Jewish Expression Today and Implictions for Jewish Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 MARK YOUNG A Key to Open Many Doors? Jewish Education for Ambivalent, Ambiguous and Changeable People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 DR. ARIELLE LEVITES It's Time for Truly Disruptive Jewish Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 DR. JACK WERTHEIMER Generation Z and the Work of Hillel Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 MAIYA CHARD-YARON From 'God' to 'G!D' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ELIANA LIGHT From Deprecation to Appreciation: Celebrating Culture as a Form of Jewish Expression . .12 RABBI SHIRA KOCH EPSTEIN A Yearning for a Torah of the Heart (and Finding it in Mussar) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 RABBI DAVID JAFFE Torat HaGuf: Expressing Judaism Through Embodied Spiritual Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 RABBI MYRIAM KLOTZ Expressing Our Judaism Through Social Justice in 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 CHERYL COOK Positive Judaism: Wisdom for a Life of Happiness and Well-being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 RABBI DARREN LEVINE, D. MIN Educating in Uncertain Times: Understanding the Changing Nature of Judaism in People's Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 DR. BILL ROBINSON

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The field of Jewish education in the United States has undergone a significant transformation in recent decades due to changing social trends, including declining numbers of children receiving a Jewish education, heightened consumerism on the part of families, rising rates of intermarriage, and severe time constraints limiting the availability of children and their families. The field has responded with a range of new initiatives and more sophisticated marketing. Although they attract only a minority of students, the most immersive forms of Jewish education—day schools, summer camps, and Israel study trips—have risen in importance for some Jewish families, even as they tax the financial and personnel resources of the American-Jewish community. Driving experimentation to address the challenges, several large foundations have spearheaded efforts such as Birthright Israel, the remaking of Hillel, the support and encouragement of day-school education, the expansion of Jewish residential camping, and the training of educational leadership.

Based on a range of sources, there is ample evidence of a general decline in American Jewish identification with Israel, a pattern especially evident today among younger Jews in their twenties and thirties and among Jews who identify with the political left. Survey findings alone are of only limited utility in capturing the underlying social reality and the erosion of connections to Israel stemming from peer pressure.