Commandments and Concerns: Jewish Religious Education in Secular Society

Introduction

Introduction This book deals with the problem of religion in contemporary Jewish education . It grew out of my thinking and teaching about Jewish education, which made me realize that religion is always on the agenda of Jewish education, that for many it is the agenda, and that is seen as a problem. "Religion" and "religious education" are nebulous and controversial tenus in this secular and pluralistic age, and Jewish "religion" raises special problems of definition, legitimacy, and relevance. The nature of this subject and the rhetoric that envelops it is such that any attempt to clarify the meanings, problems, and possibilities surrounding Jewish religious education in a "non-religious" world arouses suspicion and occasions polemics. The suspicions and the polemics are not necessarily confined to those who, in Israel, are called the' 'non-believers" or to professed secularists anywhere. They are to be found also among those Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora who are concerned with the content and who are involved, as parents or educators, in one of the frameworks of religious Jewish education, and who espouse one of several religious ideologies. For example. members of the Orthodox educational community ask whether the tenn "religious" as used in a study such as this one encompasses Reform and Conservative Jewish education-and, if so, by what right. On the other end of the spectrum, those radically Refonn Jews who persevere in their adherence to the post-Emancipation definition of Jewry as a purely and exclusively religious community insist that' 'religion" be defined in theological and existential terms that render the cultural fonns of the past (i.e., the traditional Jewish law-the halakhah--and its way of thinking) archaic and irrelevant. 4 Introduction Some religious educators are certain that religious Jewish education must be understood as initiation into the observance of the commandments. For some, religious education is bestowing upon the young familiarity with the cultural (and textual) tradition that may spark commitment; others define it as the cultivation of existential awareness, theological concern, and "encounter ." Nor may we neglect to mention those religious educators, especially in Israel, who believe that religious education must incoIporate a strong commitment to the shaping of the Jewish national renaissance in line with some religious inteIpretations of Jewish nationhood: mystical, normative , or both. To write about religious Jewish education is to invite shrugs or frowns also from those who believe that Jewish education in the modem world should be non-religious, or "worldly." The adherents of "general" educational systems -especially in Israel, but also in Jewish communities with a predominantly secular tradition and orientation, such as Argentina-believe that religious education is a distorted or sectarian way of dealing with the Jewish cultural tradition. They are likely to agree that this tradition, given its cultural wealth, its historical circumstances, and its scope necessarily includes religious aspects, but will argue that it can be made meaningful to contemporary Jewish children only if these "religious" features are placed in broader historical and cultural perspectives. In their eyes, specifically religious education will be congenial only to those who desire-or have not outgrown-a truncated ("religious-liberal") or an archaic ("Orthodox") Jewish identity. For secular educators of this persuasion, dealing with Judaism as "religion" and teaching it "religiously" is symptomatic of assimilation into non-Jewish patterns ofthinking or testifies to a refusal to move beyond a traditionalist-pietistic stage in the development of Jewish national culture. As for those Jews whom others often call "ultra-traditionalists," their opinion of theoretical discourse on "religious education" that incoIporates not only sacred sources but also the tools and conceptual constructions of social science and educational theory is weU known. Such discussion they consider irrelevant except where it makes available useful technologies and tactics. They argue, in this echoing the professedly non-religious, that Judaism is not a "religion." In their eyes, the revealed truth of Torah requires no clarifications provided bY-{l! contexts borrowed from-humanities, philosophy. or science. Like many of the modem Orthodox, the ultra-traditionalists wish to share neither categories nor theories with heretics. They wish to keep their distance from discussions in which they will be described or analyzed scientifically , for in such discussions, they will find themselves grouped together with Introduction 5 virtual non-believers. True, such theoretical discourse may contribute clarity to their educational formulations and evaluations. But the price, objective comparison with religious "deviants," is too high. The preceding...