Gay students often have a particularly difficult time in Orthodox schools. One young gay man to whom the Forward spoke — he asked to be identified simply as Chaim, since he is not out of the closet to most of his friends and family — recalled his experiences at a yeshiva in New York. The school’s rabbi, he said, used to pepper his lecturesRead More
The educational arms of the Reform and Conservative movements are cooperating in an unprecedented way on a new project. Reform’s Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and Conservative’s Jewish Theological Seminary both have agreed to provide faculty and funds for the Leadership Institute for CongregationalRead More
Almost 10 summers have passed since Meredith Englander last saw Josh, but she still remembers him clearly. At that time, Englander was working as a counselor at a Jewish camp and he was her camper. Josh, then only 8 years old, was asked to leave the camp because of behavioral issues.Ever since the indelible image of a young childRead More
First, the bad news: If you have a child born after the year 2000, his or her total tuition bill for college could run in excess of a quarter-million dollars.Now, the good news: Harold Simansky can help you. His new workbook — “College Costs How Much?!” — contains all the sober facts about the cost of education, and offers a range ofRead More
As a transplant from Philadelphia to Nashville, Tenn., Bill Bernstein resigned himself to a life with fewer opportunities for the perfect bagel or for kosher Chinese food. But when he discovered that his 9-year-old son, Viktor, was bored and unhappy at the only Jewish day school in the city, Bernstein refused to accept his lack of options.Instead,Read More
This fall, as happens every fall, students in Hebrew schools around the country will begin their confirmation studies. But at Old York Road Temple Beth Am, this year will be a little different. Next spring, when the confirmation class conducts the service on Shavuot, five students with physical, cognitive and verbal disabilities willRead More
When Leah David couldn’t find the proper school for her daughter, she started her own.“My daughter wasn’t getting it,” David said. A stay-at-home mother to Gittel Bracha, her only child, David had been meeting with teachers and principals in her daughter’s Orthodox school for two years to discuss the young girl’s difficultiesRead More
Public school teacher Ronda Hassig remembers when the Holocaust became real for her: when a young Jewish boy in her classroom in Overland Park, Kan., recognized a concentration camp survivors’ medal, which she had purchased at an antique store, on her desk.“‘Ms. Hassig,’ he said, ‘I have one of those, and it belongs to myRead More
It was an incident that many in Lincoln, Neb., would prefer to forget. But Tom Kolbe is making sure that never happens.In 1995, three teenage boys from the Goodrich Middle School in Lincoln scuttled over the fence of Mount Carmel Cemetery to disrupt the funeral of a 99-year-old Jewish man, shouting “Heil Hitler,” and spitting tobaccoRead More
Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, has released an updated version of its Guide to Jewish Life on Campus, and for the first time has made it available exclusively online (www. hillel.org).“We’ve updated all of the information for every single campus with which we have contact, from the smallest university to theRead More
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