Language learning in/as religious education

Drawing on research from Luxembourg (Dr Anastasia Badder, University of Cambridge) and the UK (Dr Jo-Ann Myers, Leo Baeck College), this conversational seminar will consider the significance of Hebrew learning in Jewish school settings.

Dr Badder's case study focuses on a complementary Sunday school, while Dr Myers' began with a pluralist Jewish primary school in outer London. Coming together to exchange their learning, this event will open up questions about the nature of progress in Progressive contexts, and the significance of language literacy as a component of community identity.

Coordinated by the Cambridge Interfaith Programme as part of UK Inter Faith Week 2022, the event will include discussants from other faith traditions.

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About the contributors

Dr Anastasia Badder joined the University of Cambridge last July, as a Research Associate with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, having previously completed doctoral and postdoctoral research at the University of Luxembourg. Her work ethnographically explores contemporary Jewish lives and languages in Europe, including the intersection of multilingualism, religion, and modernity at a Talmud Torah school.

Dr Jo-Ann Myers is Director of Jewish Education at Leo Baeck College. A Hebrew language specialist, Dr Myers developed the Eizeh Kef Hebrew programme used in more than twenty communities and schools in the UK, Europe and abroad. She also teaches and conducts Hebrew teacher training in a wide range of contexts. Her Doctorate in Professional Studies focused on Hebrew pedagogy and the linking between Biblical and Modern Hebrew in teaching and learning.

Related publications

Anastasia Badder, ‘I just want you to get into the flow of reading’: Reframing Hebrew proficiency as an enactment of liberal Jewishness, Language & Communication, Volume 87, 2022, pages 221-230, ISSN 0271-5309. [ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2022.08.003 ]

Jo-Ann D. Myers (2016) Hebrew, the Living Breath of Jewish Existence: The Teaching and Learning of Biblical and Modern Hebrew. DProf thesis, Middlesex University. [ https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/20824/]

Practicalities

This event will be hosted on Zoom. The Zoom information will be sent automatically to those registered via Eventbrite approximately 24 hours before the event, with a second reminder sent 15 minutes before the event start (useful for late registrants). A waiting room will be in operation and audience members will be admitted promptly at the advertised start time, tech permitting.