40th Annual NRJE Conference

 May 31 – June 2, 2026

7612 Mowatt Lane, College Park, Maryland

Conference Chairperson: Benji Davis

Register Here for the Conference by May 22
Booking Link for The Hotel (all nights are available until May 22). If the link isn’t working on the night you need, then please email Melissa at nrjecoordinator@gmail.com.

Hotel Information:

The Hotel, 7777 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD 20740, TheHotelUMD.com

College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, 3501 University Blvd East, Hyattsville, MD 20783 (room block rate is no longer available, but if you need a room for Tuesday night ONLY reach out to Rabbi Melissa Stollman)

The final schedule can be viewed here.

Read Conference FAQs here.

Thank you to our generous supporters of the 2026 Conference:

The Jim Joseph Foundation, CASJE, The Covenant Foundation and UMD Hillel

All of the members of the NRJE.

Please email Rabbi Melissa Stollman concerning all questions related to the conference.  You may also contact NRJE Chairperson, Ari Y Kelman, with concerns and questions about the NRJE or the conference.

For information on past conferences, please click here.

2026 Presentations:

PAPER SESSIONS

  • Israel Experience Education in a Time of Upheaval: Continuity, Change, and Challenge—And Opportunity

    Chair/Discussant: Wendy Rosov (Rosov Consulting)

    Creating Unforgettable Journeys: Identifying Which Program Elements Predict Impact in Teen Israel Travel; Jessica Kalbfeld (RootOne at the Jewish Education Project) and Miri Lieber (RootOne at the Jewish Education Project)

    Teaching on Unstable Ground: Israel Education at Sites of Trauma After October 7; Yaakov Malomet (Rosov Consulting)

    Neither Here nor There: Third-Space Mifgashim in Israeli–North American Teen Encounters; Alex Pomson (Rosov Consulting)

  • Four Windows into Inquiry: Practitioner Action Research as a Catalyst for Shifts in Jewish Educational Leadership – Mindy Gold, Gail Boone, Babette Cohn, Melissa Werbow (Discussant: Miriam Raider-Roth) (Monday)
  • Teaching What Is Hard to Teach in Jewish Education – Leslie Ginsparg Klein, Julie Golding, Ora Weinbach (Discussant: Jon Levisohn) (Monday)
  • When Does Jewish Education Influence How People Choose to Live? – Ezra Kopelowitz, Benji Davis, Tal Vaizman, Gal Harpaz (Monday)
  • Teachers as Bridges: Educational Shlichut as a Looking Glass into Israel-Diaspora Relations, 1930s to Present – Michal Junger, Ezra Kopelowitz, Daniel Steiner (Monday)
  • Raising Jewish Americans: Family, Community, and Well-Being – Talia Hurwich, Zachary Nichols (Discussant: Arielle Levites) (Tuesday)
  • Teaching Jewish Texts Through a Gendered Lens: Research and Practice – Esther Friedman, Tidhar Gutman, Anne Ebersman (Discussant: Talia Hurwich) (Monday)
  • Beyond Belief: Lived Experience of Jewish Plausibility Structures – Jon Levisohn and Moshe Krakowski (Tuesday)
  • Inquiry from Within: the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education Teacher Research Group – Professor Ziva Hassenfeld, Dr. Michal Junger, Romy Neumark (Monday)
  • Jewish On Campus: Student, Alumni, and Faculty Perspectives
  • Jewish Fraternity and Sorority Alumni Voices: Belonging on Campus; Jenny Small (Brandeis University) and Pietro Sasso (Delaware State University)
  • Representation Matters: Jewish Visibility and Campus Climate in U.S. Higher Education; Steven Feldman (Indiana University Bloomington)
  • Striving toward Tikkun: Understanding Jewish Faculty Expressions of Yiddishkeit; Benjamin Selznick (James Madison University)Discussant: Nicole Samuel (Brandeis University)
  • Teen and Young Adult Decisions about Learning and Participation (Monday)
    • The Learning Culture Among High School Students – Yael Jaffe
    • The Jewish Teens Friendship Study: A Mixed-Methods Study of Teens’ Social Lives – Yael Findler
    • On Their Own Terms: Pathways into Program Participation -Matt Reingold & Noa Havivi 
  • Israel Knowledge and Identification (Monday)
    • Growing Up with Israel: What a Fifteen-Year Panel Study Reveals About Attachment and Ambivalence Among Young Adults and Their Parents – Alex Pomson
    • Israel knowledge, Jewish day school, and Birthright Israel – Graham Wright
    • Peoplehood Moments as Professional Practice: A Case Study Workshop on Cultivating Community – Ezra Kopelowitz
  • Practitioner Papers: Identity in the Classroom (Monday)
    • How Are Our Kids Doing?: Data About the Challenges, And Evidence-Based Approaches to Meet Them – Rivka Press Schwartz and Russi Bohm
    • Hebrew 2.0 – A Language that Acts and Shapes Reality: Hebrew as a Vehicle for Developing Thinking, Engaged, and Impactful Youth – Shelli Putterman-Kenett
    • Secondary Students’ Self-Identified Drivers of Religious Growth in School  – Yael Jaffe 
  • “Am I Seen?”: Agency in Curriculum and Content (Monday)
    • “Bringing a Curriculum to Life” Teacher Agency in Implementing a Provided Jewish Studies Curriculum – Meredith Katz
    • Let the Children Lead: A Teacher Action Research Study on Student Agency and Values as Curriculum – Margo Pellmar
  • Is There a Script to Follow? Three Cases of “Disruption” to the “Default” (Monday)
    • Shared Concerns, Different Angles: Kids and Teachers differing approaches to engaging with “What Matters” in the World – Sivan Zakai and Lauren Applebaum
    • Breaking the Frisch Cycle: How Gap Years Disrupt the Middle-Class Education-to-Employment Pipeline – Esther Friedman and Jon Levisohn
    • Ethical Curation: Religious Jewish Women Navigate Popular Music and Religious Agency in the Streaming Era – Tal Vaizman
  • Participatory Pedagogy in Jewish Education (Monday)
    • Reviving Oral Performative Tradition as a Pedagogy for Teaching Rabbinic Texts – Aviv Siegel
    • Stepping Into Another’s World: Digital Games, Critical Thinking, and Educational Possibilities in Contemporary Jewish Education – Uriel Aiskovich
    • Reweaving Jewish Peoplehood in the Classroom: Scholar‐Reviewed Tools for Centering Sephardi and Mizrahi Narratives – Drora Arussy
  • Pedagogies of Israel Education Post October 7th (Tuesday)
    • Commemorating October 7th and Community Jewish High Schools – Meredith Katz
    • Israel Education During Wartime: Aboutism and Traitism in Jewish Summer Camps – Tal Vaizman
    • Teaching Palestinian Perspectives with a Pedagogy of “Historical Empathy” – Benji Davis
  • Campus and Communal Leadership (Monday)
    • Insourcing Leadership: How Chassidic Lived Tradition Inform Sustainable Organizational Practice – Chanie Chein and Peretz Chein
    • Civil Conversations, Not Civil Engineering: Jewish Identity and Building Bridges on College Campuses – Elana Riback Rand

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS

  • Navigating AI Use in Jewish Education Research: A Community Dialogue – Esther Friedman, Ziva Hassenfeld, Ezra Kopelowitz (Monday)
  • When Scholars Collaborate with Teachers, Students, and One Another – Sivan Zakai, Lauren Applebaum, Allison Cook, Orit Kent (Moderator: Susan Kardos) (Tuesday)

SKILLS SESSIONS

  • Extraordinary Magic: Conceptual Foundations of the Risk-Resilience Continuum – Erika Bocknek (Monday)
  • Holding Space: Educators in Dialogue on Resilience, Reflection, and Care – Meir Muller, Miriam Raider-Roth, Erika Bocknek (Tuesday at Breakfast)

PRACTITIONER RESEARCH SESSION

What’s in a Name?: Understanding Zionist and Anti-Zionist Identities in Contemporary Jewish Life – David Manchester, Anna Langer, Robbie Gringras, and Daniel Parmer (Tuesday)