I was gratified by the many responses – both on-list and off-list – that I received to the note I posted last week about the situation in Israel generally and in my immediate community specifically. The two replies that appeared in the most recent Lookjed deserve particular attention, and I would like to address each of them.
Dvorah Serrao writes that in the midst of all of the concern showed to events in Israel, she was surprised and saddened that the Jewish communities in France and Belgium received no support. Dvorah is correct that the community of Jewish educators needs to offer support for one-another throughout the world. I reached out to Amihai Bannett who is involved in school "twinning" who informed me that he has worked with Dvorah's school in the past (see his post below). The sense that I have is that Dvorah is also looking to connect with Jewish educators and students outside of Israel, and I know – from CCs that I received of emails to her – that her post encouraged others to reach out to her. The Lookstein Center is now looking for ways to help schools in Europe that desire these relationships connect with their peers in other places in the world. Anyone who is interested in pursuing such relationships is invited to reach out to me.
Yitzchok Levine questions the value of the entire enterprise of Israel study for American day school graduates, pointing out that aside from the safety issues, full day learning may not be for everyone and that the parents of students with psychological or addiction problems often send their children to Israel with the false expectation that Israel will serve as a "cure all" for their problems. In contrast with Yitzchok, who admits that he has no statistics to support his concerns, my doctoral dissertation found significant impact on students who attend Israel programs, with increased commitment to continued Jewish learning, shemirat mitzvot, and Israel (including aliyah plans) among all groups of students. As noted previously, my dissertation is available at [
www.lookstein.org].
Yitzchok is correct that spending a year in Israel is not "for everyone." I suspect, however, that the student that Yitzchok is discussing is a different one from the typical modern Orthodox day school graduate who plans on attending university in the United States after their year in Israel. For these students, most of whom come from Zionist homes, the only option of an intensive Torah experience is in Israel; even an outstanding program in the US would not be an attraction for them. Those students – and their home communities – would be much poorer were they to decide to go to university directly after high school graduation.
As a post-script, in response to the individual who asked me why I would be concerned about sending my children to school on American campuses (I write this while sitting in Bar-Ilan University where two of my children currently study and one graduated last year) I invite you to watch this short video of one of the UCLA Regents speaking about anti-Semitism on campus
[
www.youtube.com].
Shalom
shalom@lookstein.org
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2015 08:37AM by mlb.
