Days before the holiday of Shavuot, the head of the Yad L'achim organization, Rabbi Sholom Dov Lipschitz, called for more action in promoting Jewish identity among tens of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren in Israel.
Yad L’achim: Kids in Israel’s Secular Schools Don’t Even Know Shema
Days before the holiday of Shavuot, the head of the Yad L’achim organization, Rabbi Sholom Dov Lipschitz, called for more action in promoting Jewish identity among tens of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren in Israel.
“There are some 80,000 non-Jewish students in Israeli schools now, where they attend classes with Jewish children,” said Rabbi Lipschitz. “As a result, the Jewish identity of these children is eroding. Eventually this may lead to high levels of intermarriage, as in the U.S.
“These children do not even know how to say the “Shema Yisrael” prayer; they cannot complete the holy sentence that accompanied Jews throughout all the generations, all the exiles. These children, already the third generation of the great immigration from Arab countries, are being ignored spiritually.”
“And if that weren’t enough,” continued Rabbi Lipschitz, “there are 25,000 members of missionary communities in Israel now. They open one after another, funded by generous budgets. Israel has turned into a center of international missionary activity, where they now train missionaries to be sent abroad.
“These statistics,” said Rabbi Lipschitz, “should shock every Jew. Once, when we heard about a far-removed member of the community whose daughter married a non-Jew, we cried and mourned. Once, when we heard about even the most secularized Jew who left their religion, we would sit like mourners and rip our clothes. Today, when these things have become commonplace, no one says a thing.
“This is not the time to engage in just a defensive war,” said Rabbi Lipschitz. “We must go out to war, invading his ‘lands,’ so he does not conquer ours.”
By way of example, Rabbi Lipschitz demanded religious and hareidi Knesset members do more to include Jewish identity content in the secular school system. “It is unbelievable that these MKs sit in the government and uncaringly ignore the fate of these young Jews who are being lost. If they sit in the Knesset and the government and allow these things to continue, they have a terrible responsibility on their shoulders.”
cor
sure makes me want to help out!
well,
Right, blame the presence of “others” in the country for this. It is a parental / community responsibility that those kids know Sh’ma, NOT a responsibility of the state. Parents who give up their children’s Jewish upbringing have always existed and will always exist, whether in other countries or in the country with a Jewish majority. I understand the sad feelings over this, it’s only natural, but introducing religion into secular schools is not a solution – fundamentally this is about each family’s and each individual’s choice. The presence of kiruv groups is a counterbalance and they’re doing their job in offering other choices to these kids – forcing a religious identity in secular schools is not going to lead to anything worthwhile, especially if divorced from a broad context of Jewish upbringing at home and degraded to just another school “subject” – if anything, it’s going to make kids have one more school subject to roll their eyes about, dislike and foster negative feelings about in a lack of an overall religious atmosphere in their lives.
Live and let live and do your job in offering other choices to those kids if this is important to you.
Andrea Schonberger
Maybe it’s like in the United States in that public schools are not allowed to teach religion.
Thank you
Right on, #2.
yanke
why do you have a article of a organisation which fights chabad?
Yad leAchim fan
Yad leAchim is not a part of Chabad, but if the Rebbe did not actually found it (as some say he did), he certainly encouraged it. Rav Sholom Ber Lifschitz is, as his name suggests, 100% Lubavitch.
(Lev l’Achim is a minuscule, copycat organization that is mainly a fundraising scam and fights Chabad more than it fights missionaries; hence the confusion.)
Sorry, EY is not America and Jews are not Americans. The state can only exist if it has a clear Jewish identity, and we are responsible for our Jewish brothers and sisters who were denied a Jewish education no matter where they are. The parents themselves don’t know what the Shema means; how can they teach their children?
In three generations, thanks to the Russian immigration, there will be about 2 million “Jewish goyim” in EY if something is not done.
The reason there are so many leftists in EY who are willing to give land to the Arabs and put the entire Jewish people in danger is that there are no Jewish values taught in the secular schools. Most secular Israelis have no real attachment to the land and would move away tomorrow if the going got too tough. And it is because they know no better.
And Rav Lifschitz is blaming the RELIGIOUS politicians (who are more worried about their own power than about Jewish education), rather than doing what every self-appointed wonder rabbi over there does and blaming the secular who know no better. For once, someone knows what he is talking about.
to #2
what are u rambling about? since when is teaching and exposing considered forcing? not every parent is equipped wit the knowledge and power to give their children a jewish identity, and as jews we are responsible for one another. yad lachim is an unbelievable org and should be supported by all of us!