Op/Ed
March 28, 2008
‘Salad Bar’ Of Learning
Dr. David Ariel
Special to the Jewish Times
Adult Jewish learning is one of the most significant yet least understood trends within American Judaism today. The National Jewish Population Study (20001) indicates that 800,000 adult Jews are engaged in some form of Jewish learning.
The growth in adult Jewish learning is evident within every community and through a variety of national and local programs. On the national level, the Wexner Heritage Foundation has graduated more than 1,000 adults in 31 communities from its two-year program of Jewish studies for high- potential Jewish leaders. The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has more than 5,000 adults enrolled in 44 communities across North America and has graduated more than 6,000 adults. More than 1,000 adults are enrolled in Me’ah: One Hundred Hours of Jewish Learning, a two-year curriculum created by Boston’s Hebrew College. Orthodox outreach groups such as Aish HaTorah and Chabad-Lubavitch reach a large yet unspecified number of non-Orthodox adults in their various learning programs.
The greatest concentration of adult Jewish learning programs, however, occurs in local communities. New York, for example, is home to major centers of adult Jewish learning including the 92nd Street Y, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan, and the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El.
There are specialized institutes for younger adult Jews (Makor) and women (Drisha Institute). Other cities host such notable programs as Chicago’s Dawn Schuman Institute, Los Angeles’ Limmud, San Francisco’s Lehrhaus, Toronto’s Kollel, Washington’s Foundation for Jewish Studies, and New Jersey’s Midrasha.
Baltimore has one of the most robust and extensive networks of adult Jewish learning programs based in congregations and through independent learning organizations. More Jewish adults in Baltimore are involved in Jewish learning than in many other Jewish communities in North America. There are more learning opportunities here than in many other communities and a culture of learning has taken hold throughout the community.
The Orthodox community provides an extensive array of learning programs. Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform adult education programs are provided primarily by the sponsoring congregation as a service to its members. Sometimes they include content prepared by the national denominational body but most often they are developed and taught by the congregational rabbi, local scholars and educators.
Many adult learners pursue their interests beyond the purview of the organized Jewish community through personal reading and online learning. More Jewish books are being published today in North America than at any other time in Jewish history — including the Golden Age of Jewish life in Eastern Europe — and Jews continue to be among the highest per capita consumers of books.
According to the Jewish Book Council, 1,500 to 2,000 books on topics of Jewish interest are published each year, many of them by major publishing houses. Although most are mid-list books, several Jewish books break out to the best-seller list each year and contribute to large annual sales of Jewish books. www.Amazon.com alone lists 10,000 books on Judaism in print with 200 recent titles devoted to Jewish spirituality.
The Internet continues to be a major resource for adult Jewish learners. By some accounts, there may be as many as 40,000 Web sites on Jewish subjects. Many of them are learning resources, in the broadest sense, providing study materials, learned commentaries and explanations, chat rooms and guides to Jewish practice.
The “Jewish Internet” is generally non-commercial and provides an outlet for Jewish educators of every persuasion to promote their views and reach a large audience.
Some adult learners take advantage of organized learning opportunities as a form of leisure activity. Other adult learners are clearly dissatisfied with the pediatric level of their own Jewish education and seek a more adult understanding of Judaism. Others have reached the stage in their own development where family and professional goals have been achieved and issues of personal identity and meaning come to the fore. Still others are engaged in a lifelong journey of enlightenment that leads them to explore Judaism among other religious and spiritual traditions.