The Arc of the Covenant: Jewish Educational Success on the Upper Mississippi

The Arc of the Covenant studies the social, cultural, and political factors that contributed to exceptional Jewish educational success in St. Paul, Minnesota in the latter half of the twentieth century. The book draws on archival sources, interviews with principal figures, and wide-ranging research on Jewish education and community dynamics to elucidate the story’s intriguing improbabilities. Why such success in a midsize, midcentury, midwestern river town with a relatively small Jewish population of limited resources? How did it happen, and how have circumstances changed in recent years? The answers are to be found at the intersection of broad historical forces and local circumstances. Though focused on a particular place and time, the implications reach far beyond St. Paul, then and now, making Arc of the Covenant a timely resource for current Jewish educational planners, along with educators in other communities dedicated to the transmission of a sacred heritage.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Preface Introduction Part One Chapter I: How far is it from the banks of the Jordan to the banks of the Mississippi? Chapter II: The Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century Chapter III: At the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century Chapter IV: The St. Paul Jewish Community Planning Process. Part Two Chapter V: Hindsight and Foresight Chapter VI: Current Circumstances and Future Prospects Chapter VII: The Arc, and the Ark Appendix I: A Communal Curriculum for These Times Appendix II: St. Paul Communal Jewish High School Education Initiative Brit Bibliography Index About the Author

About the Author :
Earl Schwartz is a member of the Hamline University religion faculty and former director of Hamline’s Social Justice Studies program. He is the author of Moral Development: A Practical Guide for Jewish Teachers, and co-author with Rabbi Barry Cytron of When Life Is In the Balance: Life and Death Decisions in Light of the Jewish Tradition.

Review :
With thorough, solid research that is written in a lively and passionate style, Earl Schwartz has produced a timely study and prescription for Jewish Education that rabbis, community leaders, and parents must not ignore. Jewish communal professionals and historians and social scientists of Jewish education will read The Arc of the Covenant with interest... The Arc of the Covenant succeeds in asking pertinent questions about the future of Jewish education in medium-sized Jewish communities. It will be up to the Jews of St. Paul and similar communities to grapple with the facts Schwartz lays out in a search for practical and salutary answers. Full review can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2020.1783905 The Arc of the Covenant offers an institutional study examining the surprising successes and the challenges of community-sponsored Jewish learning in the upper Mississippi during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Written in part as a historical chronicle in its own right and in part to inform strategic planning for the future of Jewish education in St. Paul, The Arc of the Covenant straddles the domains of local history and communal policy making.