AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH EDUCATION , organization founded in 1939 to promote the cause of Jewish education by raising the standards of instruction and professional service, to encourage research and experimentation, and to stimulate communal responsibility for local organizations of Jewish educational endeavor. The American Association for Jewish Education stressed the status of Jewish education as a major concern within the entire Jewish community. It introduced, on a national scale, the scientific study of Jewish education, and was instrumental in founding 32 bureaus of Jewish education to coordinate, supervise, and direct local school systems. It pointed to new approaches in the field of pedagogies, including adult education, provided a variety of community services, and fostered lay participation in the Jewish educational endeavor. The Association published the Pedagogic Reporter (bi-monthly); Jewish Education Newsletter (from 1940, bi-monthly); Audio-Visual Review (biannually); and Jewish Education Register and Directory (biannually). Lay leaders (presidents) of the organization included Mark Eisner (1939–47), Philip W. Lown (1955–64), and Isadore Breslau (1964–78). Its professional directors included I.S. Chipkin (1944–49), Judah Pilch (1949–60), and Isaac Toubin (from 1960).

In 1981 the American Association for Jewish Education was succeeded by the *Jewish Education Service of North America.

bibliography:

American Association for Jewish Education, Its Purposes and Its Service (1940–48).

[Judah Pilch]