/ Jewish Public school in hollywood

chen

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 12:39 pm

If it's a public school, how can they limit registration to Jewish students? or is it like the Moslem "public" school in NY, which is theoretically open to anyone who wants to attend, but presumably only Moslems would want to attend?

I would think that in California, there would be any number of nonJews who would like to attend, esp. in view of the fact that "Kabbala" is now in vogue and Madonna calls herself "Esther".

Highly doubtful that this would be the best place for frum children. How kosher is the food? What Jewish studies do they teach besides Hebrew language? What "denomination" do they espouse? Is it going to be of the "being Jewish means being a citizen of the world" kind of thing, emphasizing the civic responsibility aspects of Judaism while minimizing or ignoring the religious aspects?

Could be a good thing for nonfrum kids whose parents aren't opposed to Jewish education but wouldn't spend the money on it. Could be an excellent thing if the student body really is all Jewish--maybe a force for reducing intermarriage. OTOH, could be a disaster. I can imagine mothers of nonJewish daughter sending them to this school just so that they can meet nice Jewish boys. If it's truly a public school then the government would force them to accept nonJews who wanted to attend.

Ruchel

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 1:55 pm

chen wrote:

YES Chen thank you for developing what I meant!

Mrs.Norris

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 2:32 pm

chen wrote:

could be a disaster. I can imagine mothers of nonJewish daughter sending them to this school just so that they can meet nice Jewish boys. If it's truly a public school then the government would force them to accept nonJews who wanted to attend.

I dunno about in the US but in the UK there are a few Jewish public schools who only accept Jews, because in public school there are a certain amount of number of kids the school needs to have and if they get that amount they can be picky about who to accept so the Jewish ones only accept Jewish kids.

Raisin

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 3:06 pm

In the UK there are lots of Jewish State schools, as Mrs Norris said (Public schools in the UK are something quite different, they cost LOTS of money and are attended by the wealthy and aristocracy). The government pays for almost everything in these schools, but I don't think they pay for religious instruction, so the parents are usually asked for a "voluntary contribution" to pay for this. Many of these schools are not religious as such, but almost all are orthodox run so they will only accept halachically Jewish kids. (there are a couple of progressive run schools in London)They are usually oversubscribed, except in smaller communites like liverpool, glasgow and Birmingham where the Jewish Schools are forced to take non-Jewish kids. There have been a couple of incidents of indignant parents making a fuss when their not quite Jewish kids are not accepted.

The amount of Jewish studies taught varies, some only an hour or so a day, to half a day. And they are all across the religious spectrum - recently lots more schools have got state aid, including Lubavitch Girls school, and I think Yesodei Hatorah.

But, even if the kids are not learning anything much Jewish, at least they are with other Jewish kids.

Ruchel

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 3:26 pm

Interesting!

All Jewish schools here are private, paying, which is why I wondered how a school could enforce halacha and be public.
Some are under contract with the government; which means they lead to having the baccalauréat (high school grad) and being able to go to university (and as I learned recently to go to the official French rabbinical school lol).

In my time most schools were not under contract, which means teaching no chol or very chosen program and delivering no degree (under contract also "choose" in the program and clean it up, although in my public school years I never encountered shocking material). Which explains why many frum people sent to public school, at least for high school. These schools today only interest ultra Orthodox families and are a (big) minority. Many Lubavich school switched to under contract for example.

All these schools are Orthodox or ultra except two: One I would call very very machmir Mo, and one light Mo. So more and more people are sending, I read 26% BH!!!

Raisin

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 4:42 pm

In America and in France there is a seperation of Religion and state, which is why it is difficult to get public funding for Jewish schools. But in most other countries this is not the case. In the UK the governments only concern is if kids in religious schools are getting a good secular education. They actually think it is good for kids to be in religious schools (as long as they are not the hate teaching kind) because it means kids will be taught values.

Ruchel

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 4:50 pm

Raisin wrote:

I like the UK attitude. I could see things turning a bit like this because our new President BH is like that.
The schools under contract, who have non Jewish teachers for some classes, get helped by the govt. The non contract have often non qualified teachers (ba only type) so they are much less expensive anyway.

mummiedearest

Tue, Aug 14 2007, 4:56 pm

this school is supposedly only teaching jewish "culture" aka hebrew language. they will not limit admission, and anyone who sends their kids there would probably have no prob with hebrew. they say there's a separation bet church and state here, but all public schools have some degree of x-mas and halloween celebration.

interesting to note, historically many non-jews have sent their kids to jewish schools for the better learning opp.