Melton Research Center for Jewish Education

The Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, established in 1960 under the sponsorship of Samuel M. Melton of Columbus, Ohio, has the mandate of improving the quality of Jewish education throughout North America. The Melton Research Center, which is part of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary, focuses on the designing, testing, implementation, and evaluation of new approaches to instructional methods, materials, and technology; models for organizational change; and staff and leadership development. Over the years, Melton curriculum materials have been used in more than three hundred Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregational and day schools throughout the United States, Canada, and other countries.

Thanks to Mr. Melton's continued generosity, the Melton Center established the Melton Fellowships, which offer generous support to students pursuing graduate studies in Jewish education at The Davidson School. In 1984, the Melton Research Center was awarded the first Daniel Issacman Memorial Award for Jewish Education for its generative work in educational research and publications. In 1992, the Melton Center was honored at Hadassah's eightieth-anniversary celebration for outstanding contributions to and positive impact on fostering Jewish learning and scholarship, and for strengthening Jewish communal life through the training and development of Jewish educators.

On July 1, 2008, Dr. Barry Holtz, dean of The Davidson School and Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education, became the new director of the Melton Research Center. Under Dr. Holtz's leadership, the Melton Center is building on its foundations of excellence in curriculum development, teacher support, and scholarship in Jewish education. The Melton Center partnered with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's Department of Education to create Project Etgar, a new approach to instruction and learning in the synagogue middle school (http://www.uscj.org/Project_Etgar7134.html) and MaToK, the Bible curriculum for the Solomon Schechter Day Schools. MaToK's original development was founded by a generous grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. MaToK is now used in community and Orthodox day schools throughout North America (http://ssdsa.org/resources/matok/).

The Melton Center supports the new Standards and Benchmarks for the Teaching of TaNaKH in Jewish Day Schools initiative, which is funded by a generous grant from the AVI CHAI Foundation. This project is creating, testing, and disseminating standards for Bible study in Conservative, Reform, and community day schools. It has resulted in intense professional development for both teachers and instructional leaders in the field of Bible education (http://www.jtsa.edu/William_Davidson_Graduate_School_of_Jewish_Education/Melton_Research_
Center/StandardsBenchmarks.xml).

Most recently, The Covenant Foundation awarded the Melton Center a three-year grant to plan curriculum for grades 3–5 in congregational schools and to create the materials for third grade. The new curriculum will take into account new ways of promoting Jewish learning via experiential education, the arts and technology, and will reinforce Melton's and JTS's commitment to serving Jewish education throughout North America.