The one antidote that has been proven and repeated – repeated and repeated ad nauseam – to solve the ills of assimilation is providing a high-quality, affordable (or, better yet, free) intensive Jewish education to all Jewish children who seek it, irrespective of their parents’ financial condition or stream of religious affiliation.
Incredibly, notwithstanding all of the published and well-documented findings, there has not been one Jewish Federation, national rabbinic group or Jewish welfare organization that has stated on the record that every local community must provide massive funding for the establishment of a universal system of affordable (or, better yet, free) Jewish education that is available for all of our Jewish children. Can anyone imagine the power of such a concept being implemented?
Why do Jewish lay leaders, Federation leaders, rabbis and parents continue to fumble and bumble while they remain passively silent, failing to demand that our children deserve the birthright of community-funded, universal, intensive Jewish education? After all, the children can’t educate themselves.
Next time you meet a rabbi or Federation leader, inquire as to why he or she isn’t demanding community-funded, universal, intensive Jewish education for all of our children.
Like the proverbial tree in the forest, the tree of Jewish life in the 21st century is falling with deafening reverberations. The sad part is that our Jewish leadership is not hearing it. And even if they were, their silence suggests they don’t seem to care.