But is that a panacea for all that ails American Jewry? Clearly not. Day schools remain our best investment in Jewish continuity, and making them more affordable for the middle-class must also receive priority funding and attention.
Jewish camps and trips to Israel are other vital tools in this battle that are also in need of scarce funds. But unfortunately, the process of changing communal policy to give education the greatest share of our resources is far from over.
Yet even the best of schools or camps cannot make up for a lack of interest in the home and on the part of parents, many of whom are themselves Jewishly ignorant. If children are merely dropped off at these schools with no follow-up by their families, then the quality of the school will, in the long run, won’t matter much.
As it so happens, a few nights ago, at bedtime during my reading of a Passover book, my daughter interrupted me to say that she now wanted to do something. Inspired by the story, she said she wanted to go to Israel to see the Burning Bush and meet Moses. But that wasn’t all! We also needed to go with Moses to see Pharaoh and take him to see the bush, and that maybe then he wouldn’t be so mean to the Jewish slaves.
While her grasp of the timeline of Jewish history will improve in the years to come, I don’t think she’ll do better in getting at the essence of Jewish values, even if I fear she is a trifle optimistic about unhardening the hearts of the wicked.
Let’s hope the rest of her generation will do as well in the future.