Anonymous writes in:
The question Hillel must ask itself is:
Do we want to be A SCHOOL OF JEWS or do we want to be A JEWISH SCHOOL?
There’s a big difference between the two.
We are all G-d’s children. 100% true.
And because Jews believe in Tikkun Olam and believe we should help ALL of G-d’s children:
–Jews have marched alongside blacks during the Civil Rights Movement.
–Israel is the first country to send out rescue workers when earthquakes or tsunamis strike other parts of the world and wipe out thousands.
As Jews, we very much do care for our fellow neighbors.
However, caring about your fellow neighbor does not mean that you practice the same religious beliefs .
I don’t see prestigious Catholic schools appointing Jews as their Deans or appointing Jews as principals of every division.
This is not on account of prejudice at all.
This is rather because we live in a free country that allows each religion to freely raise their children and teach them the ways of their own religious beliefs, holidays, customs, history, etc.
We should embrace this freedom. We appreciate living in a diverse, pluralistic, mutitcultural, multireligious tolerant country.
We should not, however, forsake our heritage.
Jews make up less than 1% of the world population.
What is THE KEY that has enabled us to remain united and strong in the face of every attempt to obliterate us?
The answer is : a strong united Jewish community that provides the next generation with a strong Jewish education.
We must know who we are if we wish for our children to know who they are and where they come from.
If we don’t care about this , we can send our kids to non-parochial schools (Miami Country Day, Ransom, Pinecrest) and allow them to marry non-Jews. And that is valid for some people. I respect people who make that decision.
But, parents who send their children to Hillel do so because they WANT their children to learn about Jewish traditions, holidays, the land of Israel, how to prevent another Holocaust, and why it’s important to stay married within the faith.
If those values are no longer important at Hillel, why would a parent continue to send their children to Hillel? (….just so they don’t have to rub elbows with kids at Krop?…not a good enough reason!)
A Jewish day school needs to be run by a Jewish Head of School who can appreciate what our goals are (and not just our academic goals but our spiritual goals as well) in ways that a Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Moslem cannot fully apprehend.
There’s nothing wrong with having a Moslem dean either…but why would we want to?
Certainly Jews are not Deans at Moslem parochial schools? It’s a ludicrous idea and most people understand why.
It’s surprising that we are even having this discussion to begin with.
How MYOPIC can one be already?
11 responses so far ↓
1 anon // Apr 21, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Rabbi Kaplan, you are doing a great job keeping the school together!!!
2 Anonymous // Apr 22, 2007 at 1:00 am
Agreed!
3 Anonymous // Apr 23, 2007 at 11:19 am
What is being done at Hillel today to commerate the thousands of Jewish boys who sacrificed their lives so that we could all have a Homeland?
Yom HaZikaron
Poems by Natan Alterman
The Silver Salver
“A State is not handed to a people on a silver salver”
Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel
The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
– Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night
Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair,
– Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
“Who are you, the silent two?”
And they reply: “We are the silver salver
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you.”
And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation’s feet.
Let the rest in Israel’s chronicles be told.
The Third Mother
Mothers are singing. Mothers are singing.
A fist of thunder bangs down. Strong silence.
Red-bearded lamps are marching
in the empty streets in rows.
Autumn mortally ill, weary,
inconsolable autumn,
rain without beginning or end.
No candle in the window, now light in the world,
three mothers sing.
I hear one of them say:
“He was here but yesterday.
I shall kiss his every fingernail and finger.
I see a tall ship in a calm bay,
and my son from the topmast hanging.”
And the second one says:
“My son is tall and quiet.
I am sewing a holiday shirt for my dear.
He’s walking in the fields. He will soon be here.
And he holds in his heart a lead bullet.”
And the third mother says with her wandering eyes:
“No one was dearer or kinder…
Who shall weep when he comes if I cannot see?
I do not know where he finds him.”
And she bathed her eyelashes with weeping.
Perhaps he is only resting. Perhaps
in foreign places he measures
the paths of Your world, O God,
(Like a wandering monk) with kisses.
Uri Zvi Greenberg
Those who Live by their Virtue Will Say
They were the chosen… They sang… Now their voices are silent.
The true sons of the race of David that fell with their sword in their hand
Simple and lovely like young David of the Shepherd Clan…
And they shall praise Thee, O Lord, from the dust they’ve returned to!
The dust Thou created them from is the dust of death…
This kind of dust whereof Thou createth primeval man.
The Temple Mount and the Rock -
From that dust they’ll praise Thee… Immortal are they!
There is no truth, no glory but them.
And we, in this world, do live by their virtue.
And by their splendour we prosper.
Whoever looks unto their graves will ne’er be enslaved any longer.
Amir Gilboa
And My Brother Said Nothing
extracts [for copyright reasons]:
My brother came back from the field
dressed in grey. And I was afraid that
my dream might prove false, so at once
I began to count his wounds.
And my brother said nothing.
[…]
Then I undid the pack
and took out his belongings, memory by memory.
[…]
And my brother said nothing.
And his blood was crying out from the ground.
Chaim Hefer
The Paratroopers Wept
This Wall has heard many prayers.
This Wall has seen many walls crumble.
[…]
But this Wall never saw paratroopers weep…
[…]
Perhaps it is because the bours of 19
who were born together with the State
carry on their backs — two thousand years…
Shaul Tchernikhovsky
You See, O Earth
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been:
In your secret laps of blessing
we hid seed - not the clean
Glass-clear pearls of spelt,
but seeds of heavy wheat,
Grains of yellowish barley,
oats on frightened feet.
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been:
Flowers of flowers we hid in you,
fresh with glorious sheen;
They were kissed by the earliest kiss
of the sun just coming up,
Burying beauty with graceful stem,
with the crown of the willing cup;
Before they could know noon
in the midst of innocent sorrow,
Before dreaming of light in growth
or drinking dew upon the morrow.
The best of our sons we brought you,
youth of purest dreams,
Clear in heart and deed,
untouched by earth’s dark streams,
The cloth of their years yet woof,
a cloth of hopes to be,
We have none better than these.
Earth, did you see?
And you shall cover them all.
Let the plant rise in its season!
A hundred measures of might and glory,
for people, homeland vision!
They atone for our lives in glory,
their sacrifice unseen…
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been.
4 Anonymous // Apr 23, 2007 at 11:19 am
What is being done at Hillel today to commerate the thousands of Jewish boys who sacrificed their lives so that we could all have a Homeland?
Yom HaZikaron
Poems by Natan Alterman
The Silver Salver
“A State is not handed to a people on a silver salver”
Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel
The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
– Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night
Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair,
– Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
“Who are you, the silent two?”
And they reply: “We are the silver salver
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you.”
And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation’s feet.
Let the rest in Israel’s chronicles be told.
The Third Mother
Mothers are singing. Mothers are singing.
A fist of thunder bangs down. Strong silence.
Red-bearded lamps are marching
in the empty streets in rows.
Autumn mortally ill, weary,
inconsolable autumn,
rain without beginning or end.
No candle in the window, now light in the world,
three mothers sing.
I hear one of them say:
“He was here but yesterday.
I shall kiss his every fingernail and finger.
I see a tall ship in a calm bay,
and my son from the topmast hanging.”
And the second one says:
“My son is tall and quiet.
I am sewing a holiday shirt for my dear.
He’s walking in the fields. He will soon be here.
And he holds in his heart a lead bullet.”
And the third mother says with her wandering eyes:
“No one was dearer or kinder…
Who shall weep when he comes if I cannot see?
I do not know where he finds him.”
And she bathed her eyelashes with weeping.
Perhaps he is only resting. Perhaps
in foreign places he measures
the paths of Your world, O God,
(Like a wandering monk) with kisses.
Uri Zvi Greenberg
Those who Live by their Virtue Will Say
They were the chosen… They sang… Now their voices are silent.
The true sons of the race of David that fell with their sword in their hand
Simple and lovely like young David of the Shepherd Clan…
And they shall praise Thee, O Lord, from the dust they’ve returned to!
The dust Thou created them from is the dust of death…
This kind of dust whereof Thou createth primeval man.
The Temple Mount and the Rock -
From that dust they’ll praise Thee… Immortal are they!
There is no truth, no glory but them.
And we, in this world, do live by their virtue.
And by their splendour we prosper.
Whoever looks unto their graves will ne’er be enslaved any longer.
Amir Gilboa
And My Brother Said Nothing
extracts [for copyright reasons]:
My brother came back from the field
dressed in grey. And I was afraid that
my dream might prove false, so at once
I began to count his wounds.
And my brother said nothing.
[…]
Then I undid the pack
and took out his belongings, memory by memory.
[…]
And my brother said nothing.
And his blood was crying out from the ground.
Chaim Hefer
The Paratroopers Wept
This Wall has heard many prayers.
This Wall has seen many walls crumble.
[…]
But this Wall never saw paratroopers weep…
[…]
Perhaps it is because the bours of 19
who were born together with the State
carry on their backs — two thousand years…
Shaul Tchernikhovsky
You See, O Earth
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been:
In your secret laps of blessing
we hid seed - not the clean
Glass-clear pearls of spelt,
but seeds of heavy wheat,
Grains of yellowish barley,
oats on frightened feet.
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been:
Flowers of flowers we hid in you,
fresh with glorious sheen;
They were kissed by the earliest kiss
of the sun just coming up,
Burying beauty with graceful stem,
with the crown of the willing cup;
Before they could know noon
in the midst of innocent sorrow,
Before dreaming of light in growth
or drinking dew upon the morrow.
The best of our sons we brought you,
youth of purest dreams,
Clear in heart and deed,
untouched by earth’s dark streams,
The cloth of their years yet woof,
a cloth of hopes to be,
We have none better than these.
Earth, did you see?
And you shall cover them all.
Let the plant rise in its season!
A hundred measures of might and glory,
for people, homeland vision!
They atone for our lives in glory,
their sacrifice unseen…
You see, O earth,
how very wasteful we have been.
5 Who Will Run Our High School Next Year? // May 1, 2007 at 8:27 am
Board Members, Do you know that Rabbi Kaplan is the only Professional Jewish Principal running our High School for now.Which Jewish Principal is running it Next year? We need to Remember This School Is a Jewish Day School. We need to get more Jewish Professional Administrators to run our school.It will make our Hillel Community much happier.
6 anonymous // May 1, 2007 at 9:33 am
Yes, you are correct! ….and there is no reason we cannot have qualified, caring, Jewish professionals run our school! It should be a priority!
7 Thursday is the day they're announcing // May 1, 2007 at 2:02 pm
That the non-jews are running the show
8 Rabbi Kaplan will Save Our School // May 2, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Make your phone calls today. We want our Jewish Educators Running our school. Please we don’t need any more bad stories. We want our school to stay as A Jewish Commuinty School run by Jewish Professional Educators.Make your calls and make sure you tell the board to put Rabbi Kaplan in Power he will Save the Mess at our School. He is a doing a great job andEverybody is so happy.
9 mentalhealth // May 2, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Yes!
10 anonymous // May 2, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Absolutely right!
11 NOMINATIONS DUE MAY 11TH! // May 2, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Let’s nominate some board members who can put the JEW back in JEWISH EDUCATION!
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