Discussion topic: How we teach children to relate to non-Jews

Jeremiah Unterman forwarded to me an article by Reuven Hammer, a former President of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, which called for Jewish schools to teach about non-Jews in the positive light of Jewish tradition, and to neutralize the negative comments that can be found in some Jewish sources.

I thought that it is an interesting topic and present it to the community of Lookjed educators as a topic worth discussing.

Shalom

~~~



The Judaism We Affirm
Reuven Hammer

An excerpt:

<<
What kind of Judaism should be taught to our children? Should it be the Judaism of Rabbi Akiva who taught, “Beloved is the human being in that he was created in the image. Even greater love was shown to them in that it was made known to them that humans were created in the image, as it is said, ‘In the image of God was the human made’ ” (Gen.9:6) (Avot 3:18) or the Judaism of his disciple Shimon ben Yohai, “You are called adam (human) but the idolaters are not called adam (human)” (Yebamot 61a, Baba Metzia 114b) and “The most worthy of the Gentiles should be slain” (Y. Kid. 60c 4:11…..”? Should it be the Judaism found in the Yalkut Shimoni (Lekh Lekha 76) Whether one is an Israelite or a Gentile, a man or a woman, a slave or maidservant, whoever does a mitzvah is rewarded for it – or the Judaism of the Tanya, written by Shneur Zalman of Ladi, the founder of Habad – “The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the other, unclean kelipot which contain no good whatever, as is written in Etz Chayim, Portal 49, ch. 3, that all the good that the nations do, is done out of selfish motives”? It is this question that lies at the heart of the responsum on “The Status of the Non-Jew in Jewish Law and Lore” recently adopted unanimously by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the International Rabbinical Assembly, representing the rabbis of the Conservative/Masorti Movement throughout the world.

…

The Rabbinical Assembly has taken a much needed step in reaffirming that all human beings are created in the divine image and demonstrating that it lies at the heart of Judaism. Jewish leaders of all groups should follow this so that it becomes clear to all which Judaism we have chosen and affirm. It is the Judaism that teaches “Only one human being was created in the world…in order to create harmony among humans so that one cannot say to another, ‘My father is greater than your father…’”(Sanhedrin 4:4). Furthermore only one human being was created in order to teach that “if one destroys one person it is it is accounted to him as if he had destroyed an entire world and if one sustains one life it is accounted to him as if he had sustained an entire world” (Sanhedrin 4:6).”
>>

Reuven Hammer's full article can be accessed at -
[www.haaretz.com]

The responsum to which he alludes can be downloaded at [www.rabbinicalassembly.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2016 12:23PM by mlb.