Jeans to a Cocktail Party

Or, Why Bringing Aspects of Informal Education To The Classroom, Works

Approximately seventeen hours into my first day as a staff member at Camp Ramah in New England, I was forever changed by one precious moment that has altered my life and my senses irreversibly. Twelve beautiful seventh grade girls had just climbed into their bunk beds and as my co-counselor and I prepared to turn off the glaring overhead lights and say goodnight, this bunk of veteran Ramahniks quieted down, shut off their flashlights, and decided who would lead.

And then they said the sh’ma together.

Without coercion, without instruction, these twelve-year-old young women repeated a tradition that had become an integral part of each summer night. Unlike teeth-brushing, however, or the removal of their extremely fashionable junior high school make-up, saying the sh’ma was not just a repeated motion. It really had come to mean something. To me, this was proof of what I had always believed, through years of United Synagogue Youth (USY): informal Jewish education works.

Jewish education of yester-year might have been as simple as finding a few good books and a few good teachers to read from them. Not so anymore, because with today’s Jewish youth that’s just not going to cut it. Good Jewish education, then, is not about memorizing facts about things that happened thousands of years ago and thousands of miles away, nor is it being able to read an ancient language that has no relevance in our lives. It’s about bringing the place closer and making the language come alive. Jewish education is about using all of our senses to live and breathe vibrant Jewish life coursing through our veins. Jewish education is about learning history through experiencing it and creating it!

Programs need to be made more accessible to every Jewish child and teenager. USY-On-Wheels, for example, is a summer traveling cross-country, observing kashrut, davening three times daily, and celebrating Shabbatot in places where, doubtlessly, there aren’t always Jewish communities that are large or even existent. "Wheels" proved to me that, without shame, without fear, anywhere I want to be Jewish, I can be Jewish. Imagine if more Jewish youth were lucky enough to receive this message so loudly and so clearly!

More enthusiastic teachers need to be sought after, discovered and trained. My students respond to me because they know that I live and love Judaism, and that I’m ready, willing and able to teach them anything that they are passionate enough to be interested in. College students can be the best resource to the Jewish community in this regard. We’re young and eager to pass on our positive Jewish experiences to the younger generation! Imagine if more Hebrew School students had teachers who were actively involved in Jewish activities on the social, as well as educational, levels. They would realize that Judaism can be cool and fun, and they would want to learn!

Parents need to be taught to play a more integral part of the education process. There’s a story about a parent who pulled his son out of Hebrew School for a soccer match. "When your kid grows up," the teacher asked the parent, "do you want him to be a soccer player, or do you want him to be a Jew?" Parents can’t expect miracles if the only Judaism their child receives is in six hours weekly of Hebrew School. If they want Jewish children, they need to be active in their children’s Jewish experiences. This doesn’t mean glatt kosher houses and ritually observant homes, although that’s one method. It means that going to Israel is a priority, making Shabbat a special, different day is important, and more than these specific examples, that Jewish life is embraced and lived inside and outside of the home, at all times! Imagine if more Jewish children grew up in homes that were warm, Jewish environments!

Because of my positive Jewish experiences, I still today find endless solace and comfort in the Jewish world. It would be heaven to watch future generations eventually appreciate the beauty of the Jewish community that I see so readily. The solution is to make Jewish education more about passion and excitement, and to bring students into the Jewish world through harnessing this raw energy.

(Editor’s note: This essay was written for CAJE, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, in partial requirements for the Abraham Spack Fellowship, which I was awarded several years ago. Check out http://www.caje.org for more information!)

[Posted 9/30/02]