Oct. 7 exposes the defects in Jewish education

(RNS)– Let us think of the following call.

On Tuesday, Oct. 10– 3 days after the Oct. 7 pogrom– Ben, a Jewish college freshman, anxiously calls his mom, Jennifer.

Ben: “Mom, this is dreadful. Simply terrible.”

Jennifer: “What? What’s terrible?”

Ben: “Well, you understand what took place. The terrorists got into Israel, and eliminated all those individuals, and took all those captives. The kids in my classes, and a few of my teachers– they’re stating Israel had it coming. They are stating Israel is a colonialist, apartheid program that does ethnic cleaning and has actually dedicated genocide versus the Palestinian individuals. What am I expected to state to them?”

Jennifer: “Ben, I can’t blame you for being mad and terrified. I want I understood what to inform you. I want I understood how you might address them.”

Ben and his fellow Jewish university student have actually discovered themselves in the middle of a war. That war is taking place in the dormitories, quadrangles and lecture halls of the very best universities in the United States.

The soldiers because war do not utilize weapons, tanks, bullets or bombs as weapons.

Rather, their weapons are concepts and words– words like “de-colonialize,” “apartheid” and “genocide.” All of those words, about Israel.

Ben and his good friends, and their moms and dads, wish to resist. Their intellectual and spiritual toolboxes are empty.

As teacher Rachel Fish stated in a current talk at Park Avenue Synagogue:

These are trainees, sadly, who have moms and dads who do not understand how to assist them. They themselves do not have the language. … They didn’t prepare their trainees to stroll through the world with a high, strong spinal column, soaked in their particularism, while comprehending their duty for universalism. … The grown-ups failed them, on numerous fronts. The university as a market of concepts failed them. How do you make sure that the next generation of Jews keep that ha-tikvah, that hope, in order to stay dedicated to the Jewish individuals?

“The grown-ups failed them, on several fronts.”

How did the grown-ups fail them?

Yes, naturally, the grownups at the universities– the teachers and administrators– have actually failed our youths. On lots of schools, the action to the Hamas attacks affirms to the intellectual and ethical failures of the scholastic world.

The failure of the grown-ups began method before that, and before those young individuals even unloaded their duffel bags in their dormitory spaces.

Nancy L. Berman uses an introduction of the instructional scenario. It is not quite:

Currently, most of households think about b’nai mitzvah to be completion of official Jewish education. The bar or bat mitzvah is frequently thought about a goal and a time when kids and households leave synagogue life entirely. The needs of the nonreligious world, consisting of academics and social issues take precedence over the advancement of Jewish identity.

Extra school registration drops considerably following seventh grade or the benchmark year of 13 and continues to drop throughout the rest of high school. Teenagers can indicate a disintegration in their spiritual observance in the years following the extreme bar/bat mitzvah year … Out of 24 neighborhoods surveyed in between 1993 and 2010, over half reported less than 50 percent of their kids continued beyond bar or bat mitzvah education. Most Jewish grownups over the age of 40 have no Jewish education beyond seventh grade.

For my whole rabbinical profession, I attempted to encourage moms and dads to be partners with their synagogues in developing literate, dedicated and linked Jewish youths. I was not as effective as I had actually hoped.

The outcome: We sent out numerous Jewish teenagers into the world doing not have a capability to utilize advanced Jewish concepts that would assist them react to the world and its difficulties.

What occurred?

Modernity stacked the cards versus me and my associates in Jewish education. We might not battle the forces of modernity: widespread individualism, a loss of Jewish common bonds, and the pushing nature of scholastic competitors and careerism. At some time in the last 30 years, moms and dads ended up being consumed with their kids’s “resumes,” which they anticipated would oil the wheels of the American meritocracy. There would merely be no time at all or psychological area for those things that did not cause nonreligious success.

Second, the Jewish neighborhood failed them. We stopped working to make supplemental Jewish education– “spiritual school” or “Sunday school”– a leading Jewish common concern. It wasn’t interesting enough.

Rather, we relied greatly on immersive Jewish experiences, such as summer season camps, Hillel, Birthright, day schools. All excellent, however the frustrating bulk of American Jewish kids get their Jewish education in synagogues, and it is those programs that require power, enthusiasm and professionalism.

Oct. 7 ought to be a wake-up call– a shofar blast– on any variety of levels.

In specific, I think that Oct. 7 and its consequences might indicate a rebooting of teen youth education.

In order for this to occur, this is what will require to occur:

There will require to be more monetary investment in supplemental Jewish education.

We will require those funds to develop programs, to hire and train teachers and to attract households to make this a top priority. Jewish structures like the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Maimonides Fund and the Marcus Foundation are moneying teen education. We require more such structures and high-worth people to step up and to support extra Jewish education, particularly in synagogues.

There will require to be much better resources for Israel education.

What do our youths understand about Israel? Some can determine a couple of significant landmarks, i.e., the Western Wall. Maybe they can recognize some essential characters in the history of Israel. Possibly they can call some state-of-the-art items that have actually come out of “start-up country.”

That is about all. Here is the pity: At exactly the age when our youths are beginning to study world history; at exactly the age when our youths have the ability to believe abstractly about concepts; at specifically the age when identity development ends up being crucial– the huge bulk of Jewish youths are not getting any type of Jewish education.

I praise the important work of the For Israel Education. The American Jewish neighborhood requires more and much better Israel curriculum choices. Books will be inadequate. Those would need to be altered and upgraded every 6 months. Those resources require to be offered online, and we require the very best and the brightest Israel teachers to produce those online resources that additional schools can customize for their own requirements.

Not just that, however we require to put resources into the production of much better and more innovative social networks. We require to discover and produce TikTok and Instagram media influencers.

There will require to be much better Israel education in youth programs and summertime camps.

I initially satisfied Israelis throughout my summer seasons at Camp Eisner, a Reform summer season camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, when they pertained to work as camp therapists and other employee. Among those Israeli therapists is still my buddy, 50 years later on.

It is insufficient to simply import Israeli therapists. Summer season camps require to end up being more extensive websites for Israel education. There requires to be more instructional training for those Israeli team member.

We are enduring a time of terrific common and spiritual crisis in American Judaism. It is not the very first such crisis, and it will not be the last. Today, the more comprehensive academic program is even more essential than it has actually ever been.

It is not just about making certain youths can state “Sh’ma Yisrael.” It is likewise about whether they understand, and can analyze, medinat Yisrael. Both are required.

Eventually it goes back to the moms and dads, and their capability to affect– and even require– that their young individuals continue their Jewish participation in those essential years that lead into college.

May the scaries of the previous 5 weeks be the wake-up call we require.