AUDETTE
Our Greatest Shame
RABBI DAVID WOLPE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Brand New 1997 Sedan DeVille
ewish life in America hangs
under a cloud of shame. For
all our vaunted achieve-
ments, we live as a people
with no self-regard. If we did, we
would educate our children.
Most Jewish children grow up
with little or no Jewish education.
Most Jews do not give their time
— or their money — to Jewish
education. Catholics have a na-
tional network of schools. Jewish
schools scrape and barely get by.
Tuition for Jewish day schools is
fantastically expensive.
In eastern Europe in the poor-
est communities, every child got
a Jewish education. To our dis-
grace, in America — the richest
Jewish community in history —
a decent Jewish education is too
expensive for many in our com-
munity. Why?
1. Invisibility. We notice what
is placed before our eyes. If we
see pictures of rioting in Israel,
we respond. But how does one
photograph ignorance? Should
we distribute videos of Jewish
children being unable to read a
Hebrew phrase? Perhaps we
should parade photographs of
young adults holding prayer
books upside down? We could poll
Jews and see just what percent-
age is ignorant of the basic facts
of Jewish life. Sometimes it
seems that lacking good visuals
our appeals are doomed to fall on
deaf ears.
2. A leader. We can focus on
the head of the Jewish state. Is-
raeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu comes to Washing-
ton, and our feelings, positive or
negative, can be fixed on his im-
age. But who will represent Jew-
ish education? There is no
summit for it. It is embodied by
no single individual. Sometimes,
indeed, it resides in a very un-
prepossessing figure — the local
schoolteacher, who may have lit-
tle charisma, and no power ex-
cept the power to help shape our
children and grandchildren into
knowledgeable Jews.
In Judaism, no power is more
esteemed. Among American Jews,
however, that ideal is largely lost.
3. Prestige. There is general
American prestige in being on the
board of the symphony or the hos-
pital. How much prestige is there
in being on the local board of Jew-
ish education? After all, the sym-
phony is an artistic endeavor,
which brings prominence. The
board of Jewish education holds
few black-tie affairs. The mayor
or governor rarely appears at its
meetings. All it does, in commu-
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Rabbi David Wolpe is assistant to
the chancellor at New York's
Jewish Theological Seminary.
nity after community, is try to en-
sure that children will carry on a
bit more of a millennial tradition
that gave the world the idea of
God.
4. Ego. For many Jews, edu-,-J
cation is not important because_
their own is lacking. There is
something frightening about
sending our children to a school
where she or he might learn
things we do not know. Perhaps
they will even make demands on
us. What if my child decides she
or he wants a kosher home? Am
I going to end my lifestyle be-
cause of the school I chose for my cJ
child? Will I have to learn to read
Hebrew? It is all too much.
Of course, it is precisely what
we hope for our children in every
other area of endeavor. Who does
not wish that their children be
more educated than themselves?
It is only when we append "Jew-
ishly" to that sentence that it
turns sour, as in: Know more
Jewishly, do more Jewishly, be
Jewishly more fulfilled. Then our
We live as a people
with no self-regard.
If we did, we would
educate our
children.
children outstripping us is threat-
ening. It might be comic were it
not so tragic.
5. Ease. Being Jewish takes
work. Judaism shares this char-
acteristic with all worthy things.
As the philosopher Baruch Spin-
oza said, "All things excellent are
as difficult as they are rare." We
live a life of increasing ease,
which is good, so long as it does
not rob us of the appetite for ex-
cellence, which requires real ef-
fort. Judaism is a rich, intricate
tradition. It takes time, invest-
ment, effort.
Jews seem at times to respond
to problems in proportion to their
distance from us. If there is trou-
ble halfway across the globe, we
are there. Show us pictures of
Jews in trouble elsewhere, we re-
spond. But if it exists in our own
back yard, we roll up our blinds
and turn on the television. Well
we are in trouble. Our children
are lost to ignorance and indif-
ference. Good intentions will not
remedy this. It will take effort,
and a lot of money. The world's
longest religious inheritance, our
grand and glorious tradition,
awaits our answer. Time is run-
ning out. ❑