This week on edJEWcation, we’ve doubled the rabbis and turned up the volume. ChayaLeah invites her friend Rabbi Daniel Levine to go head-to-head (in the nicest, most Jewishly passive-aggressive way possible) with her father. The topic? What’s gone wrong with Jewish education and how to fix it, without losing our kids to boredom, bagels-only Judaism, or anti-Israel campus mobs.
We cover:
Why Hebrew school might be the Blockbuster Video of Jewish education
Rituals vs. ideas: Which one actually keeps Judaism alive?
The “mimetic tradition” and why your bubbe’s kitchen might have been a better classroom than Hebrew school
How Israel got separated from Judaism in some circles and why that makes zero sense
Whether the “why” or the “how” matters more in bringing people back to Jewish life
Plus: the pepperoni pizza Passover story you didn’t know you needed, why motion beats emotion, and how chicken soup can do more for Jewish continuity than a thousand PowerPoints.
Links to Rabbi Daniel’s content: