David's fear over his approaching bar mitzvah causes him to alienate five rabbis who try to help him, but something surprising happens when he is placed in the hands of the eccentric former teacher Reuven Weiss.

Provides a practical, humorous guide for Jewish students and their families as they prepare for their "big day," helping students and families not just survive but understand and enjoy this important Jewish milestone.

"Published by the University of Nebraska Press as a Jewish Publication Society book."

What could be more ingrained in the Jewish psyche as well as pop culture everywhere than the B’nei Mitzvah ceremony? For generations, families have joined synagogues and schlepped their kids to lessons. These hapless pre-teens struggle with cracking voices and unfamiliar melodies, fight with their parents about time spent practicing, and eventually face a couple hundred of their closest friends and relatives to sing for a couple hours in a foreign language. The current model of B’nei Mitzvah training does not resonate with most 13-year-old kids. They do it because they know they have to do it. Their parents and grandparents went through the same thing. It’s time to re-evaluate how our kids learn and prepare to be knowledgeable and engaged members of the Jewish community. Raising the Bar Mitzvah is the book that will lead Jewish professionals as well as lay congregants on a more productive and meaningful path.

The leading thinkers in Jewish education today analyze current practices, reflect on the social and psychological aspects of Bar/Bat Mitzvah, provide examples of programs to replicate, address concerns of those with special needs, outline creative family education opportunities and successful mitzvah programs, and provide strategies for teaching trope. Fifty chapters written by cantors, rabbis, directors of education, and scholars. Results of a survey of Bar/Bat Mitzvah educators included.

This support pack provides a range of photocopiable worksheets which have been developed thematically to allow teaching and use alongside the topics in the pupil's book. Each topic comprises a cross-reference to pages in the pupil book; narrative background material; differentiated worksheets and information sheets and notes from the author.

The International Handbook of Jewish Education, a two volume publication, brings together scholars and practitioners engaged in the field of Jewish Education and its cognate fields world-wide. Their submissions make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the field of Jewish Education as we start the second decade of the 21st century. The Handbook is divided broadly into four main sections: Vision and Practice: focusing on issues of philosophy, identity and planning –the big issues of Jewish Education. Teaching and Learning: focusing on areas of curriculum and engagement Applications, focusing on the ways that Jewish Education is transmitted in particular contexts, both formal and informal, for children and adults. Geographical, focusing on historical, demographic, social and other issues that are specific to a region or where an issue or range of issues can be compared and contrasted between two or more locations. This comprehensive collection of articles providing high quality content, constitutes a difinitive statement on the state of Jewish Education world wide, as well as through a wide variety of lenses and contexts. It is written in a style that is accessible to a global community of academics and professionals.

This book presents an incisive analysis of how fundamental issues in education are portrayed in film. Focusing on recent films, the author draws on a wide range of educational thinkers and fields of research to examine issues not discussed before. Resnick challenges our assumptions and enriches our general knowledge on critical issues like funding for arts education, what we mean by successful civic education, and the educational value of sports. This project, which includes topics such as the gender gap in civic education, religious education, and what animated films have to say about human education, can serve as a “viewer’s guide” to selected educational issues in film and may spur the intelligent use of films in public debate.

A Jewish Special Needs Resource Guide. This handbook describes various disabilities and provides an array of options including program models, professional development, interventions and resources (material and organizations).

This book opens windows onto various aspects of Jewish legal culture. Rather than taking a structural approach, and attempting to circumscribe and define ‘every’ element of Jewish law, Windows onto Jewish Legal Culture takes a dynamic and holistic approach, describing diverse manifestations of Jewish legal culture, and its general mind-set, without seeking to fit them into a single structure. Jewish legal culture spans two millennia, and evolved in geographic centers that were often very distant from one another both geographically and socio-culturally. It encompasses the Talmud and talmudic literature, the law codes, the rulings of rabbinical courts, the responsa literature, decisions taken by communal leaders, study of the law in talmudic academies, the local study hall, and the home. But Jewish legal culture reaches well beyond legal and quasi-legal institutions; it addresses, and is reflected in, every aspect of daily life, from meals and attire to interpersonal and communal relations. Windows onto Jewish Legal Culture gives the reader a taste of the tremendous weight of Jewish legal culture within Jewish life. Among the facets of Jewish legal culture explored are two of its most salient distinguishing features, namely, toleration and even encouragement of controversy, and a preference for formalistic formulations. These features are widely misunderstood, and Jewish legal culture is often parodied as hair-splitting argument for the sake of argument. In explaining the epistemic imperatives that motivate Jewish legal culture, however, this book paints a very different picture. Situational constraints and empirical considerations are shown to provide vital input into legal determinations at every level, and the legal process is revealed to be attentive to context and sensitive to cultural concerns.