The Educational Ethos of Teachers of Jewish Thought in Israeli Non-religious Schools: Literacy in the Service of Identity Exploration and Formation

This paper addresses the issue of whether the conceptual discourse of
literacy, developed in contexts other than Jewish education, should be
adopted to enhance the understanding, research, and practice of Jewish
education. At the outset, it would seem that embracing Jewish literacy
as a goal for Jewish education is obvious and unobjectionable. However, we contend that the set of assumptions, goals, priorities, and practices prevalent in the academic literature tied to the concept of literacy
as these have specifically emerged in the context of general American
schooling might not be compatible with the assumptions, goals, priorities, and practices of educators involved in Jewish education. While not
rejecting the possibility that exploring the discourse on literacy can be
enriching, we do believe that adopting such discourse uncritically
would be ill-advised.