Pay The Educational Dollars
Or Continuity Means Nothing

THE DETRO

W ISH NEWS

Dr. Mark Smiley talked about a resurgence in
parental commitment to the day school education
of their children (see Page 1). He commented that
Jewish education is continuing itself in the home,
and that now parents are demanding more meat
from Jewish education.
Hillel's headmaster, now the national president
of the Solomon Schechter Day Schools Principals,
warned some three years ago that if Jewish edu-
cation at home wasn't a goal in the Conservative
family, the movement would be facing difficulties
in continuity. Dr. Smiley's concern could be pro-
jected across the board for each denomination of
Judaism, for each Jewish school and each Jewish
home.
Schechter Schools such as Hillel and schools
from other denominations are bursting at the
seams with new students. The costs to educate
our children in these schools keeps rising and
rightly so. Quality teachers, principals and staff
members should be paid for their hard work. Dr.
Smiley talks about how 13 of his teachers volun-
tarily are learning Torah and tefilot (prayers).
Education, along with health-care reform, is a
cutting-edge issue in this country. How we pay for
education will determine the quality and com-
mitment that we as a society and Jewish civiliza-
tion put into the futures of our children and our
faith.
We cannot, as parents and as a Jewish com-
munity, ever be complacent. Let's not forget that
Hillel experienced a teacher strike not so long ago.
Let's not forget that Yeshiva Beth Yehudah had
serious financial concerns that almost locked its
doors in the not too distant past. And let's re-
member that this community once had a Reform
day school — though small in numbers, it still was
there to service Reform Jewish families. It went
under, not because it didn't have strong staff and
families, but because it experienced a chilling lack
of support from the overall community.
As we head into 1994, we'd like to let our com-
munity leaders know, be they on the world stage,
the national arena or here in Detroit, to heed the
warning given by Hillel's Dr. Mark Smiley and to
learn from the success he's seeing now among his
families. Is it enough to tell Federation, to tell the
United Jewish Appeal that continuity is possible
in our suburban homes? Will they listen? As the
schools continue to grow, some families are turned
away because of an overburdening number of
scholarships taxing the budgets of our day schools.
Is it right to turn away Jewish children from a

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PRESIDENT iS
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day-school education?
We've called for a review of the way Detroit's
Allied Jewish Campaign allocates its funds, cur-
rently with 60 percent going outside the commu-
nity and 40 percent staying here. Nothing has
really happened to change that. We suggest now
that 1994 is a critical year to keep more money
home. The paradox for our Federation and com-
munity leadership is that every year in the im-
mediate past, we've heard at the annual Council
of Jewish Federations General Assembly that the
secret is the Jewish family, the secret to conti-
nuity is educating that family. It's not about
sending more money to Israel.
Prime Minister Rabin even turned the tables
on us at the November GA held in Montreal when
he suggested that now it was Israel's turn to sup-
port the United States Jewish community in its
efforts toward Jewish continuity. Mr. Rabin
understands that without that continuity the
American Jewish community's spiritual and fi-
nancial commitment to Israel will dwindle in gen-
erations to come.
If the prime minister of Israel is concerned, why
aren't we listening?
No child in this community should ever be
turned away from a day school because of a
financial problem. More importantly, no day school
in this community should be placed in that equally
embarrassing position of informing a family that
it can't accept their children to the institution
for budgetary reasons. No teacher should ever
worry about a paycheck bouncing. Teachers should
be paid for their professional expertise and for the
realization that for many, Jewish education isn't
just a job, it's a calling.
There was a commercial on television years ago
advertising a certain oil filter. If changed on sched-
ule, it would prevent the need for major engine re-
pairs. The punchline was either pay the mechanic
a few dollars for the oil filter, or pay him later hun-
dreds of dollars for the engine work. "Either pay
me now, or you'll pay me later."
Continuity? The future of the Jewish family?
Family education?
We must recognize thafthe payments we must
make must come now, especially as Dr. Smiley
sees it, as more and more families are asking to
be shown how to carry on their collective Jewish
educations. Or we'll be paying the price later, won-
dering why we can't jump-start this civilization
we call Judaism.

- ro PATROL 1 ALL - T141 NGS
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II) PREFER
The M IDDLE
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Letters

More Knowledge
Brings Tolerance

Unfortunately, recent letters
comparing Chanukah and
Christmas are evidence of why
fundamentalist beliefs restrict
dialogue and help to foment
mistrust and hate.
In the Dec. 10 issue, we have
one writer claiming that Jews
should shun Christmas because
its symbols are of a
6
pagan origin.
In the Dec. 17
issue,
i 1 111.1 I
a n -

other
writer
claims
that all
should know that the proximi-
ty of the two holidays is mere-
ly coincidental, and implies that
this coincidence is no reason to
copy the commercialization of
Christmas.
It is not a coincidence that
Chanukah and Christmas are
celebrated at the same time of
the year. Both holidays evolved
from similar cultural roots cen-
tered around the discovery and
importance of fire.
As daylight became shorter
and shorter, it was not unusu-
al for cultures to light fires at
this time of year to encourage
the sun to return. These actions
all related to the "celebration of
light" and represented the re-
birth of light and hope. Nayrot
was such a primitive winter cel-
ebration.
It was probably no accident
that Judah Maccabee chose the
winter solstice (several months
after his victory over the
Greeks) to light the oil and
rededicate the Temple.
Around 400 C.E., Christian-
ity became the official religion
of the Roman Empire. It prob-
ably is no accident either that
the time of the winter solstice
was chosen by them to celebrate
the birthday of Jesus because
that would be a significant time
for the birth of god — given the
importance of Sol, the Sun God.
Just as the Maccabees cou-
pled their victory to Nayrot to
ensure survival of the victory
celebration, the Romans cou-

pled their celebration of Jesus'
birth to the winter celebration.
Hundreds of years after the
Maccabean victory, the rabbis
introduced the oil legend to link
the holiday with their own tra-
ditions and supplant the an-
cient Nayrot and Maccabean
holidays.
In conclusion, we would prob-
ably have much more tolerance
and understanding of other cul-
tures if we were all more knowl-
edgeable of our common roots
and heritages.
Michael Egren
Birmingham

Press Freedom
More Important

One of the paramount concerns
of the Jewish community has
always been the dissemination
of misinformation. From `The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
to Holocaust revisionism, Jews
have historically found them-
selves victimized by stereotypes
and blatant lies that often ap-
peal to a prejudicial or eco-
nomically-do wntr o dden
populace.
Therefore, it would seem log-
ical to jump to the conclusion
that University of Michigan
student Michael HarPaz did
("Newspaper Used Poor Judge-
ment" 12/17/93): the Michigan
Daily should not have printed
a letter to the editor, written by
the vociferous Holocaust revi-
sionist Bradley Smith, which
argued that the new Holocaust
Memorial in Washington D.C.
fails to prove the existence of
the Holocaust.
While simplistic jumps in log-
ic like the one taken by Mr.
Har-Paz are understandable in
light of the extremely emotion-
al nature of this debate, the
facts reveal that the Daily made
the right decision. If the Daily
had a policy of printing only cer-
tain letters to the editor, then a
reexamination of the decision
to publish would be necessary.
But this is not the case.
The Daily prints all letters to
the editor, and for us to have
screened out Bradley Smith's
letter — even if we believe each
and every one of his claims to
be completely spurious —

PRESS page 12