This week marks the 63rd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that declared segregated schools, even if they had similar resources, were “inherently” unequal because separating children by race caused serious adverse effects. Shockingly, more than six decades later, New York City has the most racially divided schools in…
Through collaboration with the Teaneck Creek Conservancy and Amir Yechieli, founder of Israel-based “Yevul Mayim,” the Jack Flamholz Water Sustainability Project has successfully introduced water conservation curriculum and rainwater harvesting to Hawthorne Elementary School in Teaneck. This is the first project of its kind in New Jersey and will allow students to explore ideas on…
This article was first published in The Forward on May 21, 1999. The terrain reminded me of the Negev, especially as I gazed out over it from high above the desert floor: coarse sand, prickly shrubs, sandstone cliffs. A rope was the only thing that protected me from injury or death. I was leading a…
In a recent analysis of U.S. religious groups, the Pew Research Center reported that the most educated American Jews are also the least religious. In considering these findings, it’s tempting to think that secular education leads to assimilation among American Jews (I want to be clear that Pew, a leading source of data on contemporary…
Dear friends posting social media screeds against Trump, This is my challenge to channel your anger, energy and intelligence into constructive actions that will actually make a difference. I understand that the election of Donald Trump represents a nightmare, and we’re trying to wake up from it. But angry posts, signs, and marches are the…
Paul Traynor’s documentary “New Trier: The Tip of the Spear” explains in deep detail all the elements of a seemingly local controversy that flared up last February at New Trier High School, a nationally distinguished public school in suburban Chicago’s heavily Jewish North Shore. If the film is to be believed, the angry dispute that…
Students at New Trier High School were pleased and excited when Andrew Aydin, a close associate of civil rights icon and Democratic Congress member John Lewis, agreed to speak at their school on civil rights; even more so when Colson Whitehead, the widely lauded author of the best-selling novel, “The Underground Railroad,” agreed to join…
Do Jews get a discount when they buy a car? Do they own McDonald’s? Do Jews control the media and international banking? Do any of them live here anymore? These are among the questions German schoolchildren ask Jews who volunteer in a new outreach program with the provocative name “Rent A Jew.” The Jews in…
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