Raising Ethical Standards in the
Modern Orthodox Community

The Jewish Moral Education Forum

promotes and supports a focused, comprehensive commitment to the knowledge, internalization, and application of ethics in the Modern Orthodox community.

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Developing these impactful initiatives requires the collaboration of the community’s finest rabbis, school administrators, philosophers, and psychologists to develop the collaborative ventures to give ethics and derekh eretz the distinguished place in our ethos which are their due.

The mission of JMEF is to be achieved in the following ways:

The Teaching of Torah Ethics:

Developing, articulating, and teaching ethical perspectives based on Torah scholarship.

The Internalization of Values:

·        Using the best educational methodologies to guide community members in internalizing and identifying with Torah ethical values so that these are the operative values shaping their behaviour.

Communal Collaboration:

·        Forging collaboration between different community organizations, including schools and synagogues, to implement impactful initiatives to improve the way we teach and apply ethical values in our community.

This project is a fantastic and very much needed endeavour that I am sure will achieve all of its goals, helping the schools, organisations and groups within our community to strengthen their values and virtues.

(Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks)

The sacred mission of Jewish education is to engage the whole child, mind, body, heart and soul. Jewish education is character education, and bringing the science and knowledge of effective practices to Jewish education is a worthy and critical endeavor.

(Dr, Rona Novick)

Developmental Phases

I. The Place of Ethics in Our Philosophical Worldview

JMEF will be launched with an initial conference. The purpose of the conference is to explore philosophical approaches to understanding the place of ethics in Torah life, with a particular emphasis on Centrist Orthodox thinkers. What kind of behavior should be aspired to by those who are not only committed to halakhic compliance but also to a life characterised by kedusha and refined middot?

II. Psychology and Character Development

In subsequent meetings, participants will explore how the findings of empirical psychology and the best practices of the character education movement can be most effectively used in our schools and synagogues to promote moral values and behavior. Presenters will identify key findings and practices which have been effective in transmitting values in a way that is impactful and transformative.

III. Implementation in Schools and Synagogues

JMEF will work with schools and synagogues to introduce initiatives to promote an ethical culture in our institutions, and to implement a range of practices for guiding and supporting moral behavior. These will include science-based methods for integrating character education into school culture; professional development programs for Jewish educators and rabbinic students; and online educational programs to guide parents in cultivating their children’s moral reasoning, sensitivity, and behavior. Community organizations will build on the philosophical and methodological groundwork established in the previous two phases to initiate programs designed to accentuate the prominence of ethics in communal life and have a transformative impact on the lives of community members.

I  extend  my  very  best  wishes  for  beracha  vehatzlacha  to  The  Jewish  Moral Education  Forum  as  you  strive  to  develop  impactful  strategies  to  transmit these values in our communities.

(Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis)

The Jewish Moral Education Forum

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