Michael Melchior's Mitzva

(Israelnationalnews.com) Israel's new educational "stream" offers faith-based Israeli Jews the opportunity to engage in social engineering on a massive scale.

Michael Melchior, a Haredi rabbi elected on Labor’s Knesset list, is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist.  He’ll prefer Palestinian interests to Jewish interests any day, and he voted without compunction for the crime against the Jewish people perpetrated upon Gush Katif.  But he has done a mitzvah at last.  If he knew I thought so, he might have reconsidered.  But the deed is done, and it only remains for us to take advantage of it.

Last week the Knesset passed a law setting up a new, “pluralistic” educational stream in which children from religious and nonreligious families are supposed to study together and learn about Judaism, with the object of getting Jews of all backgrounds to feel comfortable with each other.

The object of the emphasis on tolerance is to create an environment in which all approaches to Jewish identity are considered valid.  If the new system of education were actually to work that way, it would represent a challenge for those who believe that, in fact, there is a canonical standard of Jewish faith and observance.  But that is not how the new education system is likely to work in practice, its founders’ intentions notwithstanding. 

Consider:  Most Jewish parents consider themselves traditional.  Most want their children to come into contact with genuine Jewish tradition and values, in a non-coercive framework.  It's only a small minority of leftist elites who are interested in pluralistic Judaism for pluralism's sake.  Most teachers of humanities subjects in Israel, even today, are products of the religious teacher-training network.  If this new education stream gets really big, the only place it’s going to be able to draw enough teachers from is the Orthodox teacher-training system, and from the Yeshivot and Midrashot.  And by defining itself as “pluralistic,” the new stream will probably have to give access to Orthodox teachers and principals.  What matters is who teaches in these schools, and what they teach there.  That’s going to determine the character of the new education stream, not what politicians put on paper.

There is nothing Israel needs more than to bring the majority of Jewish youth into contact with Jewish values.  Israeli education, and Israeli society, is withering away for lack of values.  Judaism has values to teach that are immediately relevant to state and society:  Respect for other people’s persons and property, the sanctity of marriage and the family, the obligation to be upright and honest in all one’s dealings, respect for women as persons, not objects, prohibition of slander and libel.  The obligation to care about society and state, to shoulder common burdens, to settle the Land of Israel.  The idea that the proper role of the State of Israel is to guard and perpetuate Jewish interests and values, not combat them as it now often does.  All of this can be taught without challenging the formal definitions of the new educational stream.

What about Shabbat and Kashrut?  What about the Master of the Universe?  The new educational stream is meant to attract people whose views on these subjects are ambiguous.  These schools are not supposed to ram observance down their throats.  But one can imagine a school that teaches that Jewish values ought to be authoritative in man’s relationship with his fellow-man and with society, and that also teaches that Jewish observances come from the same source as Judaism’s binding ethical commandments.  What is the kid in the school going to do about it?  That’s up to him or her.  If he or she chooses to try some prayer or Sabbath observance, there'll be help.

Of course, this requires teaching Orthodox teachers how to function in a challenging environment, one where a majority of their students are not Orthodox.  Where one must be tolerant of different Jewish lifestyles, where religious observance (for even if not one Orthodox student goes to these schools some students will be drawn to Orthodox practice) takes place alongside religious nonobservance.  These teachers must understand that they have a mission:  Not to make their charges religious, but to ensure they have a sympathetic exposure to Judaism—and that becoming observant is portrayed as a live option, not anathema.  On the way, they’ll be making Israel safe for Judaism, which it isn’t just now.

I think the Orthodox educational establishment should get together and make a commitment to moving into the new educational stream in a big way:  Training teachers to teach in them, even setting up a network of primary and secondary schools committed to functioning within the new dispensation.  What really will determine the effect of the new educational stream on Israeli society is who teaches in the schools and who determines, at the level of the school, the content of curriculum.

Some people in Israel’s faith-based community will complain about the new education stream and how it doesn’t really teach an authentic form of Judaism.  This misses the point entirely.  I wouldn't send my kids to the new educational stream, because I want my kids in an environment combining Torah teaching and Torah lifestyle.  These schools are not meant for my kids.  It’s going to be mainly secular and traditional parents who send their kids to these schools for a taste of Judaism, and if we do it right, for a taste of genuine values, without pre-committing to an Orthodox lifestyle.  Michael Melchior has handed Israel’s faith-based community a golden opportunity to engage in social engineering on a massive scale.  We ought to take up the challenge with both hands.