Educational Theory and Jewish Studies in Conversation

Educational Theory and Jewish Studies in Conversation: From Volozhin to Buczacz, by Harvey Shapiro, PhD, brings together two different fields of study—modern Jewish studies and contemporary educational theory—to provide new theoretical frameworks for their interaction. Although Jewish studies and education programs at secular universities have joined denominational and transdenominational institutions of higher learning in adopting a dual or parallel course structure, there has been little scholarly attention given to the basis for doing so. Shapiro provides alternative theoretical frameworks for the relationship between Jewish studies and educational theory and discusses different ways of developing and articulating these relationships between disciplines. Shapiro shows what is at stake when students and faculty think and communicate together across discourses—in particular, between the fields of education and Jewish studies. Presenting an alternative to conventional notions of interdisciplinarity, this book’s import extends to virtually all relationships between the humanities and professional education when these different discourses illuminate and challenge one another.

Harvey Shapiro's book is an absolute "first" among writers of Jewish interest, and among the first in the world of educational thinking in general. In the tradition of Jerome Bruner, who joined narrative theory, psychology and philosophy to change our way of understanding learning, Shapiro takes two fields which most people read separately, (education and literary theory), and illuminates both fields through his unique energy and wide ranging intellect. The author has been working on narrative for many years, and I have looked forward to this level of thinking from him for a long time. And here it is!, Harvey Shapiro has crafted an erudite conversation between educational theory and Jewish studies following the pioneering philosopher of Jewish education Michael Rosenak. The original conception of interdiscursivity that emerges promises to transform the relation between these two fields by putting them on a more equal intellectual footing.  Of great interest to scholars of religion and religious education. A must for anyone concerned with the burgeoning field of Jewish educational research, the future of Jewish studies, or the transmission of Judaism across the generations., Shapiro’s learned and philosophically rich treatise makes a compelling case for mutually illuminating points of connection among educational theory, political philosophy, and classical Jewish learning. In creating these encounters, Shapiro exemplifies the value of what he calls “interdiscursivity,” showing the benefits of educational theory for Jewish Studies and vice versa, the ways that Jewish thought can enhance contemporary educational philosophy and theory. Yeshivah scholar Reb Hayyim of Volozhin and pragmatist philosopher John Dewey or Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia and the fictional machinations of Nobel laureate S.Y. Agnon create new thought collages of surprising interest and beauty. 

Harvey Shapiro, Ph.D is Associate Professor of Education at Northeastern University in Boston. He earned his Ph.D. in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College.