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November 10 Dr. Jonathan Krasner
When Jewish Educational Innovation Reinforces the Status Quo  

About this session: Most Jewish educators have experienced the frustration of reform efforts that promised transformation but delivered only modest change. In his recent Sources article, Jonathan Krasner, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair of Jewish Education Research at Brandeis University, offers a framework for understanding why this pattern persists and what we might do differently. Drawing on the concept of the 'grammar of schooling,' developed by historians of American public education, Krasner argues that Jewish supplementary schools have developed their own deeply rooted grammar that quietly resists fundamental change, even when reformers have the best intentions and ample resources. At the same time, he points to a growing number of innovative programs that have found ways to bypass this grammar altogether, creating new pathways for families the conventional system has failed to reach. Join us for a conversation about what this framework illuminates about your own work and whether it changes how you think about the possibilities and limits of reform.

About the presenter: Jonathan Krasner holds the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Education Research at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education (2011) and Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps (2020) both of which were recipients of a National Jewish Book Award. Jonathan is the co-founder of Keshet and is a board member of the Covenant Foundation. He lives with his husband and two children in Southborough, MA.