Scholars In Residence: Benefits and Challenges

And on a totally different note: here's an article on the subject of the Scholar-in-Residence by Erica Brown in Text and Texture (I'm not going to quote the article here as it's waaaay too long to do so--just go check it out at the link). I like how she identifies the assumptions and sacred cows of such programs, and gets to what's wonderful--and what really isn't--about these events, and asks questions that many people don't bother to ask (should synagogues even have SIRs?). I didn't see much in the way of collaboration between synagogues/institutions of SIRs, but with the need to save on costs and a new generation of Jewish professionals trained in collaboration coming up, I'd think we'd see more of this kind of thing...