Growing Jewish Minds, Growing Jewish Souls: Promoting Spiritual, Social, and Emotional Growth in Jewish Education

What is the goal of Jewish education? Is it to fill students’ brains with Jewish knowledge? Or is it to fill their hearts and souls with Jewish values?

Jewish educators across the denominational spectrum envision not just a student possessing a particular body of knowledge, but a type of person with particular traits and proclivities, a person grounded in, and engaged with, his or her community and society, whose actions are guided not by transient mores but rather by a lasting value system based on a vision of meaning and purpose.

Educators are increasingly being called upon to help students develop the skills needed for social, emotional, and spiritual development as well as to provide opportunities for students to practice the use of these skills and to integrate them into a sense of self. Innovative efforts have been undertaken by Jewish educators to promote outcomes in the intra- and inter-personal realms. The goal of this volume is to bring these efforts together to provide an overview of what is happening, what is possible, and what might be learned from the experiences of these educators.