[HANASHIR:13002] Re: Fw:Jewish Education, Jewish continuity...

[Shirona <shirona...>]

I think it's important for us to take a higher perspective on this issue if we 
want to really "get it".  There are plenty of ways for us to give each other 
warm fuzzies if we focus on individual cases. One can find individual cases to 
support or counter any argument, on any subject. Especially those of us who 
teach music in religious schools - we know how invaluable our work is...If you 
'want' to believe that Jewish continuity is alive and well - talk to a music 
teacher...

This is NOT the point.  Read the article again and look at the statistics... 
that's what they're there for.  The point of the article, to the best of my 
understanding, has to do with FUNDING.  Where is the money going.  Us Jews - we 
practically invented socialism.  Our social-justice laws were among the first 
(if not THE first)  in recorded history. Karl Marx was a Jew, for heaven's 
sake. In our zeal to "heal the world" and give charity to every cause under the 
sun - we're forgetting and neglecting our own future! 

The 'least' we can give the future generation is knowledge.  The spiritual, 
emotional dimensions cannot be taught in school, ANY school.  Hopefully kids 
will get it at home, and if not (as has been described in some of the responses 
on the list) will find it elsewhere.  

Here's one typical trap: If a family lives in a "good neighborhood", and pay 
alot of $$ in property taxes because the public school is "good" - they won't 
be too eager to spend another $12,000 a year per kid for a Jewish day school. 
(And do the kids learn anything "spiritual" in public school?  Teachers are not 
even allowed to talk about G-d!)  So the kids are sent to Synagogue religious 
school, and they're tired and over-scheduled...and like I said before, would 
rather be doing something else.

However - - - if the Jewish community at large (hundreds of Jewish 
organizations who raise money for endless causes) saw fit to subsidize Jewish 
Day Schools and bring the cost down to lets say $3,000 (like many Catholic 
schools manage to do... and please don't say that Jews don't have that kind of 
money because we DO) - I'm certain that hundreds of thousands of Jewish kids 
would be sent there, and like I said - AT LEAST get a decent Jewish education.  
What they choose to do with it later on in life cannot be controlled - but at 
least they wouldn't be totally ignorant, which is the sad reality of most 
Jewish kids today.

Shirona
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
 Visit my website at    www.shirona.com
Listen to my music at www.mp3.com/shirona
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Batiya5723 (at) cs(dot)com 
  To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 11:58 AM
  Subject: [HANASHIR:13001] Re: Fw:Jewish Education, Jewish continuity...


  I grew up isolated from Jewish community, both geographically and 
financially. Never went to Hebrew school, didn't belong to a synagogue. The 
only thing we did at home was Passover seder and occasionally light Shabbes 
candles. It took me years to figure out that while my parents had given me lots 
of familial love, the thing they didn't know how to give me was community. 
Thinking "logically", I decided to start my search for community with my roots. 
I liked what I found and stopped looking. I took classes, joined a synagogue 
community and learned and grew like mad. That was seven years ago. I feel as 
comfortable now in a Jewish community as I imagine I might if I'd grown up with 
it all along.

  I'm not absolutely sure now that raising a kid fully in Jewish this and 
Jewish that makes a difference. I think it depends on where you live. I now 
teach in a synagogue ("supplemental") religious school in a not-very-Jewish 
city; and I see the whole spectrum, from kids whoask for lyric sheets to take 
home after music time, to kids who show up once a month if they're lucky 
because they're playing club-level soccer.

  Perhaps we need to remember to honor the kid who plays soccer in creatively 
Jewish ways (I gave one of my student athletes the respective brachot for 
healthy bodies and outdoor activities, and he DUG them). Perhaps we need to 
find ways to allow the outside world into our Jewish lives in creatively Jewish 
ways, rather than seek to always separate the two. In my music class, I 
occasionally include some 1960's protest songs if they touch on Jewish as well 
as American social action themes. 

  Talk to your students' parents and ask what they want. *Many* are as lacking 
in Jewish experience and education as I was; and we have learned together as a 
result of my daring to ask. 

  Happy Chanukah! --Beth Hamon -- Portland, OR