Usher Bixenspan’s regular attire includes a black hat, a black coat and peyes, but for one afternoon in June, he wore a maroon gown, a graduation cap and a big smile. Bixenspan, 20, was part of the first graduating class of B’Derech, an academic program geared toward ultra-Orthodox Jews. The goal of B’Derech — Hebrew…
There are few, if any, options for teens in America who want a Jewish experience during their post-high school, pre-college gap year, but don’t want to spend time in Israel. That was a key incentive for Portland, Ore.-based contracting carpenter Steve Eisenbach-Budner to create Tivnu, the first Jewish social-justice themed gap-year program in the U.S.,…
Please resist the urge to stop reading this article as soon as a certain word rears its ugly head. This is not an indictment. On the contrary — it’s a letter of commendation, a borderline puff piece. But the good news only makes sense in the context of the bad news, and I don’t know…
Jordana Horn’s recent article asks the singular question, Who Says You Need Day School? The question is simple and so is the answer. Nothing less than the future of the Jewish people rests on the existence of vibrant Jewish day schools. If we are to have a future as a people — we need day…
Recently I’ve read several pieces in which Jewish parents expressed their belief that day school is critically necessary to raising their children as Jews — and that without it, there would be no certainty that their children would maintain a firm footing in the Jewish world. One mother even wrote that she had decided to…
Gedalya Gottdenger’s dream is to get a degree in psychology. But unlike most 21-year-olds, Gottdenger lacks a basic education, even though he has been studying since he was a child. Gottdenger, who grew up in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, is a product of ultra-Orthodox Jewish day schools in which, numerous students report, math and…
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. Translation by Ezra Glinter. “Good morning. My name is Nomy. I am a girl. Good morning, Moby! He is a robot.” So begins the first section of YiddishPOP, a new educational website featuring animated videos whose main character is a robot. It’s the result of a…
New rules from the Education Ministry of the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip will bar men from teaching at girls’ schools and mandate separate classes for boys and girls from the age of nine. The law, published on Monday, would go into effect next school year and applies throughout the coastal enclave, including…
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