On a number of occasions I have mentioned that I live in Alon Shvut, a community that has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons. The entire community has been in mourning this past week, and as shiva for my neighbor, Yaakov Don, draws to a close, I would like to share a few thoughts about the recent incidents and their impact on the community of Jewish educators.
It is likely that you have read that Yaakov was a beloved community educator, who served as a Shaliach in Toronto. He was in the final stages of a doctoral dissertation on how religious youth in school in Israel are affected by the internet, and he hired my son (Akiva, who some of you may have met through his work on the Lookstein Center's LVJA) to serve as his research assistant. This was at least one of the things that inspired my son to move ahead with graduate work in educational technology. Yaakov inspired many of the people around him – both inside and outside of the classroom – through his sincerity, his integrity and his honest care and concern for those around him and for Jewish education.
Not far from the spot outside of Alon Shvut where Yaakov was killed, Ezra Schwartz, an American student studying post-high school in Israel, was also murdered. My nephew attends the same program as Ezra, which also made this very much "close to home." This terror incident has raised concerns about the safety of students who come to Israel for a year of learning. At least one recent article - [
wapo.st] - argues that the Modern Orthodox community remains committed to the year-in-Israel experience for its children.
A less publicized terror attack took place in Mali last Friday, where Shmuel Benalal was killed. Shmuel served as an educational consultant in Mali. In Israel he was on the faculty at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership – see [
www.haaretz.com] and [
www.ynetnews.com] for information about his work and the attack. Shmuel was not targeted for being Jewish. Having traveled to West Africa, one would have assumed that he was far from the terror that threatens my neighbors in Israel. But today, terror exists throughout the world, as residents of Paris and Brussels can attest.
Some of you are probably aware that my doctoral research studied the impact of one-year Israel programs on American day school graduates (the thesis is available from the Lookstein Center library at [
www.lookstein.org]). Although many things have changed since I did my study more than 15 years ago, I still believe that the post-high school year in Israel is one of the most powerful educational and religious experiences that we can offer our children at this time and that it would impact negatively on the future of the Jewish community in North America were they to lose this opportunity.
As parents, we balance our desire to protect our children with their need to have experiences from which they can learn and develop. Being exposed to the world, by definition, carries with it certain dangers, and I sometimes wonder how comfortable I would feel sending my children (and, in particular, my daughters) to American college campuses.
I was teaching in Midreshet Lindenbaum in Elul 2001 when many parents who were concerned about the ongoing intifada chose to wait before sending their children to Israel for the new academic year. September 11 reminded them that determined terrorists can kill anywhere, and that there is nowhere to hide. The students came.
We must redouble our efforts to pressure world leaders to recognize that terrorism is unacceptable anywhere in the world and that it must be actively fought wherever it appears. And we must be sure that our children continue to enjoy the exposure to an Israel experience that broadens their horizons as committed, knowledgeable members of the Jewish community.
Shalom
shalom@lookstein.org
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 07:22PM by mlb.
