By Seymour Fox and Israel Scheffler

Fox and Scheffler consider the common connection that is made between Jewish education and Jewish continuity and ask whether we can prove a link between them. If we cannot, can we justify the profound investments made by Jewish communities in education for continuity? The commitment to Jewish education undertaken in response to the challenge of continuity may, if it is not carefully considered, contribute less to the kind of positive continuity of identity that the community wants to see and more to the trends of assimilation that are fostered by general education in America and elsewhere. The answer, for Fox and Scheffler, is to devise programs that bridge theory and practice, so that the ideals that are sought after are made to live in the programs that the community will undertake.