An edited volume that grapples with the complex issues and conflicts that face instructors developing curricula about Israel.
 
Jewish Americans are divided in their views on Israel. While scholars have outlined philosophical principles to guide educators who teach about Israel, there has been less scholarship focused on the pedagogy surrounding the country. This book resituates teaching—the questions, dilemmas, and decision-making that teachers face—as central to both Israel studies and Israel education. Contributors illuminate how educators from differing pedagogical orientations, who teach in a range of educational settings learn, understand, undertake, and ultimately improve the work of teaching Israel. The volume also looks at the professional support and learning opportunities teachers may need to engage with these pedagogical questions.

“Teaching Israel . . . initiates a worthwhile dialogue between Israel education and Israel studies by conceptualizing an area of inquiry that can be beneficial for both fields, specifically, with insights on aims, pedagogy, context, and identity. Most importantly, Zakai and Reingold highlight that the scholarly dialogue is mutually beneficial. I recommend Teaching Israel for any educator or scholar interested in practical insights about the ‘pedagogical choices that teachers make when Israel, in all its many forms, is the subject matter.’ I hope this anthology is only the first of many volumes of empirical studies on what Zakai and Reingold have conceptualized as teaching Israel.” * Journal of Jewish Education *
“Teaching Israel is a valuable addition to Israel education, presenting a diverse range of perspectives and educational settings at a time when students can benefit from nuanced pedagogical approaches. . . . Timely and essential reading.”  * Contemporary Jewry *
“Teaching Israel is a superb collection of essays that sheds light on the central issues and challenges confronting all Israel educators. Zakai and Reingold have made an invaluable contribution by showcasing a wide range of pedagogical reflections informed by the authors’ personal experiences in the classroom. The volume is also a must-read for scholars in the general field of education who will find in Israel a fascinating case study to test their pedagogical approaches and techniques and to develop new ones.” -- Csaba Nikolenyi, professor of political science and director of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, Concordia University
“Teaching Israel centers the dilemmas and decisions of educators teaching a topic viewed by many as fraught and divisive, and is oriented to diverse learners and distinct pedagogic goals across a spectrum of settings. An important contribution to the scholarship of teaching and Israel education, practitioners will appreciate the opportunity to peer inside the classrooms of other educators as a means to illuminate their own challenges and choices.” -- Arielle Levites, managing director of the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, George Washington University

Sivan Zakai is the Sara S. Lee Associate Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Los Angeles campus. She directs the Children’s Learning About Israel Project and codirects Project ORLIE: Research and Leadership in Israel Education. She is the author of My Second Favorite Country: How American Jewish Children Think About Israel, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity. Matt Reingold is a practitioner-researcher of Israel Education. He teaches and serves as the cohead of the Jewish History Department at TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Gender and Sexuality in Israeli Graphic Novels: Contested Masculinity and Independent Femininity, Reenvisioning Israel Through Political Cartoons: Visual Discourses During the 2018–2021 Electoral Crisis, Jewish Comics and Graphic Narratives, and The Comics of Asaf Hanuka: Telling Particular and Universal Stories.