Jewish Identity and Adulthood: A Family-Systems Approach to Adult Jewish Education

Publication Date: January 1992

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Michael Wasserman

Research Area: Education

Keywords: Psychology; Outreach; Education

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In this article, the author proposes a model of adult Jewish education that recognizes the emotional needs of adults who, for a variety of reasons, must reclaim their Jewishness on their own terms. To enable adults to reconnect with the Jewish past as choosing individuals, teachers need to speak to them not as impersonal representatives of Jewish tradition but as committed Jewish individuals who have made specific decisions about the meaning of Judaism in their lives. In that way, students are challenged to assume responsibility for defining their own relationship to Judaism.