Judy Sokolow, Ed.D. currently serves as Educational Director of Student Programming at the Ramaz Middle School in Manhattan, where she also teaches a course in the history of Zionism and Israel.

It is a tremendous achievement that, as indicated by our data and anecdotal sources, hesed has become so deeply-rooted in the consciousness and performance ethic of students in Modern Orthodox schools. o navigate the conservative/liberal divide or to become aware of indifference or impropriety among adults in the community.

Habit is also a factor. Eckel and Kezar (2003) characterized institutional culture as having “an innermost core” of “underlying assumptions”: “taken-for-granted beliefs that are rarely examined or questioned because they are so deeply engrained that people are usually not readily aware of them” (p. 29). Ens (2006) wrote of “insider language,” and “espoused values: beliefs about what is ‘good,’ what ‘works,’ what is ‘right’” that instinctively drive institutional behavior.

I have strong memories from my yeshiva elementary and high school years of collecting money for tzedakah by standing in the street soliciting coins – and that most coveted dollar bill – to fill up a pushka (tzedakah box) or through pre-Passover candy sales. Howmarvelous it is that nowadays, in addition to being charitable by amassing funds and other necessities (often through imaginative “sales” and “thons”), students are acculturated to brighten people’s day with face-to-face interaction.

Yet, political activity to bring about systemic change is also an important form of community service in which students ought to engage. To make it easier for such projects to be incorporated into a school setting, Levine (2007) suggested that service projects, like academic differentiated learning programs, need not be uniform; rather, they can be designed for students and faculty mentors with particular predilections with some more philanthropic and others more political. Furthermore, Levine asserted, parents need not fear the suasion that a politically oriented project might inject. “There is little evidence that students are permanently influenced by the philosophical or ideological presuppositions of their teachers,” he wrote, but, he argued that involving youth in political and civic issues “seems to make them more active and informed” (p. 125). He also suggested that having students research issues of public-interest in their community and report their results in public forums is a service opportunity that can engender civic awareness and inculcate civic skills. (For a well-argued presentation as to why a focus in schools on political civic engagement is valuable, see Levine, chapters 4-7.)

Within and without the Jewish community

My study also indicated that the students linked their service to their Jewish religious/cultural identity (including Israel) far more than to American civic responsibility. In describing their service, many more Hebrew terms and phrases (e.g., hesed, tikkun olam, kol yisrael areivim zeh bazeh) were used than references to citizenship or civic engagement. One student wrote: “Part of being an American is helping people in need,” but several others expressed that community service is not an American ethic at all, with one opining that it is good that there are Jews in America to model community service for non-Jews. In addition, the students’ on the ground experience reflected far greater involvement in the Jewish world than in the non-Jewish world.

I find in these results an uncomfortable degree of disconnect, at least as they pertain to community service projects, between the assertion commonly found in the mission statements of Jewish Modern Orthodox schools that they prepare their students for both American and Jewish life. Again we ask: What might be fueling this circumstance? And again, we suggest, it might simply be a comfortable habit.

Perhaps, however, this preference might be ideological, stemming from sources such as the Talmudic passage (Bava Metzia 71a) that is often cited to prioritize helping Jews over non-Jews, codified into Jewish law by Maimonides (1135-1204), who wrote: “A person’s relative takes precedence over all others; the poor in his household take precedence over the poor in his city; [and] the poor in his city take precedence over the poor in another city” (“Laws of Charity” 7:13).

Yet the ethic to assist non-Jews is also mandated in the Talmud: “We give a livelihood to non-Jewish poor as well as to Jewish ones, and we visit the sick among non-Jews as well as among Jews, and we bury the dead of non-Jews as well as the dead of Jews—out of consideration of the ways of peace” (Gittin 61a). To some, this philanthropy is more than pragmatism; it is an ethic in itself (Wurtzberger, 1977–8). Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky (1996) labeled the United States a country of hesed and said, “We cannot live in a vacuum. . . We cannot just take and not give” (Nierman, Perry, Schwartz, & Shepard, 1998, p. 46). The editors of Yeshiva University’s Orthodox Forum’s volume Tikkun Olam stated: “Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but for the moral, spiritual, and material welfare of society at large” (Shatz, Waxman, & Diament, Eds., 1997, p. 1). And Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1964) also exhorted Jews to engage in general humanitarian acts, when he wrote:

We reject the theory of a single confrontation and instead insist upon the indispensability of the double confrontation. First, as we have mentioned previously, we, created in the image of God, are charged with responsibility for the great confrontation of man and the cosmos. We stand with civilized society shoulder to shoulder over against an order which defies us all. Second, as a charismatic faith community, we have to meet the challenge of confronting the general non-Jewish faith community. We are called upon to tell this community not only the story it already knows – that we are human beings, committed to the general welfare and progress of mankind, that we are interested in combating disease, in alleviating human suffering, in protecting man’s rights, in helping the needy, et cetera – but also what is still unknown to it, namely, our otherness as a metaphysical covenantal community. (pp. 20–21)

And what of our obligations as American citizens? Voting in elections, a hallmark of participation in American civic life, was mandated by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1984) who saw it as a manifestation of hakarat hatov (gratitude) for America’s benevolence towards Jews. In this regard, he wrote, “It is incumbent upon each Jewish citizen to participate in the democratic system that guards the freedoms we enjoy.”

An enlarged paradigm

Rabbi Sid Schwartz (2009), a pioneer in political service programming for Jewish teens and founder of the service organization PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, wrote:

We can no longer promote Jewish identity in an insular basket. In an age when Jews are fully integrated into American society and young Jews are more likely to identify with the label “global citizen” than “American Jew,” the only continuity strategy that will work is one that marries strong Jewish values content to a program that helps Jews see how they can make meaningful contributions to their communities, their country and the world.

It is a tremendous achievement that, as indicated by our data and anecdotal sources, hesed has become so deeply-rooted in the consciousness and performance ethic of students in Modern Orthodox schools, and substituting another term for such endeavors might be counterproductive. Yet, as Westheimer (2001) wrote, “Acts of kindness and of charity are important, but citizenship in a democratic society requires more than civic decency.” (Joel Westheimer and his frequent partner Joseph Kahne, have written extensively about citizenship education and community service.) To again quote Rabbi Schwartz (2011):

[This is] not to discourage community service work but to teach that real social change comes when you take the experience you have in a service setting and use it to educate and influence the body politic to address the given problem in some systemic way.

Building on the hesed sensibilities already in place, how might we direct more students (perhaps extending the lessons of my research to a broader spectrum of Jewish schools than the Modern Orthodox) toward politically oriented service both inside and outside Jewish communal confines?

As noted above, an institution’s use of terminology creates mindsets and priorities. To create new understandings and initiatives regarding community service in modern Orthodox schools that might lack them, we suggest using the following semantic field: the term tzedakah for monetary contributions and “drives,” the term hesed for more face-to-face philanthropic service, and the term tzedek for service that “works to redesign the structures of society” (Tzedek, tzedakah & chesed, 2007). This would allow mentors to clearly distinguish between these three types of service, educating students as to the potential benefits and drawbacks, and requisite skills associated with each. A service program thus arranged could present students with a broader array of options in choosing a service project, allowing for greater “student voice,” an element that the literature highlights as key to passionate student involvement.

Another suggestion is to include political engagement under the hesed rubric. Can we not say that political activity to enhance people’s wellbeing and to promote social justice is philanthropic?

Erica Schwartz (2009), in an interview with Ramaz School principal, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, stated that, “Ramaz has a reputation of being committed to hesed.” She then quoted Rabbi Lookstein’s description of how “it all began”:

Noam Shudofsky (Ramaz’s late administrator) and I got involved in the protest movement on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s. It was then that we began to think about how to involve Ramaz students in performing acts of communal responsibility, in performing acts of chesed for other Jews, and sometimes for those well beyond the Jewish community.” (p. 1)

The article relates that three separate groups of Ramaz students traveled to the Soviet Union during the 1980s, and how 75 students, arrested as they prayed outside the Soviet mission in New York to protest the incarceration of Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, walked in a dignified manner to the local precinct house. Although many would deem this political activity, Schwartz wrote, “‘That was chesed,’ Rabbi Lookstein says with pride” (p. 1). Also noted in the interview was a more current instance of demonstrating communal responsibility that might be considered both philanthropic and political: the weekly practice begun in November, 2006, of Ramaz students conducting morning prayers near the Iranian mission to the United Nations in Manhattan to publicize the plight of Gilad Shalit. (This is one of many hesed/social action programs organized in the Ramaz Upper School by my colleague Deedee Benel.) The article labels such initiatives “chesed as activism,” an admirable catchphrase, we think, to build on the distinction that the term hesed already enjoys as more political action is introduced into service.

 Afterword

To actualize some of what my research taught me, I began a project with six sixth graders at the Ramaz Middle School, where I teach. My goals were primarily threefold: to engage students in an activity that might lead to social change, to involve students in political process, and to respect student voice.

After school on Fridays during the spring of 2011, we met with the chief of staff of a local state assemblyperson to brainstorm about possible projects that might benefit the community. Local traffic patterns and bike lanes, the high cost of taxis, and safety at the Indian Point nuclear power plant were some of the topics raised. Along the way, especially when our hostess had to cancel a meeting due to an emergency, the students learned about other neighborhood issues such as rent control and eviction.

The students named their group the Junior Ramaz Assembly or JRA. The subject that they chose for their project was one I never would have anticipated: second hand smoke and its potential health hazards. This developed into a venture that the students dubbed Peers to Prevent Smoking (P2PS) with the added tagline “Stop by Not Starting.” After considerable research, they resolved to disseminate their message by building a website that, as of this writing, features a quiz, a video, and other media to educate upper middle school students about the hazards of smoking and to encourage them to sign a pledge that they will never smoke. JRA hopes to take P2PS to other schools, both Jewish and not. Perhaps this project will foment broad social change. Perhaps it will extend a life. Perhaps you will share its message with youngsters whom you know at www.p2ps.org.

References

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Eckel, P. D., & Kezar, A. J. (2003). Taking the reins: Institutional transformation in higher education. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Ens, J. M. (2006). Making engagement: Higher education reform discourse and organizational change. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, WA.

Feinstein, M. (1984). Unpublished letter. Reb Moshe on voting. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from Cross-Currents Website: http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2006/11/02/reb-moshe-on-voting/

Jacobs, J. (2009). There shall be no needy: Pursuing social justice through Jewish law and tradition. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing.

Levine, P. (2007). The future of democracy: Developing the next generation of American citizens. Lebanon, NH: Tufts University Press.

Nierman, Z., Perry, J, Schwartz, S. & Shepard, M. (1998). Jews, Judaism and civic responsibility: Teacher’s guide. Washington: DC: The Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values.

Schwartz, E. (2009). Chesed: Answering the call – an interview with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. Ramaz 09 annual magazine: Spotlight on chesed: You and I can change the world. New York: Ramaz.

Schwartz, S. (2009, September 16). Op-ed: Jews, 9/11 and the greater good. Retrieved from JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People Website:
www.jta.org/news/article-print/2009/09/16/1007923/op-ed-jews-9-11-and-the-greater-good?TB_iframe=true&width=750&height=500

Schwartz, S. (2011). Tzedek and chesed: Re-thinking the relationship between advocacy and service. Retrieved January 28, 2011, from Repair the World Website:http://werepair.org/blog/tzedek-and-chesed-re-thinking-the-relationship-between-advocacy-and-service/5116

Shatz, D., Waxman, C. I., & Diament, N. J. (Eds.,) (1997). Tikkun olam: Social responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

Soloveitchick, J. B. (1964). Confrontation. Tradition, 6 (2), 5–29.

Tzedek, tzedakah & chesed. (2007). Retrieved January 11, 2011, from Just Website: http://justaction.org/torahstudy/tzedek-tzedakah.htm
Wurtzberger, W. (1977–8). Darkei shalom [Ways of Peace]. Gesher, 4, 80–86.