Eastern Michigan University, through Bringing College-Level Jewish Education Directly to the Southeast Michigan Jewish Community: A Collaboration between Eastern Michigan University Jewish Studies and Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, Michigan, established a program that offered college-level Judaic Studies classes to high school students at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, MI.

Ignition Grantee Reflections: Impacts and Learnings
“Where are we now, what did we accomplish, and what have we learned?”

“The grant greatly enhanced the visibility of EMU Jewish Studies both at Eastern Michigan University and in the Oakland County community. Eastern Michigan University continues to offer college-level, dual enrollment Modern Hebrew classes at Temple Israel. The re-imagining of the Eastern Michigan University class, Jewish-American Literature, for the revised, more compressed, and more technologically involved Temple Israel setting ultimately evolved into a new, innovative, interdisciplinary, team-taught, EMU Jewish Studies travel class, ‘Becoming Jewish in America.’ In this class students travel to New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC where they visit significant Jewish historical sites and museums, and meet with Jewish cultural, political, and intellectual leaders who are helping to forge Jewish American identity both at home and abroad. Ultimately, this class shows students how American Jews have both been influenced by and strongly influenced American culture.”

— Professor Martin Shichtman, Project Director