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“[On that day] the doorkeeper was removed from the Beit Midrash, and permission was given to the disciples to enter… On that day many stools were added… and on that day no questions in the Beit Midrash were left unresolved.”
BT Berachot 28a
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This passage vividly captures the popular uprising that ousted Rabban Gamliel, well known for his restrictive policy of who could study Jewish tradition, as the head of the Beit Midrash. With Rabban Gamliel deposed, the doors of the Beit Midrash were open to all, not just to the intellectual elite.
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This passage vividly captures the popular uprising that ousted Rabban Gamliel, well known for his restrictive policy of who could study Jewish tradition, as the head of the Beit Midrash. With Rabban Gamliel deposed, the doors of the Beit Midrash were open to all, not just to the intellectual elite.3
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The radical restructuring of Jewish learning is not limited to this 1st Century rabbinic coup d’etat. Rather, as we enter the 21st century, as the possibilities of how and where learning takes place are expanding, a similar uprising is occurring. This time we are not only removing the doorkeeper of the Beit Midrash, but the very doors themselves, along with the roof and the walls. We are dismantling the structure of the House of Learning, of learning itself, and rebuilding it in diverse configurations and locations. The challenge for us becomes not only the construction of these new Batei Midrash, but also facilitating access to their treasures.
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The radical restructuring of Jewish learning is not limited to this 1st Century rabbinic coup d’etat. Rather, as we enter the 21st century, as the possibilities of how and where learning takes place are expanding, a similar uprising is occurring. This time we are not only removing the doorkeeper of the Beit Midrash, but the very doors themselves, along with the roof and the walls. We are dismantling the structure of the House of Learning, of learning itself, and rebuilding it in diverse configurations and locations. The challenge for us becomes not only the construction of these new Batei Midrash, but also facilitating access to their treasures.4
To this end, we believe that Jewish learning and life must develop along four core and overlapping values. Jewish life and learning must be:
To this end, we believe that Jewish learning and life must develop along four core and overlapping values. Jewish life and learning must be:5
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Open, Discoverable & Accessible: Resources, texts and traditions need to be open and accessible to all, translated into multiple languages and for a variety of levels. Resources should be freely available online, printable on demand for physical use, and present (physically and digitally) in libraries and common spaces of learning. A shift needs to occur from the focus on the proprietary control of knowledge, content, platforms and programs to a model of open sharing and development, where “open educational resources” become the norm for all educational venues.
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Open, Discoverable & Accessible: Resources, texts and traditions need to be open and accessible to all, translated into multiple languages and for a variety of levels. Resources should be freely available online, printable on demand for physical use, and present (physically and digitally) in libraries and common spaces of learning. A shift needs to occur from the focus on the proprietary control of knowledge, content, platforms and programs to a model of open sharing and development, where “open educational resources” become the norm for all educational venues.6
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Remixable: As the world moves from vertical, hierarchical structures of knowledge to more horizontal, egalitarian ones, every Jew should have the ability to contribute to and transform Jewish tradition. We need to give Jews the skills to remix Judaism for the modern world, adding new insights and understanding by applying the wisdom and power of the Jewish tradition to the challenges of the 21st century. The technical ability to remix Judaism will enable our people to transform traditional content and ideas, pushing forward Jewish living and tradition.
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Remixable: As the world moves from vertical, hierarchical structures of knowledge to more horizontal, egalitarian ones, every Jew should have the ability to contribute to and transform Jewish tradition. We need to give Jews the skills to remix Judaism for the modern world, adding new insights and understanding by applying the wisdom and power of the Jewish tradition to the challenges of the 21st century. The technical ability to remix Judaism will enable our people to transform traditional content and ideas, pushing forward Jewish living and tradition.7
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Meaningful and Relevant: Jewish learning needs to focus on empowering Jews to derive personal and communal meaning and joy from their engagement with the Jewish world. Judaism should be taught and lived in a way that imbues life with meaning, purpose and holiness. Additionally, we need to empower Jews to create meaning on both a personal and communal level that is both steeped in tradition and uniquely their own. This focus on meaning must be transmitted in ways and modes that are relevant to 21st century learners. Specifically, this means crafting learning and life experiences that are powered by technology, place the learner at the center, are personalized and differentiated to engage multiple intelligences. We ought to seek experiences that encourage active inquiry and interactivity while viewing each participant as both learner and teacher. That said, new tools and technologies are nothing without defined curricular goals that support active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts and experiences.
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Meaningful and Relevant: Jewish learning needs to focus on empowering Jews to derive personal and communal meaning and joy from their engagement with the Jewish world. Judaism should be taught and lived in a way that imbues life with meaning, purpose and holiness. Additionally, we need to empower Jews to create meaning on both a personal and communal level that is both steeped in tradition and uniquely their own. This focus on meaning must be transmitted in ways and modes that are relevant to 21st century learners. Specifically, this means crafting learning and life experiences that are powered by technology, place the learner at the center, are personalized and differentiated to engage multiple intelligences. We ought to seek experiences that encourage active inquiry and interactivity while viewing each participant as both learner and teacher. That said, new tools and technologies are nothing without defined curricular goals that support active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts and experiences.8
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Community Building: As the nature of community shifts towards a blended model where meaningful, deep, personal interactions occur both on and offline, Jewish learning and living needs to focus on building strong communities that flourish in both the real and digital worlds. By leveraging technology to enable a multitude of voices to be heard while connecting people across vast physical and cultural divides, Jewish living and learning in the 21st century has the potential to reinvigorate us as a connected, engaged, caring, knowledgeable and diverse Jewish people.
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Community Building: As the nature of community shifts towards a blended model where meaningful, deep, personal interactions occur both on and offline, Jewish learning and living needs to focus on building strong communities that flourish in both the real and digital worlds. By leveraging technology to enable a multitude of voices to be heard while connecting people across vast physical and cultural divides, Jewish living and learning in the 21st century has the potential to reinvigorate us as a connected, engaged, caring, knowledgeable and diverse Jewish people.9
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With these core values, Jewish living and learning in the 21st century will provide the communal, intellectual, spiritual and religious foundation and inspiration to address the local and global challenges facing the modern world.
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With these core values, Jewish living and learning in the 21st century will provide the communal, intellectual, spiritual and religious foundation and inspiration to address the local and global challenges facing the modern world.
You haven’t used the word “identity” in any of these goals…I think that Jewish identity formation is a key goal in education. If information acquisition is no longer closed off and proprietary, and if it is always being formed and reformed by ever-evolving community engagement, then what are the ‘defined curricular goals’ ? It seems to me that the goal must be instilling the desire to be engaged in Jewish life and learning, which is led by a strong Jewish identity.
How do you expect to incentivize people to create content if everything will be released for free?
Not 100% sure what Remixable actually means. Are you talking about infusing Judaism with mash-up culture, or something more. And what do you actually mean by “the skills to remix Judaism for the modern world?”
What do you mean by remixable Judaism? What types of skills do you need to give Jewish learners to accomplish this? This whole concept seems very exciting but rather vague. I’d love to hear more about it. What types of prior knowledge does a learner need to engage? What types of technologies would facilitate this learning? How is this different than other types of Jewish learning?
How do you plan to go about this? While there are many open resources on the web, there are many more that are only available in print or through paid subscriptions. How do you plan to use what is out there and advocate for more? What kind of “shift” are you looking for?
Dr. Devorah Steinmeitz has a great article on this aggadah. I think you can still find it here:
http://is.gd/ebq43
that is how things ware for a long time. and that is the way it should be. that is a case I’ll be happy to contribute to.
???
if I get it correctly the some will say ” It’s a slippery slope”
Not is response to you comments Jon and Rachelle, but just as an FYI, we took the language of “open educational resources” from the US Gov’s National Education Technology Plan for 2010 here: http://bit.ly/cC3qbi
I think this will resonate with a lot of people. Most core texts are still not available online and the internet is an excellent way to ensure universal Jewish access to our core texts (tefillos, tanach, shulchan aruch, shas usw.). Even trying to look up a bracha online is a surprisingly difficult and frustrating exercise and given that our traditions should be accessible to all Jews, I think digitization has a lot to offer here (though keep in mind that decent translations cost money and they’re harder to come by if you make it free). Moreover, digitizing these materials would be tremendously useful because of the speed and convenience it would provide to anyone conducting halachic research. It would potentially provide the difference between doing print research and hand research: because you’re spending less time frogging around flipping through books you have more time to spend on innovation and production and your ultimate product will be of much higher quality because computerized research often picks up things you’d otherwise miss in doing it by hand. I see the same thing in legal research and you might try working the efficiency/quality angle in alongside the accessibility angle.
I agree with the other commentators that you need to define more clearly what you mean by remixing. I think what you’re getting at is the you-tubeesque vision with educators trying new things and posting what works online so that information is pooled and shared and the result is a sort of quasi-universal collaborative effort to develop Jewish educational techniques. What you have written sounds like some sort of radically egalitarian model of psak where everyone puts in there 2 cents and we are expected to take them seriously. Naturally this makes traditional Jews nervous because it sounds an awful lot like hyper-reform Judaism (which managed to produce quite radical results even while sticking to the traditional model). Moreover the sad fact of the matter is that when you open something up for everyone to contribute, a huge amount of what you attract will be garbage (for proof of this pay a visit to cnn.com and browse through the comments at the end of the articles) and I think most people want a higher pedigree in what goes into determining something as important as psak. As such, I think you need to revise this to make your message more clear or you risk scaring people off by accidentally conveying a message I don’t think you want to.
No offense but this reads like a corporate mission statement, a lot of feelgood sounding buzzwords with no discernible substance and nothing about how your methodology is unique. ‘We want an individualized experience but fixed curriculum is also important.’ That’s fluff, it’s like saying we’re a small company with the resources of a big company, they all say that, what I want to know is what makes you different and better. I think meaning and relevance are very important to Jewish education. I think what you’re getting at is that a 20th century (or 18th century
educational model isn’t going to speak to kids in the 21st century because the 21st century is a very different place than the 20th (or 18th) century and if we don’t change our methods Jewish education will cease to be effective. Maybe it would be helpful for you to start with what you see as the trends that will render the 20th century model increasingly irrelevant to the youths of the 21st century and give us some substance on how your model could help to redefine things in a way that would remain accessible to the students of the future.
This is off to a good start but I think it could use some hashing out as well. I don’t think it would hurt you to talk about the breakdown of the traditional Jewish community model (lots of people are talking about it because its a big deal) and how in a world of increasingly diverse and fluid communities a diverse and fluid medium like the digital one you are putting together makes a lot more sense. It facilitates less formal communal and educational settings: If I’m in Boise or some other G-d forsaken place like that and I want my kids to have some access to Jewish education there was a time where I was screwed unless I had the resources to bring in an educator, now I can access hallachic lectures and educational techniques on some video service and all of the sudden my kids can get ready exposure to some really great stuff. I have a small tefila group in my house, we cant afford and/or aren’t interested in a formal rabbi but we still want proper hallackic observance and meaningful communal educational activities, other video services let me do this and produce quality, proper programing where I would once have had to hire someone to do it. Both of these non-traditional communities are the reality in a globalizing and increasingly individualistic world… that’s what I want to see in paragraph 8.
This is straight out of Clay Shirky’s new book, Cognitive Surplus. I also think that there is a psychological element to this open-ness, which you touch on in “variety of levels”. Resources that are inviting and accessible and rewarding to people who are at different places is key to capturing their attention and encouraging them to learn more and more often.
I think an analogy here could work well to illustrate the point I THINK you’re trying to make. E.g. Twitter has an open API, so tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck can improve upon the foundation, without having to take over Twitter. Everyone wins.
Love it. This totally sets the stage that what follows is not about tinkering on the surface, but about major change. One note: One COULD read/hear this and think that you are proposing the uprising (risky, scary) as opposed to “the uprising is taking place, how are we adjusting?” In the last sentence, I worry the word “construction” will evoke new organizations and new buildings in many people’s minds, which I don’t think you mean, necessarily. How about something like “challenge… is to design the shape and form or these new…”?
What was the consequence of it being accessible to all? I sort of crave one more sentence of this analogy to then extrapolate to what we can expect in the coming years.
Agreed. I was going to suggest you add something about how our generation and younger are defining community in new ways — high relevance, provides value, transient participation, etc. and that the previous assumptions of community (geography + denomination = synagogue = community)don’t apply anymore.
This feels light to me. I feel like the ending should be a call to action — a product, an idea, a statement of THE VALUE around which we should organize the future of Jewish education conversation, etc. I think you’ve got it in the body of this work, and you’re modeling it, but it needs to be said. This is too vague. Maybe tie back to the text at the end in a more concrete way? Maybe this is the place for what the implications were of letting everyone into the Beit Midrash (see my comment above)?
This is dope. Like it a lot. I don’t feel like I have a whole lot to offer, other than my current passion in education. This guy sums it up pretty well:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html
Totally worth 20 minutes.
Guys, it’s a nice start…but I think they’re looking for more substance. Suggest how this can work, and give the idea wings. Use use-case scenarios to illustrate, show a demo of how such a future state would work…the more you build the more interesting this could be. And I know you guys have practical ideas.
Thank for all the feedback. You’re comments have really helped Russel and I fine tune these ideas. In response to @Lisa’s final comment. There is a very interesting Rashi on the line in the Gemara:
ההוא יומא הוה ולא היתה הלכה שהיתה תלויה בבית המדרש שלא פירשוה
“That on that day no question that had been left unresolved in the Beit Midrash went unanswered.”
Rashi comments:
תלויה. בספק שלא פירשוה מתוך שרבו התלמידים רב החדוד והפלפול
“Those questions that were left unresolved because of doubt were resolved because when you increase students, you increase insightfulness and talmudic discourse” (sorry for the rough translation)
The lesson, by increasing meaningful engagement through the values we outlined, Judaism can be taken in a positive direction to places it has not been, places we can only dream about.
I assume “remixable” is influenced by other models of open content. But I would also look at open source software (i.e., code) communities. There is an ability to set community standards, and expect people learn and rigorously follow them (“RTFM,” if you want to be rude), enforced at a grassroots level without central authority – similarly observant/committed Jewish communities are powered more by the standards of their members than by formal leaders, and we can bring this model online as well.
I might say “enabled” rather than “powered.” Technology doesn’t power spiritually uplifting tefillah, or a sunrise hike up Masada (is that too cliched?
, but it is going to be the default mechanism to for organizing and preparing for those activities.
Great exemplification of your method – I love the floating comment box, I can imagine a page of Talmud looking like this. I think even better would be a link to Media Midrash somewhere on this page. I got here from Dan Seiradski and Aharon Varady’s FB links, and found the manifesto and its format interesting enough to read through as my morning Torah Study. But I got back to the main page only afterwards. Then I went to Media Midrash to see what you guys were doing and – WOW! I would have loved some of that with my American Hebrew High School folks a couple of years ago. The lessons I did around G-dcast were the ones they liked best. Now that I’m back in Israel, I want the opposite – I want American Jewish videos translated for Israeli kids… Good luck, you guys are on a right track. I hope you keep getting funded.
I agree with Lisa. I like the idea behind this – but I worry about the word “dismantling” that might seem overly aggressive. Many Jewish educators are still very committed to the traditional yeshiva model. They don’t want to be usurped or feel like they are behind the times and will soon be replaced. Their ideas need to be buffeted, and supported with your new tools but not eradicated.
I echo the “slippery slope” concern. Perhaps I’m more traditional but I’m sure I’m not the only one who will read this and think “you need a solid and broad foundation in Jewish texts to truly understand them”. At the same time, I think by remixable you might have meant that educators should be able to share their ideas, sources etc… and mix and match to easily put together “their own” work. In truth, this is already done today, whether it’s a cut and paste mekorot sheet or something more tech savvy – the idea of making it easier for all educators to do is certainly spot on. If I’m right about your intentions then i think you need to clarify.
good luck guys!