The Center for Jewish and Democratic Education

Center Members

Dr. Rachel S. A. Pear

Dr. Rachel S. A. Pear is received an AB from Columbia College, an MA in prehistoric archaeology from Hebrew University, and a PhD from Bar Ilan University within the Graduate Program on Science Technology and Society (STS), where she was a presidential fellow. Her dissertation examined changes in Jewish engagement with evolution over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. Rachel went on to a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Jewish Education under the supervision of Prof. Hanan Alexander, and continues to be an associate of the Center. Additionally, Rachel assisted Prof. Alexander in managing an EU funded (Erasmus+ KA2) project entitled DARE which worked to expand access to higher education in Israel and the Georgia in the final year of the project (Oct. 2017- Dec. 2019). Rachel currently co-teaches courses and workshops on Judaism and evolution, including through Herzog College of Education.

Publications:

“Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Evolution in the Curriculum: an Approach Based on Pedagogy of Difference” with David C. Owens, Hanan A. Alexander, Michael J. Reiss, and Tali Tal, Research in Science Education 48:6 (2018): 1171-1186.
“Agreeing to Disagree: American Orthodox Jewish Scientists’ Confrontation with Evolution in the 1960s”, Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 8:2 (2018):206-237.
“Approaches to Evolution in Judaism” (Hebrew, with Meir Klein and Dov Berger) first posted on the Israeli Biology Teacher’s Website in 2016; further adapted in 2018 to be part of the appendix to the Biology teaching material by Merav Sinai.
“Differences Over Darwinism: American Orthodox Jewish Responses to Evolution in the 1920s,” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism 15:2 (2015): 343-387.
“Report from the Field: A Pilot Project on the Teaching of Jewish Views of Evolution in Israel” with Meir Klein and Dov Berger. International Journal of Jewish Education Research 25:8 (2015):