For the past few years we've seen a lot of em-phasis in both the Jewish press and Jewish communal policy on the importance of Jewish education as a way of influencing or ensuring Jewish identity and Jewish continuity. Certainly I believe that Jewish education plays a crucial role. However, much of what we hear is not about Jewish education in its fullest sense-it's about schooling and especially day schools. There has been a blossoming of Jewish day schools around the country and that is a welcome communal development. But what is sometimes lost in the current climate is the very important impact and potential of what has come to be called informal Jewish education, especially its role in the Jewish identity development of American Jews who do not attend day schools.
Recent research supports the important role of Jewish education separate from formal schooling.
Informal Jewish educational experiences such as summer camps, youth groups, Israel trips, and involvements in Jewish college programs among others, play an exceedingly important role in the Jewish development of Jewish individuals. We need to keep reminding the community that Jewish education is much bigger than schooling. Although we typically differentiate Jewish educational experiences by calling them formal and informal, for the purposes of thinking about Jewish identity formation, I would like to redirect our attention to the issue of motivation. Involuntary experiences are those experiences a child has because of the circumstances of his or her background, before the child has any say in the matter. For example, parents make decisions about children's schooling and camp.