Research
Talking Across the Divide: Intergenerational Interactions as a Site of Learning in American Jewish Families
This qualitative study explores how American Jewish families negotiate intergenerational differences around Israel and Jewish identity through face-to-face and digital interactions. Through interviews and analysis of digital exchanges, the study draws from narrative psychology and emerging adulthood theory to examine how parents and emerging adult-age children (ages 18–26) interpret Jewish values, manage disagreement, and sustain relationships amid ideological and generational change. By centering the family as a relational and dialogic space, this project highlights everyday family interactions as a vital site of Jewish learning. Its findings can generate new insights for the field of Jewish education and provide research-based analysis to educators and communal leaders seeking to foster intergenerational dialogue and inclusion. Doing so, this work extends an understanding of how families engage in Jewish meaning-making and understand Jewish belonging at a time of cultural change, generational change, and moral complexity.
Funded by: The Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE)
For more information: https://www.casje.org/talking-across-divide
Hebrew in the United States
Speaking of Hebrew: What Language Does for American Jews Wayne State University Press (anticipated November 2026)
This project examines contemporary American Jewish life through the relationship of American Jews with the Hebrew language. It
The book offers a nuanced exploration of what American Jews say in and about Hebrew as a crucial dimension of American Jewishness, which includes its cultural, religious, and national-political dimensions. Shifting the focus away from questions of linguistic competence and what American Jews can linguistically do in Hebrew, it offers a functionalist approach, asking what Hebrew does for American Jews as they think of themselves as individuals and as a collective By attending to the perspectives of community leaders, educators, scholars, and everyday learners, Speaking of Hebrew reveals what Hebrew does for those most invested in its study and use, and how these engagements illuminate the broader concerns and interests that make up Jewish life in America.
Funded by: ACLS Community College Faculty Research Fellowship; NEH Summer Grant; PSC CUNY Grant
Jewish Learning Through Cultural Arts
Co-author Laura Yares
Judaism Mediated: Learning About Jewishness Through the Cultural Arts, New York University Press, Anticipated 2026
This project explores how Jews and non-Jews come to learn about Jews and Judaism through participation in cultural, digital, and leisurely spaces. It examines audience engagements with five different Jewish cultural arts settings–museums, web-based performances, streaming television, concerts, and live theatre, and argues that depictions of Jewish people and topics in these cultural spaces can create powerful learning experiences. The book shows not only that religious learning happens in diverse spaces, but that learning in leisure time can take on social, cognitive, and affective dimensions, too. Judaism Mediated offers compelling case studies of contemporary American religion relevant for readers interested in how people enact religion in everyday life.
Funded by Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for studies in Jewish education at Brandeis University
Link to the book site: https://nyupress.org/9781479838561/judaism-mediated/
Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps”
Winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity
Co-authors: Sarah Benor and Jonathan Krasner
Each summer, tens of thousands of American Jews attend residential camps, where they may see Hebrew signs, sing and dance to Hebrew songs, and hear a camp-specific hybrid language register called Camp Hebraized English, as in: “Let’s hear some ruach (spirit) in this chadar ochel (dining hall)!” Using historical and sociolinguistic methods, this book explains how camp directors and staff came to infuse Hebrew in creative ways and how their rationales and practices have evolved from the early 20th century to today. Some Jewish leaders worry that Camp Hebraized English impedes Hebrew acquisition, while others recognize its power to strengthen campers’ bonds with Israel, Judaism, and the Jewish people. Hebrew Infusion explores these conflicting ideologies, showing how hybrid language can serve a formative role in fostering religious, diasporic communities. The insightful analysis and engaging descriptions of camp life will appeal to anyone interested in language, education, or American Jewish culture.
Funded by: Wexner Foundation; Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for studies in Jewish education at Brandeis University; CASJE (The Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education); PSC-CUNY Grant
Mapping Hebrew education in public schools: A resource for Jewish educators
Sharon Avni & Avital Karpman (University of Maryland-College Park)
Funded by: The Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) Research Award 2018
Diversity in the Expansion of Dual Language Bilingual Education: The Case of Hebrew-English Programs in New York City Public Schools
Co-PI Kate Menken, Queens College
Funded by: The Spencer Foundation
In search of the knowledge base of Hebrew teaching in Jewish day school education
Funded by: The Sylvia and Moshe Ettenberg Research Grant in Jewish Education, Network for Research in Jewish Education, 2017-2018
Chapter: What Do Parents Want from Hebrew Studies in Jewish Day School Education?