By Mary Hofmann
I went to a workshop this week aimed at giving Sunday School teachers insight into and assistance in instituting and utilizing Union's Chai Curriculum.  As the only teacher from a tiny congregation (we have six to eight kids in our whole "school") I listened sadly to the tales of woe from the urban teachers. As the facilitator said, Jewish education has always been considered supplemental education--not supplemental to public school, but supplemental to what kids get at home. Sadly, it is no longer a supplement.  In many, if not most, temples, Sunday School is the whole ball of wax.
 
What a bummer.

Made me nearly reel in gratitude for our little Shabbat School.  Bucking all trends, my grouplet meets Saturday morning, a fact which met with a chorus of "but what about soccer?" from the big city folk. While in little Merced I may moan about numbers, it seems everybody else is worried--and horrifying so--about trying to jam into their Sunday mornings the child's entire Jewish identity and experience. No wonder camp has become the Holy Grail, you should excuse the expression, of Jewish identity for modern liberal Jewish kids. And I always sorta thought the big camping push was really just a slick marketing trick. No. I guess camp really has become the make-or-break for most Jewish kids' identity because it's the only place where they get an immersion experience.
 
My class may be tiny, but they show up with their parents to my house every Saturday morning for two hours. And most show up with their parents every Friday evening for services, often driving us to distraction, but they're there. They've been able to at least parrot the Shabbat table blessings in Hebrew since they were two or three and Shabbat is part of their little lives, not something their parents drop them off for hoping somebody else will give them what they aren't bothering with at home.
 
I'm really excited about starting this fall with my little guys and Chai, which will be a great supplement to their lives. But what about all those other kids out there? The kids with the "advantage" of having a building and lots of members and a real school? 
 
We always bemoan how small we are and try to figure out ways to grow. Is that what we have to look forward to if we do?

COMMENTS PRIOR TO TECH ISSUES

M. B. said:
I learned in college that a big class or a big school isn't a prerequisite to a good education. One of my friends was young woman who had attended a one room school in a small town. She learned enough to gain admittance to a top ten university and proceeded to beat much of the competition, graduating near the top of her class.
Some of the great figures have been self educated in religion. Take Thomas Jefferson for example.
Leaning is a life long process. It should be an enjoyable and exciting one. All we can hope to do as teachers is to awaken the interest of the young students in our history, our ethics, and Bible and to give them some of the basic knowledge to explore themselves. That and to give them a little orientation about the holidays, temple and rituals so that they can feel at home. They will absorb some from their family, including, hopefully, a few good recipes or at least the appreciation for some of the better Jewish food. Jews are renowned for their voracious reading, justifying the printing of many more books and articles on Jewish history, issues and theology than our small numbers would seem to predict.
Some of the big schools with all the money, students, and other resources, wind up wasting most of it on busy work and repelling the students instead of attracting them to Judaism.
August 25, 2008 11:19 PM

Marge Eiseman said:
Mary,
My rabbi always said, "Judaism isn't about the numbers!" If it were, we'd have given up long ago -- and as you and your congregation already discovered, that's not an option!
Keep going and grow if that's what needs to happen, but keep focused on having Jewish experiences and making meaning. That's what will ultimately ground your children AND their parents in being life-long Jewish learners and participants.
You're doing great!
-- Marge
August 26, 2008 3:11 PM

BZ said:
M.B.:
"Jewish food"? What happened to universal prophetic values and being fully integrated into American society?
August 26, 2008 8:54 PM

Larry Kaufman said:
Mary, I was startled at your definition of supplemental as supplementing the home rather than the public school. But I'd like to propose that the public school provides (secular) education, the home provides (Jewish) values -- and what you are doing that is unique is that your little school synthesizes Jewish education and the Jewish values of mishpacha, family, talmud torah, learning, and of Shabbat.
What you have going for you, I infer, is that unlike us big-city big-congregation people, you have peer pressure working for you rather than against you -- and motivating the parents, not just the kids.
My wife grew up in a small town with only a handful of Jews -- but 50+ years later, she is still in some sort of contact with virtually everyone she went to religious school with. Meanwhile I barely remember the names of my Sunday school classmates.
So count your blessings, as hopefully your students of all ages count theirs in having you.
August 26, 2008 10:50 PM

M. B. said:
BZ:
Hey, we've all got to eat!
August 27, 2008 1:22 AM

David A.M. Wilensky said:
@ M.B.: I think what BZ was implying is that the notion that there might be such a thing as Jewish food is entirely tied into the notion that there is a Jewish culture. It's a little odd coming from you, given that you've often talked in your comments on this blog of Judaism as religion only as per your extreme classical leaning.
August 27, 2008 3:43 PM

M. B. said:
Jews are known for some great foods like corned beef sandwiches with kosher dill pickles and potato salad, kosher hot dogs or for the perfect for Passover flourless chocolate cakes our ancestors invented in Italy. Food provides a powerful association for those of us who grew up in Jewish homes, especially at the holidays. My family thinks fried matzo is delicious on Passover or any Sunday morning. Its all just a fringe benefit of being Jewish.
A lot of people pick up bagels every morning and eat kosher hot dogs often who aren't Jewish at all. They just like the food, as Jews enjoy foods from other lands and ethnic groups. Hundreds of thousands speak Hebrew now who are Muslim or Christian. Jews tend to be sympathetic to the underdogs, but so are a lot of other people. Some people adopt the culture without the religious beliefs and others the religious beliefs without the culture.
Culture is changeable, especially fluid in the modern world in the age of radio and TV, and particularly so in a country like ours where families in our communities are of many racial, religious and ethnic groups that are constantly cross-pollenating each other.
August 27, 2008 11:05 PM

Mary Hofmann said:
Thanks, everybody, for your encouraging responses (though I'm stymied by the several references to food . . . we do make Hebrew letter of the week cookies at Shabbat School, but that's pretty much it, in terms of food) . . . Anyway, my guilty secret: the truth is, I LOVE my tiny class and what we do. I've been everything in the congregation--from president on down, often repeatedly--and what I love best is teaching (not surprising, since I'm a teacher in my day job as well). During my lengthy tenure as responsible board member, my emphasis had to be on growth and development, of course (not that it did much good). But the truth is, I too believe kids at a big temple are losing out in terms of what they're kids are getting compared to ours, and except for that residual guilt from too many years on the board, I'd be very content to stick with my little group throughout their entire Jewish educations!
August 28, 2008 1:43 AM

David A.M. Wilensky said:
M.B., you're making my point for me! You're saying that food, which you openly admit is part of a cultural heritage, can be a powerful device for creating an association in a student.
This is exactly the argument for Judaism as a religion AND a culture! Without the cultural elements, like the corned beef without the rye, the religion just comes apart!
August 28, 2008 3:55 AM

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