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Religion has been associated with human values and competencies needed to shape young people into responsible citizens able to make a positive difference in the lives of others. However, this correlation remains dependent on the context. As the correlation has not yet been investigated in Mauritius, which is a multicultural and multi-ethnic country, this study aims to bridge this knowledge gap using a purely positivist epistemological approach. It will analyze the Mauritius-specific data derived from a public data set which was part of the "Mapping the Terrain" project to examine the correlation between religion and a broad set of human values and competencies, namely forgiveness, individualistic orientation, collectivistic orientation, self-efficacy, problem-solving, meaning-making, sense of belongingness, religiosity/spirituality, hope, life satisfaction, gratitude, emotion, regulation, empathy, and self-regulation. The descriptive analysis and the Structural Equation Model (SEM), developed using the SPSS and AMOS software, revealed that (i) independent of ethnic group, educational stakeholders in Mauritius have a high affinity to most of the human values and competences, and (ii) as compared with others, the Muslim community has a slightly lower affinity to forgiveness, life satisfaction, individualistic orientation, self-efficacy, and problem solving. These data, which represent important baseline information needed to inform policymakers and other educational stakeholders, were used to derive a set of recommendations that will further the development of the key human values and competencies needed to promote harmony in a multicultural and multi-ethnic country.

Introducing students to the similarities and connections among the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an is a means to introduce students to a shared source of humanity, beauty, wisdom, and solace. This article outlines a literature class that uses comparatist strategies to introduce these three foundational religious texts as literary works. Figural and thematic strategies reveal the development of stories, characters, ideas, and values. Cultural studies strategies demonstrate the profound effects that the texts have had on our notions about our relationships and responsibilities to ourselves, our families, and our world. Students report a better understanding of their own spiritualties, a greater acceptance of their own identities, and an increased appreciation of the diversity of their communities.

This article reflects on the difficulty that many students have in appreciating that religions change over time. It describes an assignment that can be used to teach this important religious literacy skill. The assignment focuses on changing norms on courtship, marriage, and family formation in Jewish communities at two different times and two different places. Students reflect on norms in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia at the turn-of-the century using the film version of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof." They then view a documentary about the making and reception of the musical that centers the social movements of 1960s America, and they also read secondary literature on changing marriage norms in turn-of-the century Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and in 20th century Jewish communities in America. The assignment turns on concepts of tradition and innovation, showing how often innovation plays a role in things deemed "traditional".

Muslims face racism based on their racialized religious identities, yet few address their experiences through critical race theory or campus racial climate. This paper addresses how religious students rate institutional commitments to campus diversity when considering racial and religious respect. This study examines undergraduate experience surveys across nine campuses and a Muslim student photovoice project through a mixed-methods design. I argue that racial and religious respect derived from interpersonal, discursive, and material sources influence Muslim students' perceptions of institutional commitment to diversity. I introduce racial-religious decoupling to refer to how the separation of race and religion as distinct social experiences hinders campus commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion for addressing anti-Muslim racism and intersections of race and religion. This study uses critical race theory to demonstrate how hegemonic Whiteness embedded in higher education includes Christian normativity, which racializes non-Christians as outsiders who have to justify their needs and resources for their communities.

This study examines the prayer experience of haredi (ultra-orthodox) youngsters who are unable to speak because of complex developmental motor limitations. The participants in the study are assisted by augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in order to communicate with their environment. AAC allows children and adults with complex communication needs to communicate with their environment by means of communication systems adapted to their own personal needs. This study seeks to characterize the prayer experience of youngsters studying in haredi institutions who use AAC. The study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) What is the prayer experience of AAC youngsters in religious schools? 2) What are the challenges and difficulties faced in prayer by youngsters using AAC? 3) How do youngsters who use AAC deal with their difficulties with prayer? The importance of this study lies in the rich and complex view it will provide educators and therapists of the inner world of AAC users. Findings can enable therapists and educators working with AAC users to become familiar with how the youngsters cope with prayer in the home and educational environment and to make this a more productive experience for them.

The concept of Thirdspace was employed to explore the interface of Haredi religious perception and contemporary psychological notions, focusing on male Haredi (Jewish ultra-Orthodox) kindergarten teachers' perceptions of "self." A two years ethnographic study was conducted, based on interactions with 90 male kindergarten teachers and 13 in-depth interviews in a Haredi Enrichment Centre for kindergarten children in Israel. The findings reveal a local notion of self-construal, including several features of contemporary Western independent self-construal along with Haredi religious perceptions. Together, these encouraged the development of an autonomous individual, capable of independently conducting his life as an adult. Children were perceived as distinct individuals with unique personal attributes whose expression would engender personal success, increase self-esteem, and encourage self-expression -- all this in a religious framework that sought to enhance the joy produced by experiencing the religious way of life. This paper additionally discusses limitations and implications for other multicultural educational settings.

This paper speaks to translation as a powerful window into students' developing religious literacy practices. It considers how 10- and 11-year-old North American Modern Orthodox Jewish students read and translate the Hebrew Bible refracted through their own cultural and religious expectations: in other words, how students use translation to negotiate their knowledge of biblical Hebrew with their lived experiences of family and gender in the context of modern Jewish life, ritual, and practice. In a Modern Orthodox Jewish school setting, Hassenfeld conducted interviews with 12 students. With each student, she used a task-based interview, asking the students to read and translate a single biblical verse (Genesis 16:15) into English. In completing the translation task, the students applied their technical knowledge of biblical Hebrew and their religious expectations of the ancient text. While translation is perceived in many Modern Orthodox educational contexts as primarily technical (i.e., the precursor to any interpretive activity), this case study suggests that student translation work cannot be separated from interpretive work. While the data set is small and the results only suggestive, the study raises an important theoretical question for future consideration: how can translation be better framed by religious educators who teach sacred texts in their original languages to allow students to understand the necessary interpretive demands it entails?

This study investigates the instruction of religious stories of Judaism at the primary school level in a Norwegian educational setting, with a focus on the perceptions of 8-year-old students regarding narratives about Moses. By integrating classroom observations and student interviews, it examines the teacher's pedagogical approach in instruction and how this influences students' perceptions. In addition, it explores student's ability to engage and express themselves independently in encounter with the stories. Theoretical perspectives of philosophy of language, particularly Bakhtin and Taylor, are employed to analyse students' expressions and perceptions. The findings are situated within the broader context of international research on teaching religious stories in elementary education. International literature highlights the pedagogical benefits of using stories to engage students in critical thinking and foster an understanding of religious narratives. The article aims to contribute to a nuanced understanding of how the youngest students navigate and interpret religious instructional material as well as their comprehension of the reasons for learning about Moses. Overall, this study contributes to a comprehension on how the youngest students engage with religious narratives and sheds light on teacher's pedagogical approaches in RE instruction at the lower primary level.

Teacher attrition and shortages have become a challenge worldwide. These phenomena diminish when teachers feel satisfied with their job. This study aimed to examine the relationship between teachers' intrinsic motivations and job satisfaction in religious and secular schools. A questionnaire was administered to 759 teachers in the Israeli Jewish sector. The results show that teachers in each sector highlighted different motivational factors as a basis for fostering job-satisfaction. Providing students with social-emotional support was associated with greater satisfaction among teachers in the religious schools, while transmitting general and civic values was linked to satisfaction in the secular schools. Encouraging students to pursue high grades negatively affected job satisfaction only in the secular sector. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Pedagogue's fallacy occurs when epistemological principles are applied by educators that in fact do not tell of, or explain, or help understand, the subject at hand. It is identified and introduced in this article to raise an important issue in the construction of pedagogical models of religious education: knowledge is reduced and/or distorted to systematise it for pedagogical purposes. Cases of this fallacy have long been identified in the pages of this journal, albeit implicitly, such as in critiques of the 'world religions' approach and debates over other pedagogical models. The purpose of this article is to explore and explicate pedagogue's fallacy in order to distinguish useful ways to structure and sequence knowledge on the one hand, from erroneous reduction, distortion, or even fabrication on the other. As religious education is diversifying in terms of the disciplines, religious traditions and standpoints with which it engages, understanding and remedying pedagogue's fallacy has never been more significant. This is because avoiding or mitigating pedagogue's fallacy is pertinent to achieving and maintaining epistemic justice. I offer the strategy of pedagogue's parsimony to do this.

This study investigated the coverage of desecularization in Israeli non-religious public education in national and local newspapers from 2016 to 2022. We conducted a content analysis and coded key elements for each article, such as the activists who carried out or opposed the desecularization activity and their narratives, arguments for and against desecularization, and resistance practices. The dominant media narratives depicted the process of desecularization as intentional and organized. The Ministry of Education appeared to be ambivalent about it: on one hand, it approved and funded desecularization activities, and on the other, it served as an address for complaints. The reports suggest that the sum of micro-processes can add up to a macro phenomenon of desecularization. Teachers and principals were frequently perceived as the initiators and enablers of desecularization. Last, the findings indicate that parents and social activists resist secularization through diverse collective and individual strategies.

The kindergarten teachers of the Religious Kibbutz movement (RK) as a unique group are connected both to the educational approaches of the kindergartens in the general Kibbutz Movement and the state religious kindergartens. A qualitative study included semi-structured interviews with 15 RK kindergarten teachers in order to explore their self-identity. The identity of the RK kindergarten was designed to be an encounter between four axes: the connection to Jewish tradition, the kibbutz community, nature and agriculture, and a constructivist approach. The study findings brought to light the RK kindergarten teachers' unique educational approach, which includes both similarities and differences with the general kibbutz movement kindergartens and the state religious kindergartens. The study contributes to highlighting a specific group of early childhood (EC) educators, reflecting both the diverse mosaic of EC educational approaches among different groups in Israel and the potential that these groups have for enriching each other.

Malka Haas (1920-2021) was a key pioneer in the founding of Israeli kibbutz kindergartens, and she profoundly influenced both the curriculum and practice of early childhood education (ECE) for the entire country. The article reviews Haas's biography, her professional development, and the main principles in her educational approach: "the kindergarten as a whole life," based on the significant experiences of the child in connection with the community and the Jewish tradition. The article also describes the sources of inspiration from which Haas drew her ideas and the impact of her approach on educational concepts for ECE in Israel today.

The concept of children's theories is central to the approach of the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. The author investigates children's theories about Judaism. Methods include semi-structured interviews and pedagogical documentation from American Jewish early childhood centers. Analysis involves open coding toward the development of a grounded theory positing that (1) children hold theories that impact the Jewish education they experience and (2) when the Jewish learning experience aligns with these inherent theories, children develop a new mental model, that they can make their mark on Judaism.

Evolution is a fundamental part of biology and thus it is essential that biology preservice teachers understand and accept it. The relationship between knowledge and acceptance of evolution, and specifically human evolution, has not been fully investigated in Israel. We sought to learn about that relationship amongst Israeli Jewish religious preservice science teachers. Twenty-three religious preservice teachers answered knowledge questions before and after participating in a human evolution activity and completed an acceptance questionnaire (I-SEA). In addition, eleven of them were interviewed regarding their knowledge of evolution and four were interviewed regarding their acceptance of evolution a few months after participating in the activity. Our main findings were that the relationship between knowledge and acceptance of evolution was not always one-to-one. The preservice teachers whose evolution knowledge is high and have firm religious faith accept the theory of evolution and are willing and eager to teach it. In addition, preservice teachers might have made a shift in their understanding of human evolution and thus accepted human evolution more due to the activity. More teacher training and exposure to evolution content and pedagogy are needed so that when preservice teachers will become in-service teachers they will teach evolution without hesitance.

Early childhood Jewish education provides an opportune moment to teach about race and Black-Jewish relations as young children grapple with concepts like justice. This article argues that picture books containing interactions between Black and Jewish characters or a Black Jewish character are a powerful pedagogical tool for this purpose. We created the first inventory of picture books that contain these characters, finding 188 of them which we believe can be invaluable in introducing the vital topic of race and racism to young children in early childhood Jewish classrooms through the historically important lenses of Black-Jewish relations and Black Jewish individuals.

Within Orthodox Jewish early childhood programs, gender roles of the Shabbat Party promote heteronormative gender expectations that contend with values about children, teaching, and Judaism. Interviews with 15 educators suggested tensions between gender flexible attitudes and beliefs that gender unfolds naturally. Pretend play was considered a safe space for challenging gender, regulated by perceived sociocultural and religious boundaries. Conversely, the Shabbat Party roles were rigidly instituted without much examination of their implications for gender and Jewish identity development. While a few dissenting voices revealed an emerging gender consciousness, the ongoing need for dialogue, reflection, and gender flexible practices are recommended.

Over a period of 13 years, I taught a class in photography to high school students, using a taxonomy I developed based on my own understanding of what makes for excellence in photography. Five of the elements of this taxonomy are explained and illustrated by photographs taken by my students; I submit these as evidence of my success in this endeavor. But since the school in which I taught is a community Jewish day school, a second goal of the course was for students to illustrate Jewish themes and explore their Jewish identities through the photographs they took. With this goal I had mixed success; over the years I received only 45 photographs (out of a total of 2,500) that were explicitly Jewish. I draw on Tali Hyman Zelkowicz's ethnography of a similar Jewish high school and on James Fowler's theory of faith development to consider what might have been on the minds of the students who submitted images that didn't seem particularly Jewish. Whether or not some of the other photographs the students took might be considered Jewish is a question that will be taken up toward the end of this paper, when I explore the notion of conveying "Jewish sensibilities," a term first introduced by Vanessa Ochs and elaborated on in several articles in this journal.

As instructors of Jewish Studies struggle to find ways for their students to be more engaged in their learning, it is worthwhile for educators to consider whether art-based assignments are effective at reaching this goal. This article examines what students gain when their study of a biblical chapter is paired with the generation of an art product on that chapter. The study evaluates a pictorial summary assignment to retell the narrative and a dramatic production assignment to analyze the messages of a biblical chapter. The findings suggest that art-based assignments help students read Jewish texts more closely and make more personal connections to them more so than when no pictorial component is included with verbal-based assignments.

Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners access to a multiplicity of experts. While these outlets empower lay-learners, they create competition amongst clerical and knowledge authorities. This article addresses the question: "how is religious authority understood and negotiated by learners, and in turn, how do they evaluate authoritative sources." Twenty-six in-depth think-aloud interviews were conducted with Religious-Zionists in Israel on their internet sourcing practices. Findings uncovered four strategies employed when sourcing information online: (1) Generating a reliable source network based on the learners' social and primordial affiliations. (2) Complexity based sourcing practices stemming from learners' uncertainty in their ability to autonomously attain a satisfying answer. (3) Fitting an appropriate source to queries based on their availability and prestige. (4) Negotiating learner's autonomy in a particular field of knowledge based on the social or epistemic norms that govern it.

As part of a joint European-Israeli project for developing modernised curricula on migrants' lives (DEMO), academic courses were adapted to meet the needs of a population served by a Palestinian teacher-education college in Northern Israel. Arab minority students, in many cases descendants of displaced people, attended two courses within the English (39 students), Early Childhood (20 students), and Science (20 students) departments brought the voice of students and interviewees into the classroom. Inspired by culture-based pedagogy, the courses guaranteed safe spaces for students to share lived experiences of marginalisation and family displacement. The research question: "What happens when offering culturally-based learning spaces for student-teachers and inviting them to reflect on lived experiences?", and participatory methods allowed students to reflect on their daily lives. Data analysis highlighted cognitive, emotional and behavioural themes that illuminated experiences and feelings of marginalisation, silencing, female's suppression, religious extremism, privilege, memory, and dis-belonging bringing oral testimonies of students' displaced ancestors to the public sphere.

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions of masculinity and fatherhood of male school leaders and their perceptions associated with leadership practice. We used purposive sampling to recruit male Israeli school leaders for participation in the study. We collected the data by semi-structured interviews, which we then subjected to thematic analysis. The results indicate that the participants were divided between hegemonic and caring views of masculinity. By contrast, two-thirds of the leaders held an emotional view of fatherhood, and only one-third had an instrumental view. The results shed light also on the perceived connection of leaders' masculinity and fatherhood views with their leadership practice. The findings and contributions of the study are discussed.

This paper investigates how Hebrew is taught and perceived at American part-time Jewish schools, based on surveys of 519 school directors, classroom observations, and 376 surveys of parents, students, teachers, and clergy. We found misalignment of rationales and goals for Hebrew education among these stakeholders. Most schools emphasize Liturgical and Biblical Hebrew decoding and recitation without comprehension for ritual participation, especially b'nai mitzvah. Many schools infuse Hebrew, and a small percentage teach Modern Hebrew conversation. Findings are discussed in historical context and compared to language education and metalinguistic communities in immigrant and indigenous groups.

This paper is an exploration of the pedagogic challenges experienced in teaching emerging Jewish educational leaders about how to lead with a diversity mindset and create inclusive spaces for teaching and learning. Employing elements of self-study and phenomenology, we identify felt difficulties, examining how those were evident in our planning and teaching of the course and in student work. From those challenges we name lessons to be learned and questions for further study about the professional development of Jewish educational leaders who are responsible for creating cultures of belonging in their institutions.

This study explores the perspective of day school parents as they engage with questions of race with their children and in the context of their day school choice. We convened a book group in summer 2020. Nine White mothers of school-aged children met over four ninety minute sessions to discuss Margaret Hagermans' (2018) White Kids: Growing up with privilege in a racially divided America. The book served as a jumping off point for conversation about how participants experience race in their own lives, how they engage with race within the family, and how they understand their children's school to be engaging with issues of race. Hagerman followed families who chose mainly between public schools and secular private schools; our participants developed comparisons between Hagerman's schools and Jewish day schools, and between themselves and Hagerman's parents. While maintaining the uniqueness of the Jewish day school context, they also discovered commonalities with Hagerman's parents related to privilege and social class and the disconnect between good intentions and outcomes.

Students with intellectual developmental disability (IDD) may have impairments in conceptual, social, and daily life areas that will require support when these students are included in mainstream settings. In order to examine the facilitators and impediments involved in inclusion of students with IDD in regular schools in Israel, we interviewed six parents of students with IDD who were enrolled in inclusive classes, five teachers of inclusive classes, one teaching assistant and two school principals. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed the perceptions regarding the included students, by their parents and the school staff. The school staff perceived family involvement and the connection between them and the parents as the most important. Parents perceived the possibility of studying in an inclusive class as an opportunity for social integration and scholastic advancement. All the participants indicated the social aspect as crucial to the inclusion of students with IDD.

The current study delves into the professional identity of elementary school rabbis within the national-religious education system in Israel, focusing on the perspectives of the rabbis themselves and examining how their professional identity impacts their work. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 rabbis who were selected using a convenience sampling method. The findings reveal that their professional identity is influenced by role ambiguity and conflicts within the school's work environment. Moreover, the study highlights the rabbis' direct engagement with students, parents, and staff in various educational activities, providing assistance and support. These findings have significant implications for religious education, offering insights to enhance the work of rabbis in this context.

Existent research on intercultural exposure and cultural intelligence has been largely conducted in management and management education, the latter with business student subjects. Aiming to attain a more holistic view in this regard, we attend to a civic-related outcome, namely, the emergence of (cosmopolitan-based) global citizenship attitudes, which can be regarded as a socio-political pre-condition for membership in an inclusive global world. We examined a mediation model among Israeli late-adolescents in which cultural intelligence reflects a causal mechanism in which intercultural exposure affects global citizenship attitudes. The survey included a sample of 954 affluent Israeli-Jewish late adolescents attending 12 high schools. Hypotheses were tested with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings concerning the measurement models of the multifaceted constructs (i.e., intercultural exposure, cultural intelligence, and global citizenship attitudes) pointed to a good fit; hence were validated. Moreover, the study findings supported a full mediation model, augmenting the accumulated evidence on cultural intelligence's significant role in developing a wide range of multicultural perspectives.

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish community is characterized by its strict religious observance and is a relatively self-secluding group existing as an enclave system. In the last few decades, a growing number of ultra-Orthodox Jews have pursued social work degrees. Social work is a profession that shares many of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community's values, such as helping those who are in need. However, social work education and practice are also based on liberal-humanist approaches which may conflict with the community's adherence to the Jewish law ("halacha"). To overcome some of these obstacles, and in order to meet their unique needs, there are a few programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education which are designed to teach social work to ultra-Orthodox Jews. We interviewed 21 graduates of such programs to learn about their experiences pursuing a master's in social work. The results of this study indicate that these programs are culturally sensitive to the ultra-Orthodox community due to their gender-segregated classes, in-house rabbi, respecting the Jewish calendar, and employing instructors who understand the needs of the community. We conclude with implications for future research and policy recommendations to assess the fidelity of these programs and whether they sacrifice essential values of social work.

The study's aim was to identify the entrepreneurial process ten Jewish immigrant religious educators utilized when establishing innovative educational institutions, thereby affecting the Israeli religious education system. We utilized a social innovation approach to education entrepreneurship applying a qualitative analysis of life story interviews. The findings describe four phases that comprise the education entrepreneurial process: early personal development, critique of the current status quo, call to action, and the establishment of an innovative religious education organization.

Ecological crises are also spiritual ones, leading to profound heartbreak. By helping us to understand and value the nature of heartbreak, as well as helping to find a balance between heartbreak and hope, religious traditions can play a significant role in empowering people to address serious environmental problems. This paper discusses how reconnection and ritual can help people to strike that balance.

The low representation of minority groups in higher education challenges many countries. Integrating these groups requires the presence of a multi-faceted support system to include financial aid, educational support, and cultural adaptation of content, but most of the support is directed to bachelor's degrees. The current study aims to examine differences in measures of success for a bachelor's degree and those for a master's degree among Ultra-orthodox women in Israel. The study was carried out using a quantitative paradigm and was based on 116 female students who completed master's degrees in special programs for Ultra-orthodox women. The findings indicate that measures of success were found to be significantly higher in advanced degree studies than in bachelor's degree studies. At the same time, it appears that the components of making a degree accessible for ultra-orthodox society are also considered higher for master's degrees. This shows that the importance of cultural adaptation does not end with a bachelor's degree, and it is very important for master's degrees A culturally adapted environment, and specifically, content that is suitable for minorities, encourages a sense of belonging, which has been found to contribute to success.

The recent war in Europe, the Ukraine-Russia war, has had a huge impact in the lives of millions of people in the European continent--in the lives of both those who have fled the conflict and of those who have welcomed them with open arms. In this paper, we conduct a philosophical investigation into the issue of hospitality to others, to strangers, to foreigners trying to understand this phenomenon taking place in Europe, and elsewhere. First, we investigate the Jewish Mitzvah of Hospitality by referring to two passages in the Torah that exemplify hospitality and one that instantiates its opposite, hostility to the other, to strangers and foreigners. Following from this, we provide a discussion on Jewish ethics and its deontological and virtue ethics connections. In the last section, we engage with a discussion connecting the field of education and the matter of hospitality.

The story of Modern Orthodox Jews on American college campuses is one of growth and gains. From the hard-fought battles of Yavneh in the 1960s, Modern Orthodox Jews have risen to a level of acceptance and accommodation that allows for a rich religious life during the college years. The question of the years ahead for Modern Orthodox Jews is whether fundamentally religious outlooks can continue to be compatible with the academy of higher learning, or if this too will fade into the past as a once-tenable synthesis that no longer works. This paper is divided into three sections. First, a general and brief history of Jews of all types in American universities will give broad context. Second, Modern Orthodoxy will be described in the present and through its emergence. Third, an analysis of how campus-based Modern Orthodox institutions have changed in the past few decades will shed further light on this population. Finally, these ideas will be put into context of larger trends in higher education.

The research literature on leisure indicates that it is perceived differently by sector and culture. In Israel, one's affiliation with religious or non-religious groups affects one's perception of leisure and its legitimacy. The common activities of religious and secular people include studies in general, and Torah study in particular, as activities carried out by choice and for pleasure. In this research Torah study is considered in its wide meaning, as including all traditional Jewish texts. The research sought to try and understand various characteristics of people who study Torah as a leisure activity and to illuminate aspects rarely addressed in the academic literature, mainly students' perception of study efforts, importance of studies, the contribution of studies and satisfaction with studies. The sample included 234 respondents divided into three groups: Torah students (56) who were studying in a hevruta (collaborative) format, Torah students (50) who were studying a course by participating in lectures, and a control group (128) who were studying other theoretical topics by participating in lectures. The findings of this research indicate that Torah study nowadays takes place not only as an obligation but rather also as an elective activity in formal courses and hevruta study groups -- an activity that transcends the religious dimension and involves a choice and pleasure for all learners. Additionally, Torah students perceived their studies as having greater contribution, more important and more satisfying than students of non-Torah subjects. The method of study (collaborative vs lectures) did not affect these perceptions. The findings may have applied implications beneficial to society in general. The research findings illuminate the potential of Torah study as a leisure activity and its capacity to unite various sectors in Israeli society.

This article deals with the relationship between the Holocaust and antisemitism, focusing on the events of 2020-2021. The point of departure is the fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, held under the slogan: "Remembering the Holocaust, fighting antisemitism". The event took place at the invitation of Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, in advance of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 23, 2020). Content analysis of the speeches given by presidents and prime ministers from around the world reinforce the insights of the Holocaust and the association with current-day antisemitism. In March 2020 the COVID-19 virus appeared, and a wave of antisemitism surfaced with it. Analysis of contents that appeared on websites and social networks reveals vitriolic antisemitism against Jews as generators of the virus, being the virus themselves. This study utilized the method of anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006), who established the interpretive approach to anthropology for analyzing culture contents. This, with regard to content analysis in general and to the contents of social networks and their contribution to antisemitism, in particular. Operation "Guardian of the Walls" in Gaza in 2021 further fanned antisemitism. Content analysis of websites and social networks portrays the Jewish soldier as a Nazi soldier and all Jews as murderers -- with all the Holocaust symbols and Holocaust language. The study seeks to examine whether and to what degree the educational system in general and guides of youth trips to Poland as mediators of memory in particular, are prepared for the educational challenge of eradicating antisemitism in the post-Holocaust era. The research findings show that the challenge still awaits us. Education is an essential instrument in the battle against antisemitism but the educational system, both formal and informal, is not prepared.

This study examines how far the establishment of an ultra-orthodox (Haredi) women-only curriculum and learning environment crafted for their needs, such as supplementary Biblical studies, fosters students' enrollment and achievement in STEM. The methodology utilizes interviews with administrators accompanied by a Google questionnaire surveying students in order to compare the secular Azrieli College of Engineering with its new ultra-orthodox branch, Tmura Seminary, which aims to promote the acquisition by ultra-orthodox Jewish women of an engineering diploma so that they can find employment in the job market. This objective is significant because the ultra-orthodox community in Israel represents a unique family setting in which the men devote most of their workday to Judaic studies while the women are the breadwinners. The findings of the current study show that addressing the higher education gender gap by purposeful efforts to include ultra-orthodox women is indeed feasible. Still, it remains a challenging endeavor because besides being first-generation students subject to religious constraints, Haredi students are insufficiently prepared in mathematics and English before arriving at the campus, which requires that they participate in an intensive pre-academic preparatory program. The analysis of results showed differences between ultra-orthodox and secular students in their motivation for study, sources of information about suitable education institutions, balancing work and family life priorities, financial need for scholarships, and career path, which is directed toward finding a job in the high-tech industry rather than continuing after graduation to pursue a Master-level degree.

This study presents the importance of promoting interreligious dialogue and ecumenism in teaching peace education. It also discusses the applicability of selected papal documents for implementation in current interreligious education in Catholic and government schools in the Philippines. We explain the importance of interreligious dialogue and ecumenism from the Catholic Church documents Ut Unum Sint and Nostra Aetate. Then, we show the need for interreligious dialogue and ecumenism in achieving peace in this time when religion is misconstrued. Conclusions are given to lay out the need for interreligious dialogue and ecumenism to be integrated in peace education.

Supporting a sustainable world in a situation of war is the background to this study. Additionally, interdisciplinarity forms a part of the dialogical ecosystem of searching for suitable solutions in a complex reality. For such purposes, in this contribution, the co-authors reflect on an actual instance of war. The first author provides a theological, socio-political and philosophical framework for an understanding, based in realism, of the relationship between theology and politics. The second author provides a first-hand case description from Riga, Latvia, of a politically-linked ecumenical project to assist Ukrainian refugees from the Russian invasion.

Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures. To this end, a multiple case study method was adopted, focusing on four Israeli public high schools. Schools were chosen to represent an 'extreme' case selection rationale: two non-religious urban schools representing individualist cases, and two communal schools in religious kibbutzim representing communal schools. The analysis shed light on three micro-political points of comparison between the prototypes of participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures related to control, actors, and stage crafting. The findings and implications are discussed.

Community-based, Judaism-intensive action groups (Hebrew: Gar'inim Toraniim--GTs) are religiously motivated to settle in Israeli development towns, seeking to narrow social gaps through education. However, their influence has never been fully clarified. This study is grounded in the theory of educational gentrification and introduces the concept of Faith-Driven Gentrification. Until now research has lacked voice from local people forced to face the intervention of settlers driven by religion and their influence on urban school systems. The findings, based on institutional data and in-depth interviews, show that GTs alter the structure of educational systems and the dominant educational ethos. They drive achievement and strict religiosity; nevertheless, their actions impair disadvantaged groups and opponents of their religious lifestyle, intensifying segregation. By giving voice to these communities, this study claims that despite gentrifiers' commitment to social justice in urban communities, they harm longtime residents through indirect displacement, fueled by religious and ethnic elitism.

Barabbas has a small role in the Gospels, but his presence influences the way the Christian story has been told and received over the centuries. While he is mentioned in all four Gospels during the account of Jesus' Roman trial, he never appears "on-stage" in the Gospels. His main purpose is to exculpate the Romans of responsibility for the killing of Jesus of Nazareth, and to shift the blame onto the Jewish crowd assembled in the presence of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. Religious educators require context to present material that involves Barabbas. This article provides an overview of the contemporary scholarship on Barabbas in the New Testament. It provides discussion of teaching and learning approaches that can be included in classrooms to assist in removing Barabbas as an obstacle to positive Jewish-Christian relations.

Christian-secular moral dualism, the idea that Christians and secular people hold different moral values, is prevalent in our social views and moral education. This belief, however, does not correspond with the findings of current studies on people's moral perceptions. This article presents an empirically defined welfare/harm-based morality that stands across different cultures and personal-social diversities including religious beliefs. This domain of morality differs from social conventions and rules as well as virtuous acts (e.g., honesty), both of which are often classified as a part of moral quality in other literature on moral perceptions and traditional character/moral education. The article describes the reasons why moral pluralism and Christian-Secular moral dualism have been prematurely, yet widely supported in societies, followed by pedagogical suggestions for a new direction for further understanding of welfare-based morality per se, as well as Christian morality in the context of the universal moral principle.

Purpose: Following the current rise of Antisemitism globally and in Germany, this paper examines the current situation regarding Antisemitism in teacher education. The paper aims to make a contribution for the demand of an implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher education. Approach: Combining experience from university teacher training and the field of extracurricular political education we appoint perspectives for a sustainable implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher training via best practice examples. We evaluate the potentials of field trips, international study groups and networks between university and agents located in civil society. Findings: The revised curricula for Social Sciences in the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia (and formerly Berlin) name current Antisemitism for the first time, indicating an urgent need for professionalization in Social Science teacher education where the facets of Antisemitism only play a minor role. Hence, expertise and existing resources must be stabilized, a structural implementation and funding is needed in order to target the challenging topic of Antisemitism. Research limitations/implications: This paper functions as a preliminary research in order to examine the given shape of Social Science teacher education and Antisemitism in Germany. A comprehensive, structured analyses of all teacher training facilities as well as extracurricular agents working in the field of education critical of Antisemitism could be useful in order to pool expertise. Nonetheless this paper encourages local collaborations between university and civil society actors.