This pedagogy is inspired by Rav Joseph Soloveitchik’s concept of the two covenants that the Jewish people entered in Egypt and at Sinai — the Covenant of Fate and the Covenant of Destiny. The Covenant of Fate is one in which the individual Jew is tied to the Jewish people whether he or she wants to be or not. The Covenant of Destiny represents what the Jewish people seek to achieve together in the future. The pedagogy of responsiveness strives to strengthen the sense of Jewish peoplehood through the practice of writing teshuvot, a practice usually performed by rabbis or posekim. Hence, the pedagogy of responsiveness aims at enabling rabbinical students to write teshuvot. This raises their awareness of the multiple and multifaceted ways that Jews from different places are connected. By learning the art of writing teshuvot, rabbinical students and, therefore, future rabbis learn a skill and hone its practice which empowers them to make that Jewish practice (writing of teshuvot) their own. By doing so, the training of rabbis will contribute to the concept of responsiveness and therefore restore empathy among the Jewish people. By adding their voices to contemporary questions while also relying on legal decisions or recommendations made by others who came before them, they carry on that practice and join this chain of tradition, making it ever larger and more diverse.
March 2024
A Jewish Pedagogy of Responsiveness
The pedagogy of responsiveness strives to strengthen the sense of Jewish peoplehood through the practice of writing teshuvot.
Dr. Sandra Anusiewicz-Baer is a Berlin based Jewish educator. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in education, Jewish studies and Islamic studies. She served as head of the educational department and later as the head of the cultural department of the Jewish community in Berlin before she left to pursue her doctoral studies in education. Her dissertation about the alumni of the Jewish High School in Berlin asked how the education of the school influences the students' self-perception and identity. The dissertation was awarded the Humboldt-Prize. As a passionate educator, Anusiewicz-Baer founded and worked as editor of 'Familienmentsch', the first Jewish family magazine for the German-speaking region. At present, Anusiewicz-Baer works as the Chief Operating Officer of the Zacharias Frankel College, a rabbinical seminary established in 2013 to train Masorti/conservative rabbis.
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