Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning: Making Meaning at Many Tables

What do we mean by “adult Jewish learning”? Where is contemporary adult Jewish learning taking place? What kinds of learning matter to adult Jewish learners in the twenty-first century? Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning boldly tackles these questions through the exploration of various learners’ experiences in diverse circumstances: couples exploring a Jewish museum, actors co-creating a Jewish-themed play, social justice activists consolidating their Jewish values and identities, Jewish preschool educators visiting Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish staff at a Jewish social service agency studying traditional texts together, Latinx converts seeking to understand “how to be a good Jew,” members of a Torah study group producing their own commentaries, Jewish community leaders coming to terms with the challenges of Jewish pluralism. Using the social science methodology of portraiture, the authors provide nuanced detail about the wide range of participants, settings, subject matter, and ways of meaning making that characterize adult Jewish learning today. Viewing these narratives side by side enables readers to think “outside the frame” about programming, curricula, pedagogies, and contexts that encourage meaningful adult learning. This book will capture the imagination of educational leaders, clergy, policymakers, philanthropists, teachers, and adult learners, and will spark conversation about how to enrich the field of adult Jewish learning overall.

Diane Tickton Schuster is Director of the Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning project at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.