JULIE WIENER

Staff Writer

IV

Nether you
want him
impeached or
think his
personal life is no one's
business, you have to give
President Bill Clinton
credit for keeping kids
alert during discussions
about Jewish law.
No one is planning a
curriculum around the
president's extra-marital
liaisons, but Jewish youth
group advisors and high
school teachers are using
the sex and perjury scandal as a vehi-
cle for discussing the Jewish approach
toward repentance, lying, gossip and
the obligations of a role model.
At Akiva Hebrew Day School, high
school students have been exploring
the obligations of a leader and under-
standing the consequences of one's
behavior.
"A person in a leadership role has
an obligation to be above and beyond
the letter of the law, because they are
also a teacher," said Akiva Principal
Rabbi Karmi Gross. "When the role
model makes a terrible error or
immoral judgment, that's not some-
thing that can be easily undone
because the impression made on our
youth can't be undone."
Akiva students also discussed what
it means to repent, and whether an
apology is adequate (It's not, accord-
ing to Gross). "You have to have
responsibility not just for your actions,
but for the fallout from your actions,"
he said. "For Clinton to get away with
this would have horrible consequences
for our society."
According to Gross, the students
were actually less interested in "the
gory details" of the scandal than the
adults were, but added that "most
were disgusted with what happened."
Shira Traison, a junior at Akiva,
discussed the issue in a moral philoso-
phy class taught by Gross, but dis-
agreed with her classmates.

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1998

22 Detroit Jewish News

FIG

Commandments apply to
everyday life, and I can't
imagine discussing the
laws against bearing false
witness or against adultery
without it coming up. But
I want them to talk about
it in light of Jewish teach-
ing, not just spreading
gossip."
Speaking the week
before Rosh Hashanah,
Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses Rabbi Aaron
Bergman anticipated that
Clinton and the Starr
report would "pop up"
during high school discus-
sion programs scheduled
for the mornings of Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur.
"They'll be talking about what
betrayal means and whether if some-
one behaves badly in one aspect of
life, they can be upstanding in others,"
he said. "We would try not to focus
on the details."
Clinton fit perfectly into a recent
B'nai B'rith Youth Organization lead-
ership camp for chapter presidents,
said Executive Regional Director Arnie
Weiner.
"One thing I like to talk to the kids
about is the fact that when you're
president of a group and people look
and youth group adviser, she has had
up to you as a role model, you can't
informal conversations with teens in
turn it off," he said. "When you're
the past few weeks. She notes that
president you're always on, always in
most of the teens she's talked to have
the limelight."
not been particularly shocked by the
Weiner said that the teens appear to
turn of events, nor do they think
be
"just as divided as the adults" on
Clinton should be impeached.
the
issue of whether Clinton should
"I've been reminding the teens I
be
impeached.
talk to that Judaism teaches that not
Unlike many of his colleagues, Adat
only should we not spread rumors,
Shalom
Synagogue Associate Director
but we shouldn't spread them even if
of
Education
and Youth Marc Kay
they're true," she said. "It harms the
hopes
to
avoid
bringing up Clinton in
person who speaks, who it's about and
the
classroom.
who hears. Also, Judaism teaches that
"I think there are bigger issues in
we should never take even the most
the
world and we've only got the kids
guilty and beat them down so much
here for a limited amount of time,
that they have no chance of redeeming
and I'd rather deal with curricular
themselves."
issues," he said. "If it's relevant to
Goloboy anticipates that the issue
what we're doing, okay, but I don't
of Clinton will come up in class dis-
want them to discuss it just because
cussions throughout the year. "We'll
it's a hot topic." ❑
be looking at how the Ten

<41§1, „al- 21U

In youth groups and Monday night
classes, teens glean Jewish ethics
lessons from the president's affair.

"The class came to the conclusion
that Clinton should be impeached
because he's a leader and he's not set-
ting a good example. I personally don't
agree. I think it's the fact that he lied.
If he hadn't lied, he shouldn't be
impeached. He's doing his job fine
and shouldn't be getting in trouble for
what he did in his personal life."
Senior Irving Schlussel didn't dis-
cuss Clinton in any of his classes at
Akiva, but said "most of my friends
clearly don't think too highly of
Clinton." He described the president's
offenses as "up there with Watergate.
It's embarrassing to the office of the
presidency."
Rabbi Sheila Goloboy of Temple
Beth El has taken a different
approach. Although she has not been
teaching formal classes, as the temple's
high school curriculum coordinator

