School returns next week for most of our children. As we know, the first day – the first week – can be fraught with anxiety and worry for the youngest and the oldest. Even as our children look forward to seeing friends and some teachers again, their nerves may also be pounding a bumpy tune on their inner bongo drums.
A recent blog posting on the Times of Israel by Simcha Weiser, head of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, deftly used the back-to-school jitters as the beginning point for a discussion about the purpose, in general, of our children’s education. He poses a simple, but pointedly phrased question that pins our respective consciences to our responsibilities as parents and as a Jewish community.
“What are we doing about belonging to the Jewish people? Can we muster the courage to commit to Jewish schooling, sending our kids without reservation to a place which will connect them and us to one another and to the Jewish people for our entire lives?”
Weiser also provides the answer: “Do it, [enrol your child in Jewish education] and you will learn that it is all possible.”
As the young ones – Nursery through high school – start the school year next week, we fortify them against the inevitable jitters with our love and the remembered love of all those who helped bring them – again or for the first time – to this new, first day.
May the coming school year be excellent for all.
GAJE’s mission, in Weiser’s words, is to try to help parents “do it” for their children.
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Weiser’s op-ed can be found at: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/for-whom-the-school-bell-tolls/
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Shabbat Shalom
GAJE August 30, 2019
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 