CALL FOR PAPERS
Click here for author style guidelines.

We are pleased to announce that ATID is planning to publish a special volume of essays on “Issues and Challenges in Contemporary Torah Education” (working title). This book will be co-published in English with Urim Publications, Jerusalem. We are seeking serious submissions from a broad spectrum of the community of Orthodox Jewish educators, scholars, writers and thinkers. This volume is intended to be a collection of thought-provoking studies, in which teachers of Torah articulate positions about teaching Torah. We hope the volume’s distinction will be in the recording of a reflective effort by outstanding Jewish educators on the nature and content of our craft, and constitute an important contribution to our field.

We have tentatively organized sections of the book according to the following general topics:

1. Studies on the Teaching and Study of Tanakh
2. Studies on the Teaching and Study of Torah she-be’al Peh—Talmud
3. “Ishim ve-Shittot”
   Examinations of the educational philosophy and/or pedagogical techniques of classic or modern Torah educators, leaders or thinkers, with particular attention placed on implications of those teachings for contemporary education.
4. Meta-Issues in Torah Education
   Analyses of general issues which have global importance to our work in education, such as: philosophy of education, explication of goals and methods, combating specific problems, and so forth. Examples might include: educating for spirituality, improving Jewish prayer, character and moral development, uses of the arts in Torah education, etc.
5. New Readings of Classical Texts
   New examinations and parshanut of classical biblical, rabbinic (halakhah or aggadah) or other Jewish texts relating to Jewish learning and teaching, role of study in Jewish life, teacher-student relationship, etc.

In certain cases, we will consider articles which have been previously published, but which may receive wider dissemination by being included in this volume. We will similarly consider translations into English of essays originally published in other languages.

We hope you will be interested in contributing to this volume. If you would like to propose an article, please submit a 1-2 page abstract, by June 7, 2001, via e-mail attachment to atid@atid.org or to ATID, 9 HaNassi St., Jerusalem 92188 Israel. Abstracts will be peer reviewed by the editors as well as by the editorial committee, which is comprised of R. Chaim Brovender, R. David Ebner, Yoel Finkelman, Dr. Beverly Gribetz, and Dr. Joel B. Wolowelsky.

Upon approval of proposals, we will give authors guidelines and style instruction for full manuscripts, which will generally run 15-25 double-spaced pages, and will be due by May 1, 2002.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact Jeffrey Saks at saks@atid.org or at +972-2-567-1719. For more information about ATID’s full range of activities, please visit us at www.atid.org.

Sincerely,
Rabbi Jeffrey Saks
Prof. Susan Handelman
Co-Editors

Jeffrey Saks is the founding director of ATID. He received ordination and an MA from Yeshiva University, NY, and was previously the director of Yeshivat HaMivtar in Efrat. He was a participant on the Jerusalem Fellows program for senior educators, and has published articles in Tradition.

Susan Handelman is a professor of English literature and gender studies at Bar-Ilan University, and for many years taught literature and Jewish studies at the University of Maryland. Her books include The Slayers of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory and Fragments of Redemption: Jewish Thought and Literary Theory in Scholem, Benjamin and Levinas. She recently co-edited Torah of the Mothers: Contemporary Jewish Women Read Classical Jewish Texts.

ATID—The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions is an independent, privately funded foundation which aims to foster new and significant thought on the crucial issues facing Jewish education among future leaders in the field—students, young educators, and other professionals who will serve as lay leadership—and to develop effective and implementable pedagogies and strategies for improving Torah education in the modern world. Rabbi Chaim Brovender is the president of ATID.