I EDUCATION
Torah High School
Fosters Free Thinking
SUSAN BASS
Special to The Jewish News
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156
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1987
erusalem (JTA) Tradi-
tional Jewish schools
and yeshivot usually
emphasize their students'
commitment to the authority
of the Jewish halachic tradi-
tion and the scholars who
transmit it. Out of respect for
the tradition, students often
hesitate to ask too many ques-
tions, or to argue with the
texts. They, and even their
teachers, may reason: "Who
am I to question Rashi?" But a
new religious high school in
Jerusalem encourages its stu-
dents to feel free to challenge
the texts, their teachers, and
each other. The Experimental
Torah High School of the
Shalom Hartman Institute of-
fers students an intensive tra-
ditional Jewish education in
an atmosphere which em-
phasizes free and critical
thinking.
The Experimental Torah
High School, located in
Jerusalem's Moshav Hager-
manit (German Colony)
neighborhood, opened its doors
in September 1985, to a class of
11th grade boys. This year, a
new class of 11th graders
joined the school, bringing cur-
rent enrollment to 52 students.
School principal, Rabbi Zvi
Marx, explained that the ten-
tative decision to limit the
school to the last two years of
high school developed from the
faculty's conviction that these
years mark a turning point in
maturation. "It is most prod-
uctive for us to meet the chil-
dren at this point".
Although the government
ministry of education has ap-
proved the Experimental
Torah High School's cur-
riculum, which meets re-
quirements for a religious high
school, the Jewish studies pro-
gram is unique in Israel. The
curriculum is organized
topically around issues that
contain moral dilemmas, such
as ethical values in warfare or
in medicine, relations between
Jews and non-Jews, tzedakah
and social policy.
Hagi Ben-Artzi who teaches
.religion studies to the 11th
graders, explained that adoles-
cents are preoccupied with
such moral issues, while they
are not much bothered by is-
sues of prayer and man's rela-
tionship with God.
Ben-Artzi works hard to de-
velop his students' listening
skills. It is often difficult for
adolescents to exhibit the pa-
tience and undestanding
needed to attend to what their
classmates say. Ben-Artzi
views this as an essential
human quality, somewhat neg-
lected in Israeli society. Most of
his students came from schools
or yeshivot where they listened
and rarely spoke. In his class,
the students actively engage in
a process of give and take
which can lead them from a
Talmudic text to profound
questions about Israeli society.
One class session began with
a Talmudic textB abylonian
Talmud: Tractate Baba Bathra
about a group of merchants
who decided that each, in turn,
would open his store just one
day each week. One merchant
chose to open his store a second
day, and for this his colleagues
punished him severely. The
sage Rava ruled that the one
day a week plan was invalid;
that the merchants could not
restrict competition in this
way. Starting with the text,
students raised issues of
socialism versus capitalism,
free trade versus government
restrictions. Several students
argued that Rava favored a
commercial system of free
competition, while others
suggested that Rava objected
not to the merchant's plan to
restrict competition, but to the
harshness with which they had
enforced their plan.
The Experimental Torah
High School developed as a re-
sult of the work of the Shalom
Hartman Institute for Ad-
vanced Judaic Studies.
Founded in Jerusalem in 1976,
the institute trains scholars to
deal with classical Jewish
texts in the context of the mod-
ern world. The institute at-
tempts to blend the intensity of
yeshivah learning with the
openness and rigor of a univer-
sity. It functions as a center of
learning and as a Jewish think
tank for research and action.
The teaching staff at the
Hartman Institute believe that
Jewish tradition can with-
stand the test of critical think-
ing; that traditional Jewish
values have an important
place in the modern world; and
that Israel is the living labora-
tory where these things can
happen. It is their hope that
the graduates of the Experi-
mental Torah High School and
the Yeshivat Hesder program
will become active participants
in this process.
World Zionist Press Service
Jerusalem Prof.
Receives Honor
Jerusalem — Prof. Elihu
Katz, Karl and Mathilda
Newhouse Professor of Com-
munications and Sociology at
the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, has been named
the winner of the 1987
McLuhan Teleglobe Canada
Award.