Whoa!
Rabbi Oppenheimer (the rav who kicked off Portland's transformation into a model of a thriving Torah community) wrote this week here:
I have heard Rabbi Yissochor Frand שליט"א say on several occasions that when he was growing up in Seattle, they considered the Jewish community in Portland, Oregon to be a virtual עיר הנדחת. The community seemed so irredeemably lost to Torah-true Judaism that there was no hope that anything positive would come from it. Surely that was meant hyperbolically; it has been proven quite wrong...
Portland is now a community that other communities look to to find out how to grow a Torah community.
...
The other item in this vein is that I recently caught up with a middle school classmate who was able to fill me in on what the rest of our class is doing.
Pretty much every one of us is doing something that could not have been predicted from who we were in middle school.
The boy who slouched in the back of the room with his hair in his eyes is a rising star in the fashion industry.
The girl who never went anywhere without two spare pairs of high-fashion shoes is in rural South America organizing a farming commune.
The list goes on and on like that. Almost none of us seem to have proceeded in a straight line from who we were in middle school.
I look now at the class of middle schoolers I taught this year and realize that everything I think I know about them could be wrong completely.
Showing posts with label history of Jewish education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history of Jewish education. Show all posts
Demographics
Someone recently quoted to me an insightful comment by a teenage girl. She had been asked to describe her transition from attending a cozy small-town high school to attending a much larger high school in a larger community.
She summarized,
"I lost my mentors, and in their place I gained role models."
...
It doesn't sound to me like a value judgment in favor of one or the other. Others may read it differently.
"Where is the next Torah frontier?"
From an article by Rabbi Feigenbaum of Toronto; the full article is here.
A student once exclaimed to me, “I wish I would have been alive during the Holocaust – I could have been a hero and someone would have written a book about me. Now I am just another good girl who does chesed.” Everyone wants to move up a step, improve on the past, and feel they have conquered new heights and done something for the greater good. But what is left today? Taliesim will never slip again, no one is forced to work on Shabbos, everything is kosher, and chesed is institutionalized. Where is the next Torah frontier to conquer?
The easiest way to get that feeling of growth is to focus on the external – anything you can do I can do stricter, and the school with the most rules wins. Why? Because internal growth is hard to measure and, for societal reasons, frum people are not comfortable talking about “connections to Hashem” and “spiritual growth.”
A student once exclaimed to me, “I wish I would have been alive during the Holocaust – I could have been a hero and someone would have written a book about me. Now I am just another good girl who does chesed.” Everyone wants to move up a step, improve on the past, and feel they have conquered new heights and done something for the greater good. But what is left today? Taliesim will never slip again, no one is forced to work on Shabbos, everything is kosher, and chesed is institutionalized. Where is the next Torah frontier to conquer?
The easiest way to get that feeling of growth is to focus on the external – anything you can do I can do stricter, and the school with the most rules wins. Why? Because internal growth is hard to measure and, for societal reasons, frum people are not comfortable talking about “connections to Hashem” and “spiritual growth.”
A big-picture view of modern hareidi communities
R' Ahron Lopiansky on the growing pains of the American Jewish community at large, and the idea of kehilla:
Are We a Klal?
Are We a Klal?
Many of the writers in this forum (and possibly readers) grew up in the post-war years in America. The Charedi community was miniscule and insignificant, its continuity uncertain. The stature and vision of a handful of great men, the tenacious and heroic efforts of a few capable askanim, and an extraordinary amount of siyata d’shmaya produced in half a century an incredible tzibbur. It would seem to us that we are in for a whopping kal v’chomer: if we could do it when the cards were stacked against us, certainly we can do it today when we have such incredible resources and such a wonderful track record.
But the reasoning is as flawed as that of the fellow who tried to turn his mom and pop outfit into a national corporation....
Telz
Rabbi Y. G. Bechhofer's article on the Telz yeshiva is here:
Telshe: 120 Years Since the Founding of the Yeshiva
"Rabbi Bar Shaul writes that in Telshe there were no mussar shmuessen, rather shiurei da'as. A shmuess is emotional, inspirational, and often informal. It is an experience of the heart. A shiur da'as is intellectual, educational, and covers a topic in a formal and systematic manner. It, too, reaches the heart, but via the mind."
Telshe: 120 Years Since the Founding of the Yeshiva
"Rabbi Bar Shaul writes that in Telshe there were no mussar shmuessen, rather shiurei da'as. A shmuess is emotional, inspirational, and often informal. It is an experience of the heart. A shiur da'as is intellectual, educational, and covers a topic in a formal and systematic manner. It, too, reaches the heart, but via the mind."
A few paragraphs on R' Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan from Dayan Grunfeld's Three Generations
I've read this paragraph before, but somehow this time it particularly resonated with me.
It is difficult to describe now, a generation later, the impression which the sudden death of Kaplan made on his contemporaries in Germany. And yet it is important for the understanding of the inner development of German-Jewish orthodoxy during three generations after Samson Raphael Hirsch to recapture that impression of more than thirty years ago. This can best be done by reproducing here a literal translation of the beginning of a memorial essay which appeared in "Jeschurun" soon after Kaplan's passing away: "It is generally agreed that never has there been witnessed in Berlin a similar scene of lamentation as on the day when Avrohom Eliyah Kaplan was laid to his eternal rest. (16th Iyar 5684-1924). The expressions of desperate grief, the continued sobbing of West-European men trained in self-control cannot be explained merely by the tragic event that a young father had been torn away from his family and that a very promising career had been cut short. It was far more than that; from the depths of our sub-conscious minds a feeling arose, breaking with elemental force through all conventional behavior and telling us that this death was a blow which had struck down everyone of us and had put an end to a sacred conviction which we all shared: that this man was destined to bring about a revival and renewal of German Judaism." ("Jeschurun" Vol. XI (1924) p.234.)
Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld, Three Generations: The Influence of Samson Raphael Hirsch on Jewish Life and Thought. London: Jewish Post Publications, 5718/1958, p.77.
You can read more about R' Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan here.
It is difficult to describe now, a generation later, the impression which the sudden death of Kaplan made on his contemporaries in Germany. And yet it is important for the understanding of the inner development of German-Jewish orthodoxy during three generations after Samson Raphael Hirsch to recapture that impression of more than thirty years ago. This can best be done by reproducing here a literal translation of the beginning of a memorial essay which appeared in "Jeschurun" soon after Kaplan's passing away: "It is generally agreed that never has there been witnessed in Berlin a similar scene of lamentation as on the day when Avrohom Eliyah Kaplan was laid to his eternal rest. (16th Iyar 5684-1924). The expressions of desperate grief, the continued sobbing of West-European men trained in self-control cannot be explained merely by the tragic event that a young father had been torn away from his family and that a very promising career had been cut short. It was far more than that; from the depths of our sub-conscious minds a feeling arose, breaking with elemental force through all conventional behavior and telling us that this death was a blow which had struck down everyone of us and had put an end to a sacred conviction which we all shared: that this man was destined to bring about a revival and renewal of German Judaism." ("Jeschurun" Vol. XI (1924) p.234.)
Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld, Three Generations: The Influence of Samson Raphael Hirsch on Jewish Life and Thought. London: Jewish Post Publications, 5718/1958, p.77.
You can read more about R' Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan here.
Chitzonius
Chitzonius means, literally, externality; or perhaps superficiality is a better translation.
I was looking through some notes and I came across this --
Rebbetzin David observed that nowadays there's more chitzonius. Not more materialism -- more chitzonius.
...
Q.
What does that mean practically?
Why should that be?
What is there to do about it?
I was looking through some notes and I came across this --
Rebbetzin David observed that nowadays there's more chitzonius. Not more materialism -- more chitzonius.
...
Q.
What does that mean practically?
Why should that be?
What is there to do about it?
Remembering R' Naftali Soloff, z"l
"...and you know her husband was niftar," said my friend.
What? -- I exclaimed.
"...Oh..." said my friend.
Maybe it will not be amiss to say a few words here about R' Naftali Soloff, who was a truly remarkable person.
When I lived in Jerusalem I liked to visit the Soloffs for Shabbos and yontif, I suppose because (a) their home was overflowing with Torah; and (b) they always made me feel special.
I could end the entry here and leave those as the two take-away points for education.
But, I won't.
Every family I visited was exemplary in a hundred things but the Soloffs stood out in having carefully created (calmly, happily) an atmosphere of extraordinary yiras shamayim.
This manifested in part as extraordinary refinement.
I remember R' Soloff telling a story to his children about Mr. Right Hand and Mr. Left Hand, who got into an argument. The argument escalated, until one hand gave a smack to the other. Then suddenly both hands heard, "Ouch!" from Mr. Head. The hands realized that they were really part of one body: what one does to another, he really does to himself. It's an analogy for the Jewish people.
It's a good analogy; I had heard it before; what stood out to me in R' Soloff's retelling was that he couldn't bring himself to say that one hand hit the other. Someone had to fill in that detail for him.
My friend told me that she heard from Mrs. Soloff that the two had arranged that R' Soloff would call from the hospital in America any any hour if he had any good news to share.
One night the phone rang.
What could be the good news?
R' Soloff was so happy, he said. The treatments he had been receiving generally clouded his mind but he had finally managed, that day, to learn a daf of Gemara.
This was his great simcha that he had to share.
Someone else I once brought to the Soloffs' said to me, afterward, "They probably never talk in that house about who's going to take out the garbage." They probably don't.
You wouldn't either, if you were standing before the King, would you?
That's where R' Soloff was always standing.
יהי זכרו ברוך
What? -- I exclaimed.
"...Oh..." said my friend.
Maybe it will not be amiss to say a few words here about R' Naftali Soloff, who was a truly remarkable person.
When I lived in Jerusalem I liked to visit the Soloffs for Shabbos and yontif, I suppose because (a) their home was overflowing with Torah; and (b) they always made me feel special.
I could end the entry here and leave those as the two take-away points for education.
But, I won't.
Every family I visited was exemplary in a hundred things but the Soloffs stood out in having carefully created (calmly, happily) an atmosphere of extraordinary yiras shamayim.
This manifested in part as extraordinary refinement.
I remember R' Soloff telling a story to his children about Mr. Right Hand and Mr. Left Hand, who got into an argument. The argument escalated, until one hand gave a smack to the other. Then suddenly both hands heard, "Ouch!" from Mr. Head. The hands realized that they were really part of one body: what one does to another, he really does to himself. It's an analogy for the Jewish people.
It's a good analogy; I had heard it before; what stood out to me in R' Soloff's retelling was that he couldn't bring himself to say that one hand hit the other. Someone had to fill in that detail for him.
My friend told me that she heard from Mrs. Soloff that the two had arranged that R' Soloff would call from the hospital in America any any hour if he had any good news to share.
One night the phone rang.
What could be the good news?
R' Soloff was so happy, he said. The treatments he had been receiving generally clouded his mind but he had finally managed, that day, to learn a daf of Gemara.
This was his great simcha that he had to share.
Someone else I once brought to the Soloffs' said to me, afterward, "They probably never talk in that house about who's going to take out the garbage." They probably don't.
You wouldn't either, if you were standing before the King, would you?
That's where R' Soloff was always standing.
יהי זכרו ברוך
Embroidery
Well, here's another one to add to the list of ways to integrate a school with its community...
I believe I read once years ago (in Minhagei Frankfurt) that it was the custom in Frankfurt for the oldest girls' grade in the school to do the embroidery for the shul.
Rav Hirsch -related Links
Here is a miscellaneous basket of Rav Hirsch -related resources online.
Some are Torah; and some are just candy for those of us who like to peek a little more into Rav Hirsch's particular place and era. I think the distinction is important.
Miscellaneous essays by Rav Hirsch online in English: Dr. Levine's list
The German Jeschurun archives, as well as a great many other fabulous items of a similar vintage, are online at Compact Memory.
Here is a nice collection of articles about Rav Hirsch: Dr. Levine's collection of TIDE articles
Someone once started a website to serve a purpose similar to Chinuch.org but for limudei chol; I thought it was a good idea. I can't find it now.
Looking for the niggunim employed in the shul in Frankfurt (as I did recently for a music teacher here) is its own rabbit hole; here are some links:
I M Japhet on Wikipedia
the sheet music of I M Japhet
some notes on the KAJ choir including a list of composers
Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz, which presumably is up on all this
the recordings of Mr. Benno Weis in the Dartmouth archive.
The Leo Baeck Institute has some great paraphernalia.
Museum Judengasse, about the history of Jews in Frankfurt
Here (veering sharply into fangirl territory) is a virtual tour of Rav Hirsch's house (because Schopenhauer also lived in the building): Schopenhauerhaus
Some are Torah; and some are just candy for those of us who like to peek a little more into Rav Hirsch's particular place and era. I think the distinction is important.
Miscellaneous essays by Rav Hirsch online in English: Dr. Levine's list
The German Jeschurun archives, as well as a great many other fabulous items of a similar vintage, are online at Compact Memory.
Here is a nice collection of articles about Rav Hirsch: Dr. Levine's collection of TIDE articles
Someone once started a website to serve a purpose similar to Chinuch.org but for limudei chol; I thought it was a good idea. I can't find it now.
Looking for the niggunim employed in the shul in Frankfurt (as I did recently for a music teacher here) is its own rabbit hole; here are some links:
I M Japhet on Wikipedia
the sheet music of I M Japhet
some notes on the KAJ choir including a list of composers
Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz, which presumably is up on all this
the recordings of Mr. Benno Weis in the Dartmouth archive.
The Leo Baeck Institute has some great paraphernalia.
Museum Judengasse, about the history of Jews in Frankfurt
Here (veering sharply into fangirl territory) is a virtual tour of Rav Hirsch's house (because Schopenhauer also lived in the building): Schopenhauerhaus
Aus der Schuetzenstrasse: Memories of Frankfurt
This is one of the best treasures I ever found lurking in a dusty corner of the Internet.
Memories of Frankfurt (Aus der Schuetzenstrasse) -- by Hermann Schwab, reprinted with permission from the Mitteilungen and the author's family.
Memories of Frankfurt (Aus der Schuetzenstrasse) -- by Hermann Schwab, reprinted with permission from the Mitteilungen and the author's family.
The Parking Lot Minyan
Rabbi Ilan Feldman's essay on being part of a community:
The Parking Lot Minyan
"...Why is someone with your abilities spending his time in the back of the shul dreaming about parking lot minyanim to save twenty minutes on a Friday night instead of dreaming big dreams for this shul...?"
The Parking Lot Minyan
"...Why is someone with your abilities spending his time in the back of the shul dreaming about parking lot minyanim to save twenty minutes on a Friday night instead of dreaming big dreams for this shul...?"
Lavon
Rabbi Oppenheimer, the "Portlander Rav," put this up today.
"We... are thrilled to be the first Shomer Shabbos family in this beautiful Yishuv..."
Here's the link: Pesach: Confronting the Struggle
"We... are thrilled to be the first Shomer Shabbos family in this beautiful Yishuv..."
Here's the link: Pesach: Confronting the Struggle
Animated Alter of Slabodka
I need to thank my friend Mindy's husband, of YJ Studios, for expressing a particular fantasy of mine:
"What would it be like to meet the Alter of Slabodka?"
"What would it be like to meet the Alter of Slabodka?"
Eisemann family film
The list of children playing in this film is a partial but highly significant Who's Who of Torah education in America and abroad.
I want to know what their parents did that was so wonderfully effective!
There are eulogies for Miriam Elias, for instance, here and here. Rav Moshe Eisemann's shiurim are here. Shabbat.com is a next-generation Eisemann-family project.
The caption from the website is:
Personal videos of Hienrich (Chaim) Eisemann, taken in Frankfurt. The Eisemann family is of particular importance in the emergence of Jewish life in North America and Israel.
The six children of Mr Eisemann are filmed. The children include:
Clementine Bodenheimer (Wife of Dr. Ernest Bodenheimer)
Taya Posen (wife of Rav Raphael - in laws of Karelitz from Benei Brak)
Lola Grunfeld of London (Mother of Joey Grunfeld)
Meier Eisemann (Founder of Laniado Hospital, Rav in Minnesota)
Miriam Elias (Wife of Rabbi Joseph Elias)
Moshe Eisemann (Noted Author)
And then in the comments someone filled in more details:
Hello, I had the opportunity to sit down with a cousin of the Eisemanns who knew the family well back in Frankfurt. Below are the comments she made and the people she recognised from close to 90 years ago, at the below mentioned minute/second in the video: 1.12: Alice Eisemann's mother 1.32: In a place called "Taunus". Eisenmann apparently had a house there (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taunus) 1.55: Oma Goldschmidt (Alice Eisemann's mother) 2.33: Heinrich Eisemann(Comment: Opa Eisenmann taught everyone how to swim) 3.15: Oma Goldschmidt 3.52: Alice Eisenmann (definitely) 4.20: Nanette Eisemann (Heinrich's mother) 4.28: On the right Heinrich Eisemann's father - Michele Eisenmann 4.30: Michele Eisenmann (Hebrew name: Yechiel) Michele was his wife's first cousin and had eight children in ten years (had a wet nurse) 4.51: Nanette Eisenmann (definitely) (Comment: She was always doing embroidery and wore a sheitel) 5.12: Michele Eisenmann (definitely) 5.50: Alice Eisenmann sitting at the head table 5.55: Liesel Levy on the left 5.58: Probably Aunty Miriam Elias (born 1928). (Comment: Footage must be from 1929/30, probably in Koenigstein in Taunus holiday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Königstein_im_Taunus) 6.40: Schwester Marta with "Bubu" wearing a tiroler outfit (dressed up) and Aunty Miriam Elias 8.45: Oma Lola on the right 8.49: Frankfurter Zoo (Comment: The Eisemann's had a yearly pass. They apparently went every day with schwester Martha) 8.55: Oma Lola jumping rope 9.26: Might be Mario in the buggy 9.43: Aunty Miriam Elias holding buggy 10.16: Aunty Miriam Elias (definitely) 11.38: Definitely Uncle Mario 11.43: Definitely Aunty Miriam Elias May we be zoche to be mekabel Moshiach Tzidkeinu bekorov and meet all our forefathers again!
I want to know what their parents did that was so wonderfully effective!
There are eulogies for Miriam Elias, for instance, here and here. Rav Moshe Eisemann's shiurim are here. Shabbat.com is a next-generation Eisemann-family project.
The caption from the website is:
Uncovered Rare 1920's footage of German Jewish life!!
Personal videos of Hienrich (Chaim) Eisemann, taken in Frankfurt. The Eisemann family is of particular importance in the emergence of Jewish life in North America and Israel.
The six children of Mr Eisemann are filmed. The children include:
Clementine Bodenheimer (Wife of Dr. Ernest Bodenheimer)
Taya Posen (wife of Rav Raphael - in laws of Karelitz from Benei Brak)
Lola Grunfeld of London (Mother of Joey Grunfeld)
Meier Eisemann (Founder of Laniado Hospital, Rav in Minnesota)
Miriam Elias (Wife of Rabbi Joseph Elias)
Moshe Eisemann (Noted Author)And then in the comments someone filled in more details:
Hello, I had the opportunity to sit down with a cousin of the Eisemanns who knew the family well back in Frankfurt. Below are the comments she made and the people she recognised from close to 90 years ago, at the below mentioned minute/second in the video: 1.12: Alice Eisemann's mother 1.32: In a place called "Taunus". Eisenmann apparently had a house there (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taunus) 1.55: Oma Goldschmidt (Alice Eisemann's mother) 2.33: Heinrich Eisemann(Comment: Opa Eisenmann taught everyone how to swim) 3.15: Oma Goldschmidt 3.52: Alice Eisenmann (definitely) 4.20: Nanette Eisemann (Heinrich's mother) 4.28: On the right Heinrich Eisemann's father - Michele Eisenmann 4.30: Michele Eisenmann (Hebrew name: Yechiel) Michele was his wife's first cousin and had eight children in ten years (had a wet nurse) 4.51: Nanette Eisenmann (definitely) (Comment: She was always doing embroidery and wore a sheitel) 5.12: Michele Eisenmann (definitely) 5.50: Alice Eisenmann sitting at the head table 5.55: Liesel Levy on the left 5.58: Probably Aunty Miriam Elias (born 1928). (Comment: Footage must be from 1929/30, probably in Koenigstein in Taunus holiday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Königstein_im_Taunus) 6.40: Schwester Marta with "Bubu" wearing a tiroler outfit (dressed up) and Aunty Miriam Elias 8.45: Oma Lola on the right 8.49: Frankfurter Zoo (Comment: The Eisemann's had a yearly pass. They apparently went every day with schwester Martha) 8.55: Oma Lola jumping rope 9.26: Might be Mario in the buggy 9.43: Aunty Miriam Elias holding buggy 10.16: Aunty Miriam Elias (definitely) 11.38: Definitely Uncle Mario 11.43: Definitely Aunty Miriam Elias May we be zoche to be mekabel Moshiach Tzidkeinu bekorov and meet all our forefathers again!
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