New Technology Alone Won’t Save Jewish Education

In his excellent essay, Eric Cohen argues that we are living in a moment of both disruption and innovation in Jewish education. Whether we like it or not, some of the ways we have always done things are falling by the wayside—a global pandemic has assured that—and we can, and should, leverage that disruption and turn it into innovation.

Most of his recommendations are, in my view, salient, provocative, and, if implemented, hold great promise. I have little to add to them. As Cohen correctly points out, the ubiquity of cheap videoconferencing technology has created an opportunity to expose many thousands of students to world-class teachers and thinkers who do not live in their own neighborhoods. There’s likewise an opportunity to bring quality education to out-of-the-way Hebrew schools, located in far-flung corners of the United States. And there’s similarly a chance to “flip the classroom,” an idea pioneered by Salman Khan through his world-famous Khan Academy.

But to all this excitement, I would add a note of caution, which grows out of my own experience as the founder of the Jewish educational Internet startup Aleph Beta. In thinking about pedagogic innovation we shouldn’t focus too much on technology. New technologies can do much to improve our educational system, but that alone will not save us. As we envision radical changes to Jewish education, we need not just to ask “What,” and “How,” but also “Why.”