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The Education Crisis Simon Jacobson
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here is an educational crisis in guaranteeing a Jewish future. Check out the following fascinating statistic: Worldwide intermarriage is currently over 72%. In some places it has reached an astronomical 90%. Ten cities (outside of Israel) have a substantial lower rate of intermarriage: Manchester, Toronto, Baltimore, Melbourne, Sydney, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Antwerp, San Paulo and Monterey. One common denominator distinguishes these cities from all others: Over 75% of Jewish children receive a Jewish education. In New York by contrast, the largest Jewish city in the world, only 12.5% of the Jewish children attend a Jewish school. Only 6% of all Jewish children in the United States attend Jewish Day Schools. The evidence is clear and conclusive: Education of the young is the key to preserving spiritual identity. But how? How do we change the current state of education? What practical steps can we take? And who will lead the way? Half the cure of a problem is identifying it. Wise questions are half the solution. Any unsuccessful institution – in our case, Jewish education which is failing our youth – is flawed in one or both of two ways: 1) The institution itself is not working. 2) The target audience it is trying to reach is not interested. As a framework, let us break down the problem into several categories, which can actually be seen as a type of survey, questions that welcome your answers.
Which brings us finally to the education system itself: What exactly is wrong with our educational systems and methods that simply do not speak to the masses?
First the institutions: Is the problem with the institutions themselves? Are they not serving the needs of – or communicating their services effectively to – the wider population? Or are the existing institutions simply unequipped to serve the secular Jewish population? If so, what types of new institutions need to be created that will attract wider audiences? Now to the target audience: Why do most parents not see Jewish education as a priority? How do we make it a major priority?
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For one, many stereotypes, some fed by continuing attitudes, haunt Judaism. The prevailing opinion is that Judaism, and religion in general, is archaic, primitive – a throwback to the past. In one word: Irrelevant to contemporary life. Even those that feel a need for religion and faith do not find the need met in existing institutions. The problem becomes infinitely compounded when you add into the equation the decelerating cycle of lack of education, and resulting ignorance and assimilation. In its ruins, we are left with a vicious cycle of symptoms feeding the root problem, and vice versa.
Here are some of the most common problems in – or attitudes to – the current educational system. Fear vs. Love Some argue that there is a lack of discipline in our educational institutions. Citing the verse, He who spares the rod hates his son, but one who loves him is careful to discipline him (Proverbs 13:24), they advocate the need to instill fear and respect in our children. The problem with this approach, of course, is considering that most Jewish children don’t go to Jewish educational institutions in the first place, more discipline will not solve the problem of low enrollment. Even if more discipline may be needed in the existing institutions, this will hardly help get more children into these schools. Others therefore argue that the exact opposite is true. Judaism – and religious education – is plagued with a fear-driven
July 2022 / Tammuz 5782
