Aussie Dave and his family are going off on what is, I’m sure, a well deserved break – a one week vacation before the summer ends! Yay! But apparently you guys can’t get enough of Dave’s good bloggage. Now this where I would ordinarily make some colorful analogy about sex trade workers and illicit narcotics – likening the readers of this blog to something that rhymes with track door. But no. There’ll be none of that. This isn’t Jewlicious after all, where I usually blog. So no need to worry. There will be at least adequate blogging to be had whilst Dave is out gallivanting by the sea.
Allrighty then, let’s get it going on. It’s motzei Shabbat here in Jerusalem and I can’t help but contemplate some of the bon mots I read in the Jerusalem Post today. For instance, this story about how once a week Hebrew school actually contributes to greater intermarriage!
Cohen [A research professor at Reform Judaism’s Hebrew Union College] hypothesizes that since Sunday schools – an education option almost exclusively offered by the Reform denomination – have large numbers of children of intermarriage, they actually reinforce the legitimacy of intermarriage … “When you bring together people who are relatively distant from Judaism, it might be that they reinforce distance from Jewish life,” he suggested.
At the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education Conference, attended by more than 1,200 Jewish instructors (and at least one well known blogger) this week some suggested that the focus ought to be on quality education with attainable goals, rather than quantity. Others cited in the article noted that camp experience and travel to Israel helped them get closer to their Judaism rather than uninspiring Sunday school. Suffice it to say that based on my experience, the state of Jewish literacy amongst the majority of Jewish youth in America is rather sad (“who is this Hashem guy I keep hearing about?”). I would posit that Hebrew day school is probably the best way to guarantee continuity and a minimal level of Jewish literacy (but it is no guarantee against intermarriage, even when it is Orthodox). Granted, Hebrew day school is expensive, but if we can send 130,000 kids to Israel for free, surely something can be done about the woeful state of Jewish education today.
Speaking of education – what’s going on in New York? The city is planning on opening an Arabic themed school, named after famed Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran. His book The Prophet is one of my favorite works of literature, period. If you have a chance, you ought to read his poem On Love. Well, it turns out that the principal of the school, Debbie Almontaser, resigned her position after it was found that she was associated with a group that was selling “Intifada NYC” t-shirts. Now that’s not very loving, is it? Oh well. I’m done. Shavuah Tov.
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