"Monstrous Sisters" in Leesburg!!

Monstrous Sisters and Their Place in the Biblical Family

Congregation Sha'are Shalom and the Jewish Theological Seminary are sponsoring a coffee and conversation with Dr. Amy Kalmonofsky, Assistant Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary on Sunday, October 25, 2009. Her topic is "Monstrous Sisters and Their Place in the Biblical Family". The discussion will take place at the home of Elyann and David Katz at 3:30. The couvert is $18/person or $25/couple payable to Jewish Theological Seminary. Please RSVP to adult_ed@sha-areshalom.org.

Jewish Community Center offerings

Of course one of the richest sources of adult programming in the area is right at the JCCNV. Anyone--whether affiliated with a synagogue or not, whether you know Hebrew or not, whether you're Jewish or not--with an interest in adult Jewish education should make a habit of regularly checking the website. In particular, take a look at the Adult and Senior Services neighborhood.

For example, upcoming films include:

• Wednesday, September 16, 10:30am, Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Alexandria,"Yiddish Theater: A Love Story." Also featuring a special concert of Yiddish music with Beth El Cantor Sharon Steinberg. Cost: $2 JCCNV Member/ $3NM and you can pay at the door.

• Sunday, November 22 at 7pm, JCCNV, "The Beetle," a delightful Israeli film (it's about the car, not the insect). Cost: $4 JCCNV Member / $5NM. Includes a post film discussion, coffee and dessert. You can pay at the door.

And of course there's the great Active Seniors program with "branch offices" throughout Northern Virginia.

Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning Fall Programs

This is a little self-referential, but elsewhere on the ShalomNova.org website, we talk about the Partnership (PJLL) and its many activities. In particular, take a look at the fall adult ed offerings.

Entitled Your "Intellectual and Spiritual Stimulus Package," It begins with a series of free talks by Dr. Erica Brown (you mean you never heard her or studied with her--she's a really great teacher). It includes the restarting of of several excellent and quite different multi-part adult education programs:

• The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School (Olam Tikvah, JCCNV)
  
• Me’ah (Agudas Achim, Olam Tikvah)
• Jewish Heritage Program (Gesher Jewish Day School)

The PJLL makes a big difference in providing high quality Jewish education in the area, including many opportunities in NoVA.

Resources for Adult Jewish educators

There are a few good books out there that everyone who teaches and/or organizes adult Jewish education programs should have read or at least skimmed. I'll mention a few of these over the next few weeks. If anyone has suggestions, please send them along.

First is: The Adult Jewish Education Handbook: Planning, Practice, and Theory
Latest edition is dated 2004 (not 1990 like it says in some places).

From the Behrmann House web page: "This comprehensive guide presents theory from the field of secular adult education in light of the questions and concerns of all aspects of adult Jewish education, including learning theory, curriculum, programming, planning, budgeting, and educational philosophy. Includes chapters on the history of adult Jewish education by Dr. Lois Zachary and Dr. Meredith Woocher, and on technology in adult Jewish education by Caren Levine."

Adult Ed Coordinators--Please Read

So the summer is almost over, Elul is almost here, and many synagogue adult ed programs are getting firmed up. Why not send me a note and have me publicize your program. We can link directly to your web site, or publish a special notice--whatever you'd like. The only requirement is that it be open to the public (not all synagogue adult ed programs are). Be sure your announcement identifies the following:

• Date(s), time and place of the program
• Cost to attend (identifying both member and non-member costs if appropriate)
• Subject (duh)
• Name of the speaker/leader

Any other information is welcome as well, of course.

By the way, this is a very good time for all adult ed program leaders to take a look at your own web sites. It's surprising how many adult ed web sites are out of date, by as much as a year.

The Highs of Holiday Teaching

Summer is a quiet time for adult ed. I'm passing on this email without endorsement, although some of the participants are pretty well known.

Mike

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Teacher,

If you'll be teaching for the upcoming Jewish High Holidays, please keep reading: this is for you!

If you're not, would you be so kind to forward this email to your rabbi, cantor, congregational educators, and anyone else you know who will be teaching around these Jewish High Holidays? You may do them a huge favor!

. . . In less than 4 weeks, I will have the privilege and pleasure to have three prominent rabbis and master teachers as guest speakers on a LIVE, INTERACTIVE TELE-WORKSHOP where they'll be offering a rich selection of tools and guidance to rabbis, clergy and educators like you on the why, what and how of a better preparation for your own High Holidays teaching.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

THE HIGHS OF HIGH HOLIDAYS TEACHING

Ten Tools for Making Your Teaching & Preaching

More Powerful, More Personal, More Practical

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I'd like you to join us on this very unique and very practical program. Registration is not open yet, but we put together a brief description and information about date and time at:

www.AskTheRabbis.com

There, you can also sign onto our NOTIFICATION LIST, so we can make sure you'll get notified the moment the registration page is open.

Why? Because participation will be limited. This will be a highly interactive workshop, and we are truly excited to have you join us, so we can all learn how to make this year's High Holidays particularly tuned to our times and our congregants and students' needs, wants, and hopes.

. . . .

See you there!

Warm regards,

Sergiu S. Simmel

CEO and Founder

Our Learning Company LLC

How to make a lecture funnier

This, I suspect, is mostly for adult ed teachers. It's a column by a theoretical physicist on how to make his lectures funnier! As amazing as this may sound, his insights just possibly may apply to Jewish Studies teachers as well. Use this information at your own risk!

Shabbat Shalom to all.

American Jewish Practices and Beliefs

OK, so I do adult ed in addition to blog about it, I admit it. For the last few years, I've taught occasional all-day seminars at the Smithsonian. For the last two years I've taken advantage of an active and inquisitive group of Jews and non-Jews where I live at Leisure World and do a set of "dress rehearsal" lectures in Lansdowne in advance of my all-day marathon in DC.

This year I'm teaching an all-day seminar on American Jewish Practices and Beliefs (AKA Jewish American Denominations) at the Smithsonian Resident Associates program. Click here for the details on that program. As before, I'll be previewing the four lectures at the Leisure World Club House on the four Thursday evenings in August (6, 13, 20, 27) at 7:00 pm. Each lecture should run about an hour and a half, including questions and discussion. Unlike the Smithsonian lectures, there is no charge for the previews, but you'll need to let me know in advance if you plan to attend so I can provide the gate guards with your name. Email me at JewishStudies.Teacher@gmail.com and I'll put you on the list and send you directions.

Chabad's "Heaven on Earth" course

Chabad is presenting a three-week course to coincide with the Three Weeks prior to Tisha B'av. From their website:

Heaven on Earth: Timeless Vessels, Timely Lessons

Join us as Rabbis Fajnland and Deitch leads a three part class

This series unearths the profound message of the Divine service instruments used in the Beis HaMikdash

Complete with Student Handbook:

Cost: $25
Dates: Monday nights, July 13, 20, and 27.
Time: 8:00 pm

Place: Chabad Lubavitch of Northern Virginia • 3939 Prince William Drive • Fairfax, VA 22031. Call 703-426-1980.

“Balance of Power in the Persian Gulf”

For those inside the beltway (outsiders surely welcome), the National Museum of American Jewish Military History is putting on a luncheon series during the month of July. According to the Schmooze (you do know about The Schmooze, of course), it will be held every Monday in July from 12:30 to 1:30. The first session, on July 6th, is “The Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War” led by Dr. Jeffrey Greenhut. I couldn't find this on their website, so you might want to call Mary Westley (202-265-6280, x511) to confirm.

Summer courses at Olam Tikvah

Olam Tikvah has a relatively new Assistant Rabbi in Rabbi Ben Shalva. Rabbi Shalva will be teaching on Wednesdays, June 24-July 22, 7:30pm-9:15pm. Each week will be devoted to a different type of rabbinic text, from Talmudic debates to modern poetic reveries. Check out the details at OT's adult ed page, and then take a look at all the other summertime and all-year programs.

Jewish Study Center, DC

Does everyone know about the Jewish Study Center? It runs adult ed classes mostly in the District, but for the inside-the-beltway folks, it's very accessible. I taught a Jewish history class there a few years ago and the people in the class were good people who really enjoyed engaging each other and me. (Didn't do more than the one course as evening the schlep from Reston was more than I had bargained for.)

Take a look at the web site, and if there's anything that looks possible, get on their mailing list.

Anyone take any courses there? Anything to add?

Baltimore Hebrew University is no more

One great source of academic adult Jewish education for the Washington, DC area, including a few of us from NoVA, is history. See the story in today's Baltimore Sun.

The Baltimore Hebrew University was a great, if inconvenient, place to quickly learn a lot. In its new incarnation as a part of Towson State University, it's still the closest place for solid academic coursework at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level, but going to that funky little building on Park Heights is just a memory.

What are we doing and why are we doing it?

Adult Jewish Education—what are we all doing and why are we doing it?

This blog will be an extended discussion about these and related topics? It will be for teachers and students, clergy and laity, amateurs and professionals. My own background is highlighted over on the right, but if I had to classify myself, I’m a teacher and student, definitely not clergy (but I have been known to lead services on occasion and even give a drash), and, like many adult Jewish educators, both an amateur (when necessary) and a professional (when possible).

I intend to initiate discussions on topics that include (but are definitely not limited to):

· What’s happening in Northern Virginia—purely descriptively and for information? In that light, I welcome notices from teachers and from anyone putting together lectures, speeches, courses, seminars that are aimed at adults interested in Jewish topics.

· What works? Adult learners are very different from kids, high school students, or college students (how and why?)

· What resources are available to the teacher? This can include information on teaching adults, specific subject-matter resources for both teachers and students, and syllabi for particular courses that are commonly offered.

Any blog needs to be a conversation to be successful, of course, so your posts will be at least as important as anything I have to say. Very little in the way of subject matter is out of bounds as long as it can be tied, in some way, to Adult Jewish Education. So, if you’re planning on offering a course at your synagogue, at the JCC, or at a local college, please let us know about it. If you have a question on whether there are teaching materials available on some topic, ask here. If you’ve run across a particular good book on teaching adults (like Diane Tickton Shuster’s Jewish Lives, Jewish Learning: Adult Jewish Learning in Theory and Practice) we need to know it. If you think my approach to coordinating this blog can be improved, please let me know (my feelings won’t be hurt—I promise).

I’ll be starting a list of upcoming courses in the near future and invite anyone (whenever they read this) to add to (or correct) the list.

Welcome to the blog!