A Shavuos Message: Turning Lemons into Lemonade
The Future of Jewish Day School Education in Louisville
The holiday of Shavuos, which was just celebrated on June 8, 2008 marks the day on which G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish nation. Tradition tells us that before G-d agreed to give this gift to the people of Israel, He asked who would guarantee that the Torah would always be kept. The Jews offered their leaders and teachers as guarantors but G-d said, “No.” The Jews offered their parents as guarantors that the Torah would be obeyed and again G-d said, “No.” Finally, the Jews said that their children would be guarantors that Torah would be kept, to which G-d instantly replied, “If the children will always be taught the Torah, then in their behalf I will share this gift with the world.”
On Shavuos this year, the Courier Journal reported that Eliahu Academy was closing. They reported that some people said the problem was demographics and others thought it was due to decades of mismanagement. It reminded me of the scientific report that predicted that due to global warming there was a major glacier shift along the Artic Circle, and the entire earth would be flooded within nine months. The Europeans quickly said “It is all man’s fault. We brought this upon ourselves and we are doomed.” The Americans said, “We are indeed all doomed to die, but it is no one’s fault. It was an issue of demographics and an act of G-d.” The Israelis also met and sent out an immediate report. It had only one sentence: “We have nine months to learn how to breathe under water”.
The same attitude can be seen in regard to the future of Jewish Day School Education in Louisville. We can wring our hands and blame the demographics, or we can bang our fists and blame longterm mismanagement, but both of those options spell doom for the future of our community. Or, we can spend the next nine months preparing the way to create a new Louisville Jewish Day School of which our community can be proud.
Jewish law dictates that even a Synagogue or Temple must be sold in order to pay for Jewish Education. One can always pray at home but children must be taught the essentials of our faith or our faith is doomed. Leaders of Eliahu Academy and Torah Academy are currently working together on laying the groundwork to make this dream a reality. They have taken the best parts of the two schools and combined them so as to include a Secular Administrator, a curriculum coordinator, an Israeli styled Hebrew program, and an enhanced Secular curriculum to include such things as music, art, PE, and a computer lab.
Over the next few months a group of community lay leaders will be meeting to plan and form the future Louisville Jewish Day School. The Louisville Jewish Day school needs to be open by August 2009. Anyone who wants to be part of the solution is welcome to write to LJDS c/o 3700 Dutchmans Lane Louisville, 40205 or email LJDS@LJDS.org
Tags: day school, education, Eliahu Academy, Louisville Jewish Day School, Shavuos, Torah Academy
