FROM THE TEAM
FROM THE EDITOR
WWW.JEWISHLIFE.CO.ZA
WELCOME
CREDITS
PUBLISHER & MANAGING DIRECTOR
EDS PHOTOGRAPH: ILAN OSSENDRYVER
W
e have an abundance of excellent Jewish day schools in South
Africa with the crucial purpose of transmitting Jewish values
and our sacred tradition, and each with their own ideas of how this
can be done. Across the world, people have defined Jewish
education as many different things. Some believed it should
centre on the Yiddish language and culture, others on a
connection to the State of Israel, some on learning Tanach off-byheart, others on in-depth Talmud study, and still more on Tikkun
Olam and outreach. Robert Sussman, director of Judaic studies at
the day school in Umhlanga, makes an excellent case for the need
for Jewish literacy (see page 56, and continued online in our
digital edition). Time will tell which path, if any, is most successful. And time takes time.
I had the privilege recently of looking through the day-to-day diary of the principals of King
David Linksfield Primary School from 1948 to 1965, an excellent bird’s eye view on early Jewish
education. An entry from 27 April 1948 reports the term beginning with only six pupils (of
around 44) present due to the polio epidemic, to many pages (and years later) where the school
had embraced 2 000 learners! The diary, mainly written by principal Dr A Beron, is both a broad
overview of the goals of Jewish education, as well as a record of the daily minutiae of running a
school. Teachers’ absent days, press clippings of sporting accomplishments, like Transvaal
trampolining, and dealing with
accusations that private schooling
produces snobbish children are
START WITH HOW INCREDIBLE G-D IS,
interspersed with experiments in
INSPIRING YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILDREN OR
how to teach math, how many
STUDENTS WITH CONSTANT EXAMPLES OF
hours need to be allocated to
learning Hebrew, and the ideal age
NATURAL WONDERS AND HIS PROVIDENCE IN
for school readiness. It gave me a
YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF OUR ANCESTORS. AT
glimpse into just how much
THE SAME TIME, CHILDREN MUST KNOW HOW
thought and effort goes into
educating a Jewish child.
INCREDIBLE THEY ARE; THEIR ABILITIES AND
Rabbi Ari Shishler gave a shiur
GIFTS AND THE SIMPLE FACT THAT G-D CARES
recently where he compared two
ABOUT THEIR EVERY ACTION AND THOUGHT
methods of educating children
about what G-d expects of them. The
AMONG SEVEN BILLION OTHER HUMANS!
classic shtetl approach was to scare
people into keeping the Torah with
threats of tzorris (troubles) in this world and the next. To a generation already suffering poverty and
pogroms, it was convincing enough to keep them on the straight and narrow. But Rabbi Shishler
offered a totally different and simple approach. Start with how incredible G-d is, inspiring yourself
and your children or students with constant examples of natural wonders and His Providence in
your life and the lives of our ancestors. At the same time, children must know how incredible they
are; their abilities and gifts and the simple fact that G-d cares about their every action and thought
among seven billion other humans! Then reveal that we have the opportunity to connect our
greatness with that of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, through doing His will. Simple.
Makes perfect sense to me, but I guess in the end we all rely on a huge amount of G-d’s grace to get
it remotely right when educating the next generation. May He bless