this volume offers a path-breaking examination of how ten diverse schools have remade themselves to face the new challenges of the twenty-first century. Each written by an academic observer with the help of an experienced educator, the chapters bring these schools vividly to life by giving voice to students, parents, teachers, school directors, lay leaders, local rabbis and other key participants. The goal of the book is to uncover the building blocks each school put into place to improve its delivery of a Jewish education. Employing qualitative research, Learning and Community is filled with moving and inspiring human-interest stories. Collectively, these portraits offer models of how schools of different sizes and configurations can maximize their impact, and in the process revitalize the form of religious and cultural education that engages the majority of Jewish children in the United States.

As a recently established field of Jewish thought, Jewish political philosophy has made increasingly frequent appearances in recently edited histories of Jewish philosophy. Following the pioneering efforts of Leo Strauss, Ralph Lerner and Daniel Elazar, among others, Jewish political philosophy gained its proper place alongside ethics and metaphysics in the study of the history of Jewish philosophy. This volume is another manifestation of this welcomed development. Consisting of selected papers published in English over the last thirty years, Wisdom's Little Sister concentrates on the Medieval and Renaissance periods, from Sa'adiah Gaon in the tenth century to Spinoza in the seventeenth century. These were the formative periods in the development of Jewish political philosophy, when Jewish scholars, versed in the canonical Jewish sources (biblical and rabbinic), encountered Greek political philosophy as transmitted by Muslim philosophers such as Alfarabi, Ibn Bajja and Averroes. In combining Greek, Jewish and Muslim thought, these scholars are the originators of what we now know as Jewish political philosophy.

Rebecca Gratz is the first book to examine Gratz's life, her legend, and our memory.

Jewish-American-themed children’s fiction often includes descriptions of ritual observance. Yet, although ritual circumcision (brit milah, or bris) is a requirement in halacha (Jewish religious law) for all newborn males, this event is virtually absent from Jewish children’s books; the incorporation of a surgical procedure would create obvious narrative difficulties. Sydney Taylor and Sadie Rose Weilerstein, two of the most important twentieth century Jewish-American children’s authors, each wrote a series of books including a newborn son.  Instead of a bris, they both included the less common, nonsurgical ritual of pidyon ha-ben. Thus, they eluded a problematic description, while informing readers about a lesser-known Jewish practice.

Background The COVID‐19 pandemic has had far‐reaching effects on the well‐being and functioning of children and families worldwide. The distinctive contexts in which these families live play a crucial role in determining the extent of the pandemic's effects. The Jewish Ultra‐Orthodox community in Israel, with its unique context, experienced the repercussions of the pandemic in distinct ways. Objective This qualitative study, guided by the context‐informed theoretical perspective, aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and perspectives of Ultra‐Orthodox families with multiple children regarding the challenges and coping of children during the pandemic, while considering the unique contexts that shape their lives. Method Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 parents (eight mothers and seven fathers) and 35 children (18 girls and 17 boys) from Ultra‐Orthodox families. All families had at least six children (M = 7.5). Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the interview data, allowing for the generation of shared themes among the participants' narratives. Results The findings revealed four primary areas that presented challenges for Ultra‐Orthodox families during the COVID‐19 pandemic: children's studies, fear, crowdedness, and community detachment. Despite these adversities, the study also sheds light on the coping mechanisms employed by Ultra‐Orthodox families of religious beliefs, parental involvement, and the family. Conclusion These findings contribute to understanding how Ultra‐Orthodox families experienced and navigated the challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic, highlighting the interplay among religious beliefs, family dynamics, and community structures in shaping their responses. Implications The insights gained from this study may inform the development of culturally competent support services for Ultra‐Orthodox families during crises while potentially offering broader ideas for understanding how close‐knit religious communities cope with acute crises that threaten their traditional ways of life.

This study aims to investigate the factors contributing to the underutilization of childhood and school-age immunizations among parents within the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. It identifies socio-demographic, attitudinal, and belief-related risk factors that affect vaccination decisions. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 369 Jewish Orthodox parents in Israel, using structured questionnaires distributed through various community channels. Data on socio-demographic variables, vaccination status, and intentions were collected. Attitudinal assessments included the VAX Scale and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale. The proportion of fully vaccinated children was 46.3 % for childhood diseases and 64.2 % for school-age vaccinations. Flu vaccination rates were significantly lower, with only 19.2 % of parents and 15.2 % of children receiving flu shots. Key factors contributing to vaccine underutilization include large family size, lower socioeconomic and educational levels, reliance on the internet for health information, and the absence of media technology at home. Geographical disparities were notable, especially in the Jerusalem District, which demonstrated lower vaccination uptake, and among different Orthodox streams, with the Modern stream showing higher vaccination rates compared to the Lithuanian, Sephardic, and Hasidic streams. The VAX scale and Health-Related Locus of Control measures revealed that attitudinal factors significantly impacted vaccination decisions, such as mistrust in vaccine benefits, preference for natural immunity, and reliance on religious beliefs. To address vaccination disparities, targeted interventions should consider cultural and logistical barriers, engaging community leaders and offering culturally sensitive education to improve uptake within the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community.

The Pew Research Center’s 2020 survey of American Jews is a valuable resource to scholars of American Jewry, enabling interrogation of questions using data that no other source can reliably provide. One set of questions pertains to the reach and impact of Birthright Israel, the largest extant Jewish educational program targeted at Jewish young adults, on American Jews. Pew’s nationally representative sample provides important validation of previous findings regarding Birthright’s impact on participants and extends the generalizability of what has been learned. In this paper we use data from the 2020 Pew survey to assess the program’s “reach” into different segments of the American Jewish population and to extend the validity of existing findings regarding the program’s impact on participants’ attitudes and behaviors related to Israel and Jewish life. Pew’s data estimate that around 20% of American Jews ages 18–46 have participated in Birthright, and that among Jewish parents with a grown child, nearly 30% have an adult child who participated in the program. After controlling for preexisting differences between participants and those who have never been to Israel, Pew’s data also confirm that Birthright has a significant impact on a broad set of Jewish outcomes. These results support a more optimistic view of the future for US Jewry and suggest that the investment in large-scale educational interventions can substantially alter the trajectory of the American Jewish community writ large.

This study focused on Jewish national religious educators in Israel by exploring their narratives surrounding coping with the CSA of their students, including the perceived silencing of the phenomena within the community and the desire to provide their students with the care they require. In-depth interviews were conducted with 34 national religious educators, including teachers (n = 20), counselors (n = 4), and principals (n = 10), which were analyzed using a thematic approach. Three themes emerged in the findings: (1) a community in silence surrounding CSA, (2) the role of sex education in bridging between silence and CSA, and (3) educators’ experiences of breaking the silence by making their voices heard. The findings revealed that the participants experienced three circles of silencing surrounding CSA: silencing of their experience within their community, silencing of their students, and self-silencing. These circles affected the educators both personally and professionally. This study discusses how these circles of silence received three justifications: familial, religious, and personal. This study highlights the important role of Jewish national religious educators in identifying and leading interventions in CSA cases and the need for reflective, socio-religious, culturally based training alongside support for the educators to maintain their wellbeing when addressing CSA.

Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children enables earlier access to services and better ability to predict subsequent development. A vast body of literature consistently shows discrepancies in the age of diagnosis between children from varying socio-economic levels, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The present study examines the effect of sociodemographic factors on age of ASD diagnosis among the three primary ethnic sectors in Jerusalem region: secular and modern religious Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs. Findings indicate minimal differences in age of diagnosis prior to the age of six, although Arab children of this age were largely minimally verbal. After age six, no Arab children were referred for an evaluation.