Episode 24: Spotlight on the Gap Year

Learning About Learning: Conversations with Scholars of Jewish Education

For over a generation, many American Jewish young adults have spent a year between high school and college in Israel—the “gap year.” How does the gap year contribute to North American Jewish education? How does it complicate that work? What does it mean for young adults to go from “here" to “there" to participate in this important educational experience? What do we know about the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth of those who do a gap year? What are the elements that contribute to growth among participants in the gap year, and what are the impediments to growth?
This session brings together: Shalom Berger (Herzog College), Jonathan Schwab (Yeshiva University), Tilly Shemer (Shalom Hartman Institute), and Amy Weinreb (Masa Israel Journey) in conversation with Jon Levisohn.
Originally recorded: 2/29/24

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Learning About Learning is a production of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, and is engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media LLC.