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Correspondence

Apr. 24, 1974

Letter to Jewish Studies Committee with Recommendations for Strengthening Jewish Education (1974)

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Position Statement on Educational Output Goals for Yeshiva High School (1974)

I have found a certain number of glaring deficiencies in the training and background of Yeshiva High School students who have made their way to my Jewish philosophy classes in the course of the past decade and a half. The following very brief recommendations for standards are based upon this experience: Students should have a rudimentary knowledge of the outline of Jewish history, i.e., the sequence of periods, and the knowledge of some of the great names attached to each. Pirkei Avot. I find that fairly ignorant laymen who had the most elementary Jewish education in Europe are familiar with Avot. Our own students, however, who are initiated into some of the profoundest complexities of Talmudic reasoning, haven’t the faintest knowledge of what Pirkei Avot is all about. I would make the knowledge of Avot a prerequisite for high school graduation.Bible (Chumash). Chumash is taught in a very spotty fashion in our own high schools. Apparently, there is a feeling by certain members of the high school faculty that teaching Chumash is beneath their intellectual station (an attitude which, apparently, Moses did not share). Graduation requirements should list specific portions of the Chumash that a student must know thoroughly, including a limited number of famous passages from Rashi. English. I suppose this complaint is just another cry in the wilderness, but I am distressed at the incredibly poor training of so many students in the simplest elements of English composition. Probably this is part of the spirit of the times, but I do think the high schools ought to emphasize English writing — clarity, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary — a great deal more than they do.
Jewish Education

Correspondence

Letter to Jakob Michael about the Need for Religious Education in Kiryat Shmuel (1973)

Dear Mr. Michael: I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the spirit in which you responded to my request to cable Mayor Teddy Kolek, and for the cable itself. The problem has developed into a cause celebre, and since I talked with you I have seen photos and articles in the Israeli press about it. Actually, I am in a way acquainted with the problem first-hand. During the semi-Sabbatical I spent in Jerusalem, we lived in the neighborhood in which the religious parents are now seeking a Mamlakhti-Dati school. My own children had to walk long distances to get to school and back. Despite Jerusalem's generally good bus system, there were no connections between Rehavia and the major religious schools closest to us. And the area the children had to traverse was one that was chocked with traffic during the very times the children had to walk to school. Anyone acquainted with Israeli drivers knows what that means! It is obvious, from all that I have read about the situation and from my personal contacts, that religious education is not favored by the authorities who are themselves not committed to it -- and Kolek belongs in this group. (In the latest issue of Panim-el-Panim, the editor, who has long been antagonistic to the Mizrachi, had a major editorial complaining about the discrimination against religious education in Israel, and the current problem with this school was the major case in point.) Two of the people who are in the forefront of the struggle to get a religious school in the area are Naomi and Ben Zion Hochstien. They are American Olim, highly cultured, genuine Zionists, non-political, and people of moderate disposition. He is a businessman, she is a lawyer. I have known them and admired them for years. I enclose the letter I just received from them (please return it after you have read it). As you will see, it is unfortunate that your cable was not able to change the situation, and even more regretful that the Mapai people are able to use the small-…
Jewish Education

Correspondence

Letter from Ruth Szymkowicz about Jewish Programming on College Campuses (1976)

Dear Rabbi: As a college student and as a leader of the Jewish community at Columbia University, I am greatly concerned, and I want to share that concern with you. I am a ba’alat teshuvah, a product of N.C.S.Y., and I came to Columbia excited about joining the religious organizations on campus – but I found most of them ill-equipped to deal with the real needs of the Jewish students and the needs of the campus community. As president of the University’s Seudah Shabbat Society, my involvement in the leadership of the other on-campus Jewish organizations and my commitment to the well-being and furtherance of a very real kind of Jewish life on campus have led me to believe that very radical changes must be made. The existing student-run national college organizations do not meet the needs of most Jewish college communities. In my dealings with a cross-section of the community, I have come to understand the desperate need to reach a greater number of students than has been reached, and to reach generally to improve the quality of Jewish life on campus. I have sincerely come to believe that a more total, a more inclusive national Jewish student’s organization is needed on all college campuses. When Jewish values are being constantly challenged in the college setting, where can a student turn? What avenues exist for him to air his doubts and questions, and have them reasonably answered within a Torah context? It is because of this vital, tragic problem that the few existing student-run organizations are not sufficient to deal with and must be redefined and forged. The existing structures do not stimulate the needs of most students – of all students. Therefore we must dedicate and forge a new organization that is truly representative of all students. For the yeshivah student, we can hold religious study sessions and trips to Eretz Yisrael; we can sponsor learning sessions and help to ease the transition from being a member of a student community to being in a secure, via…
Jewish Education