The Future Impact of AI on our Jewish Day Schools – a Judaic Studies Perspective
One of the Greatest Opportunities Since the Printing Press
In 1440, when Gutenberg invented the printing press, many Rabbinic leaders and scholars were very skeptical, worried and concerned. They felt that if anyone could print a book, what would happen to the scribe? and to the careful transmission of the Torah?
But within 50 years, the printing press gave us the first printed Shas, the Shulchan Aruch in every home, and a revolution in Jewish learning that led directly to the flourishing of the modern yeshiva.
Friends, in a sense, artificial intelligence can be viewed as the Gutenberg press of our generation.
Jewish day schools and yeshivot have a choice: They can be concerned about AI, ban it, or harness it to do what we have always dreamed of doing — educating every child as if he or she were an only child.
Here is what the future may be holding out, whether we are ready for it or not.
The End of One-Size-Fits-All Judaics
This is the most profound change. Today, in a typical 5th grade Chumash class, you have 22 students. Three can leyn beautifully, five struggle to decode, seven can translate but do not understand Rashi, and seven are bored because they already learned this parsha in camp. The teacher teaches to the middle, and unfortunately almost no one gets what they need.
As envisioned, within 3 years, AI will make this model completely obsolete.
Imagine this instead…..
Chumash with an AI Chavruta: Each child opens his Chumash on a tablet. The AI knows his reading level, his past quizzes, and his interests. For the struggling reader, it reads the pasuk aloud and highlights the shorashim. For the advanced student, it immediately asks: “how does Rashi’s answer here contradict what he said in Parshas Bereishis?” It is infinitely patient, and never embarrassed to be asked the same question 10 times.
Gemara with Instant Background
A 9th grader hits the word “tayku.” Instead of waiting for the teacher to explain while 15 other kids lose focus, he asks his AI tutor: “Explain tayku to me like I’m 12, and give me 2 examples from a Gemara.” In seconds he has it, with sources. The Rebbe is now free to do what only a Rebbe can do — teach lomdus, inspire, and ask the deep question that AI cannot.
In an AI educational environment the teacher is never replaced. In fact, the teacher is elevated.
Not unlike other professions, the fear that many teachers have is whether AI will replace them. But in reality, a teacher using AI will replace a teacher not using AI.
AI will take away 40% of what exhausts teachers today such as writing lesson plans from scratch, making 3 versions of the same worksheet, grading spelling quizzes, writing first drafts of report cards, and answering “what did I miss yesterday?”
What will be left is the work that only a human can do
Another use of AI is through being a Dugma Ishit which is a living example of a Torah Jew. AI can explain what chesed is. But, only a teacher can show it by how he treats the sad and lonely child at recess.
As we know, a student doesn’t come to his Rebbe because the Rebbe knows Tosfos. He comes because he is struggling with faith, or with his parents’ divorce, or with anxiety. AI can give information. A Rebbe gives empathy and a heart.
Finally, no child ever falls in love with Torah through ahavat torah because of a perfect worksheet. They do however fall in love because a teacher’s eyes light up when he learns.
The best day schools and yeshivot will eventually use AI to automate the paperwork so that teachers can focus on the core of their jobs, namely the neshama of their work.
What Becomes More Important, Not Less
In a world where any child can ask AI to write a beautiful comprehensive essay on the topic of Yetziat Mitzrayim, or translate a page of Gemara, or summarize Ramban’s view — what is left to be taught? The answer is… everything that AI cannot do.
Artificial intelligence can give you information from the internet. It cannot give you a mesorah. Who did your rabbe learn from? What does your community believe? Why does your family adhere to a particular minhag?
In a world of instant answers, who you learn from matters more than ever. Day schools and yeshivot will need to double down on connecting students to living rabbis and teachers, not just texts.
As we know, AI has no conscience, no yetzer hara and no free will. It can write an essay about honesty, but it cannot choose to be honest when lying is easier. Our schools must move from grading only knowledge to also cultivating and measuring integrity, empathy, resilience, and yirat Shamayim. Those are the un-automatable skills.
Another important AI manifestation is critical thinking and truth-seeking
More often than not, AI hallucinates. As such, it makes up sources. It says things confidently that may be false. In a world of deepfakes and AI-generated midrashim, the most important skill we can teach a Jewish child is how do you know if something is true? How do you check a source? and how do you ask a shaila to a real posek? The Gemara’s critical thinking — “Mai nafka mina? — what is the difference?” — becomes a survival skill.
With regard to Israel, Jewish Identity and Jewish Peoplehood it is important to note that AI can translate Hebrew, but it cannot give you goosebumps when you stand at the Kotel. It cannot explain why you are emotionally moved or cry when you hear Hatikvah after October 7th. Jewish peoplehood, connections to Israel, and collective memory become the core curriculum, because they are things you must experience together, in community.
The Real Dangers We Must Confront Now
As we can imagine, when talking about the impact of AI, all is not rosy and day schools that ignore the dangers and pitfalls of AI will eventually pay a very heavy price.
Today, our society as a whole is experiencing a “cheating crisis” of monumental proportion. . To be sure, if we give a take-home essay on “what does the Akedah teach us about faith?” AI can write a better essay than a 10th grader in 8 seconds. If we keep assessing the same way, we are teaching dishonesty. We must shift from assessing product to assessing process — oral exams, in-class writing, chavruta learning where the struggle is visible.
This “loss of struggle” is probably the greatest part of learning. Gemara is the struggle — the ameilus. The hour you stare at a Tosfos and suddenly it clicks. If AI instantly gives the answer, we rob our students of the joy of discovery. Excellent schools will need to create “AI-free zones” and times — just like we have phone-free times. Sometimes you need to wrestle with the text yourself in order for it to make sense or be meaningful.
Halachic and Hashkafic Questions.
Is it lashon hara to ask AI to summarize what people say about someone? Can you use AI to write a dvar Torah and present it as your own? Is an AI-generated image of a rabbi disrespectful? In light of these challenges, our poskim will need to lead this conversation, and our schools will eventually need to teach digital halacha and ethics from 5th grade.
Moving Carefully into the Future
In the future, we will witness the evolution of smaller schools with deeper and more human characteristics.
For example, we will be using fewer worksheets and more chavrutot. Fewer lectures and more Socratic discussions. AI will handle personalization, practice, and background knowledge at home, so class time can be used for what matters most, namely debate, inspiration, tefillah together, and real human connection.
The school that thrives will not be the school that bans AI and pretends it’s 2026. And it will not be the school that lets AI do all the teaching and fires teachers.
It will be the school that says we have waited 2,000 years for a tool that can help us teach every child like an only child. Now that haShem has given it to us, we will use it wisely — not to replace Torah, but to bring more children deeper into Torah than ever before.
The printing press did not replace rabbis or master teachers. It made their Torah spread to every home.
AI will do the same — if we have the willingness and wisdom to use it.
