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This course was
developed by HUC-JIR faculty members, Dr. Lisa Grant and
Rabbi Andrea Weiss, and is offered as an
elective to Rabbinic
and Education
students on the
New York campus.
This resource page
was prepared and is maintained by the
HUC-JIR
National
Department of Distance Education. |
 Click
here For feedback or help.
Click here for a course description.
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We
know that children who grow up in the digital age are
able to find their
way all over the Internet with little effort but not
always with substantive or meaningful results. How
much more so for
busy adults who are not always as technologically savvy
or as patient. The key in presenting Internet or “e-resources” to
any group of students is to carefully and thoughtfully
select them, be clear as to how they might be useful,
and organize/annotate them so that they can provide
a
guided and enriching, not frustrating, experience.
Below are selected resources
which were specifically chosen with an adult audience
in mind. This is not an
exhaustive list and we look forward to suggestions, modifications
and your personal recommendations. Just click on the “feedback” link
which you will find in several places and which will
open up an e-mail to Dr. Grant, Rabbi Weiss, and the
Distance
Education Department.
To begin, click on any
item in the outline below which will take you to that
section or directly to one of the
resources, or you can just scroll down the page. In most
cases, the links will take you to the specific resource
we are
describing so you (teachers and students) won’t
have to spend a lot of time hunting around.
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http://www.myJewishLearning.com
MyJewishLearning.com, is co-produced
by Hebrew College and Jewish Family & Life!, with significant funding from the Bronfman
and Schusterman Foundations. It is fast becoming one of the most
extensive and significant sites for learning about Judaism on the
Internet. It is designed to be relevant to adult audiences of diverse
backgrounds and learning objectives—“from novice learners,
who know little about Judaism, to experienced learners, who know
a great deal but want to learn much more.”
The sites uses
a left-hand navigation system that expands to show available
resources within a particular topic area (e.g., Bible). Be sure
to try it
out. In the “Bible” area, some of the specific Tanakh
and Torah resources that might be most useful include:
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http://www.kolel.org/pages/lobby.html
Kolel, The Adult Centre for Liberal
Jewish Learning based in Toronto, is a progressive, pluralistic,
and egalitarian organization offering opportunities to study traditional
Jewish texts. It has an excellent website and provides a variety
of Tanakh resources for adult learners, including two online
learning modules or mini-courses on how to Study Torah and how to
Prepare
a Dvar Torah.
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http://www.urj.org
The Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Movement in North America, provides leadership and vision to Reform Jews on spiritual, ethical, and political issues as well as materials and consultation for programs in the congregation. The Union also provides opportunities for individual growth and identity that congregations and individuals cannot provide by themselves. The URJ website offers a number of excellent learning resources for Torah study, including:
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Torat Hayim - Living Torah
(http://urj.org/torah/)
Features a commentary and guide to the week's parasha
written by a wide range of scholars, educators, clergy and leaders in the Reform
movement. The URJ recently created a special format for each week which includes
a Focal Point that selects one particular aspect of the parasha to focus on,
an original D’var Torah by the presenter, a Derech Agav or “By the
Way” section with additional notes or resources, and Your Guide with study
questions. The archive is quite significant and earlier formats are equally intriguing
with dual presenters and questions submitted by leading Reform educators.
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Family Shabbat Table Talk
(http://urj.org/shabbat/)
This page includes a number of excellent parent resources including holiday guides
and a special weekly Middot (Jewish values or vitues) study guide. Table Talk
itself includes a short Torah summary, a lesson, and questions/suggestions for
Torah discussion that are especially appropriate for families and children. The
questions and/or activities for children are now divided by age. It was originally
designed for parents to introduce at Shabbat meals and could be an excellent
resource for parent empowerment and “parent as teacher” programs. |
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http://bible.ort.org/intro1.asp?lang=1
Conceived by Dr. Ellen Isler, former Director General of the World
Ort
Union, the CD-ROM turned-website offers various ways to explore
and search
the entire Tanakh.
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REFERENCE
(http://bible.ort.org/books/glosd1.asp)
An extraordinary and comprehensive reference
guide to people, places, plants and animals in the
Bible, making it simple to "click" and find related
items and ideas throughout the Tanakh.
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GENEALOGY
(http://bible.ort.org/books/gened2.asp)
An
interactive genealogy chart which allows you to plug in
main characters in the Bible
to see their family
lines.
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DIVREI
TORAH
(http://bible.ort.org/books/divreid2.asp?action=displaypage
&
book=1&portion=1)
Straight-forward, concise summaries
of each portion are provided by Ohr Somayach International
(Orthodox), with excellent navigation
that makes it easy to move between books of the Bible and parshiyot.
Good for quickly comparing parshiyot from the same or different
books. Not for the novice or those not fond of “HaShem.”
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FIND
(http://bible.ort.org/books/searchd2.asp)
An interesting feature that allows
you to search for specific words or phrases in the Bible.
Great for finding where and
how often a particular word appears. Good for getting students
to “explore” the Bible. However, the word(s)
you are looking for are not highlighted and you may have
to click on the verse to find the reference you are looking
for (and some mysterious anomalies).
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http://www.lookstein.org/home.htm
A Virtual Resource Center from Bar-Ilan University in Israel
for Jewish Education practitioners, containing various resources
for educators including online Judaic Studies lesson plans, a
library of articles, mini-sites on key pedagogic and content-based
topics, and an excellent collection of topical questions on Israeli
society with links to newspaper articles. A great site but with
limited specific resources for adult Bible study.
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www.wujs.org.il
The World Union of Jewish Students aims
to foster the unity of Jewish students worldwide by encouraging
their
particpation in Jewish life
through
providing information about Jewish campus life, activism, and learning.
As
part of this effort, the WUJS website, has a number of great resources
available to the adult student to engage in Torah study, including "Guides
to
Texts," weekly Torah portions organized by date for the current
year, and
reviews of various Parasha commentary sites.
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www.huc.edu
HUC-JIR Parasha Commentary and Sermon
Online Resource Guide
Originally developed by the Distance Education Department for Rabbi
Kenneth
Ehrlich as a supplement to his PD III (Homiletics) course in Cincinnati,
this guide provides links to various Torah and Haftorah commentaries,
and to
a variety of sermons.
This site is intended for Jewish professionals more than for the average adult
learner.
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These sites contain collections of drashot based on or arranged by
parasha.
So, if you are looking for material on a specific parasha, these
links might
be helpful.
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http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/
The entire Tanakh in Hebrew (only) on the Internet with the ability
to navigate by book, chapter and verse. Depending on your computer
and fonts, you can highlight, copy and paste text into other documents
(in Word, you will need to change the direction of the paragraph
to "right-to-left" before you paste).
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http://www.datajem.com/
The Database of Jewish Education Materials
DataJEM is an international curricular resource for Jewish Studies teachers
and students. Through their keyword "search" function, you can
gain access to resources in Bible including books, articles, websites,
maps, and journals. Each review contains publisher contact information,
abstracts, age group recommendations, and suggestions for use.
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http://www.maqom.com/
Founded and directed by Rabbi
Judith Abrams, Ph.D., Maqom is a "school for
Adult Talmud Study" but also contains some great Tanakh curriculum
in both
learner's and teacher's versions, and can be used for Adult Education
courses.
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http://www.meltonarts.org
MeltonArts.org seeks to promote learning Judaism through the arts. It provides
lesson plans and interactive units, resources on a variety of Israeli artists
and offers space for dialogues between educators and the artists.
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