Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher. Chapter 1: The Life and Thought of Eliezer Berkovits Chapter 2: A World Adrift Chapter 3: Great Teachers and Great Debates Chapter 4: The Future of Jewish Education As he looked out at the Western world of the 1960s and ‘70s, […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: The Left and Right on Liberty Chapter 2: Theory and Practice in America Chapter 3: Stations on the Long Road Chapter 4: The Jew in Society Chapter 5: Challenges, Pitfalls, and the Journey to Freedom Lamenting the […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Marriage, Children, and the Beginning of Wisdom Chapter 2: Commandments, Faith, and Moral Formation Chapter 3: Do Judaism and Christianity Entail Different Political Orientations? Chapter 4: Lessons for Jews and Christians Sometimes, it takes an outsider to […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Liberal Education and Its Betrayal Chapter 2: Values and Assumptions of a Liberal Education Chapter 3: Religious Faith and a Liberal Education Chapter 4: A Liberal Education in the Jewish State In this podcast Tikvah senior director Jonathan […]

Israeli self-doubt about its own legitimacy grows out of a concern that it cannot be both Jewish and democratic. This anxiety has made its way into the Israeli Education Ministry’s curriculum. In this 2001 Azure essay, Daniel Polisar offers suggestions about how Israeli civic education can be renewed so that young Israelis will be taught […]

American Jews are facing a demographic crisis. An aging population, low fertility rate, and high rate of intermarriage combine to reveal an exceptionally weak desire to raise up a new generation of Jewish Americans. In this 2005 Commentary article, sociologist Jack Wertheimer explores and explains this phenomenon and asks whether there is anything that can […]

It is widely known that a substantial number of men from the yeshiva community in Israel study Torah full-time, relying on broad support from the state to supplement their wives’ income in order to sustain their families. Perhaps less well known is that this phenomenon is not a traditional way of Jewish life, but one […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Chapter 1: Evolution of Jewish Education in America Chapter 2: Milton Friedman on“The Role of Government in Education” Chapter 3: State of Jewish Day Schools and the Tuition Crisis Chapter 4: State of School Choice Debate in America Chapter 5: […]

On top of the rising costs of raising a child in America, Jack Wertheimer estimates that “actively engaged” Jewish families pay a premium of “$50,000 and $110,000 a year just to live a Jewish life.” Behind these financial costs are significant moral ones, Rabbi Aryeh Klapper argues in this 2012 article. High costs of living […]

What role should the government play in educating its citizens? In this 1955 essay, economics Nobel laureate Milton Friedman argues that while there is an economic case to be made for government to subsidize the education of the young, it does not follow that government itself should be in the business of running schools. Friedman […]