Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro, Head of School
Shabbat Shalom from Head of School – December 21, 2012
kpeskin : 12/21/2012 08:24 : From the Head of SchoolAs so many of my colleagues did this week, I too sent out a notice to our parents and staff in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown which occurred a week ago today. Ever mindful of our roles as Principals and Heads of Schools and Headmasters and Superintendents; we were also writing as fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. More than ever, the obligation on our part was to balance the information required with the calm that was needed even more. As adults, all of us – administrators and teachers and parents and grandparents – are called upon not only to be mindful of the balance of head and heart, but to know when to ever so slightly tip the scales in favor of one over the other. Sometimes the hug and the soothing word take precedence over the discussion of protocol and procedure. As a nation we needed to mourn before we could engage in any conversations about policies; in a perfectly appropriate way, schools take the same approach when it comes to setting our own priorities. The assurance our children derive from our modeled calm precedes and paves the way for any recitation of fact and figure. As I noted earlier in the week, the safety and security of our students and staff are our paramount priority. We practice our lock-down drills – and for that matter, our fire and tornado drills – regularly, and our students absolutely rise to the occasion. These are the air bags and smoke detectors of school life: checked and re-checked, always at the ready with the hope that they’ll never be used. We work closely with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s security consultant, just as we confer with and our procedures are reviewed by Beachwood’s police department. While we consistently receive high marks for our preparedness, we diligently monitor our implementation of these various drills and engage in regular assessment of our protocols. We wear our ID badges and thank you for doing the same. We live in a time and place of nearly unparalleled civil liberties, and we embrace these freedoms with a justified sense of gratitude, appreciating just how special – and just how rare – they are. Even in the shadow of Newtown – possibly because of this terrible tragedy – we need to remind our children and ourselves of our fortune and of the great wonder of life. The love we share; the kind word we offer; the unsolicited smile we show a stranger – these are the tiny bricks that comprise the foundation of a life well lived. Spending time on the truly important, not wasting time on the absurdly insignificant – these are the most valuable lessons we can ever offer our children. And when we’re stuck and just not sure about which way to go, we can always learn from them. Debbie and I wish you all a wonderful winter break – full of true down-time with family and friends; great movies (brand new and classic old); fascinating books and battery-less board games. Throw in some long walks with or without snow and hug your children, no matter how old they are.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro Head of School |
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Shabbat Shalom from the Head of School, 10/19/12
Agnon : 10/21/2012 13:48 : From the Head of SchoolEvery year at this time we receive a handful of inquiries – some years more, some less – regarding “the Jewish position” on Halloween. As a community school, we’re particularly wary of phrases like, “the Jewish position” or even more insidiously put, “the right – or real – Jewish position” on various subjects and issues. An aspect of Agnon about which I’m quite proud is that our students, families and staff encompass an extremely broad and varied spectrum of levels of observance, affiliation and knowledge – and that accounts for a wonderfully rich environment. You all know that one lesson derived from such an inclusive population is the knowledge that we all have so much more in common with each other than popular (mis)perception would have it.
So with that as a caveat, I’ll tread carefully into the Halloween question. It’s certainly accepted that its origins were initially pagan (Celtic/Irish ethnically; Druid religiously), and its earliest celebrations marked the end of summer with trappings familiar to all of us, like pumpkins and cornstalks.
Around the eighth century the (Catholic) Church recognized that it couldn’t persuade people to disassociate from their old ways (particularly if those old ways had to do with feasts and celebrations), and they fairly consciously incorporated Halloween into the Christian calendar. It morphed into a night on which to honor saints, and “All Hallowed Evening” transformed into Halloween. Even with this foundational change, many of the Druids’ practices remained, such as dressing in scary costumes as witches or ghosts.
Most (an accurate but slightly subjective – and therefore a safe – qualifier) traditional Jewish perspectives say that these origins put Jewish involvement in Halloween outside of normative Jewish practice. The source usually cited for this is Vayikra (“Leviticus”), which asks that Jews not participate in non-Jewish or idolatrous celebrations. That notwithstanding, most Americans – including most American Jews – are likely to see Halloween as completely divorced from its Christian, much less its pagan, roots. It’s equally likely that most would place Halloween into the national/secular holiday category, along with (Saint) Valentine’s Day and Saint Patrick’s Day.
As Jews, we live – fortunately – in a wonderfully open and accepting society; part of that acceptance is a two-way street. We all agree to engage in the broader community; and that community – and the individual elements within it – agree to accept the individuals and groups that make up the whole. One reason why minorities and immigrant groups have become part of the greater American society is precisely because they’ve agreed to take on the practices of that larger group. The English language; Western/American values of individual liberty; and certain customs and small-t traditions are at the top of the list. In that light, it could be argued that Halloween has helped to “Americanize” individuals and groups into the mosaic that is America.
I was never a big believer in the melting pot metaphor; it seemed that the process would result in a bubbling, gray, nondescript mass. The distinct elements that were thrown into the pot would emerge as one indistinguishable blob. Accents and customs and foods and languages… – all these would undergo an erosion of sorts, and what would be poured into the bowls would be a pureed soup rather than a stew. (Sorry, too many cooking shows.)
The salad bowl and the mosaic made greater sense to me – a process and a product in which individual components helped to make the whole, while they retained their own unique shape and color and texture. It’s within that America where children feel proud of their distinct backgrounds and traditions and customs – and religions – such that they are comfortable choosing whether to or whether not to participate in the customs and traditions of the majority. It is clear that Jewish traditional practice and outlook say that Halloween’s origins need to be taken into account, even if the contemporary perception of the day is very different from those pagan and Catholic roots. That’s the foundation of the school’s position as to why Halloween is not “celebrated” by activity or reference at Agnon (or at other Jewish Day Schools).
But what about outside the walls – what about parties and trick-or-treating? Again, as a community school, we recognize that there will be a myriad of family customs and approaches, and while there can be disagreements, there should also be mutual respect. Those who see Halloween as a genuinely secularized holiday, as American as the Fourth of July and devoid of religious underpinnings, have come to that conclusion as thoughtful parents. So too the families that have decided that their children will not participate in Halloween activities; they’re also to be respected for their decisions about what is right for their children.
There are those who have suggested that Purim, with its masks and costumes and feasts, can be seen as a stand-in for Halloween – that Jewish parents should offer a theological version of eat-this-not-that to their children, favoring Purim’s Jewish nutrition over Halloween’s empty calories. Purim actually should stand front and center – not as a substitute, but on its own. It’s an incredibly rich celebration, sophisticated enough to incorporate discussions about women’s rights, and celebratory enough to allow for (to encourage!) nightlong toasting. It is not, however, Judaism’s take on Halloween (which is almost as absurd as the very old-fashioned Chanukkah-Christmas “comparisons”). Absolutely revel in Purim – but wait until February.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro
Head of School
Shabbat Shalom From the Head of School 9/7/12
kpeskin : 09/07/2012 14:12 : From the Head of SchoolThe juxtaposition was jarring. While on vacation (remember way back in August?) our family did our share of Olympics-watching. Best of the best in heated competition – the nations of the world sending their strongest-and-fastest, with the measurement of success often determined by a fraction of a subjective point. The international spotlight of hundreds of millions of viewers. Pretty heady stuff. At the same time we were on a self-directed tour of some of Utah’s and Colorado’s best- and least-known regional theaters. Proud – or at least unashamed – Broadway stage fans, we were over 2,000 miles from the closest Tony Award-winning cast. The venues ranged from a gorgeous, cut-from-the-rocks outdoor stage to a tiny 83-person “black box” theater; from 1930s Cole Porter (“Anything Goes”) to Assumed-to-be-Argentina of the ’80s (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”); from social commentary (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) to grand epic (“Les Mis”). While London featured the household names of the international sporting world, the actors and singers in Grand Lake and Dillon Colorado and in Cedar City, Utah are probably not known beyond their home towns (yet). Tens of millions may have been spent on the world class arenas, and the sweat and worry of hundreds of staff and volunteers produced the magic of The Games of the XXX Olympiad. Contrast that with the director who doubled as the ticket taker at the Lake Dillon Theater Company (in all likelihood he locked up at night). But here’s the pleasant surprise: the quality of the theater experience in tiny Lake Dillon and its even tinier theater was stunning. The production was on-the-edge-of-your-seat riveting, and not solely because of the material. The script and score are brilliant, but to say that anyone would look good reading those words and singing those notes does a severe disservice to the ones who genuinely are good at what they do. And in this case, they were very, very good. The kind of good that keeps you in your seat during intermission; the kind of good that keeps you thinking and talking about what you saw and heard weeks (now months) after the fact. Reminder number one: אַל תִּסְתַּכֵּל בַּקַּנְקַן, אֶלָּא בַמֶּה שֶׁיֶּשׁ בּוֹ (Al tistakel b’kankan, eleh b’ma sheyesh bo – “Don’t look at the jug, but rather what’s in it.”) This is the Mishna‘s version of “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – written around 1,800 years ago – and is as profoundly true today as it was then. With the possible exception of Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Death of a Salesman (not exactly a fair barometer – Hoffman and Arthur Miller), teeny, tiny Dillon Lake Theater produced the most exciting theater I’ve ever seen, in the most surprising of venues. Don’t judge! Reminder number two: There are wonderful, talented and brilliant actors and artists and engineers and doctors and teachers – and not all of them are singing in New York, studying at MIT, practicing medicine at Harvard or teaching at Agnon. We do ourselves (and worse, our children) no favor by only holding up Those Places as the only places. There are diamonds in the rough all over, and they sparkle just the same. Shabbat Shalom, Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro Head of School
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