What issues in the contemporary world matter most to Jewish children, and how do children make sense of these issues? How do educators make sense of children’s ideas and their implications for the work of Jewish education? American Jewish 4th and 5th graders have concerns about many important world issues—climate change, homelessness, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, political polarization, and so much more—and their teachers face the complexities of addressing political issues, shifting cultural norms, and more. In this session, scholars Lauren Applebaum and Sivan Zakai discuss their findings from a collaborative study with Jewish children enrolled in both day and supplementary schools, and their educators.

Originally recorded: 9/18/25

At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community. That’s our mission.

To learn more about the Mandel Center, and sign up to attend upcoming virtual and physical events, visit our website.

Learning About Learning is a production of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, and is engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media LLC.

In this special event, authors from a themed issue of Journal of Jewish Education discuss their articles on antisemitism on college campuses since October 7. The issue spotlights cutting-edge research to broaden and deepen our understanding of antisemitism and anti-Zionism by analyzing their contemporary manifestations and implications for Jewish education and learning. This webinar features the following authors speaking about their papers:

• Vikki Katz (Chapman University): Unsettled Ground: How Jewish Undergraduates are Negotiating Identity Shifts and (Un)civil Campus Discourse after October 7
• Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University): Anti-Israelism, Social Media and the College Campus in the Aftermath of 10/7: The Case of Columbia
• Jonathan Krasner (Brandeis University): Between Home and Homeland: Jewish College Students Confront the Israel-Gaza Conflict and Campus Divides
• Graham Wright (Brandeis University): What Crosses the Line? Understanding the Boundaries of Antisemitism and Criticism of Israel Through the Perspectives of Jewish College Students

Moderated by Nicole Samuel (Brandeis University)

Originally recorded: 6/4/25

At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community. That’s our mission.

To learn more about the Mandel Center, and sign up to attend upcoming virtual and physical events, visit our website.

Learning About Learning is a production of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, and is engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media LLC.

Recent years have witnessed an impressive outpouring of important new work in contemporary Jewish theology. In this Spotlight Session, we gather four leading scholars, each of whom has recently produced an important work of Jewish theology, to think together about the implications of their ideas for Jewish education.

This webinar features the following panelists in discussion with Jon Levisohn (Brandeis University) about their books:

• Julia Watts Belser (Georgetown University): Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole
• Mara Benjamin (Mount Holyoke College): The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought
• Yonatan Brafman (Tufts University): Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Commandments and Social Normativity
• Shai Held (Hadar Institute): Judaism is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life

Originally recorded: 5/1/25

At the Mandel Center, we are committed to advancing the field of Jewish educational scholarship, especially scholarship on teaching and learning, in order to make a deep and lasting difference on the lives of learners and the vibrancy of the Jewish community. That’s our mission.

To learn more about the Mandel Center, and sign up to attend upcoming virtual and physical events, visit our website.

Learning About Learning is a production of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, and is engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media LLC.