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Some of the most pious people I knew, my mother included, had an after-school Talmud Torah education. But they were the exception, rather than the rule. The majority of their friends, although they were from almost equally religious families, ultimately left Orthodox religious practice and more than a few totally left Judaism behind. It isn’t entirely a fear of the “other” that makes the hybrid you suggest unlikely to succeed. Study after study shows that a day school education is most likely to produce a practicing, committed Jew. Granted, there are many problems that day schools face, both financially and in their abilities to confront the difficulties of a changing society. But to go back to a system that largely failed our parent’s generation is a mistake. We need to look at new directions, but we’ve been down that path before and lost too many on the way.
Posted by C. Englander on 10/28/09 at 09:42 PMSorry, but I take exception with that comment from EB. I grew up in a “modern-orthodox” home. I went to a secular school and had a “two afternoon/Sunday morning” Hebrew School education. I, from that education, and my upbringing, can daven in front my congregation as Ba’al Tfiloh. Trust me, it can be done.
Posted by Sam on 10/28/09 at 01:35 PMSo, basically, afternoon Hebrew school? What’s new about that? That’s been a part of the American Jewish experience for generations. And, it’s produced generations of kids with a poor Jewish education and identity. I watched my father-in-law, a man who grew up in an orthodox home with a secular and afternoon Hebrew school education, unable to say kaddish for his mother after she passed away last year. That’s not the education I want for my children.
Posted by EB on 10/28/09 at 11:51 AM
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