LETTERS: December 4 – 10, 2009

Public School or Day School?

Rachel Heller’s recent article, (“Healing the World, One School at a Time,” Nov. 27) concluded with the thought that “If everyone went to public school, it would be everything we want it to be.” This idea is naïve and mistaken. A sudden addition of 20,000 Jewish students to the already overburdened public school system would force it to collapse. If even half of the students in private schools were to transfer to public schools in one year, the number of resources and facilities needed would require parents and taxpayers to pay more than day school tuition to “catch up” with the needs of these new students.

While I strongly agree that free public education is critical to having a vibrant democracy, we should recognize that Jewish day schools are critical to having a vibrant Jewish community. Early numbers suggest that at least 25 percent of young lay leaders in Jewish communal institutions became involved because they attended day school, and 90 percent of day school graduates donate back to Jewish causes.

Unfortunately, middle-class Jews are getting priced out of Jewish day school education and would like to recapture some of their real estate tax expenditures. We need to recognize that concentrating all efforts on bolstering the financial resources allocated to the existing model limits the ability to create new approaches that might offer even superior educational results that absorb fewer community resources.

Rabbi Avi Greene
Los Angeles

I and so many of my friends are dismayed when we read articles of this sort. History has proven that secular education with little or no Jewish education leads to assimilation. That is why the Jewish day school movement was founded and has blossomed and expanded exponentially over the years.

I say this because Jewish day schools are suffering from a lack of charitable contributions from those who are contributing to every imaginable cause but the most important one, Jewish education. A study conducted by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research published in October 2007 found that of the $1.2 billion doled out by the five largest Jewish foundations reviewed in the study, only 21 percent went to Jewish causes, including the 7 percent that went to causes in Israel.

Of the $1.2 billion quoted above, $948 million, or 79 percent, went to other causes. If a full or partial scholarship of $10,000 is a reasonable benchmark, the $948 million could have provided scholarships for 94,800 Jewish children to attend a day school and still leave 21 percent of the $1.2 billion to go to other non-Jewish causes. Our charitable priorities must be reversed. How can anyone trumpet the pluses of secular schooling over Jewish day schools? If Jewish day schools are not performing, change them as you have changed the secular schools in your neighborhood. Devote your time and energy to Jewish survival.

How can any of the Jewish clergy extol the virtues of secular education over Jewish day school education? Rabbis, those in your congregations who give so generously to secular causes must be taught that Jewish education is primary to their charitable giving. It comes first and foremost. It is your sacred duty as a rabbi to awaken them to this holy cause. We must not extol secular schooling as a panacea for what ails us. History has proven that we can’t survive that misguided advice.

Daniel Langbaum
Los Angeles

Your story gives ample time to Emerson, but dismisses Palms Middle School, “generally seen as a good school,” as a place one parent would not want her children to be. Her children are thus missing the best middle school in Los Angeles and your article gave it no attention. When I started teaching at Palms in 1965, it was primarily white and primarily Jewish. It was a great school. Within a few years it became a very racially and ethnically integrated school, and became an even greater school. We have wonderful students from every group of people in the city. We have an outstanding staff. What you are trying to figure out, we have been doing for 40 years. I’m still at Palms because it’s a great place to teach and learn. Why did you neglect us?

Ann Bourman  
Los Angeles

What would happen if all the Los Angeles Jews who are so interested in public schools redirected their energy into the following areas: Torah study and mitzvot; helping the poor and the settlements in Israel; helping the Jewish communities in Los Angeles.

There are millions and billions more non-Jews in the world who can help their non-Jewish brethren.

Jews are less than one-tenth of a percent! Shouldn’t Jewish people help one another? And the settlements in Israel are on ancient, Jewish, traditional, sacred land.

If these Los Angeles Jews were to really engage in in-depth Torah study, they would learn why and what are the healthiest priorities for the Jewish soul and the Jewish people.

James Sanders
Los Angeles

Chief among the problems facing LAUSD schools like Emerson Middle School is that the powerful teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) hamstrings administrators. Firing teachers for mere incompetence is not an option, forcing some principals to covertly transfer them to other unsuspecting schools. The UTLA contract meddles in other areas too including staff development, scheduling and performance evaluation. When contract clauses and student needs collide, the kids lose.

Though some children survive LAUSD schools unscathed, others aren’t as fortunate. It is incumbent upon parents to protect and nurture their children. A good start is by placing them in schools where student interests trump those of the faculty.

Leonard M. Solomon
Los Angeles

Do Ultra-Orthodox Hold Back Israeli Economy?

Rob Eshman summarizes effectively some of the strengths of the current Israeli economy as an engine of high-tech development, as well as one potential danger ahead: decreased funding for education (“Wind-Down Nation?” Nov 27). He correctly cites the role of the armed forces as innovators, inventors and venture capitalists. He might also have noted Israel’s achievements in green technology.

Regrettably, he did not mention, however briefly, the elephant in the living room: that by 2025, between one-fifth to one-quarter of the population will be ultra-Orthodox (Charedim). As such, they are exempted not only from military service but also from study of technical or liberal arts subjects, to allow them to study Torah full time (see Stanley Gold, “Will The Ultra-Orthodox Hold Israel Back?” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4). Unlike their Orthodox counterparts in other Western nations, who hold down jobs while maintaining this lifestyle, they rely on state subsidies for support (now about $1.3 billion per year).

I am aware of the argument that “better than the Jews have kept the Torah, the Torah has kept the Jews.” I would respectfully suggest, however, that until Israel finds a way to achieve peace, such an arrangement is unsustainable.

Gene Rothman
Culver City

With Friends Like This …

Arafat kept his people in “refugee camps”for 50 years teaching and spreading hate, yet Rabbi Leonard Beerman (Letters, Nov. 13) sides with J Street and the “Palestinians.”

Beerman talks about “humanity,” “not deprecating others” and “bile.” Does he not know about anti-Jewish cartoons, hate sites on the Internet, the United Nations and Goldstone? His leftist and myopic attitude, supporting organizations that work for global enhancement of Islam and destruction of Israel, is absolutely pathetic.

The “stench” Beerman objects to is coming from “their” direction, because “they” have refused to acknowledge Israel for 50 years and refused a peace treaty, although some Israeli leaders almost gave away the country. Beerman needs to wake up to reality.

With Jewish “friends,” politically correct rabbis and Jewish organizations like J Street we don’t need enemies. They would give away everything Israel achieved, including democracy, freedom and a very productive country. Instead, we should celebrate Israel’s contributions to making this world a better place.

Robert Reyto
Los Angeles

Not Just Israel’s Fault

I enjoyed reading Greg Smith’s opinion (“Palestinians Self-Inflicted Abuse,” Nov. 27). It made me think of the year I spent working in Israel in 2000. I worked for an organization that included a children’s magazine written by and for Israeli and Palestinian children, Arabic classes for Israelis and an Israeli-Palestinian jazz band. When I first started there, I was surprised to meet Palestinians who were angrier at their own government than they were toward Israel. There was much talk of the abuse of power they saw, where they felt their government had more than enough money to provide for them. They felt the money didn’t trickle down, the money stayed with the people in power, where officials had riches galore, and the Palestinians saw their libraries close, the health services offices open only sporadically and incredibly poor living conditions for their people.

Since I returned to America, I’ve waited to read about this type of abuse in the newspapers; instead, all I read about is the anger toward the Israelis. It’s refreshing to hear about the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and to learn that not even the Palestinians believe all their problems are derived from the Israeli government.

Jessica Azerrad
Los Angeles

Jewish Thanksgiving Day

Great Idea for November celebration from Judea Pearl in your opinion section (“The Miracles of November,” Nov. 27), and it will give us some extra layer and another reason to celebrate Thanksgiving. How can we help make this idea come true?

Esther Lumer
Los Angeles

Teens and Hunger

Another important dimension of Federation’s Fed Up With Hunger campaign deserves to be noted (“A Call For Action, Plus Change,” Nov. 20): its work with teenagers through MATCH (Money and Teenagers Creating Hope), a Temple Emanuel teen philanthropy foundation for students in grades nine through 12. This year, MATCH is working with the issue of hunger in Los Angeles. Thirty teens came together on Nov. 1 to kick off the year, as MATCH members were challenged by a thoughtful presentation from Fed Up with Hunger.

MATCH executive committee member Emily Eitches reflected on this first general program saying, “Most of us had misconceptions of who is actually food insecure. During the exercise we were surprised to see profiles of a recent college graduate, a middle class family going through a divorce, an elderly lady and an upper middle class family whose primary income earner lost his job.”

The teens will visit organizations that respond to hunger, and they’ll decide which ones they want to support. Fed Up With Hunger helped set the stage for this important work.

Samantha Orshan
Communal Service Intern
Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills

Camper Left Behind

Regarding the article, “Why This Me?” by Rabbi Daniel Greyber (Nov. 20):

“I want to die! I might as well just slit my wrists! Please don’t!” As a retired reading teacher for Houston Independent School District and a religious school teacher, I personally was appalled at the camper left behind rationalization. “Your life can turn out another way…. Thankfully, he would be fine,” is a lame excuse! The author wrote this happened “during my first summer at Camp Ramah.” Maybe it should have been his last….

Suzy Hersk Handler
Woodland Hills

More Israel Advocacy Please

It was exciting and refreshing to hear the many outstanding speakers at the StandWithUs Israel in Focus Conference last Sunday at Temple Beth Am. Six highly respected experts made outstanding presentations on a range of topics related to the current situation in the Middle East.

I was particularly impressed with Elliot Chodoff’s detailed knowledge of the strategic situation facing Israel. His insight into the various options facing Israel and the West were a sobering reminder of why all of us should pay very close attention to how the world responds to Iran’s march toward a nuclear arsenal and insist that our leaders stand up to this madness. And, Khaled Abu Toameh really brought into focus the fact that Israel simply does not have a reliable party with which to negotiate a lasting peace, much less secure a two-state solution.

We are very fortunate to have an organization like StandWithUs to sponsor events such as these. It would be great if more people took the opportunity to listen and learn about the facts on the ground, from people who live and work in Israel, and in a forum unfiltered by media bias. 

It was certainly worth the drive.

Ben Rich
Chino Hills

Appalling Cover

Once again your newspaper has come out with a sensationalist and disgusting front cover. The “Jews + Vampires” (Nov. 13) cover with blood dripping from a woman’s mouth has absolutely no justification, especially for a supposedly Jewish publication. Along with your “eat this” deli cover and many others in remarkably bad taste, it shows a vulgarity and cultural cheapness which disgraces you and demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge of Jewish history and traditions. Perhaps you think you are a “hip” and edgy Hollywood magazine. But you’re not! You are supposed to be representing and informing the Jewish community. You are not gaining a new hip readership; you are merely alienating your core readership which wants “The Jewish Journal” to be a Jewish journal. I hope you will reconsider your choices of covers before your readers refuse to soil their hands with your newspaper.

Steven Lowenstein
Via e-mail

Who Gets to Decide?

Rabbi Boteach (”British Court Dares to Claim Who Is a Jew,” Nov. 13) misses the point of the tragic scene being played out in Britain. The tragedy there isn’t that the court is deciding, in essence, who is a Jew; the tragedy is that the court was forced into this position in the first place. This is one can of worms that should have never been opened.

Inevitably the circumstance of the state intervening in a matter—which should have been handled by the litigants without resort to a lawsuit—is going to arise when a parochial school accepts public money. In short, them with the gold makes the rules.

In the United States, the framers of the Constitution wisely or presciently created a separation of church and state; however, when a private entity that is trying to restrict who can join its membership accepts a public benefit, be it money or even the use of a public parking lot, the private entity may not discriminate. You can’t have it both ways. If an entity wants to restrict who becomes a member, it cannot accept public benefits. Private entities—like golf courses—discriminate all the time; and they can, because they do not allow themselves to have a symbiotic relationship with the state.

Is the court going to decide the Jews’ Free School discriminating against the mother of “M”? Who knows. The thing one can bank on is, the British court wishing it didn’t have to decide the matter.

Randy Stalk
Northridge

I have two comments on Rabbi Boteach’s Nov. 13 article on Britain’s Jews’ Free School court case.

1. Rabbi Boteach fails to mention an important fact: the school is financially supported by the government (as are many schools in Britain, affiliated with many different religions). As the old saying goes, “There is No Free School.” If you take the money, you take the rules.

2. Rabbi Boteach specifically declines to discuss “the very pressing questions of Jewish status as determined by conversion on the part of Judaism’s three major branches.” OK, but … that’s actually what the case is about. The New York Times article ends with a quote from Rabbi Danny Rich, “chief executive of Liberal Judaism [in Britain]”: “JFS is a state-funded school where my grandfather taught, and it’s selecting applicants on the basis of religious politics. The Orthodox definition of Jewish excludes 40 percent of the Jewish community in this country.”

Matthew Schneiderman
Pacific Palisades

Education is the Key

I was pondering recently on hearing yet another news item regarding the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis and couldn’t help but notice the lack of attention or focus on what type of education the children of the two parties receive.

Most of us know that for its size, Israel has the most college educated citizens in the world, and most of us know that the Palestinian school system is hard pressed to produce any number of high school graduates, but it’s the education of the very young—the grade school children whose minds are forming very solid opinions of each other that should be the priority.

Have the political leaders of the West, who demand so many concessions from Israel, made any inroads in monitoring what the Palestinian leadership is teaching in their schools? It is a fact that the typical school day in the P.A. involves the students learning falsified history, bigotry and hatred to the Jews—not a great start to building a nation at peace with its neighbor.

It is insane to believe that children who have spent 16-18 years being fed lies, distortions, and hatred will ever want to stop terrorism or not have the desire to destroy Israel and respect its right to exist.

Until this flawed education system is fixed and pressure is placed on the Palestinians to do that, how can anyone expect a population to adhere to any “peace treaty” much less truly desire one?
 

Peter M. Shulman
Playa del Rey

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