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Community Views
Jewish Education:
If NotNow, When?
As Jews, We Found
A Common Ground
RABBI WILLIAM GERSHON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHIL JACOBS ED TOR
The story is told of
two Russians
walking along a
very steep and
dangerous cliff. All
of a sudden, one of
them falls off and
begins tumbling
down. In despair,
his companion
cries out, "Yaakov, are you OK?"
"Yes, I'm OK," he responds. "Any
broken bones, Yaakov?" "No, no
broken bones." 'Then why don't
you climb back up here?" To
which Yaakov responds: "I'm still
falling!"
2
Editor's Notebook
The Detroit Jewish communi-
ty is still falling in the area of
Jewish education. For 50 years
we made erroneous assumptions
about what was needed to ensure
the future of the Jewish commu-
nity. Bricks, mortar and pledge
cards alone will not save the
American Jewish community
from assimilation and ultimate
collapse. The answer to Jewish
continuity is Jewish education.
Plain and simple.
The rabbinic dictum tafasta
meruba lo tafasta — less is more
— does not hold with regard to
Jewish education. Anyone who
thinks differently is not in touch
with the reality of our time. The
William Gershon is rabbi of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
leadership of our community has
recognized the fundamental need
to provide more Jewish educa-
tion.
There have been some positive
results of this awareness, in-
cluding new priorities in Feder-
ation funding and more funding
for day schools. These are im-
portant steps on the road to suc-
cess, but they are not enough. We
have not acted decisively and
timely enough to turn the tide of
assimilation, apathy and Jewish
ignorance.
Our community needs to create
a "super fund" of at least $2 mil-
lion yearly to meet the tuition as-
sistance programs of all our day
schools. We need to invest mas-
sive amounts of energy and re-
sources to recruit the best and
brightest to enter the field of Jew-
ish education and to sustain them
once they have dedicated them-
selves to teaching our children.
We need to support a program, al-
ready approved by the Conserva-
tive and Reform rabbis, to send
hundreds of teens to Israel under
the auspices of the AJE.
In recent weeks, the Federa-
tion cut Agency for Jewish Edu-
cation's budget. In fact, AJE's
budget has been reduced over the
last several years. At the same
time, the AJE has had an enor-
mous impact on Jewish educa-
tion in this community.
Over the last two years,
Howard Gelberd and his out-
standing staff have laid the nec-
essary groundwork to transform
Jewish education in our commu-
nity. The agency has brought into
the community significant out-
side funds to provide the frame-
work for new and exciting pilot
programs that have the potential
to help transform the afternoon
religious school.
For the first time, rabbis and
educational directors are work-
ing hand-in-hand with the AJE
to create a myriad of programs
and initiatives to catapult Jew-
ish education to new levels of
competency and creativity. Now
is not the time to cut funds. Like
a business that needs capital to
expand, the AJE — the focal
point of support for afternoon re-
ligious schools and an important
resource to our day schools —
needs more funds to blossom so
that we can reach a new plateau
in Jewish education.
It was Moses Ibn Ezra who
said, "If you don't want to bear
the light burden of education, you
will have to bear the heavy bur-
den of ignorance." We are in a
battle to save Jewish souls and
we are losing. But it is not too
late. If the Detroit Jewish com-
munity is gong to remain vital,
then we must act now.
❑
There is a scene
in the Harrison
Ford movie Wit-
ness where the
Ford character,
Detective John
Book, experi-
',
', ences a barn be-
ing built from
scratch in one
day with the backdrop of a gor-
geous blue Pennsylvania sky.
Detective Book was on the
Amish farm in Lancaster to es-
cape the bad guys, crooked
members of the Philadelphia
Police Department, who had
murdered another detective. He
was also on the farm to protect
the little Amish boy who had
witnessed this murder. Detec-
tive Book, who had been
wounded by the bad guys, re-
covered with natural Amish
medicines and hid away for
some time in a life that did not
include electricity, automobiles,
televisions or telephones.
On one glorious day, the
townspeople came together to
build the barn for one of the
area families. It is one of my all-
time favorite movie scenes, be-
cause in it Detective Book
becomes one with his adopted
community.
I always thought I'd only get
close to experiencing that sort
of feeling as an outsider, an ob-
server. For over 400 of us on
Sunday and Monday, that feel-
ing was real.
Where else in this commu-
nity could one hear the voices
of Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish
and English out of the mouths
of Jews from all economic and
educational backgrounds? Here
we had Orthodox hammering
and building with Jewish hu-
manists.
For two days, volunteers dug
through the heavy Michigan
clay, moved oversized tires into
place, and used tools many had
never even touched before.
Young teens provided water
and fruit for the other workers
while the children played in su-
pervised day care. We all ate
lunch together, and the meal
was kosher.
Many of our friends and rel-
atives were out of town, at the
pool, out shopping. But there
were those who took time from
their own holiday to help out.
Think about this. Seriously,
pull up a chair and give this
some thought with me. We
have enough difficulty in this
community to get people who
call themselves Orthodox, Con-
servative, Reform, Humanistic,
whatever, to meet together on
almost any issue. Yet, when it
came to playground structures,
we learned on Sunday and
lit
Monday that we can say "one,
two, three — push" in at least
four different languages, and
the message is still the same:
get the huge tire into the big
hole.
There were Orthodox chil-
dren serving water to men
without kippot on their heads.
There were women in long
skirts shoveling through the
earth next to men in shorts.
Drive by the Weinberg Bib-
lical Playground and see the
finished product. It's something
to be proud of because it is ex-
actly the sort of project that
brings a community together.
That's why grants such as the
one provided by the Weinberg
Foundation were created.
We came together because it
was a nice day. It made people
feel good about themselves and
their community. But we also
came together because we could
find a common ground in our
children. We did this ostensibly
for them. But we learned a
great deal about ourselves as
well.
Jews from all walks
of life came
together to work on
the new playground.
So much of our time is spent
talking about what Jews don't
do. We don't go to shul enough.
We don't know Hebrew. We
don't follow the laws of kashrut
strictly enough or at all. Beyond
all of that, a tremendous "DID"
happened. The community did
build a playground. The com-
munity did show its children
that they can live off Walnut
Lake or Greenfield and yet they
have something wonderfully in
common.
This was about being Jew-
ish.
The diversity was there for
all to see. Now our children will
be able to swing together and
climb as one. When our chil-
dren are adults one day, they
should remember what hap-
pened in a side lot of the Jim-
my Prentis Morris JCC. It
wasn't a barn building from an
action thriller movie.
It really happened.
I wish there was some way
to bottle up this spirit and reach
for it from the shelf the next
time there's a dispute. Maybe
we should bring our differences
around an unassembled play
structure and talk them out
while we're sweating over bolts,
nails and saws.
A playground cannot be one of
our few grounds in common.
Hopefully, though, it is a start.
❑