The Greening of “Informal Jewish Education” Talk

Abstract

One of the missions of the Journal of Jewish Education is to stimulate dialogue and discourse about important issues facing Jewish education. In our last issue we began a conversation about informal Jewish education with Joseph Reimer's article, “Beyond More Jews Doing Jewish: Clarifying the Goals of Informal Jewish Education.” In that piece, Reimer challenged readers to rethink the interplay of socialization and education in informal Jewish education. His ideas serve as the focus of the 11 essays that follow, written by practitioners and academics alike, who were asked to respond to Reimer's article as if in conversation with him. Reimer's rejoinder concludes the conversation and addresses some of the questions raised in the responses. Reimer uses this opportunity to further clarify his thinking about the goals of informal Jewish education. We hope you will find the conversation thought provoking and a stimulus to beginning many other such conversations in the settings in which you work. Gail Zaiman Dorph Associate Editor