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Guide to Resources
The Tartak Learning Center maintains an active collection of nearly 5,000 items to aid students and alumni of HUC-JIR, principals and teachers in religious schools and day schools, adult educators, camp directors and counselors, communal service professionals, rabbis, and cantors. Our materials and our staff can assist you in enhancing your teaching; creating exciting lesson plans, programs, and curricula; and leading meaningful prayer and text study.
Most items may be checked out for 30 days unless noted as having a 7-day loan period. (Please note that you will need a library card from the HUC-JIR library in order to borrow items from the Tartak Learning Center.)
Our collection includes:
- Student-produced curricula
We have over thirty-years of original student curricula written on a range of topics for a variety of ages and settings.
To view a complete annotated list of our curriculum guides (1994-2011), click here.
To view a complete annotated list of our curricula (1982-1994), click here.
Upon request, curricula can be copied and mailed to you for a minimal fee. To learn more about our student-produced curricula & projects, click here.
- Write On!
Tali Zelkowicz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Jewish Education, Rhea Hirsch School of Education, Los Angeles
Each year, in a course called the Sociology of Jewish Education, I immerse my students in the practice and purpose of professional writing, along with the range of social science tools that can be used to inform those written expressions. In the first week of the course, the students begin by writing in something I call "Cyber Soapbox" mode, in which we ignore altnerative points of view – be they colleagues, scholars, students, parents, funders – and instead articulate our concerns and hopes based on what is deeply and honestly inside of us, and us alone. From there, we move from the inside out, and turn to the use and analysis of interviews, and then broader still, to surveys of the field, to produce literature reviews on particular topics of burning interest and relevance to the students and the field. Finally, all these steps culminate when the students engage in writing workshops with one another, to develop a "Contribution to the Field," or "CTF."
One of the most important ways that Jewish educators - and educators of all kinds – can contribute to their profession is by sharing carefully considered, passionate but well-researched, cogently organized, well-crafted, compelling statements about the central and animating dilemmas in their fields. In other words, educators can be change agents through their writing and publishing. By entering the professional discourse, they must first find and then add their own voices to the on-going discourse, ever sophisticating and clarifying the thought and language among colleauges, and in the field at large.
These "CTFs" address one of the many "contested arenas" in Jewish education, determine "what's at stake," provide social scientific (historical, sociological, psychological, etc.) context for the issue, and strive to offer a bold new creative analysis of the dilemma.
You can find the newest CTFs below. Shortened versions of the students' articles were also published in the Spring 2010 issue of the URJ's publication, "Torah at the Center." Allowing for discourse and dialogue between students and professionals in the field, URJ editor Wendy Grinberg has invited one education practitioner or academic to respond to each of the student's pieces in that same issue, creating an organic series of conversations about some of the field's most difficult, but also most inspiring, dilemmas.
The students would be happy to engage in dialogue with you, too, if you have any questions or reactions. If you would like to offer your own responses, please feel free to send them to me at tzelkowicz@huc.edu.
Click on the titles of the articles below to read them (PDF)
- Hot Topics in Jewish Education: Students Weigh In
At the end of the fall 2007 semester, Tali Hyman of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-LA and Lisa Grant
of the School of Education at HUC-NY gave the same final assignment to their students in Social Foundations (LA),
and History of Jewish Education in America (NY.)
Education students were asked to write a 4-6 page article (double spaced) grounded in the scholarship of the field
that is suitable for a publication to which reflective practitioners of Jewish education are invited to contribute.
For example: Agenda: Jewish Education (JESNA), Jewish Education News (CAJE), Jewish Educational
Leadership (Lookstein Center, Bar Ilan University). Click
here for the complete description of the assignment.
Click on the titles of the articles below to read them (PDF)
- Multi-age Grouping in Religious School: Can it Work? (Missy Bell,
LA)
- The Bar Mitzvah Phenomenon (Amy Berenson, NY)
- Teacher Shortages Should be a Problem of the Past (Leah Blank, NY)
- The Forgotten Jewish Communities of Eastern Europe (Olga Bluman, LA)
- Tefillah Education: Welcoming the Next Generation of Jewish
Pray-ers (Nicole Greninger, NY)
- Jewish Family Education as the Personification of L'Dor V'Dor
(Eliana Hall, LA)
- The Challenge of Teaching Hebrew in America (Jessica Ingram, NY)
- The Dilemma of Hebrew in Jewish Education (Matt Kahn, LA)
- Resettling the Land: Israel Engagement and Education in the 21st
Century (Noam Katz, LA)
- Birthright Israel: Expanding our Engagement (Lisa Kingston, NY)
- Beyond Bat Mitzvah: Assessing the Unique Needs of Adult Women
Learners (Rachel Kort, NY)
- Meaningful Hebrew Education Can Lead to a Stronger Jewish
Identity (Jordan Magidson, LA)
- Bringing Birthright Back: Using the Keys to Jewish Young
Adult Identity Formation (Ari Margolis, LA)
- Bringing the Magic of Informal Education into the Classroom
(Erin Mason, LA)
- Creating a Vision for Hebrew Education (Sara Mason, LA)
- Beyond "Feel Good" Judaism in Camps: Enriching Jewish Passion
with Jewish Content (Dan Medwin, LA)
- Integrated Informal Education in a Summer Camp: The First
Summer on the Cutting Edge of Informal Education (Lydia Medwin, LA)
- Reform Participation in Day Schools (Lev Metz, LA)
- The Direction of Special Education in Religious Schools Today
(Luisa Moss, LA)
- Bar/Bat Mitzvah: A Stop or a Depot on the Train of our Children's
Jewish Journeys? (Rena Polonsky, LA)
- Is Just Visiting Israel Enough? (Laura Siegel, LA)
- Addressing the Topic: Gender in Education (Melissa Simon, NY)
- Infusing Reform Zionism and Israel into the Language of
Congregations (Melissa Zalkin Stollman, NY)
- The Challenges of Jewish Education in the Israeli Public
School System (Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni, NY)
- Co-Teaching as a Model for Congregational Schools (Emily Walsh, LA)
- A Tale of Two Classes: An Examination of the Place of
Hebrew in the Religious School (Micol Zimmerman, LA)
- Published curricula
We have an eclectic collection of curricula on Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Values, Hebrew,
Bible, and more.
- Textbooks and Teacher Guides
We collect Jewish education (including Hebrew language) textbooks for all ages. We have a complete
collection from major Jewish education publishers.
- Teacher/Principal Resource Books
We have resource books designed for teachers and principals on a variety of subjects ranging from
classroom management to dealing with parents.
- Children's Storybooks
Our collection of children's storybooks continues to grow. Currently we have about 50 books on a
range of topics from holidays to mitzvot.
- Art, Drama, and Games Resources
We have a variety of books, plays, and games to supplement lessons on numerous topics within Jewish education.
We also have limited art supplies you may use to create an art project. View list of
games (PDF).
- Videos and DVD's (7-day loan period)
We have a wide variety of videos for children and adults. Most are in VHS format, but we have begun to acquire
DVDs as well. We have a TV/VCR and DVD player in the office where you may sample videos.
Click here (PDF) to view a list of items in our collection.
- Music: Cassettes and CD's (7-day loan period)
We have an eclectic collection of over 100 music resources, which can be used to enhance any Jewish educational setting.
We have a stereo in the office where you may sample music. View the complete music
list (PDF).
- CD-ROMs and Software (7-day loan period)
We have about 50 computer items, designed for both teachers and students. Click here
to see a list of Hebrew and Judaica educational CD-ROMs (PDF).
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