With the return to school barely more than one week away, more discussions about Jewish education are being held around the communal water cooler, so to speak.
For example, in its recent edition (August 23, 2018), The CJN published an article by Sara Shapiro Plevan that was essentially a primer on how parents might choose a Hebrew school for their children. The paper also published an advertorial from Temple Sinai describing an innovative “multi-layered, experiential” educational initiative being launched by the synagogue.
The appearance of these articles is very welcome and very important.
GAJE has often pointed to intensive education, namely, day school education as the likeliest guarantor for our children of lifelong connection to the Jewish people. But we have as equally often stated that day school education may not be for each child and each family.
GAJE encourages and supports and pleads for Jewish education that best suits the child and that offers him or her the best opportunity to grow into someone who regards his or her Judaism as an important part of his or her self-definitions.
Thus, let the “water cooler” discussions about education proliferate. The more we discuss Jewish education in truly curious, unbiased, aiming-for-the-truth conversations, the more likely it is we will find the right answers for ourselves. And the more connecting answers we find for our families, deeper and more fertile will the seed of Jewish education be planted and the future of a diverse, caring Jewish community made more secure.
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Shabbat Shalom.
GAJE
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 