Schools That Work: What We Can Learn From Good Jewish Supplementary Schools

Based on a study of ten effective schools, examines the characteristics in leadership, teaching staff, curriculum, experiential programs, and educational offerings for families that contribute to effectiveness. Outlines challenges and recommendations

A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America

A lecture by: Dr. Jack Wertheimer. Provost, Jewish Theological Seminary of America / Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish History / Author, The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed / National Jewish Book Award winner, A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1200/thumbnail.jp

The Allen Telescope Array: The First Widefield, Panchromatic, Snapshot Radio Camera for Radio Astronomy and SETI

The first 42 elements of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA-42) are beginning to deliver data at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California. Scientists and engineers are actively exploiting all of the flexibility designed into this innovative instrument for simultaneously conducting surveys of the astrophysical sky and conducting searches for distant technological civilizations. This paper summarizes the design elements of the ATA, the cost savings made possible by the use of COTS components, and the cost/performance trades that eventually enabled this first snapshot radio camera. The fundamental scientific program of this new telescope is varied and exciting; some of the first astronomical results will be discussed.Comment: Special Issue of Proceedings of the IEEE: "Advances in Radio Telescopes", Baars,J. Thompson,R., D'Addario, L., eds, 2009, in pres

That land is our land: Israel in American Jewish culture, 1948--1967.

Responding to momentous global events such as the Holocaust and the birth of Israel, participating in major domestic trends such as suburbanization and the so-called "religious revival," and caught up in the anxious political atmosphere of the Cold War years, American Jews confronted the challenges of postwar life with guarded optimism and a sense of grave responsibility. Shouldering the gargantuan tasks now attendant on them both as citizens of the world's sole democratic superpower and as the thriving remnant of Diaspora Jewry, American Jews sought to gracefully navigate a tangled web of national, religious, and ethnic loyalties---a scenario both enlivened and complicated by the birth of Israel.This dissertation reveals how the emergence of Israel in 1948 set in motion a complex process of cultural adjustment and innovation among American Jews throughout the postwar period. Specifically, it examines how American Jews integrated Israel into American Jewish culture, from literature and the arts to consumer and material culture to education, in both secular and religious settings. It is precisely in these arenas that American Jews fashioned an idealized but multi-hued Israel that, in their estimation, could be all things to all Americans---teenagers and housewives, art lovers and business entrepreneurs, Zionists and non-Zionists, Jews and non-Jews. Israel thus came to be seen as a source of spiritual and communal regeneration, a spur to inter-ethnic and international brotherhood in the age of the atom bomb, an ally in the spread of free-market capitalism, and as a player in the international culture scene. What's more, in propagating the idea that Israel---a new, impoverished Middle Eastern nation of uncertain geopolitical worth to the United States---was a true analogue to postwar America, American Jews positioned Israel as a bridge between Jewish and non-Jewish Americans in the postwar decades. The Israel of the American Jewish imagination thus served as both a means of outreach and a communal cause. As this dissertation argues, postwar American Jews succeeded in domesticating Israel in this period, transforming the Jewish state from terra incognita into a recognizable entity and, they hoped, an admired and treasured American friend.Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2008.School code: 0315

A scholar's life: Rachel Wischnitzer and the development of Jewish art scholarship in the twentieth century.

As an intellectual biography, this thesis will follow the life of Rachel Wischnitzer. Russian-Jewish scholar of Jewish art, through the major centers of twentieth century Jewish communal life. The thesis will further examine the ways in which these way stations provided the necessary socio/cultural milieu that enabled Wischnitzer to formulate the new discipline of Jewish art scholarship. The three main way stations in Wischnitzer's life as explored in this thesis are St. Petersburg, Berlin and New York City.In St. Petersburg, the city that symbolizes Wischnitzer's beginnings as a historian of Jewish art, she was inspired by the Russian Jewish national quest for a definition and preservation of the Jewish cultural heritage. This chapter will position her within this intellectual context and discuss the articles she was starting to publish in those years.Berlin, as the next way station in her life, will be viewed in the political context both of Weimar Germany and of Nazi ruled Germany. During both episodes Wischnitzer explored different ways of promoting Jewish art namely as artistic editor of the art and literature journal Rimon/Milgroim and as a curator of exhibitions at the Berlin Jewish Museum. Especially as a curator of exhibitions Wischnitzer's role as an educator of the museum audience will be explored. By highlighting the themes she chose for the two exhibits she curated, the message she tried to send out to her audience will become clear.After Wischnitzer's physical and emotional odyssey out of Nazi Germany and France, her new home in North America will be examined. New York City will be discussed in the way it received her and the opportunities it was able to offer. The new academic context, unprecedented professional opportunities as well as her continuing publishing activities will be highlighted. In the American context, Wischnitzer will further emerge as one of the importers of Jewish art scholarship into this country.By following the story of Wischnitzer's life, we will also follow the path of the scholarly discipline of Jewish art, from its birth in Russia to its transplantation to North America.Thesis (D.H.L.)--The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1994.School code: 0315