EDUCATION
Educator's Educator
He doesn't face a class
anymore, but Rabbi
Daniel Syme teaches
in other ways.
HEIDI PRESS'
Special to The Jewish News
A bout with cancer inspired Syme.
46
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1989
Glenn Triest
lthough the na-
ture and scope of
Rabbi Daniel B.
Syme's responsi-
bilities have
changed as a Reform leader,
his interest will always focus
on Jewish education.
Syme, a vice president of
the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations and
the son of Temple Israel's
Rabbi M. Robert and Sonia
Syme, was for 10 years direc-
tor of the Commission on
Jewish Education for the
Reform movement. A former
educator himself, he no
longer has formal classes, but
gears his teaching time to
giving lectures to many of the
820 UAHC-affiliated con-
gregations in the United
States and Canada.
Syme sees growth in adult
Jewish education, pre-schools
and day schools and outreach
to the unaffiliated.
"Many adults consider
their Jewish education inade-
quate," Syme said. "We see a
demand for Jewish learning
on the basic and advanced
level." To meet these de-
mands, more adult education
courses are being offered in
Reform synagogues and
temples. Born Jews are begin-
ning to take introduction to
Judaism courses. "They want
to learn more," Syme said.
"They want to do Jewish
things. They want to learn
about Jewish history."
On the pre-school level,
there is an influx of young
children. A Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity study sees the Reform
movement as the fastest
growing on the American
scene and by the year 2000,
55 percent of all affiliated
Jews will be members of
Reform congregations. To
meet the need, Refrm con-
gregations are instituting
programs to get children in-
volved — even before they're
born.
In some congregations,
Jewish Lamaze classes are
being offered with a compo-
nent on how to build a Jewish
home. Significant numbers
who take such classes ulti-
mately join the synagogue,
Syme said. Then, when the
children reach age 2 1/2, they
are enrolled in synagogue
programs based on the
"Schuster curriculum," a life-
long Reform model (toddler to
adult) which teaches values,
behavioral objectives and
building Jewish identity and
literady.
Day schools, too, will
flourish, Syme predicted.
There are already 13 in opera-
tion throughout the country,
and 10 more planned, in-
cluding Detroit's Yavneh
Academy, which will open in
September. He attributed the
growth of the day schools to
two factors: parents' desire for
Jewish education and the
solution to a dilemma facing
non-custodial divorced
parents: being with their
children on Sundays. If the
children go to supplemental
school, the non-custodial
parent will be deprived of see-
ing that child during
weekend hours when he is in
religious school. However, if
the child goes to a Jewish day
school, his religious education
needs will be met during the
week, leaving the weekends
free. "If the day school pro-
gram is comprehensive
enough, the kids don't have to
go to Sunday school," Syme
said.
To reach the unaffiliated,
the synagogue must rethink
its programming, Syme
asserted. He suggested in-
stituting Jewish day care as
one means of drawing in new
members. "Each synagogue
should have a program of
Jewish day care," he said.
"There is no reason why we
cannot have day care on a
broad basis in every
synagogue in America. We