The American Association for Jewish Education, supported by other national Jewish organizations, issued a call today to Jewish parents to enroll their children in Jewish schools.
The call stresses the need for intensive study in a Jewish school “which most closely serves your own views on what is the loftiest expression of Judaism.” It also emphasizes the value of having Jewish children continue beyond Bar Mitzvah, and confirmation into the later teenage period “when young people earnestly grope for the answers to their questions about life’s meaning, and when their Jewish education can help them find these answers.”
The appeal also deals with the “critical shortage” of competent teachers for Jewish schools and urges Jewish communities to rally behind the program of the American Association for Jewish Education designed to meet the teacher crisis locally and nationally.
“If steps were taken in every community to accord the profession of Jewish teaching the honored place it has traditionally held, if Jewish teachers were offered economic security and standards of employment on a par with other skilled occupations, and if they were assured the professional and personal satisfactions which are as important to a dedicated person as his earnings, many more young people would be ready to make Jewish teaching their life’s career,” the appeal says.
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