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Dear students and families,
One of the burdens and blessings of being an educator is wrestling with complexity and dealing with the endlessly diverse, contradictory, and sometimes overlapping perspectives that shape our reality. It would be much easier to approach education ideologically – by reducing reality into simplistic binaries and telling young people what to think and not how to think – but such an approach only leads to obedience, conformity, and resentment.
Instead, the best educators create spaces for inquiry, analysis, and dialogue, qualities that lie at the heart of the Jewish tradition and democratic life more broadly.
I’ve been thinking about these themes not simply in the context of Passover, but also in view of rising campus activism about Israel/Palestine, including at my alma mater, Columbia University, where all of the complexities and intensities both within Judaism and across other traditions are being laid bare. As I read the news and connect with friends and colleagues on every side of the issue, several questions come into view:
- How do Jewish values and universal ethics call us to act in this moment?
- How do we make sense of the many Jewish students within the encampments who are advocating for justice and human rights, some while leading Seders?
- How do we address the many Jewish students who feel harassed, bullied, and intimidated by real and virulent expressions of anti-semitism?
- How can we cultivate solidarity across traditions of faith, culture, ethnicity, and political orientation?
In the face of questions like these, our responsibility as educators at Kehillah is to address these issues with sensitivity and care, even when the temptation might be to avoid them entirely. Instead of withdrawing, we engage, not by imposing our own views, but by fostering dialogue and encouraging compassion – especially when we disagree.
Next week, we will be offering opportunities for students to do just that – to talk, listen, process, and ask questions during optional workshops at lunch (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). And we will continue to build an academic program that prepares students to be ethically engaged leaders – now and into the future.
Best,
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