Posted on 02/14/2010 9:14:37 AM PST by Nachum
On a recent Monday morning in southern Brooklyn, 20 kindergarteners sat on a rug, staring up at a photo of President Obama.
Their teacher, Nitzan Graham, asked them, in Hebrew, to identify the parts of Obama's face, and the children were ecstatic, yelling out the Hebrew words for "nose" and "mouth." When the ruckus had died down, Graham asked Jasmine, a 5-year-old African-American girl with pigtails, to stand up. "What are these?" the teacher asked, pointing to Obama's eyes. "Ena'im!" the girl said gleefully.
It's a typical morning at the Hebrew Language Academy, a charter school mostly funded by the state of New York. Its dual-language program is among the first of its kind, making the four-month-old school a showcase for others interested in using it as a model.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Indoctrination 101
I am still working on why some American Jews have turned their back on Israel. It makes no sense and it speaks volumes of what little character they possess.
New York is out of money but not out of ideas for spending it.
My old neighborhood. Yech.
Simple....Liberalism is their religion. Just for old time sakes, they have given it a “Jewish” veneer.
“I am still working on why some American Jews have turned their back on Israel.”
I am member of a politically conservative Jewish family, and feel as though I can speak for my family. In answer to your above queston:
We, too, are still trying to figure out why some (too many) American Jews have turned their backs on Israel. They certainly haven’t learned the lessons of history!
Please take comfort in the fact that there are many non-Jews who are standing in the gap for the ones who’ve turned their backs. I’d love to be Jewish, but there’s that whole Catholic thing...I was raised to believe that once a Catholic, always a Catholic, and if you changed religions, you just bought yourself an E-ticket to hell. So, I speak up for Jews, and support them morally. I know it’s not as good as the real thing, but it is something.
They are American liberals first, then Jewish. Not that being an American first is necessarily a bad thing, but their ideology overcomes their religion.
There is a huge amount of denial of current realities, and they choose not to abandon their lifelong indoctrination into liberalism.
Does it make sense that Israel’s security is not a priority for them? Of course it doesn’t. Does liberalism make sense to you?
I think you are right on. They interpret the Torah to support their collectivist worldview. Usually, the Orthodox movement is more politically conservative, but also the most religiously observant. The Conservative and Reform movements are typically more politically liberal (depending on the local community).
Being in Los Angeles and not very religious, I really haven’t found a place for me that reconciles my political beliefs and Judaic sensibilities. Our current temple has subsitituted libralism for Judaism by including Global Warmism and Obamaism in the the Jewish Day School curriculum, and ridiculing Republicans from the pulpit.
I feel much closer to G-d hiking in the mountains then I do in temple.
I suppose that many liberal Jews are conflicted about Israel, if not downright embarrassed by it (especially when it defends itself). A few would no doubt be relieved if it just disappeared, by whatever means. It would be one less point of contention with their liberal (slightly anti-semitic) “friends”. Jews fitting this description are useful idiots as best—at worst, they would have been Kapos in the Nazi era.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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We'd be better off it the federal government had less influence on education. State or Federal, taxpayers should under no circumstances be paying for religiously or ethnically oriented schools. The Hebrew Language Academy can charge tuition as private schools should.
This is supposed to be a POSITIVE development?
:-(
I might add, taking the Mezzuzahs off the doors was a heinous act.
I visit many a Christian Home in my travels that have a Mezzuzah on the door frame from a previous occupant. They have asked me what it is. I tell them it contains a few verses from Deuteronomy and the command to post the Law on the door frame. After hearing what it is, the new Christian Occupant of the dwelling has opted to KEEP the Mezzuzah ON the door frame rather than leave a couple of screw holes that sit in mute testimony to negativity and anti-Jewishness.
Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, Hebrew has been a foreign language option at selected New York public high schools for decades. What's new here is its introduction at an early elementary school level, and the degree of pupil immersion in it.
Wonder if the usual suspects on the Jewish Left will protest this as a violation of their "wall of separation" between church and state. Somehow, I doubt it so long as the kids can play around with The Anointed One's picture.
Disgusting.
If it was anything like this description, I feel sick. What’s next? And why drag Hebrew language instruction into this? When do they start offering up sacrifices, or having Bacchanalian orgies in the gym with his smiling face looking on?
I think I may have occasionally seen a picture of Ike or JFK on a bulletin board. I don't recall them as object of worship (hardly), but I do think they were there as part of the American scene.
ML/NJ
Agreed, but please take note of these factors:
A public school featuring immersion in Arabic language and culture was opened in NYC several years ago. There was controversy over its Islamic orientation, but I believe it is still in business nonetheless. After all, it would be very politically incorrect to close it down, but they did change administration IIRC. I'll guarantee that school is infinitely more likely to violate the church-state separation doctrine than the Hebrew language school under discussion here.
In the case of the study of the Hebrew language, it has long been offered as a foreign language option in some public high schools in New York. There has been no constitutional controversy over the "establishment of religion" clause with respect to such classes, just as there has been none over the teaching of Latin in public schools. So it is possible to teach Hebrew as a secular language apart from Jewish religious studies.
Again all the “Separation of Church and State” rules NEVER seem to apply to the “sons of the prophet”
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