Deborah Klapper

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Mar 20, 2018, 6:51 AM

A Better Pesach Project

Pesach projects often focus on producing beautiful seder artifacts and on keeping children engaged in the seder. When they meet these goals, as they did for my children, they are a real contribution to the religious quality of life...

Mar 11, 2018, 11:48 PM

Yeshiva College’s policies about women matter to us all

Illustrative: Yeshiva University’s Chag HaSemikhah ordination celebration, in March 2010, feted 200 or so rabbis who had been ordained in the previous four years. (Yeshiva University/JTA)

Blocking a female student from teaching Torah because men might hear her affects the whole Modern Orthodox world

Feb 15, 2018, 3:37 PM

Educating our daughters and our sons

Illustrative: Yeshiva students in Israel (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Segregating boys and girls for post-high school Torah study irrationally limits their ability to follow their passions

Sep 4, 2017, 5:55 AM

Let’s teach our kids to read

Children practice English and math skills over and over again; why is Torah taught so differently?

May 5, 2017, 6:19 AM

How we talk and act — Modern Orthodoxy’s hidden curriculum – 3

Orthodox Judaism IS gendered, but each sex should still be treated with equal respect

Apr 28, 2017, 6:37 PM

What Do Our Shuls Teach us – Modern Orthodoxy’s Hidden Curriculum

This is the second of a series of essays on the topic of “hidden curriculum” in the Modern Orthodox community. "Hidden curriculum" is an education term describing the unintentional and unexamined messages that students get from everything in a...

Apr 24, 2017, 12:03 AM

Language For Teaching Torah – Modern Orthodoxy’s Hidden Curriculum

This is the first of a series of essays on the topic of “hidden curriculum” in the Modern Orthodox community. In future essays I intend to address other sources of hidden curriculum, including physical layout, furniture, architecture, and employment...

Mar 23, 2017, 4:51 PM

A Haggadah without women?

Illustrative: The seder involves multiple senses such as touch, smell and taste. (Shutterstock, via JTA)

On a popular Haggadah that is so committed to eliminating female characters it rewrites biblical texts

Mar 9, 2017, 6:03 PM

Is Esther a Fairy Tale?

Is Megillat Esther a Disney story, in which nothing truly terrible happens and everyone lives happy ever after? Should we tell our children that Achashverosh and Esther have a happy marriage? Can it be a happy ending even when...

Mar 3, 2017, 11:19 PM

Teaching Megillat Esther

When you 'correct' the megillah's story for young children, you risk them remembering your fiction forever

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About Me

Deborah Klapper holds an AB from Harvard University and a Scholars' Circle certificate from Drisha Institute. She lives, learns, and teaches in Sharon, MA.