A “radical and imaginative overhaul” of the American Jewish school curriculum in the light of what he called the realities of the present, inadequate Jewish religious education being provided Jewish children, was urged here today by David Rudavsky, president of the National Council for Jewish Education. He spoke at the closing session of a two-day General Assembly of the Synagogue Council of America held at Columbia University.
Although there has been an increase in Jewish school enrollment, “we must not delude ourselves in the belief that we can succeed in giving our children the bare essentials of a Jewish education in the few years of their elementary Jewish schooling, ” Dr. Rudavsky said. “We must rely and insist on several years of continued study beyond the Bar Mitzvah.”
Pointing out that children with only pre-Bar Mitzvah education are equipped for their adult lives with only “juvenile notions of Judaism, ” the educator urged the building of a secondary Jewish education system and the popularization of the study of Hebrew in the public high schools. “It is high time, ” he added, “that not only Orthodox but Conservative and even Reform section in Jewry should establish Jewish day schools.”
In a paper on “Religious Revival and Jewish Family Life,” Sidney Aronson, faculty member of the Brooklyn College department of sociology and anthropology, said that “it might not be inaccurate to say that one of the reasons for the current religious revival accompanied by increased synagogue affiliation and identification is the need for the family to have some support.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
