U.S. School Stops Hebrew Classes For Promoting Judaism

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

The first Hebrew language charter school in the United States was ordered to temporarily suspend Hebrew classes on Wednesday, while officials determine whether teachers are advocating the Jewish faith.

Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter sent a letter to officials at the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday advising them to halt Hebrew classes until the school board could further examine the curriculum.

"If it comes up in the course of conversation, that is one thing but if it comes to promoting religion or proselytizing, we don't want it to happen," said Keith Bromery, a spokesman for the Broward schools.

While charter schools are generally publicly funded, they differ from regular public schools in that they are autonomous and not bound by some of the rules governing other schools. In addition, they are expected to far surpass regular public schools in terms of quality of education.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896879.html

[The Sushi Bandit]

1. Good for them!

the Superintendent is doing his job!

[cali]

2. I'm not sure.

Do you support the new public school in NY that's rooted in Arabic tradition, and will be teaching Arabic traditions as well as the language?

[Behind the Aegis]

3. WELCOME BACK!!!!!

[Purveyor]

5. Arabic tradition is one thing. Religious teachings is another in the public school. Also, it seems

there is quite the 'dust-up' over this Arabic school as reported below:

Tables Turn On Arab School Critics

While attacking school’s advisory board, Stop the Madrassa fends off questions about controversial leader of its own.

Doug Chandler And Larry Cohler-Esses

A key leader of the group opposing a new, Arab-focused public school in Brooklyn is a virulent opponent of a democratic Jewish state who denounces “Zionist Israel” and calls on it to “cast off the yoke of liberal democracy.”

Stop the Madrassa leader David Yerushalmi also condemns democracy in the United States and, in comments that evoke classical anti-Semitic stereotypes, says he finds truth in the view that Jews “destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite.”

Stop the Madrassa and other critics seeking to derail the opening of the Khalil Gibran school, set for next month, have charged that the school’s advisory board includes radical Islamists.

Now, Yerushalmi’s comments have raised concerns about Stop the Madrassa’s own leadership by some of its own advisory members.

---eoe---

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?arti...

[razors edge]

7. We shouldn't suppport either.

Nor Christian, or whatever the religion.

Any public school with a focus on one specific tribal superstition of ancient lore has no place in the publicly funded arena.

Let the parents who require such backward indoctrination of their children fund such propaganda themselves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. If they are readying the old Testament as part of

classic texts... I have no problem with it... albeit parts of the old testament are truly in Aramaic (can you say the Pentateuch?)

Now the Song of Songs is in ancient hebrew, yes there is a difference, and it is almost word for word the same poem about 1000 years older in ancient Egyptian

Now pushing the religion is a whole different matter.

But readying just scripture and modern Israeli Poets is not doing his job

You study Greek, guess what? you read Greek Classics too

[Patsy Stone]

4. I don't get this part:

"Until then, time that would have been spent on language instruction will be used teaching Israeli geography and Jewish history and culture."

So, teaching the Hebrew language is akin to teaching religion, but teaching Israeli geography and Jewish history isn't? That makes no sense.

[msedano]

6. when you study the language you study scripture

hence the confusion between language and culture. the school will emerge immune from restraint. when you study classical greek you do attic first, then koine, the new testament greek. in attic you get a bunch of cool stuff then in koine you get in the beginning was ho logos kai ho ktl.

[Patsy Stone]

9. There are many books written in Hebrew that aren't the Talmud.

When I learned Hebrew in Hebrew school I didn't learn it through scripture. I also learned the prayers, because it was Hebrew school, but vocabulary is totally different.

My point is that Berlitz finds some way to teach Hebrew in a non-religious way. Throwing out the language instruction altogether seems a bit of an over-reaction. Especially since you can't even begin to discuss the geography or culture of the country without discussing religious events which occurred.

Whether the curriculum is too religious is another story, but the language instruction, in itself, need not be religious.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I did not even mention the Talmud

and I did go to a zionist school

What we read were the old testament, things like Judges, the book of esther, the book of macabees, Genesis (which is in aramaic), and the song of songs (which is a classic of western literature) (Hell by the time we were done, we read the whole damn thing in the original, as history... and though some of it is history, I'd have a hard time making the case the whole damn thing IS history)

You can choose sections of the bible, such as the song of songs, or the book of Samuel, which do have some religious content in them (if you choose to go that way) but are ALSO classics of western lit.

Now the Talmud, yep, part of Jewish history, absolutely...but I would not recomend anybody trying to read it... either the main body, or the commentaries, unless you want to go absolutely batty. There are also valid reasons not to, if you are going for the religious aspects of it. THe same goes for the Mishnah by the way.

Hell, perhaps readying Spinoza in the original hebrew... if you want to go for philosophy... and he is a classic, especially his ethics

[Patsy Stone]

20. Not saying you did

I'm just saying there are other ways to learn Hebrew.

[DRoseDARs]

13. My Hebrew teacher at a community college had a Hell of a time finding secular books for the class...

We ended up using a prayer songbook initially to learn the aleph-bet until the regular non-religious textbooks arrived about 2 weeks into the semester. It was the first semester the class was offered and I took it some years ago, so I'm sure she has made improvements.

[Scurrilous]

10. Hebrew charter school goes English -- for now

At the Broward School Board's request, students at a Hebrew language charter school will not study the language for now.

<snip>

"Josh Tillinger was a seventh-grader with a mission Thursday.

Clutching a petition as he bounded into a Ben Gamla Charter School classroom, he urged fellow students to join his protest.

"We heard that there wouldn't be Hebrew anymore," the 12-year-old said. "We all decided that we really want Hebrew class, and it's worth the effort."

The Hollywood school, billed as the nation's first English-Hebrew charter school, has agreed not to teach the language until Broward School Board members vote on a new curriculum at a Sept. 11 meeting.

It was the latest setback for the K-8 school, which has been under intense scrutiny for months, long before its Monday opening. Critics allege that it breaches the separation of church and state, but the school insists that it is not religious in any way.

School Board members on Tuesday postponed voting on a Hebrew curriculum plan -- the third that they had considered -- because of concerns that some of the resources had religious overtones. A list of the school's teaching materials included a website with link about ordering prayer books. A board member also pointed out a site that mentioned God and vocabulary from the Hebrew Bible."

http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/213546.html

[Canuckistanian]

12. It's a LANGUAGE class, not a religious lesson

Hebrew is a hard enough language to learn for a western student. The alphabet, the right-to-left script, the absence of vowels....

My point is, with all these things to learn, who has the TIME to proselytize for Judaism?

When you learn a language, you're not paying attention to the spritual meanings of texts. You're only trying to learn vocabulary, syntax, tense and expressions well enough to pass that exam.

I studied 3 languages in University and only after I had mastered the basics did I pay attention to the social/religious/political messages in the study texts. And even then, it didn't matter.

I would get royally pissed if any instructor started wasting my class time with extraneous information like that.

[DRoseDARs]

14. As some have mentioned, non-religious books for secular classes aren't always readily available.

Like I mentioned in my post somewhere above, my teacher had difficulty finding an appropriate textbook for the class. She was forced to use a prayer songbook to get us started with the "aleph-bet" (it's not the alphabet, that's for Westerners ) until the non-religious textbooks arrived.

[Canuckistanian]

15. My first lessons in Russian were from a military textbook

We learned how to say "Look, there's a tank" and "Give me that grenade" and "the sailor is over there".

We didn't care. We thought it was a bit weird, but we didn't feel we were getting military training.

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. Looks like I'll have to shelve plans

for that Old Church Slavonic charter school.

[dipsydoodle]

17. I give up - does it say

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay...........

[Patsy Stone]

19. Nice reference!

I love Rebecca.

[tom_paine]

18. All I can see are all the Loyal Bushie Charters Madrassas getting their usual free pass

while the Jews (and don't kid yourself, most Loyal and Royal Bushies still hate the Jews, but because Hitler ruined it for them can no longer express it openly, also many Jews these days, actually ARE Kidner and Gentler Nazis, which is to say Bushies) get...well, about the same treatment we have always gotten from Loyal Bushies, Loyal Nazis, Loyal Medeval Christians, etc. etc. etc.

Let us say the treatment we Jews got from Bushies and Nazis (I am speaking of 1933-1936 here, which is analogous to 2001-2007 in Amerikan Time, and before the camps opened full-throttle) was "special".

Still is, as we can see from this casual result of the Naizification/Bushification of the Amerikan government.

[Scurrilous]

21. Hebrew charter school's curriculum approved

<snip>

"The Ben Gamla Charter School will start teaching Hebrew again on Monday. For the past few weeks, the Hollywood K-8 school -- which was formed to teach Hebrew as a second language -- has been focusing on other subjects while its teaching materials were thoroughly vetted to ensure that religion was absent.

On Tuesday, Broward School Board members unanimously approved the new curriculum. It's the fourth time the school has gone to the board to have its teaching material approved.

"The issue of religious-free Hebrew has been resolved," said board member Eleanor Sobel, who has been a vocal critic of the school. "But I don't believe it's over." The school will continue to submit lesson plans to the school district so they can be analyzed. The school, which has been under scrutiny for months, halted the Hebrew lessons on Aug. 23, two days after board members postponed a decision on the curriculum because they wanted it to be thoroughly examined.

Critics allege that it breached the separation of church and state, but the school insists that it is not religious in any way."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/233...

[amandabeech]

22. How about a British and British-American school?

British history and culture, including Welsh, Scottish and Scotch-Irish. British history and culture in the United States and the Anglo-sphere. Literature, music, dance.

It is a slippery slope with so much potential of enmeshment of church and state, that I oppose any culturally-oriented school funded with tax dollars.

[0rganism]

23. but could you really teach Celtic traditions without promoting Druidism?

Seriously, at this point, I'm getting to be pretty ambivalent toward any teaching of common religious texts in public schools, even when billed as literature, classics studies, whatever. It's difficult to ensure that the curriculum remains separate and distinct from any personal agenda of the instructor. There's an awful lot of "nudge nudge, wink wink" happening.

[amandabeech]

25. Interesting question on Druidism.

But "nudge nudge, wink wink" is about the best description of this.

As I said above, not with my tax dollars.

[Snarkturian Clone]

24. This is really not that big of a deal.

Just too many anti-religious people here. I'm a true atheist because I don't give a shit about religion one way or the other. If they have enough students to fill the place and the community supports that culture, let them have a school.

The charter school I work at is publicly funded but was started by a church. The students are about 85% christian, 10% muslim, and 5% yahweh ben yahweh. They do prayers at assemblies once in a while(hasn't happened this year yet so maybe they got reprimanded?)... the non-christian students just ignore it, which is all you really have to do.

[amandabeech]

27. This is a very serious Constitutional issue.

This action challenges the First Amendment prohibition against the state establishment of religion. It is the establishment clause that keeps religion and government separate. You may not object, but many countries have seen civil wars because the government favored one religion over another. The situation between Sunni and Shia and the favoring of Shia by the Maliki government is an example of this.

If it were not for the Establishment Clause, the majority religion could push its beliefs down the throats of everyone. Although you don't care, many people really, and I mean really do. Keeping the government neutral keeps the peace in society.

Our founding fathers, often ridiculed here, had some really good ideas. This is one of them.

And yes, somebody must have complained about those prayers in assembly. It is illegal for a school to have any kind of official prayer.

[Snarkturian Clone]

28. I agree that the establishment clause is important. nt

[fujiyama]

26. Since it is paid by taxpayers

it is important not to have anything resembling proselytizing or advocation of any one religion. Of course it makes sense if the history of Judaism is taught at the school, and I'm assuming the teaching of Hebrew at the school is mandatory (though it makes me uneasy that any religion and language would be mandatory in a school) - but if the language is taught in the same historical context, I can see it being reasonable. It's hard for me to say for sure, because I don't know how much leeway charter schools have with regards to religion being taught. Personally, if charter schools receive public money, religious education (and only in a historical based context) should be kept to a bare minimum.

It's worth noting the ADL has voiced criticism over some of the teaching material being used with regards to church vs. state separation. Certainly the ADL can be criticized for many issues in recent years, but they've always been pretty consistent as an advocate of separating church and state.

[UncleSepp]

29. We learned Greek and Norse myth in school...

... it didn't turn us all pagan. Well, some of us, for a while :-P There's a difference between teaching a religious text and teaching a religion. It's possible, and sometimes even necessary, to use religious or folkloric texts to teach a language. It doesn't mean you have to teach that what is in the texts is the truth, or even true at all.