Lesley Litman, Ed.D.

Director, Executive M.A. Program in Jewish Education; Coordinator, Faculty Instructional Support

Contact Information

school/program: School of Education
department: Provost’s Office
academic field: Jewish Education
campus: National

Lesley Litman, Ed.D., is the Director of the Executive M.A. Program in Jewish Education and Coordinator of Faculty Instructional Support at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She also consults to The iCenter in the area of curriculum design and professional development in Israel education with a particular emphasis on infusing Israel in Jewish day schools. Lesley has served in leadership positions in a wide variety of Jewish educational settings including congregations, day schools, youth movement and the URJ. She lived in Israel for ten years and was a founder of the Reform movement’s first kibbutz, Kibbutz Yahel. Lesley holds an Ed.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, an M.A. in Jewish Studies with a Hebrew concentration from Hebrew College in Boston, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow from 1994-96.

Litman, L. (unpublished). Contributor, Teaching Adults in American Values, Religious Voices: Letters of Hope by People of Faith. Rabbi Andrea Weiss, Editor.

Litman, L. and M. Zeldin (2022). Surfing the Waves of Uncertainty: How Jewish Educational Leaders Face Enduring Dilemmas. Journal of Jewish Education 88:1.

Litman, L. and M. Zeldin (July 12, 2021). Seven strategies for meeting the challenges of reopening in eJewishphilanthropy.com.

Litman L. (2017). What Really Matters in Synagogue Education: A Comparative Case Study of a Conventional School and an Alternative Program, Journal of Jewish Education, 83:4.

Litman, L. (April 25, 2017). The Shelf Life of Innovative Educational Models: A Cautionary Tale in eJewishphilanthropy.com.

Litman, L. and M. Zeldin (October 29, 2014). How Hybrid Learning Can Transform Jewish Education Tale in eJewishphilanthropy.com.

Litman, L. and M. Zeldin (October 22, 2014). The Successful Jewish Educator: When Instinct Meets Know-how in eJewishphilanthropy.com.

Hebrew Reading Assessment: Decoding and Fluency, Behrman House Publishers, Inc.; 2009.

Islam: A Short Course: Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, December, 2007.

BabaGanewz: Report on Classroom Observations, with Annette Koren, Brandeis University, published by the AviChai Foundation and Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, BrandeisUniversity, 2006.

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life (Torah strand), URJ Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning, UAHC Press, 2001. Torah strand for Grades 2-7.

Educational Practices: Curriculum Design

Israel Seminar: Visions of Jewish Statehood

Jewish Educational Ideologies

Ed.D., Jewish Theological Seminary of America

M.A., Hebrew College, Boston

B.A., University of Massachusetts, Amherst