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12

Friday, July 11, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Jewish Education Gets
Boost From Brandeis Prof

GARY ROSENBLATT

Editor

sli

ewish education is the
medicine and assimila-
tion the disease. At least
that's how too many American
Jews perceive it, according to
Dr. Jonathan Woocher. And like
most medicine, Jewish education
is thought of as unpleasant —
something to be endured for as
long as absolutely necessary.
"That's the subliminal mes-
sage," says Woocher, who feels
strongly enough about improv-
ing the situation to be leaving
his post as professor of Jewish
communal service at Brandeis
University to become executive
vice president of JESNA, the
Jewish Education Service of
North America, in New York.
JESNA, which Woocher calls
the best-kept secret in Jewish
education," is the central coor-
dinating service agency for
Jewish education in North
America. It works closely with
local federations, central agen-
cies of Jewish education, and
community schools around the
country in the areas of commu-
nity educational planning, pro-
fessional training and volunteer
leadership development, and
coordination and dissemination
of curricular and other educa-
tional resources.
"Jewish education is not seen
as something of intrinsic value,
but rather something we have to
endure to prevent the disease of
Goy-itis," Woocher told the an-
nual convention of the American
Jewish Press Association, which
was held recently in Boston.
"And it is the patient, not the
doctor, who decides when to quit
taking the medicine." He noted
that often times parents allow
their 13-year-old, who has just
gone through bar mitzvah train-
ing, to decide whether or not he
wants to continue his formal
Jewish education.
Woocher acknowledged that
American Jewish education is
"rudderless," citing problems
ranging from how much to em-
phasize Hebrew language in the
classroom to how to attract
qualified people to the field. But
he said the situation has
changed as there is good news
along with the bad.
The 'organized Jewish com-
munity has been backing up its
rhetorical support for Jewish
education with more and more
dollars of late, Woocher noted,
ranging from $500 million to
$750 million nationally when all
Jewish education programs,
from nursery through university
graduate school, are included.
Federations conttibute in the
area of $50 million around the
country now, and one of the
brightest spots is that more
than 300 colleges now offer
Jewish studies courses.
But the total enrollment of
students in Jewish school pro-
grams is below the level of 20
years ago and little has been
done to stop the heavy drop-out
rate of post-bar and bat mitzvah
age. "We as a community have

invested almost nothing on de-
termining the impact of Jewish
education and the factors in-
volved," said Woocher. "We say
a lot, but we don't follow up."
He said that while there are
great success stories "on the
micro level, the fact remains
that on the macro level Jewish
education is seen as boring and
unworthy of sustained atten-
tion."
He outlined four major prob-
lem areas: lack of understanding
of the goals of Jewish education;
fragmentation of the Jewish
education network where there
is no central system and much
tension over ideological di-
visions; the low status given
Jewish education, making it dif-
ficult to attract qualified people
and to pay them adequately for
their skills; and the separation
between Jewish education and
the community.
Elaborating on this last point,
Woocher asserted that a Jewish
education should be a civic edu-
cation, not just to foster indi-
vidual Jewish identity but to
stress one's connection to com-
munal life. We need to teach
our children how to be Jewish.
citizens." he said.
We chose Dr. Woocher be-
cause of his qualities of creativ-
ity and vision, and his ability to
transform that vision into
reality," said Mark Schlussel, a
Detroit attorney and JESNA's
lay president.
"Jewish education," he added,
"shouldn't be viewed as a means
to an end. It should be an end in
itself. The whole essence of a
Jewish identity is to live life
with Jewish values."
Schlussel went on to say, it
isn't realistic to expect. every
Jew to study Torah. But Jewish
education should raise Jewish
consciousness and imbue a per-
son with Jewish values.

-

Entebbe
Rescue
Remembered

Jerusalem (JTA) — A moving
reunion took place last week be-
tween passengers of an Air
France airliner forced in 1976 by
Arab terrorists to land in
Entebbe, Uganda and the Israeli
team which rescued the pas-
sengers in an action that created
a worldwide sensation. The re-
union marked the tenth anniver-
sary of the rescue.
The reunion, held in President
Chaim Herzog's official resi-
dence, was attended by Herzog,
Knesset Speaker Shlomo Hillel,
Meir Shamgar, president of the
Supreme Court, Prime Minister
Shimon Peres, Defense Minister _
Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff
Moshe Levy, a number of Cabi-
net ministers, members of
bereaved families and the
passengers.
The Entebbe rescue has been
formally names the Yonatan
Operation, commemorating
Yonatan Netanyahu, one of the
commanders of the rescue force,
who was killed in the rescue.

•