Educational Links Please note: The following descriptions are taken directly from websites or catalogues.

Major Jewish Education Textbook Publishers (All textbooks from the following publishers are housed in our collection)

Behrman House - from their website: www.behrmanhouse.com
Behrman House is known as a publisher of quality Judaic educational materials (including print and e-books, software, mobile apps, teacher guides, and lesson plans). Our educational materials are fun, age-appropriate and pedagogically sound. Our broad-based offerings--which include Hebrew, Bible, ethics, holidays, Jewish history, and Israel--are designed to meet:
  • The diverse curricular objectives of religious schools
  • The varying instructional styles of educators
  • The multiple needs and learning styles of today's students
  • The demands of educators and students to access materials on a variety of platforms
Behrman House also publishes noteworthy materials about Judaism and Jewish life for those interested in deepening their understanding of Judaism, their Jewish roots, and Jewish practice. Our titles explore:
  • Jewish holidays and rituals--how they are observed and why
  • Works of the great Jewish thinkers from ancient to modern times
  • The history of the Jewish people, and the works of great Jewish writers and philosophers
Torah Aura - from their catalog: www.torahaura.com
Each Jewish school is committed to assuring the Jewish future. Every school wants to provide the best possible Jewish education, and we at Torah Aura Productions are committed to help you succeed. We believe that:
  • Technology holds great promise but few schools are equipped and outfitted to use it now.
  • Experiential education holds great promise. In this catalog you will find two new experiential textbooks.
  • The essential secret of Jewish education rests in the relationships between teacher and student, and in the creation of sacred community. We stand ready to help every teacher succeed.
  • Family education is a cornerstone of building the Jewish future and we have always worked with the leaders in that field.
  • Jewish schools once bragged, and should be able once again to brag, that sending children to your schools will make them better students. They will learn close reading, critical thinking, the essence of language and other things they will not be able to gain elsewhere.
URJ Books and Music - from their website: www.urjbooksandmusic.com
URJ Press, Transcontinental Music Publications and Sounds Write Productions come together in one website to bring you a vast selection of books, study guides, curricula, recorded music, sheet music, song books, downloadable MP3s and more on every Jewish topic imaginable

Additional Jewish Publishers (The Tartak Learning Center has some materials from each of these publishers)

EKS Publishing - from their website: www.ekspublishing.com
"EKS Publishing Company specializes in books and auxiliary learning aids for mastering Classical Hebrew. We offer self-study courses and classroom materials for students of all ages. Whether your goal is to learn the alphabet, translate the Hebrew Bible, or simply follow along at services, EKS has the tools to meet your needs."

Jewish Lights - from their website: www.jewishlights.com
"We describe ourselves as publishing books that reflect the Jewish wisdom tradition for people of all faiths, all backgrounds. Our books really focus on the issue of the quest for the self, seeking meaning in life. They are books that help you to understand who you are and who you might become as a Jewish person, or as a person who is part of a tradition that has its roots in the Judeo-Christian world. They deal with issues of personal growth. They deal with issues of religious inspiration. Our principal goal is to stimulate thought and help all people learn about who the Jewish People are, where they come from, and what the future can be made to hold." Jewish Publication Society - from their website: www.jewishpub.org
"Welcome to JPS. We are the oldest publisher of Jewish books in the United States. Our roots go back to before the Civil War, and our charter to 1888 in Philadelphia. We are old, but young at heart. Our publishing program includes path-breaking new works for the study of the Bible in the 21st century. A growing number of our volumes are now available as e-books. Our mission has always been to enhance Jewish literacy through the publication of great books, and we are doing so now at the dawn of the digital age. "

Kar-Ben Publishing - from their website: www.karben.com
"Kar-Ben is a division of Lerner Publishing Group in Minneapolis. Under Lerner's leadership, Kar-Ben Publishing now publishes over fourteen new titles of Jewish content each year, developing a growing Jewish library for children and branching out from pre-school and young children's works into middle school fiction and non-fiction. Kar-Ben has created many award-winning children's titles on such subjects as Jewish holidays, crafts, folktales, and contemporary stories and picture books."

Sarah & David Interactive - from their website: www.sarahdavid.com
"Sarah and David Interactive was founded by Lily Yacobi, a businesswoman with a fresh concept about how to teach Hebrew. Her mother Diana Yacobi, an educational director of a metropolitan New York synagogue school and published author on topics of Jewish education, soon joined her in this educational venture.

The crystallizing 'ah ha' moment came for this mother/daughter team when they realized that: You typically see a lot of squirmy, struggling kids in Hebrew reading classrooms. Let's energize the aleph bet and bring Hebrew back to life!"

Now they have a successful media company specializing in Hebrew reading, writing and language... that's perfectly fun. "

Selected Educational & Professional Organizations
Jewish Education Service of North America - from their website: www.jesna.org
"Substantively, JESNA's work addresses the major educational challenges and opportunities facing local communities and North American Jewry as a whole. Our programs today focus on
  • Complementary education, which encompasses traditional synagogue schools and community Hebrew high schools as well as other innovative models for engaging non day-school children and families,
  • Educator support and development, serving teachers and educational leaders in a wide array of settings, across denominations, and throughout North America, and
  • Building the capacity of central agencies for Jewish education to serve their communities with proven products, innovative solutions, and peerless professionalism
  • Studying and building on the momentum of the social entrepreneurship movement to develop new opportunities to improve Jewish education"
National Association of Temple Educators (NATE) - from their website: http://www.natenet.org/
"NATE is the professional organization of Jewish educators of the Reform Movement. Through members working in partnership across the United States as well as in Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Australia and South Africa, NATE serves a wide variety of Jewish organizations by working to strengthen Reform Jewish religious education."

URJ Department of Lifelong Learning - from their website: http://urj.org/learning/teacheducate/
The Union for Reform Judaism has a wealth of resources for educators. Annotated links to a wide variety of materials are collected on this web page.

© 2010 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion