Rabbi to the rescue of the USAF
Rabbi to advise U.S. Air Force Academy on religion

By Reuters and Haaretz
Tue., June 28, 2005 Sivan 21, 5765

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force on Monday named a rabbi who has served as a senior military chaplain to help change the religious climate at the Air Force Academy amid concern over inappropriate proselytizing by evangelical Christians.

Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, previously the top chaplain in the U.S. military's European Command, will serve as a special assistant for "values and vision" to acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez and Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force said. Resnicoff is a retired U.S. Navy captain.

The Air Force said Resnicoff will advise Dominguez on implementing recommendations made last week by Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, who headed an assessment prompted by allegations that the academy promotes evangelical Christianity and a climate of intolerance toward other religious beliefs including Judaism.

The academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, produces junior officers for the Air Force.

"As far as I know, there is no illegal discrimination -- that means someone can't get a promotion or someone can't get a good grade or someone can't get into a class based on religion," Resnicoff said.

"However, there is some insensitivity and there's some people who may have thought that speaking and proclaiming their faith was an innocent way to spread the word. Again, they have to understand this idea that something has changed when they put that uniform on or when they work for a military academy," he told reporters in a conference call.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a separation of church and state.

Brady's report faulted the academy for failing to accommodate "adherents to minority beliefs," but concluded there was no "overt religious discrimination." It found that some faculty and staff inappropriately expressed strong religious views and Jewish cadets on campus faced anti-Semitic comments.

The report recommended that the Air Force set new guidelines on appropriate religious expression and provide training in religious diversity and respect.

Resnicoff, who already has visited the campus but will work out of the Pentagon, promised to help provide guidance on religious expression, although "not a cookbook necessarily that says you can do this here and you can't do this here."

He said his work initially will focus on the academy, but he would provide advice applicable to the entire Air Force and address every four-star general in the Air Force.

Resnicoff has served as national director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee advocacy group. Before becoming a chaplain, he served as an officer in the Vietnam War. Years later, he was involved in the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Capt. James Cunningham, an Air Force spokesman, said Resnicoff was not picked because he is Jewish.

"He was hired because of his credentials. He was selected because he has inter-religious and military experience," Cunningham said.

A team from Yale Divinity School said in April it found evangelical Christian proselytizing commonplace on campus, and noted "stridently evangelical themes" by staff. The team described a campus chaplain telling cadets they would "burn in the fires of hell" if they were not born-again Christians.
- posted by Izak @ 2:53 AM (1) comments

 
Revisiting Sodom: Jerusalem bans gay pride parade
Article:
Jerusalem bans gay pride parade
By Haaretz Staff and Agencies
Sun., June 26, 2005 Sivan 19, 5765

"Jerusalem City Hall will not allow the annual gay pride parade to go ahead next week, it announced yesterday, saying the march would offend many of the city's residents and set off unrest.

The Jerusalem Open House group, which is organizing the Fourth Annual Jerusalem Pride March, appealed to the Supreme Court to repeal the ruling, saying the decision was a violation of the homosexual community's freedom of expression.

The city council, including the mayor, decided "it is not right to allow the march or other planned activities to take place in the streets of Jerusalem, fearing it will create an uproar and offend a wide sector of city residents, and out of fear of public disturbances," said Eitan Meir, the director general of City Hall, in a letter to organizers made available by city officials.

The march, scheduled for next Thursday, was to be the fourth annual parade. Previous events have passed peacefully, attended by several thousand people and with only minor incidents of vandalism and protest. However, they took place under heavy security.

"The actions of the mayor, and those carrying out his policies, are injurious to the values of freedom of expression," said Hagai El-Ad, director of the Open House.

"Jerusalem continues in its discriminatory policy against the Jerusalem Open House and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Jerusalem," El-Ad said.

Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolianski, has expressed his personal opposition to the parades in previous years, but let them go ahead, claiming the decision fell under police jurisdiction.

Officials at City Hall refused to explain the change in policy.

El-Ad said other events associated with "Pride Month" would go ahead regardless.

The city decision comes just weeks after the Jerusalem Open House postponed WorldPride 2005, a 10-day gathering that features street parties, workshops and a gay film festival, until August 2006."
----
Some of the reactions on the Haaretz response page:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/591666.html#resp

*"I would like to see the Jerusalem Pride March take place. I myself am not interested in atending such a parade. I have been a spectator at them when in Toronto, and have never been a fan of the spectacle. It usually gives a stage to the most extroverted and does not always represent that huge silent majority.But I see no grounds for stopping the parade. It has gone off quietly in the past, and if the gays see the need to gather and feel the collective bond and freedom that the march provide them, then so be it.I can understnd how the religious groups Jewish, Moslem and Christian would be against it. One has to realize that the great religions are built on fundamentally sexophobic grounds. At this time they should calm their fears and allow people their freedom as citizens of the state to celebrate whatever they choose. Especially when no one is getting hurt.Yet again we are faced with the ying-yang of this planet, and this time the yang looks like it is losing out. I am proud of how this country has come to terms with an age old taboo.I honour the concepts of liberalism (not leftism) and feel that the individual must be allowed their freedom of expression, without violence."

*"I applaud the decision to ban the gay pride parade in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is one of the holiest cities in the world and its inhabitants should not allow something that is called an "abomination" in the Torah/Bible to be flaunted in the streets. If someone is gay, fine. But why the need for "gay pride" parades? What are they proud about? If "sexual preference" is really that, a preference, why is it something to be celebrating? Where are the heterosexual parades? Whether you are gay or straight, parading around advertising this kind of thing is simply inappropriate. Especially in a holy place."

*"Religous Jews have there rights to and having a gay parade in the center of a city where the majority of residents are opposed to homosexuality is a violation of their rights."

*"Gay Pride? You know I am proud that I am straight but I don`t feel the urge to take to the streets naked. I would be ok with the parade if it wasn`t based on sex. If it was based on gay culture and not sex I guess it would be ok. Maybe we should have a straight pride parade and take to the streets fully clothed."

*"When will Israel learn to be as tolerant as the countries in Western Europe it pretends to be like?This last provocation is simply a sign of the general malaise affecting Israeli society, which appears to me absolutely immoral."

*"I think that it`s highly unfortunate that GLBT persons are being being discriminated against like this. As a gay reform Jew it upsets me very much that ultra-orthodox mayors and administrative authorities try to force everyone to follow Halacha to the letter. There is such a thing as individual freedom, especially in a supposedly democratic and secular states."

*"How ironic! The Euros want to expand the Palestinian areas even though that is where the Palestinian gays get persecuted. At the same time the Euros want Israel to shrink but accept the persecuted Palestinian gays."

*"How about a gay parade in Ramallah?"

*" 'This last provocation is simply a sign of the general malaise affecting Israeli society,' words written by Clive of Cambridge. NonethelessExxageration or what? Clive my dear boy, we are not discussing the death penalty for gays, we are forming opinions regarding a parade. this is not a provocation, whereas many could say that holding the parade is a provocation. No parade, no issue. On the otherhand they would like to parade, as they have done for four years previous. Actually Israel is quite tolerant in this subject. Gays serve in the IDF and are easily found on television in the written press and in every strata of life here.The actual malaise can be found in the knee-jerk over-reaction of many posters to an issue such as this. All of a sudden it means that Israel, as a nation, is intollerant. This is nonsense. But we all see how the hysterical elements of European ideology have come to dominate many a forum, excluding any rational or sensitive critique of any subject. So relax Clive, it is obvious that this issue means nothing to you, other than a chance to bash Israel."

*"Why not???Gay Pride Parade took place in Tel-Aviv and now in Jerusalem...well, if they ban it it wont happen but i dont think its such a big deal to ban it...Israel is a liberal state, and gays ARE part of the society as straights are. There isnt any difference! On the contrary, such parades make narrow-minded people see that to be gay is not a disease but is a sexual preference, acceptable as long as it doesnt provoke any harm. And it doesnt provoke any harm! Gays have equal rights in the society..the fact that they want a parade and other people who post here claim "if they want parade,why straights shouldnt have parades?" shows that gays are not 100% accepted by everyone (althought they should be!) and they need to take an action in order for their voice to be heard! It doesnt matter that Jerusalem is a holy city for both 3 religions, as the gays DO NOT parade in order to desecrate Jerusalem`s holiness, but in order to state: "yes, we are here!" and good for them!! Im sure that Arabs if they really think about it they wont mind....and Im sure most Israeli Arabs at least dont mind at all...Coz in a place like Jerusalem..that is the crossroads of both 3 religions all of the peoples` opinions should be taken under consideration..thats the proper way of being just and fair...to consider all the peoples opinions!!"

*" "Jerusalem is one of the holiest cities in the world and its inhabitants should not allow something that is called an "abomination" in the Torah/Bible to be flaunted in the streets. If someone is gay, fine. But why the need for "gay pride" parades? What are they proud about?' I`ll tell you what they have to be proud about - even though they 3 monotheistic religions - Judaism/Islam/Christianity - regard them as an 'abomination' they really don`t care. It`s a statement for gay people to say 'Any Religion which calls gay people an "abomination" is itself an abomination of G*d`s word so we are going to ignore the protests of religion as that is wholly irrelevant to our right to live life as full members of society "

*" 'The Euros want to expand the Palestinian areas even though that is where the Palestinian gays get persecuted. At the same time the Euros want Israel to shrink but accept the persecuted Palestinian gays.' I don`t know where you are getting this information but for your information - Outrage which is probably the most radical gay rights group in Europe is very much pro Palestinian rights but they never fail to condemn the abuses inflicted by Palestinian society on its gay people. In fact the gay rights groups are about the only human rights groups who are willing to defend Palestinian gays."

*"This is one of the weirdest places in the world.Gay parades that mobilize the whole city and lots of police.What for??? to show that gays are accepted? Gays live your lives in private like everyone else.I don`t want my children to grow up seeing such sodomy.it`s not right.do what you want in private but leave others to live their lives without imposing your lifestyle and blocking street.And some stupid politicians looking for personal gains go and add to the fire by talking at these parades.Where has the people of Israel sunk to huh?Awaken people of Israel before it is really too late!!!!I hope the parade in JERUSALEM will not go ahead."

*"I congratulate the Ultra-Orthodox community for upholding the holy torah teachings. There is not one place in holy scripture where tolerance is taught for immoral behavior of any type. Moshe would not tolerate this in Jerusalem or any other part of Israel...why should others who seek to follow G-d holy teachings for Israel. deport those who seek to live in such an unholy lifestyle...Israel is to be the apple of G-d`s eye and therefore it must be holy to receive His Holy Protection against all enemies-internal and external"
- posted by Izak @ 11:06 PM (1) comments

 
Synagogues' Identity Crisis
The Multitasking Shul (06/23/2005)
In a movement both new and old, synagogues are expanding their boundaries and transforming their missions. Welcome to the outward-looking temple of tomorrow.

By Steve Lipman - Staff Writer
New York Jewish Week

"In the weeks between now and November, the vestibule of a Conservative synagogue on the Upper West Side turns into a produce market on Wednesday evenings. Members of Congregation Ansche Chesed and members of the general community, canvas tote bags in hand, sort through piles of lettuce and eggplants and spinach and other seasonal fruits and vegetables stacked on tables.

On a Sunday morning this month, the Garden Room of a Reform temple in Westchester becomes a blood collection center. Lying on a half-dozen beds set up like an assembly line, the men and women of the Larchmont Temple fill out donation forms, have their blood pressure tested and give blood in the temple’s semiannual drive.

Sometime this month, in the basement or attic of a home in Elizabeth, N.J. — the home of someone who belongs to an Orthodox congregation — a member of the Jewish community will pick out a skirt, shirt or something else to wear. The hosts and guests are participants in the Clothing Exchange, a program established more than a dozen years ago by the Jewish Educational Network to offer needed articles at no cost.

At other congregations in the New York metropolitan area, at various times of the year, you can take driving lessons or CPR lessons, engage the services of a social worker, get employment counseling or find information about apartment sales and rentals.

When Jews go to their synagogues these days, it’s often for something other than praying or learning, the traditional mainstays of Jewish houses of worship in the United States.

Reacting to changing demographics and needs of members or prospective members, a growing number of congregations are offering an innovative variety of programs, widening their mission, often reaching out to the community at large and hopefully attracting new members.

Some of these new activities — most of them volunteer-driven — are tied to the STAR or Synagogue 2000 national initiatives. Others have their roots in their own membership.

And they span denominational labels.

“It’s definitely a trend, not just within one denomination,” said Rabbi Michael Paley, scholar-in-residence at UJA-Federation and the philanthropy’s former director of synagogue and community affairs. “It brings people into the synagogue. It’s much more inclusive.”

“It’s a trend also backwards,” he said, restoring the synagogue’s multitasking function that was common a century ago across the Atlantic. “Synagogues in Jewish history used to do this. The idea of a synagogue as a place [exclusively] for education and prayer was an American church idea.”

In the Old Country, Rabbi Paley said, “The synagogue was the public building of the community.” There you could get food, or help with a shidduch, or other assistance that transcended a narrow “religious” definition — “all the services you used to need.”

“Here we’re bringing back that idea, which has caught on in the last decade,” Rabbi Paley said.

Some Jews simply feel comfortable in a Jewish setting, even doing things that are tenuously Jewish. Others rarely enter a synagogue, and these programs are a draw.

“People want to do it in a Jewish venue,” Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Ansche Chesed said of the “Tuv Haaretz” (the good of the land) food co-op program, part of the nationwide, community-supported agricultural movement held by the congregation for the first time last year. But his words also apply to the swath of new programming offered by other synagogues.

Ansche Chesed, in an arrangement with Eve Kaplan, an organic farmer in Aquebogue, N.Y., sells her produce to co-op members, who pay an advance fee.

“The shul doesn’t make any money off it,” Rabbi Kalmanofsky said. “It’s something we believe in.”

The rabbi said that hopefully, people come to think of Ansche Chesed as a place that shares its progressive ideals about such things as the protection of the environment.

“If people find Jewish meaning in the protection of the environment,” if they find “something spiritually rich” in the synagogue, “they may come to daven or for learning,” Rabbi Kalmanofsky said.

“For better or for worse, American Jews of my age, 38, have for the most part not grown up davening. Only a certain number of people will be attracted to synagogue for three hours of davening on a Saturday morning,” he said.

Ansche Chesed also sponsors blood drives and offers CPR lessons.

Trying to ride the synagogue transformation wave, the Orthodox Union, the umbrella group representing centrist Orthodoxy, just announced a first-time program to give five grants of up to $20,000 each for synagogues to come up new ideas and programming in areas ranging from communal outreach to youth programs to multimedia technologies. In a statement announcing the new initiative, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, the OU’s executive vice president, said: “The OU now has the opportunity to say [to shuls], ‘Think out of the box. Dream your dreams. Create.’”

Glenn Easton, president of the North American Association of Synagogue Executives and executive director of a congregation in Washington, D.C., sees synagogues changing not what they offer but how they package it.

Activities like social action have “been a large part [of] the Reform movement, and probably [of] a majority of Conservative synagogues” for a long time, he said. “I think they may be focusing more on things other than synagogue services and religious school.

“They may be marketing it better,” Easton said. “Maybe they’re promoting it better.”

It’s all aimed “to make the synagogue more relevant,” he said. It’s aimed at people who have “dropped out” of synagogues — especially after their children finish bar/bat mitzvah studies — or are considering dropping out.

Is it working?

“I think the jury’s out,” Easton said, saying he’s noticed no huge increase in affiliation rates.

For Scott Riemer, an active member of the Larchmont Temple and a leader of the brotherhood’s twice-a-year blood drives, the activity is “part of our tikkun olam, helping the community.”

The drives are held in cooperation with the Sound Shore Hospital in New Rochelle.

“We’re the biggest drive of the year of that hospital,” Easton said. “This is part of our duties as Jews to give back to the community.”

Mostly temple members take part, he said, adding that it’s “a way to keep the members involved with the temple.”

The Clothing Exchange of Elizabeth’s Jewish Education Center — a network of a school system, kollel and several synagogues set up by the late Rabbi Pinchas Teitz — is part of an extensive chesed network that includes employment assistance and a free loan fund of baby equipment.

“A synagogue is more than prayer,” said Steve Karp, JEC executive director.

Members of the Elizabeth Jewish community clean their gently used clothing and bring it to one of three homes — there are separate centers for boys’, girls’ and maternity clothing. The items are placed in boxes or hung on racks. People who need something call for an appointment. Dozens use the service, Karp said.

“Helping each other,” he said, “is putting the words ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ into action.”
Temple Beth Torah of Melville, L.I., has expanded this concept into a neighboring community.

For 20 years the congregation helped the Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch sponsor a day camp for minority children.

“We call it ‘the Wyandanch Camp,’ ” said Marc Weiss, the temple’s executive vice president. “We’re an extremely affluent community that happens to be next door to an extremely impoverished community.”

Some 50 members of Beth Torah volunteer their time each summer. Some work the entire summer, and some show up just one day.

“This is clearly a way of giving back because we’re all created in God’s image,” Weiss said.

Rabbi Paley said these programs are a sign that synagogues are responding to needs around them, that they are revitalizing themselves.

“You want to open as many doors to the gateway of the synagogue as you can, so lots of people can come in,” he said.

Synagogues are “always competing with secular attractions for [the interest of] American Jews,” said Jeffrey Gurock, professor of American Jewish history at Yeshiva University. “People prefer to go to the theater or go to sporting events rather than go to services.

“What a synagogue has to do is adapt some of these activities, bring them into synagogue life … make the synagogue a 24/7 location for Jewish life,” he said. “The potential congregant has embraced American life — you have to embrace the American way of life.”

“That,” he said, “hasn’t changed at all.”

Gurock said the current outreach efforts by synagogues follow in the footsteps of the “synagogue-center” movement, usually associated with the late Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, which brought athletic and social activities to U.S. synagogues in the 1920s. Congregations built gyms and libraries, held dances and film showings.

That movement, Gurock said, actually began in Reform circles near the turn of the 19th century, then spread across the country to all denominations.

“It was very successful,” he said. “The idea was that who comes to play will stay to pray.”

It’s a uniquely American phenomenon, Gurock said, noting that “I don’t know of a synagogue-center movement elsewhere.”

More people came to shul. But, he said, “When these activities were developed, some rabbis felt that these events caused congregants to lose focus on the ultimate goals of the synagogue, which were religious ones.”

The “synagogue-center” movement changed both synagogues and Jewish community centers, whose athletic and social emphasis sometimes competed with synagogue activities, David Kaufman wrote in “Shul with a Pool: The ‘Synagogue-Center’ in American Jewish History” (Brandeis University Press, 1999).

“The synagogue was ‘socialized,’ now including a school, library, assembly hall, kitchen and other institutional trappings as a matter of course,” he wrote. “Whatever its congregational name, the American synagogue of today customarily perceives itself as a ‘Jewish center.’ ”

As for the book’s title: “Many people have assumed that ‘shul with a pool’ is my invention — it is not,” Kaufman wrote. “The irreverent phrase was coined during the 1920s to refer to a new phenomenon in the American Jewish community, a combination synagogue [shul in Yiddish] and Jewish community center [whose swimming pool was often its chief attraction].”

What will the next trend be?

Gurock, a historian, offers no guesses.

“It is methodological error to be predictive as a historian,” he said.

“The only thing that is certain [is] that the issue of how to get the unaffiliated and disaffected involved in synagogue life is not going away.”
- posted by Izak @ 10:59 PM (1) comments

 
Is My Prom Date Kosher?
Row over Jewish-only formals rocking some day schools.

By Gabrielle Birkner - Staff Writer
Jewish Week
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=11031

Morning announcements at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester generally tread predictable terrain: schedule changes, meeting times, athletic events. But one item exasperated some teens last school year.

At several upcoming social events — a coffeehouse, the Junior Ball — upper-school students would not be permitted to bring non-Jewish dates, it was announced.

Upon hearing the policy, Karla Bertrand, a Schechter student whose father was Catholic when her parents married and whose boyfriend at the time was not Jewish, headed to the principal’s office to beg the administration to reconsider the dictate.

While the school saw the directive as a way to stave off interfaith dating, Bertrand and other students at the Hartsdale school said it encouraged creating a “self-imposed ghetto” that could generate resentment and even stoke the flames of anti-Semitism.

“It was intended to promote Jewish continuity, but instead it insults non-Jews, it insults Solomon Schechter students, and it doesn’t reflect well on the school,” Bertrand said of the Jewish-only prom policy, which remains in place today.

Worse, she said, the decree might inadvertently prove racist.

“Most people can pass as Jewish,” said Bertrand, now 18, noting that school officials would be hard pressed to determine at the door who was Jewish. “If the school was going to investigate students they suspected brought non-Jewish dates, the only red flag would be if someone was another race.”

As the school year winds down, and with prom season in full swing, the debate over who makes an acceptable prom date is causing friction among students, parents and faculty at some Jewish day schools.

The subject has been polarizing not just at Schechter, but also at pluralistic community day schools, where students span the Jewish ideological gamut.

Marc Kramer, the executive director of the New York-based Ravsak, an umbrella group representing more than 90 Jewish community day schools in North America, said the debate is playing out with increased frequency.

“The core argument on one side is that Jewish day schools should foster the value of Jews marrying other Jews and building Jewish families, and that value should [permeate] the culture of the school, including the prom,” Kramer said. “The other argument — equally valid, but wildly different — is that … a policy saying students can only bring Jewish dates to the prom oversteps the boundaries of what a school should dictate.”

Kramer surmised that the issue has become most polarizing at non-movement-affiliated community schools because there is an expectation of “maximum inclusiveness and minimal intrusiveness.”

“These schools make a concerted effort not to tell families what to do, to serve families without judging them,” he said. “People are discussing, ‘Is it a school issue or a family issue?’ and of course people are reacting on both sides.”

Carol Pankin, whose two teenaged sons attend Gann Academy, a community school in Waltham, Mass., where prom policy emerged as a hot-button issue this year, opposes interfaith dating, but said parents — not schools — should be the ones making decisions about dating and proms.

“If a 17-year-old is dating someone who isn’t Jewish, I feel it’s the parents’ responsibility,” she said. “They should be the ones saying, ‘We don’t want you to do this.’ ”

Pankin says interfaith dating and inviting a non-Jewish date to the prom are separate issues.

“[Jewish-only] policies raise proms to a level that they’re really not,” she said, noting that many teens today attend proms with friends or go stag. “They’re making it more of a couples thing when it’s really just a fun night when everyone dresses up.”

She added rhetorically: “There are so many school activities, should a non-Jewish person not be allowed to attend any of them? Should kids not be allowed to have non-Jewish friends?”

But Gann Academy Headmaster Rabbi Daniel Lehmann said there is a greater assumption of intimacy associated with the prom than with other school functions.

“We try to make it clear that bringing non-Jews to watch a school play or a basketball game is OK,” Rabbi Lehmann said.

Gann students and faculty weighed in on the issue recently during a heated but respectful lunchtime “Debate Midrash.”

According to Rabbi Lehmann, some students argued that dating patterns are significant, even in high school. Others contended that trying to control personal decisions is bound to cause resentment among teens and alienate non-Jewish, intermarried parents of Gann students.

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, said as more intermarried couples send their children to Jewish day schools, some parents are “reluctant to be taught that intermarriage is wrong.”

“[The debate] represents two clashing worldviews in the Jewish community: those who see intermarriage as a challenge and those who see it as an opportunity,” he said.

Ultimately, Gann’s board of directors issued a written prom policy that Rabbi Lehmann called “a very strong statement about the board’s commitment to Jewish continuity as part of the mission of the school and the future of the Jewish people.”

The policy affirmed the school’s goals to promote dating and marriage within the Jewish community, and asked students to “consider these goals when inviting dates to proms and dances.”

Pankin said she was surprised that non-Orthodox schools would advise students about their prom dates.

“You might expect this at Maimonides,” she said, referring to a prominent, Orthodox Boston-area day school, “but not at Gann, which is supposed to be much more pluralistic.”

Many Orthodox high schools do not sanction mixed dancing and therefore do not sponsor traditional proms and dances.

Strict Jewish-only prom polices are less surprising perhaps at Solomon Schechter schools, as they are under the auspices of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the umbrella group that has taken a firm stance against intermarriage.

Schechter administrators said prom policy was in line with Conservative Judaism but would not elaborate.

Bertrand said the movement’s principles do not justify a Jewish-only policy at school social events.

In a 2004 editorial published in the Westchester Schechter’s school newspaper, she wrote: “[The policy] shows a lack of respect for our friends as well as for non-Jewish faculty. It is insulting that after one, two, three or even 12 years of religious education, the school doesn’t feel that it has instilled in us the values to be discerning in our choice of company. It is insulting that after nurturing such a long and close relationship with us, the administration feels morally justified in excluding our friends.”

She also argued that Judaism demands that Jews consider marit ayin, or how their actions appear to others. The policy is not intended as bigoted or derogatory, though non-Jews likely would perceive it as such, she said.

Jeffrey Jablansky, another Schechter student, rejected the notion that the school’s policy was “segregationist” or “exclusionist” in a newspaper editorial that ran opposite the Bertrand piece.

“Face the facts or abdicate from them: We are the next generation of Jews and we cannot afford a diluted Judaism in times of mixed marriages and anti-Semitic sentiment all over the world,” he wrote. “How will we, the next generation of Jewish adults, make decisions rooted in Jewish faith without the proper guidance during high school?”

One Schechter mother, who supports the school’s prom policy, said: “We want to encourage building a Jewish life throughout the life of the student.”

Speaking to The Jewish Week on the condition of anonymity, this mother added, “Students whose parents have chosen to attend Jewish day schools expect there to be all Jewish students at social events sponsored by the school, especially when they involve dating, relationships or future relationships.”

Despite Schechter’s policy, some teens brought non-Jewish dates to the school’s Junior/Senior Prom on June 2, according to student leaders, who said they did not know of anybody reprimanded as a result.
- posted by Izak @ 8:11 PM (1) comments