USCJ: February 2008

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USCJ EC Staff Meeting Shiur - February 2008

In North America today, at least 100,000 non-Jewish women are raising their children as Jews. These women deserve the support, encouragement, and gratitude of the organized Jewish community. A woman makes a great sacrifice and undertakes a great commitment when she raises a child in a religious tradition different from her own.

- from The Mother’s Circle Program FAQ

R. Samuel bar Nahmani said in R. Jonathan’s name: Whoever teaches Torah to the son of his neighbor it is as if he gave birth to him.

- Sanhedrin 19b

Questions for Discussion:

(Note - this shiur of the second of two addressing the issues of non-Jews in Jewish schools. We began the discussion in December 2007. Following are more questions to ponder. Each of these shiurim have only two questions, to encourage meatier discussions.)

Almost every Jewish early childhood school grapples with the “too Jewish” issue – parents from across the spectrum who question why a school does certain things, sometimes complaining (or implying) that the school is “too Jewish.” Mindy Citera, a director in New York, says parents can “use it or lose it.” She explains, “We provide our Jewish curriculum intertwined in our developmentally appropriate secular curriculum and Jewish families and non-Jewish families use what applies to their families and ‘lose’ the content that is not.” Whatever the stance, each director and staff member must be intentional about creating a school culture that helps parents understand, appreciate and buy into the Jewish curriculum, beginning with the initial tour or interview. How is this buy-in created in your school? How do you and the rest of the staff respond to parents when they complain that the school is too Jewish?
2. According to the second quote above, the rabbis of the Talmud say that we as teachers are like parents when we give children a Jewish education. How can each one of us make this Jewish experience most authentic, when we teachers come from all kinds of backgrounds, ranging from Jewish scholars to Jewish with limited Jewish knowledge to not Jewish? Assuming that all parents have enrolled their children in the school with complete buy-in to the Jewish curriculum, how do we most appropriately and fully involve and include every child in the Jewish experience of the school, knowing that the school experience may be somewhat to very different from the children’s home experiences?

Printable version

Maxine Segal Handelman
Consultant for Early Childhood Education,
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism